Rows of painted winged faces with large dark eyes across a wooden ceiling.

Ceiling of Debre Birhan Selassie church, Gondar, Ethiopia. Photo: Rod Waddington, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence · Source

On this day: November 22 in African history

Name: Oscar Pistorius, the South African sprinter who became the first double amputee to compete in an Olympic tr…
Start: 1986

Real events, births and milestones from Africa and the diaspora.

We are adding a source to every entry in this archive. 1 of 2 on this page carry one so far. The rest were written before per-entry citations were recorded, so if you intend to rely on one, check it independently until its source appears here. See our sourcing methodology.

Today

1986

Oscar Pistorius, the South African sprinter who became the first double amputee to compete in an Olympic track event, was born in Johannesburg.

Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica ; Biography.com (A+E Networks)

Birth

1952

Abayomi Wilfrid Karnga, the Liberian historian, educator, and Supreme Court justice known for his pioneering histories of Liberia and the Black diaspora, died in Monrovia.

Death