Amélie Legrand de Saint-Aubin — Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1828 French explorer René Caillié became the second non-Muslim, and the first to return alive, to reach the fabled West African city of Timbuktu.
HistoryOn this day — April 20 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.
Amélie Legrand de Saint-Aubin — Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1828 South African Airways Flight 228 crashed shortly after takeoff near Windhoek in South West Africa (now Namibia), killing all 123 people aboard.
Disaster
UNSOM — Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 2015 A bomb attack on a United Nations convoy delivering food supplies in Garowe, in Somalia's Puntland region, killed ten people, including UNICEF workers.
History
Amanda Lucidon, The White House — Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 2021 Chad announced that Idriss Déby, who had ruled for three decades and had been declared winner of a sixth term two days earlier, was dead. The army said he had been wounded visiting troops fighting rebels at the front. No details were ever released, accounts of what happened differ, and rebels were later put on trial over the killing. His son took over at the head of a military council.
Sources: Council on Foreign Relations ; Associated Press
Death
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1945 Naftali Temu, Kenyan long-distance runner who became Kenya's first Olympic gold medalist by winning the 10,000 metres at the 1968 Mexico City Games, was born.
BirthFrances Ames, South African neurologist and human rights activist who led the medical ethics inquiry into the death in custody of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko, was born in Cape Town.
Birth