On this day: July 8 in African history

Painting by Gregório Lopes, c. 1524, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

Vasco da Gama's fleet departed Lisbon on the voyage that would round the Cape of Good Hope and open the first direct sea route from Europe to Asia.

Sources: The Mariners' Museum and Park (Ages of Exploration) ; The Map as History

The United States and South Africa signed a nuclear cooperation agreement that supplied South Africa with its first research reactor.

Sources: Atomic Heritage Foundation / National Museum of Nuclear Science & History ; The Nonproliferation Review (Monterey Institute)

Sudan Airways Flight 139 crashed on takeoff in Port Sudan, killing all but one of the 117 people aboard.

Sources: CBS News ; The Tribune (Chandigarh, India) ; Al Jazeera

An Egyptian army under Ibrahim Pasha routed an Ottoman force at Homs in Syria, taking its artillery and transport. Ibrahim went on to occupy Hama and Aleppo and to push north towards the Belen Pass.

Sources: Britannica ; George Routledge & Sons (London, 1935), via Internet Archive / Digital Library of India

The Hamburg massacre in South Carolina killed one white assailant and, by different accounts, six or seven African Americans, in politically motivated violence ahead of the 1876 US presidential election.

Sources: South Carolina Encyclopedia ; Lowcountry Digital History Initiative (College of Charleston) ; SC Picture Project

Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed

Fritz Cohen, National Photo Collection of Israel, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

King Mwambutsa IV of Burundi was deposed by his son, Prince Charles Ndizeye, who took the throne as Ntare V.

Sources: African Transitional Justice Hub (Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation) ; Executed Today

Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed