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.
CC0, Wikimedia Commons 1869 The Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean and Red Seas through Egypt, was formally inaugurated in a lavish ceremony at Port Said attended by French Empress Eugénie and other European royalty.
Sources: HISTORY ; Fondation Napoléon ; Suez Canal Authority
ScienceGeneral Sani Abacha seized power in Nigeria in a bloodless coup, forcing interim leader Ernest Shonekan to resign and beginning a five-year military dictatorship.
Sources: BBC ; Gamji ; Encyclopaedia Britannica
Politics
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1923 Aristides Pereira, who led Cape Verde's independence movement and became the country's first president, was born on the island of Boa Vista.
Sources: Deutsche Welle ; BlackPast.org
Birth
CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons 1952 Cyril Ramaphosa, the trade unionist and businessman who became the fifth President of South Africa, was born in Johannesburg and grew up in Soweto.
Sources: The Presidency, Republic of South Africa ; South African History Online
Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed
Birth