On this day: December 4 in African history

Unknown, after Allan Stewart, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

A patrol of 34 British South Africa Company soldiers was ambushed and annihilated by more than 3,000 Ndebele warriors on the Shangani River in Matabeleland, present-day Zimbabwe.

Sources: Zimbabwe Field Guide ; South African Military History Society (Military History Journal)

Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity for African Americans, was founded at Cornell University.

Sources: Cornell University Library ; U.S. Congress (H. Con. Res. 384, 109th Congress, govinfo)

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

Jesse L. Brown, the U.S. Navy's first African-American naval aviator, was killed in action during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in Korea.

Sources: Naval History and Heritage Command (U.S. Navy) ; National Archives (Rediscovering Black History blog)

Fototeca online a comunismului românesc, Attribution, Wikimedia Commons

Jean-Bédel Bokassa, president of the Central African Republic, crowned himself Emperor Bokassa I of the newly declared Central African Empire.

Sources: TIME ; BBC World Service (Witness History)

Madden, based on FOTW, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

South Africa granted independence to the Ciskei "homeland," a Bantustan not recognized by any government outside South Africa.

Sources: Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa (Tshwete v Minister of Home Affairs, 1987 ZASCA 154; judgment text hosted by SheriaHub) ; Unisa Press (Oral History Journal of South Africa)

PHCM Terry C. Mitchell, U.S. DoD, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

U.S. President George H. W. Bush ordered 28,000 American troops to Somalia to launch Operation Restore Hope.

Sources: Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia ; U.S. Government Publishing Office (Public Papers of the Presidents: George H. W. Bush, 1992-93, Book II)