An estimated 20,000 women of all races marched on the Union Buildings in Pretoria to protest apartheid pass laws, a protest now commemorated as South Africa's National Women's Day.
PoliticsOn this day — August 9 in African history
Real events, births and milestones from Africa and the diaspora.
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1960 Albert Kalonji declared the mineral-rich Kasai region of the Congo an independent state, South Kasai, during the chaotic Congo Crisis.
Politics
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1936 Jesse Owens won his fourth gold medal of the Berlin Olympics as part of the US 4x100-meter relay team, setting a world record.
Sports
US Navy — Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1963 Singer Whitney Houston, one of the best-selling music artists in history, was born in Newark, New Jersey.
BirthMichael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old Black man, was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, sparking weeks of protests that helped galvanize the Black Lives Matter movement.
HistoryJ.F. Ade Ajayi, a leading Nigerian historian who helped pioneer the study of African history from an African perspective, died.
Death