Real events, births and milestones from Africa and the diaspora.
Anefo — CC0, Wikimedia Commons 1959 Riots broke out in Léopoldville, Belgian Congo, after colonial police blocked an ABAKO political rally; dozens of Congolese were killed in two days of violence that hastened the end of Belgian rule. The date is now commemorated as the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Day of the Martyrs.
PoliticsTunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi died of injuries from setting himself on fire, becoming a catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution and the wider Arab Spring uprisings.
Politics
Engraving by Nathaniel Orr after Frederick M. Coffin — Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1853 Solomon Northup, a free Black man kidnapped and sold into slavery, regained his freedom after 12 years; his memoir Twelve Years a Slave later became a landmark account of American slavery.
History
US Navy Fighter Squadron 32 — Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1989 Two Libyan MiG-23 fighter jets were shot down by U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcats over the Mediterranean in an air-to-air confrontation known as the Second Gulf of Sidra incident.
PoliticsA passenger train collided with a truck at a level crossing between Hennenman and Kroonstad in South Africa's Free State province, killing 20 people and injuring around 260.
Tragedy