The last Sultan of the Mamluks, who have ruled Egypt since 1250, begins his reign. As events unfold, Tuman bay II will be killed only 180 days into his rule, when Ottoman Turks conquer the country in 1517.

British West Africa is established as the U.K.’s colonial administrative entity over what is today The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Nigeria. The colony is created at the urging of slavery abolitionists who feel a British authority can better control the area’s African slave trade. The abolitionists want the area to be “modernised,” with education focusing on Western beliefs, while local cultures and beliefs are to be suppressed.

The Nyasaland (Malawi) Volunteer Reserve is formed, as part of the British Central Africa Reserve. The reserve will assemble a group of trained marksmen who will be available for the government of the British protectorate in times of emergency. The volunteer group will become a military unit during World War I.

The Victoria Falls Power Company (VFP) is formed to generate electricity from the great waterfall Mosi-oa-Tunya (“the smoke that thunders”) on the Zambezi River. However, technical issues prevent the company from harnessing the power of what the English call Victoria Falls. The VFP turns instead to South Africa, to generate power from South African coal deposits. After creating the foundation for Southern Africa’s power infrastructure, by 1915 the VFP will be the largest power supply enterprise in the British Empire.

Seychelles architect William Marshall Vaudin, born on the island in 1866, presides over the completion of the country’s grandest structure, Government House. The residence and office of the Governor is surrounded on both floors by a wide portico decorated with wrought-iron pillars and shaded by Raffia blinds. State functions and receptions will be held here.

Algerian-born novelist and playwright Albert Camus is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. His modern fables like The Stranger and The Plague captured the uncertainty and existential dread of modern life.

The Paris Massacre of 1961 occurs when French police attack 30,000 demonstrators supporting the Algerian National Liberation Front against France in Algeria’s War for Independence. At least 200 people are killed. The exact number is not known because many of the bodies are thrown in the Seine River.

A Lufthansa airliner with 86 passengers hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine lands in Mogadishu. Somalia President Siad Barre permits a German anti-terrorism unit to free the hostages.

Nigerian author Wole Soyinka is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He is the first writer from Sub-Saharan Africa to receive the world's top literary honour, which is given in recognition of his substantial body of poetry, plays, essays and novels, as well as his courage in pursuit of his human rights convictions. During the Nigerian Civil War, he was imprisoned for nearly two years for criticising the Nigerian government.

The song Soweto Blues by Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba, about South African youth engaged in the 1976 Soweto Uprising against apartheid, is released, as a track on Makeba’s Welela album.

The Source of the Nile Bridge (New Jinja Bridge) is opened by Uganda President Yoweri Museveni. Spanning the Victoria Nile River, which forms the upper section of the Nile River, it replaces the Nalubaale Bridge that was built in 1954.