Bernard Gotfryd Collection, Library of Congress — Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1963 James Meredith became the first African-American student to graduate from the University of Mississippi, a milestone of the civil rights movement.
HistoryOn this day — August 18 in African history
Real events, births and milestones from Africa and the diaspora.
Bernard Gotfryd Collection, Library of Congress — Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1963 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.
History
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.
DeathHifikepunye Pohamba, who served as the second president of Namibia from 2005 to 2015, was born.
BirthTaher Elgamal, the Egyptian-American cryptographer whose ElGamal encryption scheme underpins modern digital signature standards, was born in Cairo.
Birth