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.
We are adding a source to every entry in this archive. 3 of 5 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 1990 Namibia became the 160th member of the United Nations and the 50th member of the Commonwealth of Nations, shortly after gaining independence from South Africa.
Sources: United Nations Namibia ; U.S. Department of State (Background Notes, archived copy) ; United Nations (Yearbook of the United Nations 1990)
Politics
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1993 Eritreans voted overwhelmingly for independence from Ethiopia in a UN-monitored referendum, with more than 99 percent in favor.
Sources: United Nations Human Rights Council, Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea ; Eritrea Ministry of Information (shabait.com) ; FairVote (Center for Voting and Democracy)
Independence
PopTech, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons 1959 Unity Dow, Botswanan lawyer, judge, and human rights activist who successfully challenged the country's discriminatory citizenship laws, was born.
BirthRifaat el-Mahgoub, Egyptian politician who served as Speaker of the People's Assembly of Egypt until his assassination in 1990, was born.
Birth
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 2004 The United States eased economic sanctions on Libya in response to the country's progress in dismantling weapons of mass destruction programmes.
Sources: U.S. Department of the Treasury ; The White House, Office of the Press Secretary (archived)
Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed
Politics