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.
Paul Weinberg — CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons 1994 South Africa's first democratic general election concluded, with citizens of all races able to vote for the first time as the interim constitution came into force, ending apartheid.
Independence
Mike Freer — GFDL, Wikimedia Commons 1993 Nearly the entire Zambia national football team was killed when their military transport plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Libreville, Gabon, en route to a World Cup qualifier in Senegal.
SportsSierra Leone gained independence from the United Kingdom, a date the country still celebrates as its Independence Day.
Independence
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1960 Togo gained independence from France, becoming one of the first sub-Saharan French colonies to achieve sovereignty.
Independence
Herman Hiller, Library of Congress — Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1927 Coretta Scott King, African-American civil rights leader and author who continued her husband Martin Luther King Jr.'s work after his assassination, was born in Marion, Alabama.
Birth
The National Archives UK — Open Government Licence, Wikimedia Commons 1972 Kwame Nkrumah died of cancer in Bucharest, six years after the army deposed him. He had led the Gold Coast to independence as Ghana in 1957, served as its first prime minister and then its first president, and was among the leading figures of pan-Africanism.
Sources: Graphic Online ; Ghana Studies
Death