Real events, births and milestones from Africa and the diaspora.
CC0, Wikimedia Commons 1939 Claudette Colvin, who at age 15 refused to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama nine months before Rosa Parks, was born.
Sources: Smithsonian Magazine (Smithsonian Institution) ; National Women's History Museum
Birth
Photo by Carl Lender — CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons 1946 Freddie Mercury, future frontman of the rock band Queen, was born Farrokh Bulsara on the island of Zanzibar, East Africa.
Sources: The National Archives (UK) ; BBC News
Birth.jpg)
CC0, Wikimedia Commons 1960 Congolese President Joseph Kasa-Vubu dismissed Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba by radio broadcast, a disputed move that plunged the newly independent Congo into political crisis.
Sources: Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State (Foreign Relations of the United States) ; United Nations (Yearbook of the United Nations 1960, Dag Hammarskjold Library) ; Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (Cold War International History Project)
Politics
CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, Wikimedia Commons 1960 Léopold Sédar Senghor was unanimously elected the first president of the newly independent Republic of Senegal.
Sources: Académie des sciences morales et politiques ; Jeune Afrique ; Senenews
Independence
Photo by Ira Rosenberg, New York World-Telegram & Sun — Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1960 18-year-old Cassius Clay, later known as Muhammad Ali, won the light-heavyweight boxing gold medal at the Rome Olympics.
Sources: The Courier-Journal (Louisville) ; Olympedia (OlyMADMen)
SportsGuinean President Alpha Condé was captured by armed forces in a coup d'état led by Colonel Mamady Doumbouya after gunfire broke out around the presidential palace in Conakry.
Sources: Human Rights Watch ; France 24 ; Al Jazeera ; Africanews
Politics