On this day: June 16 in African history

Photo by Sam Nzima, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

Police opened fire on thousands of students marching through Soweto against compulsory teaching in Afrikaans. The official toll for the uprising that followed was 176; the government's own Cillie Commission found 575 dead, 451 of them killed by police action, and 3,907 injured. Both figures have been disputed as low. The photograph of Hector Pieterson, 12, carried from the scene became the image of the day.

Sources: South African History Online ; South African History Online

Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed

Read the full article: Tsietsi Mashinini and the June 16, 1976 Soweto Uprising

About thirty armed men attacked the hamlet of Daïat Labguer near M'sila, southeast of Algiers, killing some fifty people, taking women away and slaughtering the livestock. Seventeen people had been killed at a village five kilometres off five days earlier. The attackers were never identified, and Human Rights Watch found that attribution in that year's massacres was rarely established.

Source: Human Rights Watch

Bruce Baker, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

Femi Kuti, the Nigerian saxophonist and Afrobeat musician who carried on his father Fela Kuti's musical legacy, was born.

Sources: Encyclopedia.com (Gale, Contemporary Musicians) ; AllMusic

Stefano Delfrate, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

Siya Kolisi, who became the first Black captain of South Africa's national rugby team and led it to a Rugby World Cup title, was born.

Sources: BokHist (Springbok Rugby History) ; BBC Sport ; The Guardian

Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, a former military head of state of Ghana, was executed following the coup that brought Jerry Rawlings to power.

Sources: The New York Times ; Encyclopaedia Britannica ; The Guardian