On this day — May 15 in African history

Amadou Hampate Ba, the Malian writer and ethnologist who preserved West African oral traditions in print, died.

Ricardo Stuckert/PR — CC BY 3.0 br, Wikimedia Commons

Henrique Rosa, who served as President of Guinea-Bissau, died.

Ghana launched CanSat, a small satellite payload used to train students in space science, part of its early space-programme efforts.

Ahmed ABDELMOUMEN — CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

Mohamed Brahmi, Tunisian politician later assassinated during the country's post-revolution turmoil, was born.

Egypt and other Arab states invaded the newly declared state of Israel, beginning the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.