Queen Njinga of the Ndongo Kingdom in her own fight against the Portuguese colonial army receives aid from Dutch forces occupying Luuanda in Portuguese Angola. Joined by forces from the Kingdom of Kongo at the Battle of Kombi today, the Dutch and Ndongo score a major defeat against the Portuguese, who lose 3,000 soldiers.
The Battle of Mbwila ends with a victory for Portugal and the defeat of the Kingdom of Kongo in West Africa. 5,000 Kongolese soldiers are killed by the Portuguese and by warriors brought from Angola and Brazil. King António of Kongo is decapitated, and the Kongolese royal family are enslaved and sent to Brazil. (Three royal children will later lead a slave revolt, and establish the independent kingdom Quilombo dos Palmares that will cover a large section of northwest Brazil. Another child, Zumbi, will be killed defending Palmares, and will be declared a national hero in 20th century Brazil.)
King Mwanga II of the Buganda people in what will become Uganda continues his campaign to rid his country of Catholic, Muslim and Protestant missionaries who he believes are subverting African culture. Today he has killed the first Anglican Bishop of East Africa, James Hannington. He has recently executed three prominent Christian converts, Yusufu Rugarama, Makko Kakumba, and Nuuwa Sserwanga, and his efforts to eradicate Christianity will see at least 30 Christian converts killed by June 1886. Ironically, after military defeat and exile by the British in 1899, in Seychelles he will convert to Hannington’s Anglican religion.
The Treaty of Constantinople is signed by the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire, and declares the Suez Canal to be a neutral territory which ships from all countries may use in war or peace, under the administration of Britain. Egypt built the canal before surrendering control to Britain because of debt issues, and while the canal runs through its territory, Egypt was not invited to the negotiations and does not sign the treaty. This snub will backfire when Egypt, not bound by a treaty it never signed, nationalised the canal in 1956.
Hundreds of men, women and children led by Mohandas Gandhi march from Newcastle, Natal Colony (KwaZulu Natal, South Africa) into the Transvaal to defy the Immigrants Regulation Act of 1913. The first large multi-racial defiance of colonial segregation laws is joined by groups led by Thambi Naiso and Albert Christopher.
The last air combat is fought by the South African Air Force in East Africa during World War II, a month before Italian forces surrender. SAAF has 10 squadrons and 94 aircraft fighting in East Africa. Most will be deployed elsewhere, with a few remaining to patrol the East African coast.
Israeli troops invade the Suez. The troops are an advance guard for an attack force that will be joined by British and French troops to take the Suez Canal. Egyptian President Gamal Nasser has nationtionised the canal, and denied Israeli ships passage.
Palestine Radio begins broadcasting, from Cairo, Egypt, as part of the Sawt Al-Arab (Voice of the Arabs) Network, transmitting 7 hours a day.
The United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar shortens its name to Tanzania.
The ban on all political parties except the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi has ended, and Tanzania holds its first multi-party elections. The entrenched CCM wins, and its candidate Benjamin Mpaka becomes president.
President of Tanzania Benjamin Mpaka (pic) is re-elected, gathering a landslide 72% of the vote.
The Russia-Africa Summit concludes in Sochi, Russia, with Russian President Vladimir Putin proposing a doubling of trade between Russia and Africa over the next five years. The goal will not be met.
Seychelles' 115 islands will number no more than 39 after global warming raises sea levels, according to projections that Seychelles’ President Wavel Ramkalawan says he will share at the upcoming COP26 climate conference. Millions of migratory birds that will no longer be able to use Seychelles’ islands for rest and breeding will go extinct.
South African jazz drummer, in Cape Town, Union of South Africa. His rhythms were an integral ingredient for the sound and success of the recordings of some of the great jazz groups of the 1950s through the 1970s. He played drums for Hugh Masekela, Dollar Brand, Dexter Gordon and many others, as well as with his own bands The Jazz Giants and Makaya and the Tsotsis.
Fifth President of Tanzania (2015-2021), in Chato, Tanganyika. The former transportation minister made infrastructure development his presidential priority. He grew increasingly autocratic and abusive of human rights during his term. He was a Covid-19 denialist when the pandemic struck in 2020, leaving the county unprepared, and increasing the disease’s destructiveness.
Zimbabwean preacher and entertainer, in Harare, Zimbabwe. Popular with Zimbabwe’s ruling party, his lavish lifestyle and show business approach to religion typified his generation of media-hyped celebrity evangelicals.
