Real events, births and milestones from Africa and the diaspora.
Niccolò Caranti — CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons 1938 Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, the acclaimed Kenyan novelist, playwright, and advocate for writing in African languages, was born (died 2025).
Sources: Britannica ; African Studies Association (memorial essay by Ato Quayson, Stanford University) ; Office of the Chancellor, University of California, Irvine
BirthAmid the outbreak of the Somali Civil War, the U.S. Embassy in Mogadishu was evacuated by helicopter airlift in Operation Eastern Exit.
Sources: Center for Naval Analyses ; Naval History and Heritage Command (Department of the Navy, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, The United States Navy in Desert Shield / Desert Storm, 15 May 1991)
Politics
George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress — Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1882 Edwin Barclay, President of Liberia from 1930 to 1944, was born in Brewerville, Montserrado County.
Sources: Encyclopaedia Africana ; De Gruyter (K. G. Saur), Berlin/New York, 2011, ISBN 978-3-598-22600-7
BirthKappa Alpha Psi, one of the oldest and largest historically African American fraternities, was founded at Indiana University.
Sources: Indiana Historical Bureau ; African American Registry
Culture
United Press International — Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1926 Hosea Williams, American civil rights leader and close aide to Martin Luther King Jr., was born (died 2000).
Sources: New Georgia Encyclopedia ; Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University
Birth