The Battle of Abukir: The forces of Egypt’s Ottoman Empire ruler Seid Mustafa Pasha are defeated by Napoleon Bonaparte’s army. Arriving at the scene, Ottoman troops are transported on ships from Britain, which wants to stop France’s conquest of Egypt. During the battle, 10,000 Ottoman soldiers drown.
Ngazidja and the three other populated islands of the Comoros archipelago are annexed by France, and made a province of French Madagascar. The Sultan of Ngazidja, Said Ali bin Said Omar (pic), will file a lawsuit for damages in a French court. The court will order compensation for his losses.
Egypt’s Khedive (Viceroy ruler of the country for the Ottoman Empire), Abbas II, escapes an assassination attempt with cuts on his hands and face, in Constantinople, Turkey, the Ottoman capital. British agents were likely behind the attack as war (World War I) is about to break out between Britain and Germany, and the Ottomans are aligned with Germany. Britain will declare war on Turkey in November, and depose Abbas in December. (pic: Australian troops fighting for Britain in World War I bring a kangaroo to the pyramids in Cairo)
Tunisia’s monarchy that has ruled the country since 1705 is abolished, and the Kingdom of Tunisia, as it was called at Independence from France last year (1956) is now a Republic. The last of bey (king) of the Husainid Dynasty is Muhammad VIII al-Amin, now 76 years old.
At the New Zealand rugby team matches held in South Africa, Māori players and spectators are allowed by Prime Minister B.P. Vorster to participate. This angers extreme white nationalists because it violates apartheid racial separation laws. The gesture by Vorster does not lessen international condemnation of the matches because they violate U.N. sports sanctions against South Africa.
One of the bloodiest dictators in history, Equatorial Guinea’s Francisco Macías Nguema is well on his way toward murdering or frightening into exile one third of his nation’s population, when he begins a persecution of intellectuals. He bans the wearing of eyeglasses, which he associates with intelligence. Fishing is banned because he suspects that fishing boats will be used to escape the country.
Because vehicle noise alerts poachers to their presence, Zimbabwe game rangers begin riding elephants on their patrols to find the animal killers who are devastating the country's elephant and rhino populations.
The funeral of King Hassan II in Morocco draws world leaders, including U.S. President Bill Clinton, who uses the opportunity to press for a Middle East peace opportunity by meeting with Palestinian National Authority President Yassar Arafat (in pic right with Hassan in 1993) and Israel Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
The Fes-Oujda Expressway officially opens, connecting the two Moroccan cities with a 306-kilometre highway.
The Tunisian Political Crisis of 2021, which began with an economic crisis and the collapse of the national health system overburdened by the Covid-19 pandemic, reaches a climax when President Kais Saied evokes emergency powers. With these powers granted to the president by the Constitution, he fires the prime minister, suspends parliament and declares a national curfew. The act is described as a form of coup d’état, and is met with protest marches. Security forces respond by arresting parliamentarians and human rights activists.
Super model and actress, in Mogadishu, Trust Territory of Somalia. Given her name Iman by her grandfather, she was discovered by an American photographer while studying at the University of Nairobi. Her statuesque beauty has been an inspiration for the world’s top fashion designers, including Gianni Versace, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan and Yves Saint Laurent. She started her own fashion line inspired by North African design. She has a long association with the Children’s Defense fund and was the first Global Advocate for CARE, which fights poverty and world hunger.
South African politician, military leader and cabinet minister, in Mqanduli, South Africa. He joined the Transkei Defense Force in 1978, and forced into exile Prime Minister George Matanzima of the South African apartheid “homeland” in October 1987. He then overthrew Matanzima's successor, Stella Sigcau, in a bloodless coup d’état two months later. He ran the Transkei from 1987 until 1994, when all “homelands” were reincorporated back into post-apartheid South Africa.
Rwandan gospel singer and peace activist, in Kibeho, Rwanda. A survivor of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, he worked toward national reconciliation until government considered him an enemy. He was kidnapped by Rwandan police in 2014, and stood trial for seeking to overthrow government in 2015. After his 10-year prison sentence was criticised by international human rights groups, he was released by President Paul Kagame in 2018, only to be rearrested in 2020 and die in police custody.
Rwandan football referee, in Kigali, Rwanda. After becoming a FIFA referee in 2012, she was the first woman to officiate at a men’s Africa World Cup game in 2022, the same year she was chosen as one of only 3 women among the 36 referees to officiate at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
