Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1945 Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmad Mahir Pasha was assassinated in Parliament shortly after reading Egypt's declaration of war against the Axis powers.
Sources: TIME ; South African History Online
Death
Ceiling of Debre Birhan Selassie church, Gondar, Ethiopia. Photo: Rod Waddington, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence · Source
On this day: February 24 in African history
Real events, births and milestones from Africa and the diaspora.
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1945 A coup d'état by the National Liberation Council overthrew Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah's government while he was abroad.
Sources: U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian (FRUS 1964-1968, vol. XXIV) ; Keesing's Worldwide (Keesing's Record of World Events, vol. 12, March 1966) ; Kwame Nkrumah, Dark Days in Ghana (1968)
Read the full articles: The 1966 Coup That Overthrew Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah · The 1966 Coup Against Nkrumah and the Disputed Question of US Involvement
Politics
CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons 2004 The Al Hoceima earthquake struck northern Morocco, killing at least 628 people and displacing thousands.
Sources: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), Global Significant Earthquake Database ; UN OCHA ; Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI)
DisasterAli Mazrui, Kenyan-American political scientist and public intellectual, was born.
Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica ; Brookings Institution
Birth
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1876 Joseph Jenkins Roberts, the 1st President of Liberia, died.
Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica ; BlackPast.org
Death
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1878 Abdelaziz of Morocco, who reigned as sultan from 1894 to 1908, was born on 24 February 1878, though some sources give 18 February 1881.
Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica ; The Royal Ark (Christopher Buyers, Royal Ark genealogies of Morocco)
Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed
Birth
CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons 1991 Christian Kabasele, Congolese-born Belgian international footballer, was born.
Sources: Royal Belgian Football Association ; Udinese Calcio
Birth