The Lighthouse at Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, built in the 3rd Century BC by Egyptian Pharaoh Ptolemy I Soter and believed by future historians to be 137 meters high, is destroyed in an earthquake and tsunami that hits the eastern Mediterranean area. The lighthouse’s remains will collapse entirely in 1375.
Terrorising the West African coast since he arrived off Liberia in June, the feared pirate Black Bart (Welshman Bartholomew Roberts), after killing 80 enslaved Africans when he set fire to a slave ship that refused to pay ransom, captures the British frigate Onslow. The frigate is transporting soldiers to Cape Colony, South Africa. Once they are captured, many of the soldiers wish to become pirates, too.
The Boer residents of the Natalia Republic in South Africa agree to become citizens of the British Natal Colony. The Natal volksraad, who refuse to live under British rule, trek away from the coast. They will establish the inland republics of Orange Free State and Transvaal.
Americans for the first time read about colonialism from an African point of view, as the Des Moines Register in the U.S. state of Iowa publishes an article by Alfred Mangena, who is studying in London to be South Africa’s first black lawyer: “‘The English have shelled our villages, looted our cattle, destroyed our crops, burned our churches. Their end is attained -- the native can now do nothing but go and work in the mines. England plumes herself as the champion of the oppressed against the oppressor. Let her then guard us against the rapacious mine owners. We don’t want to swamp the white man in Africa. But we desire a share in the country, and some political rights.”
The East African Campaign of World War I begins with Britain fighting Germany in German East Africa. Combat will continue in British East Africa, the Uganda Protectorate, the Belgian Congo, and finally in Northern Rhodesia and Portuguese Mozambique. Britain will defeat Germany by November 1917, a year before the war ends in Europe.
Trinidadian showman and aviator Hubert Julian (pic), who sought to head Ethiopia’s air force in 1930 but crashed one of its three planes and was asked to leave by Emperor Haile Selassie, returns to Ethiopia. He assaults the Chicago aviator John Robinson. A respected flyer who founded the Tuskegee School for African-American pilots in the U.S., Robinson is now running Ethiopia’s air force out of Addis Ababa. This time, Selassie will send Julian away for good. He will return to East Africa in 1940 to volunteer for the British in World War II.
France’s Vichy government and its World War II ally Italy reach an agreement over the rule of French Somaliland (Djibouti). Britain will soon mount a naval blockade of the colony. The Djiboutian people who have no involvement in the conflict will suffer famine. Malnutrition-related diseases will take many lives, and 70% of the dead will be women and children.
A paid radio service, called Rediffusion Service, is introduced by the South African Broadcasting Corporation to the black township of Orlando. Broadcasting news and entertainment in the Sotho, Xhosa and Zulu languages, the service is aimed at the black elite, and has 4,300 initial subscribers. After expansion throughout Johannesburg's black townships of Soweto, there will be 14,000 subscribers in 1956 and 60,000 subscribers by 1959.
The global sensation pop group The Beatles is banned in South Africa. The state broadcasting monopoly the South African Broadcasting Corporation joins Christian conservative religious radio stations in the American south – an area that practices racial segregation similar to South Africa’s apartheid system – in banning the English band. A 1965 interview has surfaced of band member John Lennon (pic: left) speaking about the waning importance of religion among young people, “Christianity will vanish and shrink. We’re more popular than Jesus now.” The Beatles' records have produced South Africa's Number One hits for three years in a row - 1963, 1964 and 1965.
Nigeria wins its first Olympics medal as runners Sunday Uti, Moses Ugbisie, Rotimi Peters and Innocent Egbunike capture bronze in a hotly-contested Men’s 4x400 metre relay at the Summer Olympics Games.
Nawal El Moutawakel becomes the first non-Caucasian African woman to win an Olympics medal and the first Moroccan to win an Olympics medal when she takes gold in the Women’s 400 metre hurdles at the Summer Olympic Games. Her win has huge symbolic importance for women's sports in the Muslim world, and gives wings to the region's gender equality efforts. Morocco's King Hassan II is so overwhelmed that he decrees all Moroccan women giving birth to girls today must name their daughters Nawal.
Côte d’Ivoire wins its first Olympics medal as sprinter Gabriel Tiacoh earns silver in the Men’s 400 metres at the Summer Olympic Games.
The ride sharing company Uber launches service in Africa, in Johannesburg. South Africans use a mobile phone app to hail private cars that function as taxis.
Egyptian writer and activist, in Dumyat, Egypt. A university professor and administrator, she was the director of the Egyptian Arts Academy. Her novels impressed critics with their use of colloquial Arabic, and found popularity with readers by exploring political and sexual themes.
South African champion rugby player, in Paarl, South Africa. He was the only non-white player on South Africa’s national team the Springboks that won the 1995 Rugby World Cup. That was South Africa’s triumphal and historic return to international competition after decades when the country’s teams were banned because of the racist apartheid government.
