Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1980 Robert Mugabe won a sweeping election victory to become Zimbabwe's first black prime minister.
PoliticsOn this day — March 4 in African history
Real events, births and milestones from Africa and the diaspora.
We are adding a source to every entry in this archive. 1 of 6 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.
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1980 
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 2009 The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for war crimes in Darfur, the first such warrant for a sitting head of state.
Politics
Paul Weinberg — CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons 1932 Miriam Makeba, South African singer known as 'Mama Africa' who brought African music to the world stage, was born.
Birth
Auguste Couder — Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1769 Muhammad Ali, the Ottoman military commander who became the founder of modern Egypt, was born.
Birth
Public Domain, Wikipedia 1877 Garrett Morgan, African-American inventor of the three-position traffic signal and an early gas mask, was born.
BirthFire in an arms store at the Mpila barracks in Brazzaville set off a chain of explosions through the munitions depot. Trial records put the dead at 282, other counts at 300 or more, with about 2,300 injured and 17,000 people left without homes as hundreds of houses were flattened.
Sources: Institute for Security Studies ; Action on Armed Violence
Disaster