Portuguese sailors under the command of Vasco da Gama become the first Europeans to reach East Africa by sea, stopping at Mombasa and Malindi

German missionaries Johann [sic] Rebmann and Johann [sic] Krapf become the first Europeans to set eyes on Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya respectively

German metaphysician Dr. Carl Peters forms the Society for German Colonisation; his treaties with African chiefs in present-day Tanzania bring huge tracts of land under German control, starting the European 'scramble for Africa'.

The entire [Tanzanian] national stock [of Sisal plants] was propagated from only 62 plants imported illegally from Latin America in 1892

The Maji-Maji rebellion against German rule spreads throughout southern Tanganyika. It serves to unite disparate tribal groups against foreign domination, but at least 75,000 lives are lost in vain.

German East Africa, renamed Tanganyika, is mandated to Britain by the League of Nations.

Sir Richard Turnbull summoned Julius Nyerere and asked him to form a government

The Protectorate of British East Africa is proclaimed.

In 1983 the mountain relieved some of the pressures still at work under the rift by blowing up, and in the process coated its 610-metre cone with an alkaline lava which, on contact with the air, immediately turned to crystals of sodium carbonate - washing soda.