On this day: January 2 in African history

Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

The four cornerstones of the Castle of Good Hope were laid at the Cape, beginning construction of what is today the oldest surviving colonial building in South Africa.

Sources: South African History Online ; South African Institution of Civil Engineering (Civil Engineering = Siviele Ingenieurswese, 1980, issue 3, pp. 63-64)

Photo by Ball, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

Leander Starr Jameson surrendered to Boer forces at Doornkop near Krugersdorp, ending the failed Jameson Raid into the Transvaal.

Sources: Britannica ; Project Gutenberg (J.P. FitzPatrick, The Transvaal from Within: A Private Record of Public Affairs, London: William Heinemann, 1899; Appendix G 'Terms of Dr. Jameson's Surrender' and Appendix H 'Sir John Willoughby's Report to the War Office')

Olga Ernst, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

The Kaapse Klopse (Cape Minstrel) carnival is generally dated to 1887, when the first organised troupe is thought to have paraded in Cape Town. The tradition is rooted in Tweede Nuwe Jaar, the one annual day off once granted to enslaved people at the Cape.

Sources: News24 ; African Minds (open access scholarly press, Somerset West) ; South African History Online

District of Columbia government, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

Sharon Pratt Dixon was inaugurated as Mayor of Washington, D.C., the first woman to lead the city. She is often described as the first Black woman to run a major American city, though Carrie Saxon Perry had been elected mayor of Hartford, Connecticut, in 1987.

Sources: The Washington Post ; BlackPast

Government of Somalia, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

Siad Barre, exiled former military ruler and third President of Somalia, died in Lagos, Nigeria, having been ousted from power in the 1991 Somali civil war.

Sources: UPI ; The Independent