Ceiling of Debre Birhan Selassie church, Gondar, Ethiopia. Photo: Rod Waddington, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence · Source
Real events, births and milestones from Africa and the diaspora.
CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons 1973 Israeli fighter jets shot down Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 over the Sinai Desert, killing 108 people.
Sources: Aviation Safety Network (Flight Safety Foundation) ; Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives ; Haaretz
TragedyIsrael finished pulling its forces back from the west bank of the Suez Canal, in stages, under the disengagement agreement signed with Egypt on 18 January. Egypt cut its own troop numbers on the east bank in return, and a UN buffer zone was set between the two.
Sources: Economic Cooperation Foundation ; US Department of State, Office of the Historian
Politics
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1924 Robert Mugabe, who became the 2nd President of Zimbabwe and led the country for nearly four decades, was born.
Sources: BBC News ; The Guardian ; Los Angeles Times
Birth
KOGL Type 1, Wikimedia Commons 1950 Sahle-Work Zewde, who became the 5th President of Ethiopia and its first woman head of state, was born.
Sources: Iowa State University, Archives of Women's Political Communication ; International Telecommunication Union
Birth
CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons 1991 Riyad Mahrez, Algerian international footballer, was born.
Sources: Transfermarkt ; Sports Reference (FBref)
Birth
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons Malcolm X, American minister and civil rights activist, was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York.
Sources: Columbia University, Mapping the African American Past (MAAP) ; CBS News
Death
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 2017 Jeanne Martin Cissé, Guinean politician and independence-era figure who became the first woman to preside over the UN Security Council, died.
Sources: African Union ; The New York Times
DeathA fire broke out in the afternoon in occupied Benin City and destroyed the Oba's palace and the quarters around it. In the days since the capture, British troops had destroyed the compounds of the Queen Mother and of leading chiefs, the sacrificial trees and the shrine houses on Rawson's orders. Most of the palace's brass had already been gathered up, and was carried off as spoils of war.
Sources: The London Gazette ; Journal of African History ; Internet Archive
Corrected in October 2026 · see what changed
Read the full articles: The Kingdom of Benin, the Edo State Ruled From Benin City · 1897 and the Benin Bronzes
Conflict