June 25, 1975 – November 11, 1975
Following Portugal's Carnation Revolution, Mozambique and Angola became independent, ending over four centuries of Portuguese presence; both soon fell into long civil wars.
A largely bloodless military coup in Lisbon overthrows the Estado Novo dictatorship, leading to democracy in Portugal and the independence of its African colonies.
Black schoolchildren in Soweto protested against compulsory instruction in Afrikaans; police opened fire, and the ensuing crackdown left hundreds dead.
After a guerrilla war and the Lancaster House Agreement, Rhodesia became the internationally recognised independent state of Zimbabwe, with Robert Mugabe as prime minister.
War followed the secession of south-eastern Nigeria as the Republic of Biafra; the fighting and blockade-induced famine killed an estimated one to two million people.
Christiaan Barnard performs the first human-to-human heart transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town.
Drought combined with civil war and government policies caused a major famine in Ethiopia that killed several hundred thousand to a million people and prompted the Live Aid relief effort.