Work begins by enslaved Africans in the U.S. on the construction of the U.S. Capitol building. The enslaved Africans are loaned out to the U.S. government by their “owners.” The Capitol building is located in the U.S. capital, the District of Columbia, and will house the U.S. legislature. The work will take seven years.
With the wealth acquired by his father from a factory that uses cotton grown and harvested by Africans enslaved in the U.S., Charles Lewis Tiffany (pic: centre left) opens a fine goods shop in New York City. Tiffany & Co. will become one of the world’s most prestigious jewelry and luxury goods brands. In 1967, Tiffany will return to its African roots by marketing a new gem discovered in East Africa, and name it Tanzanite.
Afrikaner migrants (Trekboers) from South Africa strike an agreement with the governor of the Portuguese colonial town of Moçâmedes to allow them to settle in what will become Angola. In 1928, many of the Boer settlers will relocate to South West Africa (Namibia) after South Africa assumes control of that German colony.
For the first time since diamond production began there in 1870, South Africa’s diamond volumes are surpassed by another country, Belgian Congo (Democratic Republic of Congo). However, in terms of the value of diamonds produced, South Africa remains in the lead.
U.N. Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld is among 16 persons who die when their U.N. plane crashes on approach to Ndola’s airport in Nyasaland (Zambia). Officially, the crash is the result of a collision with trees. There is widespread suspicion that the plane has been sabotaged or shot down, possibly by Katanga rebels fighting U.N. peacekeeping forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Mozambique and its northern neighbour Tanzania sign an agreement demarcating their maritime border.
The movie Sarafina! is released. The musical is based on the Broadway production of the same name about South African students involved in the 1976 Soweto Uprising. The film is directed by South African Darrell Roodt, with dialogue in English and isiZulu.
The African Union takes over the fight against the terror group the Lord’s Resistance Army led by Joseph Kony (pic: centre) in Uganda. The A.U. will coordinate from a base in South Sudan efforts by the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Uganda, who are fighting the L.R.A. Some of the counter-insurgency soldiers, particularly the Ugandans, have been engaged in human rights abuses themselves.
Lesotho becomes the first African country to legalise marijuana, when government grants a license for the cultivation of marijuana for medical use.
Liberian President George Weah (pic: left), who was one of the world’s great football players before his retirement, puts on his number 14 shirt once more at age 51 to play a friendly against Nigeria. The game is billed as his final international appearance.
South African businessman and the second self-funded space tourist, in Welkom, Free State, South Africa. He became the first South African in space after he paid Russia US$20 million to be taken on a Soyez spacecraft to the International Space Station in 2002.
South African model and the first black African to be crowned Miss Universe, in 1999, in Tsolo, South Africa. Because the Coronavirus Pandemic canceled the 2020 contest, she reigned the longest of any Miss Universe, until May 2021.
