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.
Theodosia Okoh, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons Ghana, led by Kwame Nkrumah, gained independence from Britain, becoming the first Sub-Saharan African country to do so.
Sources: The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk) ; U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian ; Encyclopaedia Britannica
Read the full article: Why Ghana's Flag and Football Team Both Bear a Black Star
Independence
Eliot Elisofon, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1909 Obafemi Awolowo, Nigerian statesman and independence-era leader, was born.
Sources: Central Bank of Nigeria ; Encyclopaedia Britannica
Birth
Otto, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, Wikimedia Commons 1943 During World War II, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel launched the Battle of Medenine in Tunisia in a failed attempt to slow the British Eighth Army; he left Africa days later.
Sources: NZHistory, Manatu Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage ; The Rommel Papers (Harcourt, Brace), Internet Archive
War
Alastair T. Gardiner, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons 2003 Air Algérie Flight 6289 crashed at Tamanrasset Airport in Algeria, killing 102 of the 103 people aboard.
Sources: Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives ; National Commission of Inquiry, Algerian Ministry of Transport (via Aviation Safety Network)
Disaster
Tagles, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 2006 Ali Farka Touré, celebrated Malian singer-songwriter and guitarist, died.
Sources: The Guardian ; BBC News
DeathCyprien Ntaryamira, President of Burundi whose death in a 1994 plane crash helped ignite the Rwandan genocide, was born.
Sources: The Independent ; Contemporary Black Biography (via Encyclopedia.com)
Birth