Christianity comes to the Basotho people, who have now inhabited for 1,400 years the land that will become Lesotho. King Moshoeshoe permits three priests from the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society to establish the Church of Morija at Thaba-Bosiu, Moshoeshoe's capital now that he has united the Basotho people under his rule. (photo of missionary complex from 1860s)
International telegraph service arrives in Tunisia via a submarine cable laid from the Algerian port El Kala, which connects to a cable running from France to Bizerte, Tunisia, Africa’s northernmost city.
British administrators of Swazieland (Eswatini) station 600 soldiers arriving from Pretoria, South Africa in Bremersdorp (Manzini) against any trouble during the trial of King Bhunu (Ngwane V – pic), who is charged with the murder of a royal counselor.
A piece of Mars strikes the Nakhla Region near Alexandria, Egypt. The meteorite explodes in the atmosphere and rains down 40 pieces of debris. One strikes and kills a dog; the first recorded death of an animal from a meteorite.
The Kunama people, former hunter-gatherers and one of Eritrea’s smallest ethnic groups, faced with diminishing game animals to hunt, restricted by modern development of the country and unable to obtain agricultural land, radically change their economy and become pastoralists.
The foundation stone is laid for perhaps the world’s most beautiful art deco cathedral, the Catedral de Nossa Senhora da Imaculada Conceição (Cathedral of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception) in Lourenço Marques (Maputo), Portuguese Mozambique. The soaring white edifice will be completed in 1944, and will dominate what will become Independence Square.
Morocco’s national airline Royal Air Maroc-Compagnie Nationale de Transports Aériens shortens its name to Royal Air Maroc.
King’s Park Stadium opens in Durban, South Africa, with a capacity of 12,000. The stadium will be almost entirely rebuilt in the 1980s to boost capacity to 52,000, and will host international events like the 1995 Rugby World Cup and the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations.
Pursuing a cult of personality, Togo’s dictator Étienne Eyadéma, who has changed his name to Gnassingbé Eyadéma (in honour of the date he survived an airplane crash because of superhuman powers he claims to have) commissions a comic book Eyadema about his exploits. In another piece of merchandising, a commemorative watch flashes his picture every 15 seconds.
South Africa, likely the only African nation capable of producing nuclear weapons, signs the U.N. Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The treaty will go into force on 22 January 2021.
Three of South Africa's nine provinces change their names: PWV becomes Gauteng; Orange Free State becomes the Free State and the Northern Transvaal becomes the Northern Province.
Black Coffee (Nokhosinati Maphumulo) becomes the first South African to win a BET Award, as Best International Act Africa.
Anti-apartheid activist and leader of the South African Communist Party, in Cofimvaba, Transkei, South Africa. He was Chief of Staff of uMkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC).
Ghanaian book editor and actor, in Kumasi, Ghana. The Director of Publishing at Eagle Media House in London, he edited several non-fiction and inspiration books, while writing two of his own. He appeared as an actor in several films, while writing scripts for others, and worked as a TV presenter and executive. He helped form the Institute for Media Practice in Ghana.
South African technology investor and entrepreneur, in Pretoria, South Africa. In addition to other ventures, by developing the on-line payment system Paypal, pioneering the electric car market with his Tesla vehicle, venturing into Artificial Intelligence and founding the aerospace firm Space X and the satellite-based Internet provider Starlink, he became the world's richest man in 2022, when he bought the social media platform Twitter.
