The Netherlands-South African Railway company opens a 25-kilometre railroad from Johannesburg to Boksburg, the first working railway in South Africa’s Transvaal Republic.

Rainilaiarivony, Madagascar’s most powerful prime minister who ran the country from 1864 until he was deposed by the French when they invaded Madagascar seven months ago (September 1895), arrives in Algiers, where France has exiled him. While he was head of government for 30 years, he enriched himself, acquiring 57 homes and more than 1,000 slaves, whom he loses when France abolishes slavery. Once in Algeria, he grows ill from the Algerian heat, and will die on 14 July. (pic: French magazine depicting Rainilaiarivony’s arrival in Algiers)

For the first time an African becomes the mascot of a major U.S. sports team when no Native American boy is available for the opening of the Cleveland Indians baseball team’s Adair Field training camp in Lakeland, Florida. The team considers one “savage boy” the same as another, and give a bow and arrow to the son of a Nigerian kitchen worker, telling him to “play Indian.”

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Fighting on the Horn of Africa during World War II, Nigerian soldiers with the 23^rd Nigerian Brigade (11^th African Division) of the British Army advance a remarkable 1600 km in one month, and today capture Harar, Italian Somalia. The victory ends Italy’s occupation of the country.

For a second year, unprecedented summer rains bring the worst flooding ever recorded along the Zambezi River that separates Northern and Southern Rhodesia (Zambia and Zimbabwe). The floods damage and nearly destroy the Kariba Dam under construction downriver from Mosi-oa-Tunya (Victoria Falls).

A new state airline is formed, Air Volta, in Upper Volta. The government-owned air carrier will change its name to Burkina Air when the country becomes Burkina-Faso.

In a “white’s only” national referendum, the white South African voters concedes that after 500 years of colonialism and apartheid, the white minority’s time running the country to the exclusion of the black majority is finished. By a landslide vote of 68%, the referendum approves further negotiations to replace apartheid with a non-racial democratic state.

The first section of Lagos State, Nigeria Lagos Bus Rapid Transportation System (Lagos BRT) begins operation. Dedicated lanes for exclusive use by buses permits them to by-passing traffic jams and stay on schedule.

A major exhibit of the work of Nigeria’s most famous female artist, Ndidi Dike, opens at the National Museum in Nigeria. Her work has already been featured in 60 solo and group exhibits worldwide. Her art will appear in upcoming exhibits in Germany, Paris, Brazil and Tokyo.

Tanzania’s government announces the death of President John Magufuli of an unknown cause - although it is revealed he had a heart condition. Magafuli's absence from public view for the past three weeks fueled speculation that he was infected with Covid-19. While president, Magufuli denied the existence of the pandemic, compromising Tanzania’s ability to mitigate its impact, and he ridiculed the Covid-19 vaccine.