| Week
starting Saturday 21 May |
|
| Date |
Year |
Event |
|
| 21 |
1936 |
London hosts an international conference on the
protection of African elephants and rhinoceroses. |
| 21 |
1978 |
French and Belgian paratroopers who were flown into
Kolwezi, Zaire's main copper producing town, to rescue the 3,000 white
residents have discovered over 150 bodies lying in the town's main streets.
Most have been badly mutilated. Communist-backed Katangese gendarmes, who
had invaded the region earlier this month are blamed. Zairian troops, who
had been sent in a week ago, appear to have joined with the Katangese
gendarmes, getting high on drugs and going on the murder spree. |
|
|
For more on 21 May |
|
| 22 |
1925 |
Death of H Rider Haggard (born 22 June 1856. |
| 22 |
1941 |
World War II: East Africa
Caught between a pincer movement of the 11th and 12th African Divisions,
the Abyssinian town of Soddu is captured. It was the penultimate point of
resistance to the Allied campaign in East Africa; only Gondar, to the
north, still remains under Italian control. |
|
|
For more on 22 May |
|
| 23 |
1964 |
A US miscalculation results in 1 kilogram of plutonium
being released into the atmosphere above Africa. |
| 23 |
1983 |
In response to a car bomb attack in Pretoria which
killed 18 people, the South African air force bombs ANC bases in a Maputo
suburb, Mozambique. |
|
|
For more on 23 May |
|
| 24 |
1870 |
Birth of Jan Christiaan Smuts. |
| 24 |
1993 |
Eritrea declares independence from Ethiopia following a
referendum last April. |
|
|
For more on 24 May |
|
| 25 |
1963 |
The leaders of 30 African nations form the Organisation
of African Unity (OAU) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. |
| 25 |
1986 |
At the Crossroads
squatter camp near Cape Town, 30,000 blacks are forcibly removed from their
homes. |
|
|
For more on 25 May |
|
| 26 |
1954 |
Kamal el-Mallakh, an Antiquities Service inspector at
the Great Pyramid, Giza, discovers Khufu's (Cheops) boat. It will be more
than ten years before the royal barque is successfully reconstructed. |
| 26 |
1967 |
Egyptian premier Gamal Abdel Nasser vows to destroy
Israel if war is provoked. |
|
|
For more on 26 May |
|
| 27 |
1941 |
World War II: North Africa
General Erwin Rommel, now reinforced with the 15th Panzer Division,
recaptures Halfaya Pass. |
| 27 |
1963 |
Jomo Kenyatta is elected as Kenya's first prime
minister, he will be inaugurated on 1 June. |
|
|
For more on 27 May |
|
