Cleopatra becomes sole rule of Egypt, at age 18, after pushing out her co-ruler, her brother Ptolemy XIII.

At age 17, Caesarian, the son of Egyptian ruler Queen Cleopatra and Roman Emperor Julius Caesar, is killed after ruling Egypt for only 18 days as Pharaoh Ptolemy XV. He is executed on orders of Roman Emperor Octavian. His death ends ancient Egypt’s Ptolemaic Dynasty.

French explorer and Egypt’s Chief Engineer of Public Works Louis Linant de Bellefonds arrives in Wadi Halfa in Sudan on a mission to gather geographic information and locate and draw ancient monuments. The amazing drawings he makes excites Europe about the antiquities of the area, and impresses the Sudanese themselves with the wealth of their historical treasures.

Swazi Chief Lomahasha Mahlalela is informed by Portuguese authorities that his chiefdom is on Portuguese Mozambique territory, and his people must start paying taxes to Portuguese authorities. The dispute highlights the lack of well-defined national boundaries in Southern Africa, and the disregard by Europeans of African claims and established settlements. A Transvaal-Portuguese Commission begins surveying where their territories and Swazieland (Eswatini) converge.

Granted special powers by the parliament of Upper Volta (Burkina Faso), which his party controls, Maurice Yaméogo dissolves the municipal council of the capital Ouagadougou, led by political rival Joseph Ouédraogo. Yaméogo is solidifying power under a one-party state prior to national independence in 1960.

French West Africa (Senegal) poet David Diop is among 63 people who die in the country’s worst air disaster to date. The Air France plane in which they travel crashes into the Atlantic Ocean in bad weather while attempting to land in Dakar.

Samuel Matete becomes Africa’s first World Champion in the 400 metres hurdles and Zambia’s first track and field world champion when he wins the 400m hurdle race at the Tokyo World Championships.

U.S. President Bill Clinton becomes the first U .S. president to visit Tanzania. He attends the signing of the Arusha Accords that ends the civil war in Burundi, and confers with South African President Nelson Mandela before meeting with Tanzania President Benjamin Mkapa.

Africa’s first commercial 5G wireless broadband is launched in Lesotho. South Africa’s Vodacom is the service provider after the Lesotho government makes available a 3.5GHz spectrum required for super-fast 5G service, which is unavailable in South Africa.