Anefo, CC0, Wikimedia Commons 1959 Riots broke out in Léopoldville, Belgian Congo, after colonial authorities blocked an ABAKO political rally. Belgian officials' own death toll estimates rose during the crisis from an initial 47 to as high as 200; a Congolese historian has put the Congolese death toll at 250 to 300. Accounts differ on whether the unrest lasted two or four days. The date is now commemorated as the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Day of the Martyrs.
Sources: Royal Museum for Central Africa (AfricaMuseum), Belgium ; La République / Kongopaedia (Kinshasa, DRC) ; Congo Profond
Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed
Politics 2011 Tunisian 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.
Sources: Britannica ; Al Jazeera
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.
Sources: Smithsonian Magazine ; Documenting the American South, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (transcription of the New York Times, 20 January 1853) ; Documenting the American South, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (full text of the 1853 Derby and Miller edition)
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.
Sources: Los Angeles Times ; The Washington Post
Politics 2018 A passenger train collided with a truck at a level crossing between Hennenman and Kroonstad in South Africa's Free State province. Eighteen people were confirmed dead on the day and more than 250 injured; the final toll reached 21.
Sources: CNN ; News24 ; IOL (AFP)
Tragedy 1961 Peasants forced to grow cotton for Cotonang, a concession company held mostly by Portuguese and Belgian interests, refused work and defied colonial officials in villages near the Milando post in the Baixa de Cassanje, Malanje district, Portuguese Angola. Portuguese army units and air force bombing crushed the revolt from early February. The Portuguese count at the time was 243 dead, which historian Aharon de Grassi calls a deliberately low partial figure; missionary accounts cited by historian Giselda Brito Silva put the toll at 5,000 to 10,000. It became known as the first rising of the Angolan War of Independence. Angola marks the date as Colonial Martyrs Repression Day.
Sources: Museu do Aljube (Museum of Resistance and Freedom, Lisbon) ; Mulemba (Faculdade de Ciencias Sociais, Universidade Agostinho Neto), via OpenEdition Journals ; Cadernos do Tempo Presente (Universidade Federal de Sergipe) ; Assembleia Nacional de Angola, Lei n. 10/11 de 16 de Fevereiro (Lei dos Feriados Nacionais e Locais e Datas de Celebracao Nacional), via lex.ao
Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed
Politics 1897 Benin soldiers ambushed the party of the British acting consul-general, James Phillips, near Ugbine on the road from Ughoton to Benin City, after the Oba had asked him to delay his visit during a royal festival. Phillips and all but two of the Europeans in his party were killed, with many of their carriers.
Sources: Journal of African History ; Internet Archive
Read the full articles: The Kingdom of Benin, the Edo State Ruled From Benin City · 1897 and the Benin Bronzes
Conflict 1965 President Nnamdi Azikiwe announced an agreement with Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa that ended the standoff over the boycotted federal election, and Balewa was asked to form a new government.
Sources: Internet Archive ; Palgrave Macmillan
Read the full article: Regions, Census and Elections: Nigeria's Road to Crisis, 1945-1965
Politics 
