The German East Africa Company is required to turn over administrative control of German East Africa (Tanzania) to the German government. The company’s maladministration has led to the ongoing Abushiri Revolt of the coastal Arab and Swahili populations (pic). Resistance to German colonialism will not be extinguished by the German army until 1891, after a three year-long uprising.
The Théâtre Municipal de Tunis opens in French Tunisia. A place where for generations the top Tunisian and Arab musicians, singers and actors will come to perform, the municipal theatre will also welcome international performers.
U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt becomes the first U.S. President to visit Algeria. He spends a day in Oran, French Algeria, en route to Cairo, Egypt.
Passenger air travel between Australia and Africa is shown possible as a Qantas Airways plane lands at Palmietfontein Airport outside Johannesburg, South Africa, at 3:15 this afternoon. The plane has been in the air 41 hours and 52 minutes, with an average speed of 340 km/h (210 mph).
West Africa’s largest hospital, the 1,000-bed University College Hospital, Ibadan, is commissioned in Nigeria.
Censorship of dissent increases in apartheid South Africa as the Second General Law Amendment Act prohibits songs, articles, books or any communication “intended to cause feelings of hostility between different populations.” (pic: police burn banned books)
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat addresses the Israeli parliament (Knesset). He is the first African head of state or Arab leader to do so.
Comoros joins the Arab League. (pic: Comoros’ most famous landmark, the Badjanani Mosque in Moroni)
The Lusaka Protocol to end the 19-year Angolan Civil War is signed in Zambia by the Angolan government and the rebel National Movement for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). With the end of the Cold War, the Angolan conflict is no longer needed as a proxy war between East and West, which have been sponsoring the war’s rival forces. However, Jonas Savimbi of UNITA will break the treaty, and continued fighting until he is killed in 2002.
A mass shooting at Radisson Hotel in Bamako, Mali by Islamic militants leaves 20 dead.
Emperor of Ethiopia (1632-1667), in Bulga, Shewa, Ethiopian Empire. A noted builder, he established Gondar as his empire's capital city and created civic complexes, bridges and churches. He cut off ties with Europe, banished the Catholic Jesuits from the country, and supported the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
South African writer and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, in Springs, South Africa. The Nobel committee said of the author of several novels and short story collections, “Her magnificent epic writing has been of very great benefit to humanity.”
President of Nigeria (2010-2015), in Ogbia, Eastern Region, British Nigeria. Although Nigeria earned nearly a half-trillion U.S. dollars in revenue from oil sales during his administration, he was unable to provide a stable national electricity grid. Losing the 2015 elections, he became the first incumbent President in Nigerian history to concede defeat.
