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1896

The continuing Second Matebela War in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), corresponding with the outbreak of rinderpest that will kill 90% of Southern African cattle, drastically reduces oxen needed to transport goods overland. Transport prices surge to £200 a ton (equal to £34,041 in 2023) over the 965 km from Mafeking to Bulawayo. A railroad between the towns will be built as a matter of urgency, and will open next year, in 1897.

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1896

1899

In Swazieland (Eswatini), white settlers determine that war will break out between the British and the Boer Republics of South Africa – which have both been administering the Swazi territory. They begin to evacuate Bremersdorp (Manzini), as one letter writer reports today: “The people this week have lost all hope of an amicable settlement of affairs, and have general bolt.”

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1899

1911

Construction of Usambara Railway in German East Africa (Tanzania) to connect Tanga on the Indian Ocean with Lake Victoria reaches Mt. Kilimanjaro. Thus far, 351.4 km of track have been laid.

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1911

1928

Launch of the HMS Leopoldville, a private ship for use between Belgium and the Belgian Congo. She will be converted into a troop carrier during World War II. During the Battle of The Bulge on 24 December 1944. she will be torpedoed and sunk, with 819 lives lost.

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1928

1950

Heeding the U.N. call for member states to assist South Korea against North Korea’s invasion, the first group of South African Air Force personnel -- 50 officers and 157 pilots out of 1,426 SAAF members who volunteered to go -- set sail from Durban.

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1950

1977

Kenya bans all big game hunting. This has been one of the main goals of the East African Professional Hunters Association, which now disbands. Since its founding in 1934, the association has achieved the world’s strictest animal conservation laws, and succeeded in having local governments set aside game parks and wildlife refuges.

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1977

1988

Kenya proves itself a global athletics powerhouse at the Summer Olympic Games as Paul Ereng (pic) wins the gold medal in the Men’s 400 metres, Paul Rono wins gold in the Men’s 1500 metres, John Ngugi wins gold in the Men’s 5000 metres and Julius Kariuki wins gold in the Men’s 3000 metre steeplechase. Silver medals are won by Peter Koech in the Men’s 3000 metre steeplechase and by Douglas Wakiihuri in the Men’s Marathon. Kipkemboi Kimeli wins bronze in the Men’s Marathon.

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1988

1992

A catastrophic mechanical failure causes the worst disaster in the history of the Nigerian Air Force when three of four engines fail on a Hercules transport plane after take-off from Lagos. The crash kills all 150 Nigerians and eight foreign nationals on board.

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1992

2001

Tunisian dictator Zine Ben Ali dedicates a 38m-high clock on the Avenue Habib Bourguiba in Tunis. Tunisians immediately give it the nickname “Big Ben Ali.” This is the latest public clock that he has been placing in urban plazas all around the country.

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2001

2002

The world’s worst civilian ship disaster occurs when the Senegalese ferry Le Jolla capsizes in a storm off Gambia. Officially, 1,836 lives are lost, compared to the 1,500 who died when the Titanic sank in 1912 in another part of the Atlantic Ocean. The victims, including 150 pupils from a Gambian secondary school, are from a dozen different countries. Four times as many passengers packed the ferry than the ship’s capacity of 536. Only 65 people survive.

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2002

2014

In Tanzania, two teams of international cricketers play the highest-ever cricket match, on the flat crater of Mount Kilimanjaro, at an altitude of 5,730 metres.

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2014

Births

1936
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Anti-apartheid activist, politician, second wife to Nelson Mandela, at Bizana, South Africa. As beloved as she was controversial, she was popularly known as “Mother of the Nation.” Once the democracy that she fought to establish came to South Africa, she served as a Member of Parliament (1994-2003 and 2009-2018). She was Deputy Minister of Arts and Culture from 1994 to 1996.

1974
Watkin Tudor Jones

South African rapper, songwriter and performer known as Ninja, in Johannesburg, South Africa. His rap-rave group Die Antwoord exemplified South Africa’s counter-culture movement called zef.