1501, 7 April
João da Nova lands at Mossel Bay, he erects a stone with inscription to commemorate the event (the stone is now in the Iziko South African Museum, Cape Town) and builds a small stone hut to act as a church. Da Nova names the bay Golfo dos Vaquieros (bay of herdsmen) after the local Khoi-Khoi, who he fails to make contact with. (The bay was renamed Mossel Bay by the Dutch navigator Paulus van Caerden on 8 July, 1601.)
1854, 7 April
The Orange River Territory officially becomes the Orange Free State after adopting a new constitution, three weeks after British sovereignty is renounced.
1900, 7 April - Boer War: Siege of Mafeking
Colonel Baden-Powell 'persuades' almost 700 Baralong women and children to leave Mafeking during the night. Only ten manage to survive the barrage of fire from the surrounding Boer forces.
1902, 7 April
Cecil Rhodes is buried at World's View in the Matopo Hills, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).
1936, 7 April
The Representation of Natives Act is passed in South Africa. The Black franchise in South Africa is further limited by the act – Cape Africans are no longer eligible to vote for the common roll, but are placed instead on a separate roll – and halts the right to run for office. Africans through out South Africa will be represented in government by four white senators.
1950, 7 April
Bechuanaland (now Botswana) nationalist leader (and ex-Ngwato chief) Seretse Khama is denied permission to see his wife by British authorities.
1952, 7 April
Spain demands control of the International Zone (Tangier) of Morocco.
1956 7 April
Franco signs the Moroccan accord, thereby giving independence to Spanish Morocco (Marruecos).
1960, 7 April
The Unlawful Organisations Act No 34 of 1960 commences allowing the Apartheid government to declare unlawful any organization deemed to threaten public order. The ANC and PAC are declared unlawful and are immediately banned.
1960, 7 April
Following the Sharpeville Massacre and the protest at Langa, roughly 1,500 blacks are detained by the South African police in Cape Town.
1961, 7 April
UN vote 83-0 to condemn South Africa following its failure to drop Apartheid.
1975, 7 April
For the first time since their disagreement in February, Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat meets with Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat in Cairo.
1979, 7 April
Egypt objects to calls to move the headquarters of the Arab League from Cairo to Tunis.
1985, 7 April
Ahmad `Ali al-Mirghani, the Commander-in-Chief of the Sudanese People's Forces, ousts Sudanese president Ja'far Muhammad an-Numeiry.
1994, 7 April
Rwanda's Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana and ten Belgian UN peace keepers are killed by genocidaires, one of the first acts of the Rwandan Genocide.
1999, 7 April
Clive Derby-Lewis and Janusz Walus, the two people convicted of the assassination of Chris Hani, are refused amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
