The last ship carrying enslaved Africans brought across the Atlantic Ocean to the U.S. – from the Dahomey Kingdom of Benin -- arrives at the port of Mobile in Alabama.

Cape Town public transportation is established by the Cape Colony legislature. The Cape Town & Green Point Transit Company will start service in two years using horse-drawn trams.

German colonial forces (pic) in South West Africa surrender to South African forces, who are fighting as allies of Britain in World War I.

For his sixth birthday, Morocco’s Prince Mawlay al-Hassan bin Mohammed bin Yusef al-Alawi, the future King Hassan II, is given a miniature replica of the car (a 1935 Bentley 3½-litre Fixed Head Coupé) owned by his father, King Mohammed V – only the boy’s car is a convertible.

French Morocco’s deadliest air crash to date occurs when a French Naval Aviation plane falls into the Atlantic Ocean off Zaouit Massa, killing all 18 people on board. On 22 July, 17 people will also be killed when another French Naval Aviation plane crashes in the Atlantic, off Agadir.

Publication of the first Lord of the Rings books, The Fellowship of the Ring, by South African-born fantasy writer J.R.R. Tolkien.

The skull of Chief Mkwawa of the Hehe, who fought against German occupation of his people’s land, is returned to Tanganyika. Required to do so by the Versailles Treaty that ended World War I and gave to the British the German East African territory, Britain wanted to return the relic after assuming control of East Africa from Germany in 1920, but it has been hidden in a German museum for decades. (pic: kept as a relic, Hehe's skull in Tanganyika before its theft)

Belgium government commandeers the fleet of the national air carrier Sabena Airways to airlift Belgian citizens from the Belgian Congo. The security situation has worsened in the weeks before the colony is to achieve independence. Sabena suspends all transatlantic flights so that its five Boeing 707s can be used to evacuate refugees. When the operation ends, 25,711 Belgians will have been evacuated.

In Luanda, Cuba President Fidel Castro receives Angola’s highest honor, the Order of Agostinho Nieto. Castro will also be decorated by Ghana, Mali and South Africa in 1998, Algeria in 2001 and Guinea-Bissau in 2007, Namibia in 2008 and Zambia in 2009.

South African president and liberation hero Nelson Mandela makes a triumphant state visit to the U.K. There is great international good will for South Africa's new democratic state.

The African Union, a stronger institution than the Organisation of African Unity it replaces while still retaining the OAU’s Pan-African ideals, is launched in Durban, South Africa. With 55 African countries as member states, the AU has a goal of advancing the security, solidarity and economic development of Africa.