CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons 1488 Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias landed at Mossel Bay, becoming the first known European to round the Cape of Good Hope.
ExplorationOn this day — February 3 in African history
Real events, births and milestones from Africa and the diaspora.
We are adding a source to every entry in this archive. 2 of 7 on this page carry one so far. The rest were written before per-entry citations were recorded, so if you intend to rely on one, check it independently until its source appears here. See our sourcing methodology.
CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons 1488 The 1716 Algiers earthquake struck Algeria, killing an estimated 20,000 people.
Disaster
CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons 1953 Portuguese colonial police, joined by white settlers and contract workers, attacked the forros, São Tomé's native creole population, on the orders of the governor, Carlos Gorgulho. The killings followed a rumour that the forros were to be forced into contract labour on the cocoa and coffee estates, work they had always refused as a form of slavery. Hundreds died and the number has never been established. Gorgulho left the colony in 1954 and Portugal awarded him the Grand Cross of the Military Order of Avis two years later. São Tomé and Príncipe now marks the day as the Day of the Martyrs of Liberty.
Sources: Museu do Aljube ; Working Class History
Tragedy
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1989 South African President P. W. Botha resigned as leader of the National Party after suffering a stroke, though he remained state president for several more months.
PoliticsGunmen attacked the villages of Woro and Nuku in Kwara State, western Nigeria. Tolls given differ sharply: a federal lawmaker put the dead at 162, Amnesty International at more than 170, and the state government at 75. Responsibility is disputed between the Lakurawa group and a Boko Haram faction.
Source: NBC News
Tragedy
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1815 Edward James Roye, who became the 5th President of Liberia, was born.
Birth
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1975 Umm Kulthum, celebrated Egyptian singer known as 'The Voice of Egypt', died.
Death