The Battle of al-Babein is fought as the Kingdom of Jerusalem under King Amalric I seeks to take Egypt from the Fatima Caliphate that controls North Africa. Allied with Amalric are the Crusaders from Europe, who have twice before attempted to conquer Egypt. Although neither side wins a decisive victory today, the Crusaders will again fail to conquer Egypt.
Seeking a new life in the land of their ancestors, 200 formerly enslaved African-Americans from the former U.S. slave state Georgia sail for Liberia. The trip is sponsored by the American Colonization Society, and is led by William Henry Heard, who will build the first African Methodist Episcopal Church in Monrovia, Liberia (pic).
Agatha Christie, popular English author of detective fiction, is staying in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) with her husband at the Victoria Falls Hotel overlooking the Zambezi River waterfall Mosi-oa-Tunya. She will set her thriller The Man in the Brown Suit in Southern Africa, and use the hotel as a location.
The American South African Lines begins regular ocean liner crossings of the Atlantic from New York to South Africa, calling on Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban.
Approved with overwhelming margins from referendum voters in France and Morocco, the Évian Accords are signed, allowing for Morocco’s independence from France.
Equatorial Guinea dictator Macías Nguema closes all private schools, declaring them subversive and their curriculum insufficiently worshipful of him. This includes all Catholic school. Catholic priests are ordered to thank Nguema at the start of every church service. At the end of each service, church congregations are required to chant, "Forward with Macias. Always with Macias. Never without Macias."
For the first time, Côte d’Ivoire hosts the Africa Cup of Nations (14th edition). Cameroon wins Africa’s ultimate football championship, but Ghana’s Théophile Abega is Best Player.
Africa’s longest highway tunnel is opened, outside Cape Town, South Africa. The 3.9-km Huguenot Tunnel under the Du Toitskloof Mountains replaces a pass over the mountains built by Italian prisoners of war during World War II. On 18 April 2002, a record 18,200 vehicles will use the toll tunnel, which will be renamed the Abdullah M Omar Tunnel.
The popular Bardo National Museum is hit by a terror attack, in Tunis, Tunisia. Two arned ISIL militants kill 24 people.
The U.S. African military command AFRICOM conducts air strikes on Mogadishu against al-Shabaab terror group cells. The mission is successful, but a disputed number of civilians are also killed.
Last President of apartheid South Africa, in Johannesburg, South Africa. As State President from 1989 to 1994, he oversaw the dismantling of the racist white minority government and the transition to multi-racial democracy. Along with his partner in the transition, liberation leader Nelson Mandela, he earned the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 for bringing about a peaceful revolution. He was criticised for refusing to accept any responsibility for the violence and abuse carried out by agents of the apartheid regime during his administration.
South African academic, in Nairobi, Kenya. His groundbreaking work on HIV/AIDS documented the devastation the epidemic has on African societies, especially on food production. At the University of KwaZulu/Natal in South Africa, he established the Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division.
South African pop singer, in Dobsonville, Soweto, South Africa. The “Princess of Africa” was at the forefront of South African music and was widely popular throughout Southern Africa starting with her 1988 hit Umqombothi. Her admirers included Nelson Mandela, who listened to her music in prison, and South African musical legends Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela.
Malian professional basketball player, in Bougouni, Mali. At 7 ft 0 in (2.13 metres), he is Mali’s most accomplished basketball professional, drafted into the U.S. National Basketball Association in 2000 to play first for the New York Nets, then the Los Angeles Lakers and other international teams.
