A baobab tree has taken root, and will become the world’s oldest baobab tree (pic) when it is carbon dated in the 21st century, in what will become Hoedspruit, Limpopo Province, South Africa.

The first film shot in Kenya, Roosevelt in Africa, is released. The 13-minute silent movie records the former U.S. President’s wild game killing spree in British East Africa (Kenya and Uganda) in 1909, sponsored by the U.S.’ Smithsonian Institute.  The film misidentifies the Maasai as “Zulu” - a South African people 4,500 km to the south. On his trip, Roosevelt popularised Big Game Hunting as the ultimate expression of masculine domination over nature.

The first South African head of state to visit the U.S., Prime Minister Jan Smuts arrives with his delegation to attend the conference that is forming the United Nations, in San Francisco.

Morocco is discovered by Hollywood as a versatile filming location as work begins on 20^th Century-Fox’s The Black Rose, starring Orson Welles, with an all-British film crew. Marrakesh, Meknes and Ouarzazate are all made to “double” for China’s Gobi Desert.

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The Asian-African Conference begins in Bandung, Indonesia. Representatives of 29 African and Asian countries meet to forge cooperation and security agreements at a time when their continents were being described as the “Third World” between East and West. (pic: Egypt’s President Gamal Nasser, left, in Burmese costume with Burma's Prime Minister U Nu and India’s Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru)

Independence movements from Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe meet in Morocco to form the Conference of Nationalist Organisations of Portuguese Colonies as a unified front for their nations’ independence.

Ethiopia’s worst air disaster occurs when an East African Airways jet departing Addis Ababa airport bursts a tyre. The pilots abort the take-off, but the plane is already moving at a high speed. Faulty brakes cause the plane to overshoot the runway and break apart. The flight crew and 35 passengers are killed.

Zimbabwe achieves national independence, and changes its name from Rhodesia. Air Rhodesia becomes Air Zimbabwe, etc. The capital is Salisbury. The national population is 7,409,000.

Zimbabwe changes its capital city’s name from Salisbury to Harare.

In the bloodiest single incident of the Rwandan genocide, Gatwaro Stadium in Kibuye becomes an extermination centre when up to 9,000 ethnic Tutsi people are told by government to gather there. Gendarmerie Nationale soldiers; Gitesi Police; Interhamwe fighters and armed civilians surround and then enter the stadium, massacring all inside. The next day, they return to kill any survivors.

Tanzanian Mohamed Musari, an employee of Serengeti Balloon Safaris, becomes the country’s first commercial hot air balloon pilot after training in the U.S.

Mozambique is suspended by the International Monetary Fund from receiving loans after nearly US$1 billion in undisclosed government debt is revealed – money that government claims was to be used to start a tuna fish industry. Up to US$2 billion in secret loads will ultimately be uncovered. The money has been used to start a secret army under the command of former President Armando Guebuza. International donors also cut off aid.

Zambia is the source of global entertainment streaming service Netflix’s first animated series, which is offered today. Mama K’s Team 4 is the brainchild of Zambian writer Malengula Mulendema, and brings “black excellence” to the superhero story.