The Big Picture:
Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia wins the battle of Amba Alagi; Operation Compass, the British offensive against Italian forces in Egypt, begins; Ciskei and Bophuthatswana are granted independence by South Africa; and anthropologist Mary Leakey dies.
3 December:
1931 -- The Statute of Westminster is passed in Britain which gives British dominions legislative independence.
For more on 3 December.
4 December:
1981 -- Ciskei is the fourth South African Bantustan to be granted independence. Chief Lennox Sebe becomes its first elected president.
1992 -- US President George Bush prepares to send 28,000 US Marines into Somali to stop Somali warlords from confiscating food shipments.
For more on 4 December.
5 December:
1924 -- Birth of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, leader of South Africa's Pan Africanist Congress, PAC.
For more on 5 December.
6 December:
1977 -- Bophuthatswana, which is made up from six separate regions, is granted independence by South Africa - the second of the Bantustans to achieve this. Lucas Mangope is elected as its first president.
For more on 6 December.
7 December:
1909 -- The proclamation which grants the Union of South Africa self-government is read from the steps of the Royal Exchange in London.
1993 -- President Félix Houphouët-Boigny of Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) dies whilst in office. He is succeeded by Aimé Henri Konan Bédié.
For more on 7 December.
8 December:
1485 -- Explorer and navigator Barholomew Dias anchors in what is now known as Walvis Bay - he gives it the name Golfo de Santa Maria da Conceiçao.
1895 -- Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia wins the battle of Amba Alagi against the forces of Italian General Oreste Baratieri.
1993 -- Winnie Madikizela Mandela is elected president of the ANC's Women's League.
For more on 8 December.
9 December:
1940 - World War II: North Africa -- Beginning of Operation Compass, the British offensive against Italian forces in Egypt. The British 8th Army advances on Sidi Barrani.
1996 -- Death of Mary Leakey, archaeologist and physical anthropologist, at the age of 83.
For more on 9 December.
