Real events, births and milestones from Africa and the diaspora.
We are adding a source to every entry in this archive. 2 of 7 on this page carry one so far. The rest were written before per-entry citations were recorded, so if you intend to rely on one, check it independently until its source appears here. See our sourcing methodology.
Slavery was formally abolished in Mauritius, freeing 66,343 people. They were then required to work on for their former owners as apprentices, a system that ran until 1839, while the British Crown paid Mauritian slaveholders more than £2.1 million in compensation. Mauritius keeps 1 February as a public holiday.
Sources: UNESCO Memory of the World ; Le Matinal
AbolitionFountains Valley in Pretoria, the oldest nature reserve in Africa, was proclaimed by President Paul Kruger.
Science
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1906 Adetokunbo Ademola, Nigerian jurist who became the 2nd Chief Justice of Nigeria, was born.
Birth
Roman Deckert — CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons 1932 Hassan al-Turabi, influential Sudanese Islamist politician and scholar, was born.
Birth
CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons 1972 Leymah Gbowee, Liberian peace activist who later won the Nobel Peace Prize for leading a women's movement to end the Second Liberian Civil War, was born.
Birth
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1998 Rear Admiral Lillian E. Fishburne became the first African American woman promoted to rear admiral in the U.S. Navy.
AchievementSeventy-four people were killed and more than 500 injured at Port Said Stadium in Egypt after a league match between Al Masry and Al Ahly. Many died crushed against a locked exit gate while trying to escape. Eleven people were later sentenced to death over the disaster.
Sources: Atlantic Council ; France 24 ; Al Jazeera
Tragedy