On this day: August 14 in African history

The Venezuelan militant known as "Carlos the Jackal" was captured by French intelligence agents in Khartoum, Sudan, after years evading international manhunts.

Sources: The Seattle Times (archive, Associated Press report of 15 August 1994) ; HISTORY.com

Actress Halle Berry, who in 2002 became the first woman of African descent to win the Academy Award for Best Actress, was born in Cleveland, Ohio.

Sources: Biography.com (A&E Networks) ; ABC News

Britain formally annexed the remote South Atlantic archipelago of Tristan da Cunha, administering it from the Cape Colony in South Africa.

Sources: The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History (Taylor & Francis), author's PDF copy ; Tristan da Cunha (official island website)

Dick Tiger, the Nigerian boxer who won world middleweight and light heavyweight titles and became one of Africa's first global sports stars, was born in Amaigbo.

Sources: International Boxing Hall of Fame ; News Echo (Nigeria)

Egyptian security forces cleared the Rab'a al-Adawiya sit-in in Cairo, where supporters of the ousted president Mohamed Morsi had camped for weeks. Human Rights Watch documented at least 817 people killed there in a single day and judged the real figure likely to be above 1,000, part of at least 1,150 protesters killed that summer. Interior ministry planning had anticipated deaths in the thousands, and the prime minister said afterwards that the government had expected far worse than what happened. Not one police or army officer has been held to account.

Sources: Human Rights Watch ; Human Rights Watch

Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed

Photo by Alex. Bassano, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

Cetshwayo, in England to plead for his restoration, met Queen Victoria at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, between his first and second meetings with the Colonial Secretary, Lord Kimberley.

Sources: South African Historical Journal ; Internet Archive