Ceiling of Debre Birhan Selassie church, Gondar, Ethiopia. Photo: Rod Waddington, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence · Source
Real events, births and milestones from Africa and the diaspora.
Charles Robinson, after Melton Prior (1845 - 1910), Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1879 A Zulu army of about 20,000 attacked the British camp at Kambula and was driven off after four hours. Zulu losses are given as between 758 and 2,000 killed, against 29 British dead. It broke the Zulu offensive that had begun at Isandlwana two months earlier.
Sources: South African History Online ; HistoryNet
War
Robin Taylor from Bamako, Mali, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons 1947 The Malagasy Uprising against French colonial rule began in Madagascar.
Sources: Le Monde diplomatique ; L'Express de Madagascar
Politics
Muhammad Mahdi Karim, GFDL 1.2, Wikimedia Commons 2013 A sixteen-story building collapsed in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing at least 36 people.
Sources: CNN ; Tanzania Daily News
Disaster
unknown, Présence Congolaise, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1959 Barthélemy Boganda, the first prime minister and a founding father of the Central African Republic, died in a plane crash.
Sources: Encyclopædia Britannica ; African Studies Centre Leiden, Leiden University
Read the full article: Barthélemy Boganda's Mysterious Death, Months Before the Independence He Fought For
Death
Aboubacarkhoraa, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons 1950 Mory Kanté, Guinean singer whose 'Yé ké yé ké' became an international hit, was born.
Sources: The Guardian ; Who's Who in Guinea
Birth
Nosa Asemota, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons 1952 Bola Tinubu, Nigerian politician who later became President of Nigeria, was born.
Sources: State House, Abuja (Presidency of the Federal Republic of Nigeria) ; Punch
Birth
VOA, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 2021 Sarah Onyango Obama, Kenyan educator and step-grandmother of US President Barack Obama, died.
Sources: NPR ; Chicago Sun-Times
Death
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1957 The Suez Canal in Egypt reopened to navigation on 29 March 1957 after being cleared of blockships and wreckage left by the 1956 Suez Crisis.
Sources: Suez Canal Authority ; Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State
Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed
HistoryA Portuguese fleet carrying missionaries entered Mpinda, the port of Soyo province in the Kingdom of Kongo. The chronicler Rui de Pina recorded the date. The lord of Soyo, the king's uncle, was baptized days later.
Sources: Cambridge University Press ; Internet Archive
Read the full article: Kongo, Central Africa's Christian Kingdom
History