On this day — November 7 in African history

CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

Carl Stokes was elected mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, becoming the first African American to lead a major U.S. city.

Sources: Case Western Reserve University, Encyclopedia of Cleveland History ; National Park Service ; Teaching Cleveland Digital

The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for the withdrawal of British, French, and Israeli forces from Egyptian territory during the Suez Crisis.

Sources: PalQuest, Institute for Palestine Studies ; United Nations (UNISPAL, verbatim record A/PV.572, General Assembly)

Prime Minister Zine El Abidine Ben Ali seized power in Tunisia in a bloodless coup, having doctors declare longtime President Habib Bourguiba medically unfit to rule.

Sources: BBC News ; Encyclopedia.com (Encyclopedia of World Biography) ; Encyclopaedia Britannica

Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

British explorer Verney Lovett Cameron reached the coast of what is now Angola, completing the first traverse of tropical Africa by a European from east to west.

Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica ; Princeton University Library