Ceiling of Debre Birhan Selassie church, Gondar, Ethiopia. Photo: Rod Waddington, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence · Source
Real events, births and milestones from Africa and the diaspora.
Public Domain (Cuba), Wikimedia Commons 1924 Amílcar Cabral, the anti-colonial leader who founded the PAIGC and led the independence movements of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, was born in Bafatá, Portuguese Guinea.
Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica ; BlackPast.org
Read the full article: Amílcar Cabral's Assassination and the Independence He Never Saw
Birth
Public Domain (Ethiopia), Wikimedia Commons Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia was deposed by a military junta known as the Derg, ending 44 years of imperial rule.
Sources: BBC ; Radio France Internationale (published via allAfrica.com) ; Encyclopaedia Britannica
Read the full article: haile-selassie-overthrown-derg-1974
Politics
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons Anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko, founder of South Africa's Black Consciousness Movement, died from injuries sustained in police custody in Pretoria at age 30.
Sources: National Prosecuting Authority of South Africa ; BBC News ; South African History Online ; Encyclopaedia Britannica
Read the full article: Steve Biko's Own Testimony, and the Death Still Under Investigation
DeathA guesthouse at the Synagogue Church of All Nations in Ikotun, Lagos, collapsed, killing 115 people, 84 of them South Africans. Rescue workers said church officials obstructed them at the site. A coroner found in 2015 that the building had failed structurally and recommended prosecuting the church and two engineers; the church rejected the finding.
Sources: Associated Press ; CNN
Tragedy
Photo by NASA, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1992 Mae Jemison became the first African American woman in space aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour on mission STS-47.
Sources: NASA ; Space.com ; Encyclopaedia Britannica
HistoryThe city that became Salisbury, later renamed Harare, was founded by the Pioneer Column in Mashonaland, going on to serve as the capital of Rhodesia and then independent Zimbabwe.
Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica ; The Rhodesiana Society
HistoryThe African and Malagasy Union, an early bloc of newly independent Francophone African states that cooperated on economic and diplomatic policy, was founded.
Sources: International Organization (Cambridge University Press) ; Union of International Associations (UIA Open Yearbook) ; Le Monde diplomatique
Politics