Delagoa Bay (Maputo Bay), Lourenço Marques (Maputo, Mozambique) is reached by a submarine telegraph cable laid by the Eastern and South African Telegraph Company. The line will be extended to Beira in 1907.

As telegraph services expands rapidly in West Africa, Freetown, Sierra Leone is connected with Accra, Gold Coast (Ghana) with a submarine cable, laid by the Africa Direct Telegraph Company.

The British naval ship HMS Pegasus sails from Cape Town to German East Africa to force the port of Bagamoyo to stay out of World War I, the way the German colony's ports in Dar es Salaam and Tanga have agreed to stay neutral. Bagamoyo’s authorities refuse, but change their minds after the Pegasus shells the customs house.

West African Airways Corporation (WAAC), the regional airline jointly owned by Britain’s four West African colonies Gambia, Gold Coast (Ghana), Nigeria and Sierra Leone, goes out of business as each colony becomes independent and forms its own national airline. Nigeria will take ownership of WAAC’s aircraft and routes with the creation of Nigerian Airways (renamed Nigeria Airways in 1971). (pic: Nigerian Airways Douglas DC-3 aircraft at Kaduna Airport in 1959)

The biggest frog ever - weighing 3.3kg - is found in Equatorial Guinea. The so-called Goliath frog lives only in a portion of Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon. While the world's largest frog may live 20 years, the population's numbers will drastically drop by the 21st century due to habitat loss and theft by poachers for the international pet trade.

Botswana introduces its new national currency, called the Pula, replacing the South African rand in use since the 1960s, in notes (P1, P2, P5 and P10) and coins. “Pula” is the Setswana word for rain, which is often rare and valuable in Botswana’s desert environment. (pic: scallop-edged coin used until 1991)

Having ruled his country for 61 years, King Sobhuza II of Swaziland (Eswatini) dies. After a national period of mourning, a tumultuous period begins as ambitious factions in the royal family compete to rule the country.

With the restoration of the Dakar-Niger train station built in 1913 and considered the most beautiful railway station in Africa, the square in front is also rehabilitated by Senegal’s government. It is renamed Place du tirailleur, in honour of the Senegalese Tiralleur soldiers who distinguished themselves when the French colonial unit operated between the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries. The soldiers departed for war on trains from this station.

South African rapper AKA releases his debut studio album Alter Ego, which becomes a best-selling gold record and earns him the 2012 South African Music Award’s “Best Male Artist of the Year.”

Africa's most endangered carnivore, the beautiful Ethiopian wolf, has long been threatened by human hunters. There are fewer than 500 remaining in the mountains. Now a new threat has emerged: disease-bearing dogs. Conservationists are hiding rabies vaccines in goat meat in an attempt to save the wolves.