Turn685 / Avenhar — CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons 2007 A general strike called by Guinea's two main union federations, the CNTG and the USTG, began nationwide. They demanded that President Lansana Conté appoint a consensus prime minister with real power over the government, renegotiate mining, fishing and forestry contracts and prosecute officials accused of embezzlement. It escalated into weeks of unrest. Guinea's health ministry counted 129 people killed and 1,764 wounded by 19 March; Human Rights Watch said the real toll was probably higher because many families buried their dead quickly and outside hospitals.
Sources: Human Rights Watch ; International Crisis Group
Politics 1997 Elspeth Huxley, English writer raised from early childhood in colonial Kenya and known for her memoirs of the region including The Flame Trees of Thika, died at age 89.
Sources: The Washington Post ; Encyclopedia.com (Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia, Gale Group; article by Taylor Harper)
Death 
Fortepan / Zoltán Szalay — CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons 1915 Dean Dixon, pioneering African American orchestral conductor who found greater acceptance in Europe than in the segregated U.S. classical music world, was born (died 1976).
Sources: BlackPast ; New York Amsterdam News
Birth 
Photo by Carl Van Vechten — Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1916 Eldzier Cortor, African American painter celebrated for his depictions of Black life and the female form, was born (died 2015).
Sources: Smithsonian American Art Museum ; Whitney Museum of American Art
Birth 