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.
Oren neu dag, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1622 Portuguese forces defeated the Kingdom of Kongo at the Battle of Mbumbi in what is now Angola.
Sources: Cambridge University Press ; The Journal of African History (Cambridge University Press), Thornton and Mosterman 2010 ; Uppsala University (DiVA repository)
Read the full article: Kongo, Central Africa's Christian Kingdom
Battle
Cape Argus, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons Steve Biko, the South African anti-apartheid activist who founded the Black Consciousness Movement, was born.
Sources: South African History Online ; Encyclopedia.com (Gale)
Birth
Orlovic, using NASA imagery, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 2005 The Chadian Civil War began when rebel groups launched an attack on the town of Adré.
Sources: Human Rights Watch ; Al Jazeera ; BBC News
Politics
Marcos Elias de Oliveira Júnior, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1958 Niger proclaimed itself a self-governing republic within the French Community, a date now marked as Republic Day.
Sources: Archontology.org ; World Statesmen
Independence
Pedro Aragão, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons (aircraft of the same type involved) 1995 A Lockheed Electra operated by Trans Service Airlift crashed in Jamba, Angola, killing 141 people.
Sources: Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives (BAAA) ; PlaneCrashInfo.com
Tragedy