Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-F011981-0003 / Egon Steiner — CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, Wikimedia Commons 1960 Senegal withdrew from the short-lived Mali Federation amid a political crisis, with Léopold Sédar Senghor becoming Senegal's first president.
PoliticsOn this day — August 20 in African history
Real events, births and milestones from Africa and the diaspora.
Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-F011981-0003 / Egon Steiner — CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, Wikimedia Commons 1960 South African rugby player Pieter-Steph du Toit, who would be named World Rugby Player of the Year after helping the Springboks win the 2019 World Cup, was born in Cape Town.
BirthFLN insurgents and armed mobs killed dozens of French settlers in and around Philippeville (now Skikda), Algeria, prompting brutal French reprisals that marked a turning point in the Algerian War of Independence.
ConflictThe United States launched cruise missile strikes on a suspected chemical weapons plant in Sudan and militant camps in Afghanistan in retaliation for the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
ConflictMeles Zenawi, who led Ethiopia as president and later prime minister for more than two decades, died in office.
Death