On this day: October 29 in African history

A Portuguese-led army defeated the army of King António I of Kongo at Mbwila, in the Dembos region between Kongo and Portuguese Angola, and the king was killed in the fighting. Sources differ on the day: Thornton and Batsîkama put the battle on Oct. 29, Hilton has the Portuguese joining their allies that day and fighting on Oct. 30, and Balandier gives Oct. 25.

Sources: Routledge ; Sankofa: Revista de História da África e de Estudos da Diáspora Africana ; Internet Archive ; Internet Archive

Read the full article: Kongo, Central Africa's Christian Kingdom

Two car bombs went off minutes apart at the Zobe junction in Mogadishu, outside the education ministry, where secondary school students and their families were collecting graduation certificates. The toll reached 121 dead and more than 300 wounded. Al-Shabaab claimed the attack. It was the deadliest in Somalia since the bombing at the same junction five years earlier.

Sources: Voice of America ; Human Rights Watch

Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed

CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who became Africa's first elected female head of state and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was born in Liberia.

Sources: Nobel Prize Outreach ; BBC News

Read the full article: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: Africa's First Elected Female President

John Magufuli, who served as the fifth President of Tanzania, was born.

Sources: The Citizen (Mwananchi Communications) ; Deutsche Welle ; Who Is Who Tanzania

Israeli forces invaded Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, opening the Suez Crisis two days before Britain and France began bombing the canal zone.

Sources: U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian ; Boston University Law Review ; Jewish Virtual Library, Israel Studies: An Anthology

The United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar was renamed the United Republic of Tanzania, five months after the two states had merged under President Julius Nyerere.

Sources: U.S. Department of State ; South African History Online ; East African Community

Unknown author, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

Vonetta Flowers, American bobsledder who became the first Black athlete of any nation to win a Winter Olympics gold medal, was born.

Sources: Encyclopedia of Alabama ; U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum ; ERIC, U.S. Department of Education

Photo by Frank Hall, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

Liberian military ruler Samuel Doe was declared winner of a fraud-marred presidential election that entrenched his hold on power.

Sources: Los Angeles Times ; Inter-Parliamentary Union ; Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia

South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission presented its final report to President Nelson Mandela, documenting atrocities committed under apartheid.

Sources: Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (South Africa) ; Encyclopaedia Britannica ; Nelson Mandela Foundation (mandela.gov.za)