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.
Nobel Foundation, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1937 South African-American virologist Max Theiler developed a successful vaccine against yellow fever, work for which he later won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Sources: Journal of Experimental Medicine (via PubMed Central) ; Nobel Prize (Nobel Foundation)
Science
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1924 Kenneth Kaunda, who led Zambia to independence and served as its first president for 27 years, was born in Chinsali, Northern Rhodesia.
Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica ; BBC News
Birth
Raafat, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1946 Nour El-Sherif, the Egyptian actor, producer and director, was born.
Sources: Africultures ; Egypt Today
Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed
Birth
Library of Congress, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1936 Fuad I, the last Sultan and first King of Egypt and Sudan, died in Cairo after nearly two decades on the throne.
Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica ; The New York Times ; Encyclopedia.com (Gale and Oxford reference entries)
Death
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1257 Shajar al-Durr, who briefly ruled Egypt as sultana and was the only woman to hold the Egyptian throne during the Islamic era, died in Cairo.
Sources: World History Encyclopedia ; Encyclopedia.com (Gale, Encyclopedia of World Biography)
Death