On this day — June 20 in African history

The Mali Federation, uniting French Sudan and Senegal, gained independence from France; it dissolved months later into the separate states of Mali and Senegal.

Skilla1st — CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

Eritrea's 30-year war of independence from Ethiopia ended in victory for the Eritrean People's Liberation Front; June 20 is now observed annually as Martyrs' Day, honoring those who died in the struggle.

Barbary corsairs from North Africa raided the Irish village of Baltimore, capturing most of its inhabitants to be sold into slavery — one of the most notorious slave raids on the British Isles.

Librairie Mollat — CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, the Senegalese novelist who later became the first sub-Saharan African writer to win France's Prix Goncourt, was born.

Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain, Haiti's first trained anthropologist and a pioneering scholar of Haitian folklore, died in Nigeria.