With scented oils and cosmetics used daily by aristocratic Egyptian women, today as they must every day, Egypt’s glass blowers are at work on exquisite bottles to hold perfumes.

The South African Reserve Bank opens for business. The oldest Central Bank in Africa issues South Africa’s banknotes and coins, and formulates and implements monetary policy.

For the first time, South Africa’s national rugby team the Springboks plays its rival the New Zealand All Blacks in South Africa, at Kingsmead Cricket Ground in Durban. The team will play four matches, ending in September, and each country will win two matches. The tour inspires the hit song All Blacks in Springbokland.

The S.S. Zarian, a major shipper of West African cargo for the United Africa Company before she was taken by the British government for use in World War II, proves a durable vessel ship when she takes a direct hit from a German U-boat torpedo. She will manage to sail to port in England, and after repairs will be back in service in 1941.

The Simonstown Agreement is signed between South Africa and Britain, which hands over its naval base at Simonstown, South Africa to Pretoria, and in return is guaranteed use of the base for Royal Navy ships.

The Bank Al-Maghrib is established as Morocco’s central bank, replacing the 53 year-old Banque d’État du Maroc (State Bank of Morocco). In addition to managing Morocco’s currency, the central bank supervises commercial banking services.

Democratic Republic of Congo achieves national independence, from Belgium. Patrice Lumumba is the DRC’s first Prime Minister. Leopoldville (later Kinshasa) is the capital. The national population is is 15,640,000. The country will soon descend into chaos with an insurrection in Katanga.

Nigerians are frantically spending their old money on this final day before the Central Bank of Nigeria pulls out of circulation all the British West African Pounds used before Independence, and which have now been replaced by Nigerian currency, the naira.

The last peacekeepers of the U.N. Operation in the Congo (ONUC), first deployed in 1961, depart the Democratic Republic of Congo. The mission has been a success at restoring order in the dangerously chaotic post-Independence period, and will be considered the template for future U.N. interventions in emerging countries.

Colonel Omar al-Bashir leads a bloodless coup d’état in Sudan, suspends political parties and imposes Islamic legal code on the national level.

South African President F.W. De Klerk (pic: left) arrives in the U.S. to meet with President Bill Clinton (pic: right). He will later receive the Liberty Medal in Philadelphia for his role in dismantling the apartheid regime.

Africa’s Top Five airlines in terms of capital, passenger volume and number of aircraft are Air Afrique, EgyptAir, Kenya Airways, Royal Air Maroc and South African Airways.

Mohammed Morsi is sworn in as Egypt’s first democratically-elected president. Although he was required by law to run as an independent, he was the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood that seeks to turn Egypt into an Islamic state. He will be in office one year before he is removed in a military coup d’état.

The 2017 Mercer Cost of Living Index ranks Luanda, Angola (pic) as the world’s most expensive city for expatriates to live. The world’s cheapest place for expatriates is another African city, Tunis, Tunisia.