Ali Bey, who declared Egypt independent of the Ottoman Empire’s Pasha in 1769 and controlled much of the Arabian Peninsula by 1771, engages in battle with his rival Abu-'l-Dahab, at Salihiyya Madrasa in Cairo. At stake is Egypt’s continuing independence, or its reincorporation in the Ottoman Empire.
Africa’s first motion picture arcade opens in Johannesburg. The Herwoods Arcade offers Kinetescope viewers, which customers look into and turn a crank to move the images.
The Sidi M’Cid Bridge opens in Constantine, Algeria. Until 1929, this is the highest bridge in the world. Its cable-anchoring towers resemble classical arched palace fortifications.
South Africa’s first locally-produced coins and banknotes are issued, by the South African Reserve Bank. They are bilingual – both front and back are identical but have writing in English one one side, and Afrikaans on the other side.
The South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) is founded, by future Namibian presidents Hage Geingob and Sam Nujoma. When SWAPO achieves its goal of making Namibia an independent country, in 1990, the organisation pivots from a liberation to a governance agenda. The party and thus future government is dominated by members of the Ovambo ethnic group.
Hundreds of Central African Republic school children are arrested and 100 killed by dictator Jean-Bédel Bokassa. Students decided to go on strike to protest being forced to purchase expensive school uniforms with Bokassa’s picture on them. The global outrage over the incident will embolden the military to oust Bokassa in September.
Amid fears that South Africa’s first democratic election will be deligitimised if it is boycotted by the powerful Zulu political party, the Inkatha Freedom Party, and that civil war may result, Kenyan professor Washington J. Okumu successfully persuades IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi to participate in the voting. Meanwhile, Nelson Mandela and President F.W. De Klerk persuade Zulu King Goodwill Zwelethini (pic) to urge Zulus to participate and vote in the election, which he does.
The Kigamboni (Nyerere) Bridge is opened by Tanzania President John Magufuli. Spanning the Kurasini Creek, the cable suspension bridge connects the Dar es Salaam wards Kurasini and Kigamboni.
The name Swaziland is changed to Eswatini by King Mswati III in honour of his 50th birthday and the 50th anniversary of national independence.
Third president of Liberia (1864-1868), in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. At age nine he arrived with his family in Liberia as part of the American Colonization Society’s effort to build a colony of free African-Americans. As an adult, he wrote the lyrics to Liberia’s national anthem. As president, he explored the country’s interior and made a treaty with the indigenous Musardu people.
At Manzini, Swaziland (Eswatini). Born Prince Makhosetive, after his father King Sobhuza II died he was crowned ruler of Swaziland, in 1986 at age 18. In 2023, he is Africa's last absolute monarch.
Top women’s football scorer for the Equatorial Guinea national team for which she played for 16 years, in Cogo, Equatorial Guinea. In 2012, she was chosen CAF’s African Women’s Footballer of the Year.
