On this day: September 3 in African history

Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

Frederick Douglass escaped slavery in Maryland, disguised as a sailor, traveling by train and boat to freedom in New York City.

Sources: National Park Service ; National Constitution Center ; Project Gutenberg (Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, written by himself)

Public Domain (IMF), Wikimedia Commons

Levy Mwanawasa, who later served as the third president of Zambia and led a notable anti-corruption campaign, was born in Mufulira, Northern Rhodesia.

Sources: Zambia Cabinet Office ; Lusaka Times ; The Independent

Rent increases imposed by black town councils brought people out in Sharpeville, Sebokeng, Evaton, Boipatong and Bophelong. Between 26 and 31 people were killed within days and about 300 injured, in the worst violence since Soweto in 1976. Three councillors were killed by crowds, among them the deputy mayor Kuzwayo Dlamini, and six people were later sentenced to death for it as the Sharpeville Six. Some 7,000 troops and police then sealed the townships and searched them house by house.

Sources: South African History Online ; O'Malley Archives, Nelson Mandela Foundation

Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed

CC BY 4.0, European Union / Wikimedia Commons

Burundian President Jean-Baptiste Bagaza was deposed in a bloodless coup led by Major Pierre Buyoya while Bagaza was traveling abroad.

Sources: The New York Times ; Universite Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne ; United Press International (UPI) Archives

Photo by John Wheatley, GFDL 1.2, Wikimedia Commons

Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army guerrillas shot down Air Rhodesia Flight 825 with a surface-to-air missile during the Rhodesian Bush War; survivors of the crash were then massacred at the site.

Sources: Southern Journal for Contemporary History (University of the Free State) ; South African Military History Society ; The Independent