A hostage-taking crisis concludes as the Battle of Magdala ends with a decisive victory for British forces over the Ethiopian Empire army of Emperor Tewodros II. After imprisoning some British missionaries, freeing them at Britain’s insistence but then imprisoning them again, Tewodros is defeated by new war technology. His troops armed with spears are overwhelmed by 12,000 British and Indian soldiers (wearing new khaki-coloured uniforms that are less visible against rock and sand than earlier red uniforms). The British are armed with rifles that fire 10 rather than three rounds per minute. Tewodros commits suicide rather than be captured. He shoots himself with a pistol that was a gift from Britain’s Queen Victoria.

British ships arriving in Portuguese Mozambique are harassed by colonial authorities as Portugal seeks to enforce its claim, drawn on the Mapa Cor-de-Rosa (Pink Map), of a strip of Southern Africa stretching from the Atlantic to the Indian Oceans. Portugal has no trading or military presence in the interior. Britain does. International arbitration will award the coastal areas (the future Angola and Mozambique) to Portugal, and the interior (the future Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe) to Britain. In these negotiations for ownership of African lands, no Africans will participate.

Cape Town is lit up as the mayor switches on electric streetlights in the city centre. The generating station, at the Molteno Reservoir, (pic) will later be proclaimed a South African national monument.

The second generation of telegraph submarine cables are being installed throughout Africa to replace originals laid from the 1860s to the 1880s, like the Malta to Alexandria, Egypt cable that was Europe’s first telegraphic connection with Africa. (Pic: cable being lowered by boat across Table Bay, Cape Town, South Africa)

A new ordinance in Seychelles repeals an 1890 prohibition against keeping pigs in the capital Victoria. Pig owners say they’ve learned their lesson, and will fence their animals and prevent them from eating neighbours’ flower gardens and vegetable plots.

Banque Misr is founded, by Egyptian industrialist Joseph Asian Cattaui Pasha and economist Talaat Harb Pasha, in Cairo. Offering banking and financial services, it will be nationalised in 1960, and by 2022 will have branches in Europe and the Middle East. The bank will be Egypt’s largest credit card issuer.

The Republic of Congo’s national football team, the Red Devils, plays its first international match, against Dahomey (Benin), and wins 4-2.

With a height of 187 metres that allows modern Egypt to surpass the height of the ancient Great Pyramid of Giza, Cairo Tower is opened by President Gamal Nasser. The tower, which will be Africa’s tallest structure for the next ten years, is designed as a tribute to ancient Egyptian architecture. Nasser delights in claiming the tower was paid for by a “bribe” from the U.S. intended to purchase Egypt’s neutrality in Algeria’s War of Independence. In fact, as the architect Naoum Shebib knew when he designed spaces for listening devices, funding came from the mokhabaraats (Egypt’s secret service). Americans will refer to the tower as “Nasser’s prick,” and the Egyptian public will take up the phallic association with the building until in the 1990s a group of Islamic fundamentalists will demand the tower’s demolition, because its appearance “excites women.”

The first casino for Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) is approved by the British colonial government, to be located at the Zambezi River waterfall Mosi-oa-Tunya. The first phase of the Victoria Falls Casino will cost £1.5 million (equal to £34 million in 2020) and open in 1966, with additions built in 1969. Although built near one of the greatest natural wonders on Earth, the building is designed without windows beyond the lobby so gamblers won’t know if it is day or night.

Tanzania becomes the first country to recognise Biafra as an independent state. In response, Nigeria recalls its ambassador to Tanzania. The Biafra issue causes a rift among Pan-African proponents. Nigeria’s War on Biafra concludes in 1970 with the breakaway territory’s defeat and reincorporation into Nigeria.

Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) planes bomb the ferries along the Kazungula River, claiming the boats are being used to move weapons for insurgents fighting Rhodesia’s white minority government. The ferries' destruction cuts landlocked Zambia’s lifeline to Botswana, leaving only a route to South Africa via Rhodesia. That line is cut in December, bringing both countries to the brink of war that is only avoided by peace talks held in London between Rhodesia and Zimbabwean independence forces.

World heavyweight boxing champion Muhammed Ali testifies before the U.N. Special Committee Against Apartheid, expressing the views of the African Diaspora about the oppression of black South Africans under the white minority government.

The arrest of seven Congolese members of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress political party sparks protests that are brutally suppressed in Mbuji-Mayi, Zaire (DRC). An unknown number of people are killed, and popular opposition grows against dictator Mobutu Sese Seko (pic).

South African President Nelson Mandela concludes his first presidential visit to the Middle East, after five days of state business in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the UAE.

The first Battle of N’Djamena is fought when rebels belonging to the United Front for Democratic Change attack Chad’s capital. The rebels are defeated, but will return to attack again in 2008.