Sidi El Houari, one of Algieria's most revered figures, dies at age 89. The Iman was a highly respected scholar and patron saint of Oman, Algeria, where he chose to settle after studying there at the Zawiya (theological assembly) of Derkaoula Mahajia. His mausoleum will be built far away from the city so that the walk makes visits into pilgrimages for Algerian Muslims.
Zanzibar is connected to Mozambique via a submarine telegraph cable laid by the Eastern and Southern Africa Telegraph Company. (pic: Eastern and Southern Africa Telegraph Company headquarters in Zanzibar)
Soldiers sent by the British South Africa Chartered Company from Cape Town arrive at a spot along the Hunyani River in what will be Zimbabwe. They find the location suitable to raise the British flag, and they claim the territory in the name of the Queen of England. The fort they establish will develop into a town, Salisbury, and then a city, named Harare in 1982.
The Victoria Falls Bridge opens, spanning the Zambezi River near Mosi-oa-Tunya (called Victoria Falls by the British). The 198 metre-long steel arch bridge will remain the only rail link between Zambia and Zimbabwe in 2023.
The deadliest air accident over the Mediterranean Sea to date claims the lives of 39 people when their Douglas DC-3 crashes en route to Oran Es Sénia Airport in French Algeria.
Orbiting over Africa and the world for two days, the U.S. spacecraft Gemini 11 reaches the highest Earth orbit ever achieved: 1,373 km. Future spacecraft will pass this altitude going to the moon, but this remains the highest orbit recorded as of 2023. The space capsule takes a spectacular photo of the Horn of Africa.
Legendary African leader Emperor Haile Selassie is overthrown in a military coup d’état, and with him falls the Solomonic Empire that has ruled Ethiopia for 600 years. Ethiopia is declared a Marxist-Leninist state under coup leader Mengistu Haile Mariam (pic), whose bloody dictatorship will last until 1991.
Steve Biko, South African anti-apartheid activist and leader of the Black Consciousness movement, dies after three weeks of abuse and torture while in police custody.
During the First Battle of Jijiga in the Ogadan War, the Somalia army, which has invaded Ethiopia, achieves a strategic success by capturing the Ethiopian garrison at Jijiga. After 124 Somalia tanks defeat 108 Ethiopian tanks, 25,000 Ethiopian troops flee the fighting.
Dedication in Addis Ababa of the Tiglachin Monument. Commemorating the Cuban and Ethiopian soldiers who died in the Ogaden War, it is one of the first monuments built and donated by North Korea, which will erect monuments and statues in several African countries over the next three decades.
South Africa’s police announce they will stop using sjamboks, hard plastic metre-long whips that tear at skin and leave painful welts but which police dismiss as “riding crops,” to beat demonstrators protesting against the apartheid regime. Police explain the decision is based on the bad publicity “locally and internationally” that the beatings are causing.
U.N. sanctions against Libya are lifted after Libya acknowledges its responsibility for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988, and hands over two intelligence agents who will go on trial for the bombing that left 270 dead. The government of Muammar Gaddafi also pays compensation to the victims’ families.
Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade is awarded the UNESCO Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize for his work strengthening democratic institutions in Senegal and mediating regional political disputes.
The Puntland Electoral Commission invites the registration of political parties, as the autonomous region of Somalia readies for democratic governance.
A church hostel collapses in the Lagos, Nigeria compound of the Synagogue Church of All Nations belonging to Pastor TB Joshua. Of the 116 people killed, a large majority of 85 are South Africans.
South African paralympian Oscar Pistorius is found guilty, not of the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp but of culpable homicide, in the sensational “Valentine’s Day Killing” that has captivated the world since 2013.
A statue dedicated to the Mau Mau Uprising victims of torture by British colonial forces in the 1950s is unveiled in Nairobi, Kenya. The statue’s dreadlocked man resembles Mau Mau military and spiritual leader Dedan Kimathi, who was hanged in 1957 by the British. A statue of Kimathi has been also been raised in Nairobi, by the British as a gesture of reconciliation.
Congolese spiritual leader, in Nkamba, Belgian Congo. His reputation for miracle healing and prophecy – he foresaw the liberation of Africans over their colonial oppressors - created a large following in 1921. Alarmed by his popularity, Christian missionaries in Congo had him arrested by colonial authorities. Sentence to death in a kangaroo court, he died in prison. His followers were persecuted by Belgian officials, until Belgium recognised the Kimbanguist Church in 1959.
Algerian painter, in Algiers, French Algeria. His paintings’ themes and content are all Algerian, but expressed in modern genres like Cubism, Expressionism and Fauvism. The country’s senior artist turned 100 years-old on 12 September 2021.
Guinean independence leader, in Bafatá, Portuguese Guinea. One of Africa’s most prominent anti-colonial leaders he led the independence movement in the Portuguese colonies of Cabo Verde and Guinea-Bissau. He headed a guerilla army that conducted one of the most successful wars of independence in modern times.
Somali judge and President of the International Court of Justice (2018-2021), in Eyl, Puntland. A distinguished jurist and founder and General Editor of the African Yearbook of International Law, he was the Africa’s third ICJ president upon his appointment.
Kenyan hip-hop performer, in Nairobi, Kenya. Five years after his first single was released in 2001, his first full album Juacali Sedka was released to commercial success. Noting his “creativity and style,” Motorola made him spokesman for its mobile phone line in 2007, the first time a Kenyan vocalist was hired in an endorsement deal.
Ugandan long distance runner, in Kapchorwa, Uganda. Hailed as the greatest Ugandan athlete of all time, he was an Olympic Gold Medalist (5000m), World Champion, World Cross Country Champion, and World Record Holder in the 10,000m and 5km road race. He is the tenth man in history to hold the 5,000m and 10,000m world records concurrently, both set in 2020.
