The Johannesburg Stock Exchange opens, in the Republic of South Africa. The discovery of gold and diamonds has created instant wealth, the foundation of an industrialised economy, and new companies whose shares can be sold to the public at the exchange.
In a landmark case demonstrating a divide between colonial powers’ and indigenous peoples’ views on justice, ten Yoruba chiefs in Ibadan, British Nigeria, find three men guilty of murder and “worthy of death,” but sentence them to pay heavy fines. The British colonial authorities protest the verdict as “too lenient,” and press for death sentences. The Ibadan elders reply, “The council considers a heavy fine a greater punishment than death and would act as greater deterrent in future. If people think that they will only be killed if convicted of murder they will not think much of it.”
The Gordon Memorial College, which will become the University of Khartoum, is opened. The institution is named after British General Charles George Gordon who died in Khartoum in 1885.
The start of Operation Torch, the British-American invasion of North Africa in World War II that will successfully oust Axis powers Nazi Germany and fascist Italy from the region.
South Africa’s first film in colour, Daar Doer in die Bosveld, is released. The comedy stars Jamie Uys as a shy but love-struck farmer.
British rock drummer Ginger Baker of the group Cream drives a Range Rover from Algeria across the Sahara Desert to Lagos, Nigeria with a documentary film cameraman. His intention is to play with Nigerian musician Fela Kuti. An admirer of African music, Baker will open a recording studio in Lagos that will be used throughout the 1970s by local and international musicians.
Angola’s deadliest air disaster occurs when a TAAG Angola Airlines passenger plane crashes after take-off at Lubango Airport, killing all 130 people on board. The airline blames technical failure for the crash, but the guerilla group UNITA that is fighting the Angolan Civil War claims it shot down the aircraft with a surface-to-air missile.
The U.N. Security Council chooses Arusha, Tanzania as the venue for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. The tribunal will prosecute those responsible for Rwanda’s 1994 genocide against the Tutsi people. The body will take twenty years to do its work, until 2014.
Africa’s most advanced military, the South African National Defense Force, does an internal census, and reports the army is made up of 75,479 personnel, including 39,473 Africans, 28,192 Whites, 6,982 Coloureds (mixed-race), and 832 Indians.
Liberian finance minister Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf faces former soccer legend George Weah in today's run-off election for the presidency of Liberia. When election results are announced on 23 November, she will become the first woman to lead an African country in modern times. Her inauguration is on 16 January 2006.
The African Union asks African billionaire businessmen Aliko Dangote of Nigeria, Strive Masiyiwa of Zimbabwe and Patrice Motsepe of South Africa to assist with the marshalling of resources against an Ebola outbreak that is ravishing West Africa. This is the first time that the AU has asked the private sector for such assistance.
South African heart surgeon, in Beaufort West, South Africa. The cardiac surgeon performed the world’s first human to human heart transplant, in Cape Town in 1967. A supporter of the apartheid policies of white minority rule, he believed in racial segregation, and in his comments he trivialised the suffering of black South Africans.
The first black African bullfighter, in Lourenço Marques, Portuguese Mozambique. At the height of his fame in the 1970s, he was the supreme champion of Maputo's bullfighting ring, which is one of only eight bullfighting rings in all of Africa. He was admired for his grace, athleticism and courage.
