The first enslaved Africans arrive at Jamestown Colony in what will be the U.S. aboard a pirate ship that captured them from a Portuguese slave ship. They are bought by English colonialists, marking the beginning of the slave trade in America.

Cape Town’s Grand Hotel opens as “The Premier Hotel of South Africa.” Each room is electrically lit, and the guest may control the light using a wall switch. A telephone is located in the lobby, and the railway station is across the street. Special carriages connect with the port for ship connections.

‍

The Sara people, Chad’s largest ethnic group, freed themselves from control by Muslims in the north of the country in the 1890s, only to suffer catastrophic losses from diseases brought by Europeans, now face a colonial French government determined to impose forced labour. Because of their peacefulness, the Sara are called la belle race (beautiful people) by the French, but a colonial official reports today, “The Southern population, the Sara, are docile, but socially much less developed than the Muslim population. They are useful particularly as a reservoir for manpower.” Despite resistance, France will force Sara men to build the Brazzaville railroad where thousands die during construction, and fight for the French army as far away as Indochina.

‍

Construction has finished on the Law Courts Building in Nairobi, British Kenya. The imposing building was designed in the neo-classical style by Sir Herbert Baker, who is known as the “Architect of Empire” for his work done at British colonies. Africans are not allowed inside the impressive structure. Africans and Asians have their own courts elsewhere.

‍

Visitors driving their own cars have long been able to freely move about South Africa’s giant animal reserve Kruger Park. New regulations against feeding animals go into effect to reduce accidents when animals rush at cars, hoping for hand-outs.

‍

Morocco’s Sultan Muhammad V is forced into exile by French colonial authorities, along with his royal family, as a popular movement toward national independence gains momentum. In retaliation, independence activists will bomb Casablanca’s Central Market on 24 December. Muhammad goes on a world tour, and will be the first foreign dignitary to visit the U.S. theme park Disneyland when it opens, as guest of Hollywood movie maker Walt Disney (pic: left).

The National Liberation Front seeking Algerian independence targets French nationals during the second year of the Algerian War. The rebels murder, in purposely-brutal manner, several dozen European settlers, in the hope of provoking French colonial authorities into a heavy-handed reprisal that will alienate the Algerian people. Rebels rape and disemboweled European women before their children, whose throats they then slit, and decapitate babies. French does retaliate, disproportionately, by killing thousands of Algerians, and creating a popular outrage that accelerates the push for independence.

The Mali Federation joining Mali and Senegal is disestablished only two months after the countries gain independence from France, when Senegal withdraws following military tension with Mali

Zimbabwean and North Korean workers are completing National Heroes Acres near Harare, a gravesite/monument to independence fighters of the Patriotic Front who died during the Rhodesia Bush War. It is one of the first works by North Korea’s Mansudae Overseas Projects, which will build statues and monuments for several African countries.

‍

South Africa’s United Democratic Front (UDF), a force in the anti-apartheid movement, is dissolved. The UDF has acted as a front to pursue goals of banned South African organisations like the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan African Congress (PAC). With the unbanning of the ANC, PAC and other anti-apartheid groups, the UDF is no longer needed.

South Africa’s Caster Semenya wins the Women’s 800 metres to take gold at the Summer Olympic Games.