On this day — August 18 in African history

Bernard Gotfryd Collection, Library of Congress — Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

James Meredith became the first African-American student to graduate from the University of Mississippi, a milestone of the civil rights movement.

Sources: Civil Rights Digital Library (University of Georgia Libraries) ; Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery ; University of Mississippi Libraries (eGrove)

Anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko was arrested at a police roadblock near Grahamstown, South Africa; he died in police custody less than a month later.

Sources: National Prosecuting Authority of South Africa ; South African Department of Justice (Truth and Reconciliation Commission media archive, SAPA)

Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

Kofi Annan, the Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, died at age 80.

Sources: UN News ; Nobel Prize (NobelPrize.org)

Hifikepunye Pohamba, who served as the second president of Namibia from 2005 to 2015, was born.

Sources: Parliament of Namibia ; BBC News

Taher Elgamal, the Egyptian-American cryptographer whose ElGamal encryption scheme underpins modern digital signature standards, was born in Cairo.

Sources: The Marconi Society ; NNDB ; Network World

South Africa was banned from the Olympic Games by the International Olympic Committee over its apartheid policies, a suspension that lasted until 1992.

Sources: BBC News ; Olympics.com (International Olympic Committee)