On this day: September 9 in African history

A magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck Orléansville (now Chlef), Algeria, killing over 1,200 people and destroying much of the city.

Sources: Centre de Recherche en Astronomie, Astrophysique et Géophysique (CRAAG), Algeria ; U.S. Geological Survey ; National Research Council (U.S.), Committee on Natural Disasters / Earthquake Engineering Research Institute

CC BY-SA 3.0 NL, Wikimedia Commons

Arthur Ashe defeated Tom Okker in five sets to win the first US Open, becoming the first Black man to win a Grand Slam singles title.

Sources: CNN ; Andscape (ESPN)

Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

African heads of state adopted the Sirte Declaration in Libya, calling for the transformation of the Organisation of African Unity into the African Union.

Sources: African Union ; African Human Rights Law Journal (University of Pretoria)

Photo by Frank Hall (U.S. Department of Defense), Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

Samuel Doe, who took power in Liberia as an army master sergeant in 1980, was seized at Monrovia's Freeport by fighters of Prince Johnson's Independent National Patriotic Front and tortured to death. He had gone to the port to see the commander of the West African peacekeeping force ECOMOG, whose soldiers disarmed his escort on arrival. A witness later told Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission that Johnson led Doe away in front of the ECOMOG commander, who turned his back and walked into his office.

Sources: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia ; United Press International ; Liberian Observer

Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed

Photo by Nmkuttiady, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the influential Egyptian Islamic scholar and longtime chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, was born in Saft Turab, Egypt.

Sources: The Washington Post ; The New York Times ; BBC