Robert L. Knudsen, White House Photo Office — Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1960 Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) gained independence from France, with Félix Houphouët-Boigny becoming its first president.
IndependenceOn this day — August 7 in African history
Real events, births and milestones from Africa and the diaspora.
Robert L. Knudsen, White House Photo Office — Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1960 
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons Al-Qaeda truck bombs exploded almost simultaneously outside the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing 224 people, most of them Kenyans and Tanzanians.
History
National Archives (NARA) — Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1904 Ralph Bunche, who in 1950 became the first person of African descent to win the Nobel Peace Prize for his United Nations mediation work, was born in Detroit.
BirthLouis Leakey, the Kenyan-born paleoanthropologist whose fossil discoveries in East Africa transformed understanding of human origins, was born in Kabete.
BirthAbebe Bikila, the Ethiopian marathon runner who would win Olympic gold running barefoot through Rome in 1960, was born.
BirthCharlize Theron, who in 2004 became the first African to win the Academy Award for Best Actress, was born in Benoni, South Africa.
BirthUS Congressman Mickey Leland, a civil rights advocate known for his hunger-relief work in Africa, died with 15 others in a plane crash in Ethiopia while inspecting a refugee camp.
Death