A committee of seven women seamstresses chaired by Susannah Elizabeth Lewis have hand-stitched the national flag of Liberia, which is approved by the Liberian legislature today. The “Lone Star Flag” with a single white star set on a blue rectangle on the top left corner is based on the U.S. flag from which the one month-old country’s founders emigrated, as formerly enslaved African-Americans. The flag’s five white and six red stripes represent the eleven signers of the Liberian Declaration of Independence.

International telegraph service arrives in South Africa when a submarine line, laid by the Eastern and Southern African Telegraph Company from Lourenço Marques (Mozambique) to Port Natal, Durban, is open for public use. To send a telegram message is expensive, costing one shilling, three pence per word (equal to £9.94 per word in 2023).

Another day of horror as mercenaries of the Belgian Congo Free State burn villages, maim and kill any Congolese who resists force labour at the rubber plantations. (pic: a father looks at the severed hands and foot of his five year-old daughter, one of the company’s victims) In the days before population censuses, estimates of the number of Congolese murdered by the Belgian company range from one million to 15 million, between 1885 and 1908.

As World War II nears its conclusion and naval activity ceases in the waters of Southern Africa, the South African Air Force (SAAF), partnering with British and Dutch flyers stationed at the SAAF base in Walvis Bay (Namibia), have flown 15,000 air patrols, attacked 17 enemy ships, rescued 437 survivors of sunken ships, and located and attacked 26 of the 36 enemy submarines known to work Southern African waters.

Egypt and Libya exchange prisoners of war from their four-day conflict of last month. Libya keeps troops stationed along the border with Egypt as a temporary show of strength.

South African anti-apartheid leader Winnie Mandela is charged with four counts of kidnapping and assault, which led to the murder of teenage Stompie Moeketsi in December 1988. She will stand trial with seven others defendants.

Brilliant team strategy allows Kenya's Olympic runners to sweep all three medals in the 3000-metre men's Steeplechase at the Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. Using tactics that effectively sideline the other runners, bronze medal winner Paul Kipsiele Koech and silver medalist Brimin Kipruto see that Ezekiel Kemboi brings home the gold.

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As Africa’s population continues to rise, by the year 2100, five of the ten most-populous countries in the world will be in Africa, according to a forecast by the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs. These countries will be Nigeria (pic: Lagos), Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Egypt.

Although macadamia nuts originated in Australia, which is still claiming to be the world’s #1 producer of the nut, South Africa has actually been the world's largest producer since 2014, harvesting 54,000 tonnes annually.