The South African Anglo-Boer War Siege of Ladysmith begins. The encirclement by Boer forces of the British South African town will last three months, bringing loss of life and suffering to civilians. By resisting, the town blocks the Boer invasion of Britain’s Natal Colony

Public transportation enters the modern age in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, as the first municipal electric trams begin service.

The Ekumeku Movement, a series of uprising against British colonial rule by the Aro, Igbo and Yoruba (from what will become Nigeria) sees the largest British military expedition since 1902 arrive at Ogwashi Ukwu. At this major Igbo town, the British plan to end all resistance. However, anti-colonial guerilla warfare conducted by thousands of Anioma youth makes difficult any containment of hostilities. The conflict on various levels will persist for 31 years, and lay the groundwork for the Nigerian independence movement.

The lowest temperature ever recorded in Africa, -23.9 °C (-11°F), occurs at Ifrane, Morocco.

The coronation of Ras Tafari Makonnen as Haile Selassie I, 225th Emperor of the Ethiopian Solmonic Dynasty. The new emperor's installation is enacted with magnificent traditional splendor, in Addis Ababa.

World War II is providing a boom for African commodities, from Egypt’s cotton and Liberia’s rubber to Southern African agricultural products and ores. South Africa’s Indian Ocean port at Durban (pic) has seen exports rise more than 20% during the first eleven months of the war, with many commodities going to Great Britain and large amounts of manganese going to the U.S.

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Having destroyed much of the Egyptian Air Force during the Suez Crisis, the British invasion force, joined by France, begins unopposed air attacks on Egyptian army bases. (pic: destroyed Egyptian fighter jet)

A State of Emergency is declared in Sierra Leone after all public sector workers go on strike demanding payment of back salaries.

Frederick Chiluba (pic) becomes Zambia’s second president. Handing over power, the only president that Zambia has ever known, Kenneth Kaunda, becomes only the third mainland African head of state to participate in free multiparty elections and to relinquish power peacefully after he has lost.

Digital radio comes to Tanzania when Radio One in Dar es Salaam begins to download signals from Intelsat 804 satellite. The service is also heard in Zanzibar.

Former South African Defence Minister, General Magnus Malan and nineteen others are charged with murder and for establishing hit squads to destabilise South Africa at the end of apartheid in the early 1990s, in an attempt to prolong white minority rule.

Botswana’s National Botanical Garden opens, in Gaborone. Divided into six sections for each of Botswana’s distinct ecological environments, the country’s first botanical garden has a collection that is 90% indigenous species.

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At a concert in Harare Zimbabwe singer/musician Jah Prayzah launches an all-star Pan-African musical collaboration with his new studio album Chitubu that includes Kenyan group Sauti Sol, Tanzanian musician Rayvanny and Nigeria's Patoranking.

A 12 year victory cycle continues as South Africa beats England 32-12 to take the Rugby World Cup title, in Yokohama, Japan. The team is led by its first black captain, Siya Kolisi (pic, with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa). This is South Africa's third world rugby championship, having won the title 12 years ago in 2007 and 12 years before that in 1995.