Joseph Ki-Zerbo, the Burkinabé historian and politician renowned for his pioneering work on pan-African history, was born.
Sources: Right Livelihood Foundation ; Open Library (Internet Archive)
Birth
Ceiling of Debre Birhan Selassie church, Gondar, Ethiopia. Photo: Rod Waddington, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence · Source
On this day: June 21 in African history
Real events, births and milestones from Africa and the diaspora.
Ubkoumbogny, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons 1957 French colonial troops fired on a crowd at the Hoda market in northern Togoland that had gathered over the arrest of the nationalist Bouyo Moukpé, killing twenty people. Togo keeps 21 June as Martyrs' Day, a public holiday since 2021, for all those who died in the independence struggle.
Sources: République Togolaise ; Éditions Bibliomonde
Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed
Politics
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 2001 Soad Hosny, one of the most celebrated actresses and singers in Egyptian cinema history, known to fans as the "Egyptian Cinderella," died.
Sources: Egypt Today ; BBC News
Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed
DeathThree American civil rights workers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, were murdered by Ku Klux Klan members in Mississippi while registering Black voters.
Sources: U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division ; U.S. Government Publishing Office (S. Res. 386, 108th Congress)
Civil Rights