Henry Morton Stanley, sent to locate British missionary Dr. David Livingstone, finds him at Ujiji near Lake Tanganyika. Livingstone, who has lived in isolation for years, looks upon his visitor with astonishment as Stanley, ill and feverish and scarcely able to stand, utters his famous greeting, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”
The official status of Maputo on Africa’s southeast coast is raised from village to city by Portuguese colonial authorities in Mozambique. The city is renamed Lourenço Marques. In 1976, the city’s name will change back to Maputo.
In the North African fighting during World War II, advancing U.S. troops occupy the airport of Port-Lyautey, Morocco, and British-US troops occupy Oran, Algeria
Central African Republic independence leader Barthélemy Boganda (pic: with French General Charles De Gaul) is elected as one of Africa’s representatives to the French National Assembly. An ordained priest, he arrives in Paris in clerical garb, startles fellow legislators by saying he is the son of a polygamous cannibal, and gains fame as a fierce opponent of racism and French colonialism in Africa.
Africa’s first airplane hijacking occurs when six Portuguese political activists take control of a TAP Portugal passenger aircraft from Casablanca, Morocco to Lisbon, Portugal. The hijackers force the pilot to circle downtown Lisbon while they drop propaganda leaflets calling on citizens to revolt against Portuguese Prime Minister António Salazar. They then force the pilot to land in Tangier, Morocco.
On the last day of Portuguese rule of Angola, the Battle of Quifangodo is a major defeat for South African troops and the National Liberation Army of Angola, and its last attempt during the Angolan Civil War to take control of Luanda. The city remains in the hands of the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola, which will form a government tomorrow, and rename the country as the People’s Republic of Angola.
With sports sanctions lifted against South Africa as the transition to democracy continues, South Africa's first cricket international since 1970 is played. It is a one-day against India.
Angola, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia and Tanzania join the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) as the trade block is established.
In Nigeria, playwright and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa along with eight others from the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop) are hanged by government forces. International outrage follows the executions of the environmentalist, who has been condemned by Nigeria’s ruling junta as a murderer.
At the COP-7 environmental conference, agreement is reached at talks in Marrakech, Morocco, on rules for implementation of the Kyoto climate change treaty.
Gabon’s new multi-use stadium the Stade d’Angondjé opens in the Libreville suburb Angondjé, The 40,000 seat facility that will be used for international competitions was built and was paid for by the People’s Republic of China, while Gabon provided the road, electrical and water infrastructure.
China’s first export of an animal species arrives in Nairobi: 438 kg of freshwater crab. China will sends up to 4 tonnes of crab to Kenya this year.
Gabonese political activist and Gabon’s Foreign Minister (1961-1963), in Libreville, Gabon. He was Gabon’s first representative to the National Assembly of France (1946-1958). Although raised by the step-brother of Gabon’s President Léon M’ba, the two were political rivals. Aubame had nothing to do with a 1964 coup d’état that momentarily deposed M’ba, but because he was made acting president for the three days that the coup was in progress, he was imprisoned and tortured for 10 years, and then sent into exile for 10 years.
Congolese politician who led the breakaway State of Katanga and was Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo (1964-1965), in Musumba, Belgian Congo. Ruthlessly ambitious and implicated in the assassination of DRC’s independence leader Patrice Lumumba in 1961, he was supported by France, which coveted Katanga’s mineral wealth. He was driven into exile by U.N. forces before returning to be part of a coalition government.
Eritrean cyclist, in Debarwa, Eritrea. The first Eritrean to compete at the Olympic Games in an event other than athletics, in 2012, he was the first Eritrean to race Spain’s Vuelta a España, one of the three Grand Tour races. With his teammate Merhawi Kudus, he was the first African to race the Tour de France, in 2015.
