On this day: March 3 in African history

Al Ahram Daily news Paper, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

Sameera Moussa, Egyptian nuclear physicist who campaigned for peaceful uses of atomic energy, was born.

Sources: Physics Today (American Institute of Physics) ; State Information Service, Egypt

Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

The two-day Great Slave Auction, one of the largest sales of enslaved people in United States history, concluded in Savannah, Georgia.

Sources: Smithsonian Magazine ; Georgia General Assembly (House Resolution advocating permanent protection of the Weeping Time site)

British colonial authorities declared a state of emergency in Nyasaland (now Malawi) and launched Operation Sunrise, arresting nationalist leaders; the resulting deaths are commemorated as Malawi's Martyrs' Day.

Sources: UK Parliament (Historic Hansard, HC Deb 28 July 1959) ; The Guardian ; Nyasa Times

The 'Gugulethu Seven,' young anti-apartheid activists, were killed in an ambush by South African security police in Cape Town.

Sources: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa (Final Report, Vol. 3, Ch. 5) ; South African History Online ; Heritage Western Cape (Gauteng/Western Cape provincial heritage authority)

Ricardo Stuckert/PR., CC BY 3.0 br, Wikimedia Commons

René Préval, twice President of Haiti, died.

Sources: NPR ; CNN

Yaa Asantewaa, the queen mother of Edweso, was brought to a British fort and imprisoned, which ended the Asante war of 1900 that carries her name. She was exiled to the Seychelles and died there in 1921.

Sources: Ghana Studies ; Google Books ; Africa

Read the full article: Britain and Asante at War, 1824-1900