The U.S. Navy ship Truxtun sets sail on a mission to enforce the ban on the Atlantic slave trade. Patrolling West Africa, it captures the slave ship the U.S.S. Spitfire on the Rio Pongo in Guinea. Although the Spitfire is small, it carries 346 enslaved Africans. Truxtun Commander Bruce reports: “Between her decks, where the slaves were packed, there was not room enough for a man to sit, unless inclining his head forward. Their food was half a pint of rice per day, with one pint of water. No one can imagine the sufferings of slaves on their passage across. A good hearty Negro costs but twenty dollars (in Africa), and brings from three to four hundred dollars in Cuba." The captured slave ship will be outfitted for use in anti-slavery operations, and its capture incentivises the U.S. American Navy to increase the strength of its Africa Squadron.

Since ancient times, the biden ship has been sailing off the coast of Somalia, built the same way for thousands of years, with coiled coconut fibre used to sew together the planks of the hull. A new Omani style updates the ship with hulls built with steel nails.

Sightseeing flights over the Mosi-oa-Tunya waterfalls (known to tourists as Victoria Falls) spanning Southern and Northern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe and Zambia), begin with the delivery of an Avro Avian biplane to the Rhodesian Aviation Company. Passengers are charged £1 (equal to £81 in 2023) for a 15 minute ride.

A radio transmitter located in Bangui in French Equatorial Africa (Central African Republic) and housed in a grass-roofed house is described as “the most remote radio station in Africa.”

Angola’s first museum, the Dundo Museum, is opened by Diamong, a diamond company, in the small mining town Dundo. Designed as an ethnological museum, its mission is “to gather and collect every characteristic object used by the indigenous races of the region.”

The first of the World War II air raids on the British Air Force base in Wajir, Kenya, are carried out by Italian military planes flying from Italian East Africa. The air attacks will continue for a year, until Italy is pushed out of East Africa.

The Chuka Massacre occurs in Kenya when members of the British King’s African Rifles B Company capture and executed 20 people suspected of being Mau Mau fighters during the rebellion against colonial rule. No one is ever tried or held accountable for the massacre.

The opening of the sleek yet imposing Ministry of Works Building adds to Nairobi’s Government Avenue's impressive collection of modern, International-Style structures. The optimistic, futuristic look of the architecture reflects the mood of countries like Kenya as they near their Independence, and will become the prominent style in other capital cities.

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The prototype SafariKar is completed by the Mohs Seaplane Corporation in the U.S. The world’s first luxury safari vehicle is designed to survive rugged savannah terrain, and features an all-aluminum body. As protection against attacks from a rhinoceros, the exterior is covered with padded vinyl, and doors open outward from the body on four rods. The vehicle has a retractable hard-top roof, fold-down bed in the rear, television, two-way radio and butane furnace. Only three are built, and none are sold.

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The five year-old University of Seychelles establishes a partnership with the University of Gibraltar, which will open in 2015, so both learning institutions can grow together.