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Nine people were killed and more than 40 injured when a fire set off explosions at a military ammunition depot in Chad’s capital.
Announcement of the death of former President Rawlings pic.twitter.com/7ext0fp4sd
— Nana Akufo-Addo (@NAkufoAddo) November 12, 2020
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Haiti History | FactMonster
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Equatorial Guinea, formerly Spanish Guinea, consists of Río Muni (10,045 sq mi; 26,117 sq km), on the western coast of Africa, and several islands in the Gulf of Guinea, the largest of which is Bioko (formerly Fernando Po) (785 sq mi; 2,033 sq km). The other islands are Annobón, Corisco, Elobey Grande, and Elobey Chico. The total area is twice that of Connecticut.
Dictatorship.
The mainland was originally inhabited by Pygmies. The Fang and Bubi migrated there in the 17th century and to the main island of Fernando Po (now called Bioko) in the 19th century. In the 18th century, the Portuguese ceded land to the Spanish that included Equatorial Guinea. From 1827 to 1844, Britain administered Fernando Po, but it was then reclaimed by Spain. Río Muni, the mainland, was not occupied by the Spanish until 1926. Spanish Guinea, as it was then called, gained independence from Spain on Oct. 12, 1968. It is Africas only Spanish-speaking country.
From the outset, President Francisco Macías Nguema, considered the father of independence, began a brutal reign, destroying the economy of the fledgling country and abusing human rights. Calling himself the “Unique Miracle,” Nguema is considered one of the worst despots in African history. In 1971, the U.S. State Department reported that his regime was “characterized by abandonment of all government functions except internal security, which was accomplished by terror; this led to the death or exile of up to one-third of the population.” In 1979, Nguema was overthrown and executed by his nephew, Lieut. Col. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. Obiang has been gradually modernizing the country but has retained many of his uncles dictatorial practices, including the amassing of personal wealth by siphoning it from the public coffers. In 2003, state radio compared him to God.
A recent offshore oil boom resulted in the economys growth by 71.2% in 1997, the first year of the petroleum bonanza, and it has sustained this phenomenal rate of growth. Between 2002 and 2005, the GDP skyrocketed
Eating dirt in Madagascar to escape famine
Djibouti lies in northeast Africa on the Gulf of Aden at the southern entrance to the Red Sea. It borders Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia. The country, the size of Massachusetts, is mainly a stony desert, with scattered plateaus and highlands.
Republic with a unicameral legislature.
Ablé immigrants from Arabia migrated to what is now Djibouti in about the 3rd century B.C. Their descendants are the Afars, one of the two main ethnic groups that make up Djibouti today. Somali Issas arrived thereafter. Islam came to the region in 825.
Djibouti was acquired by France between 1843 and 1886 through treaties with the Somali sultans. Small, arid, and sparsely populated, it is important chiefly because of the capital citys port, the terminal of the Djibouti–Addis Ababa railway that carries 60% of Ethiopias foreign trade. Originally known as French Somaliland, the colony voted in 1958 and 1967 to remain under French rule. It was renamed the Territory of the Afars and Issas in 1967 and took the name of its capital city on June 27, 1977, when France transferred sovereignty to the new independent nation of Djibouti. On Sept. 4, 1992, voters approved in referendum a new multiparty constitution. In 1991, conflict between the Afars and the Issa-dominated government erupted and the continued warfare has ravaged the country.
The dictatorial president, Hassan Gouled Aptidon, who had run the country since its independence, finally stepped aside in 1999, and Ismail Omar Guelleh was elected president. In March 2000, the main Afars rebel group signed a peace accord with the government. The fighting, severe drought, and the presence of tens of thousands of refugees from its war-torn neighbors, Ethiopia and Somalia, have severely strained Djiboutis agricultural capacity.
In April 2000, experts estimated some 150,000 people, or more than one-quarter of the population, needed food aid. The UN agreed to spend $2.7 million to increase the city of Djiboutis port facilities since it is a crucial regional grain terminus. In 2002, Djibouti
Namibia is bordered on the north by Angola and Zambia, on the east by Botswana, and on the east and south by South Africa. It is for the most part a portion of the high plateau of southern Africa, with a general elevation of from 3,000 to 4,000 ft.
Republic.
The San peoples may have inhabited what is now Namibia more than 2,000 years ago. The Bantu-speaking Herero settled there in the 1600s. The Ovambo, the largest ethnic group today, migrated in the 1800s.
In the late 15th century, the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias became the first European to visit Namibia. Formerly called South-West Africa, the territory became a German colony in 1884. Between 1904 and 1908, German troops massacred tens of thousands of Herero, who had revolted against colonial rule. In 1915, during World War I, Namibian territory was taken over by South African forces. In 1921, it became a mandated territory of the League of Nations, under the administration of South Africa.
Upon the dissolution of the League of Nations in 1946, South Africa refused to accept United Nations authority to replace its mandate with a UN trusteeship. A black Marxist separatist group, the South West African Peoples Organization (SWAPO), formed in 1960 and began small-scale guerrilla attacks aimed at achieving independence. In 1966, the UN called for South Africas withdrawal from the territory, and officially renamed it Namibia in 1968. South Africa refused to obey. Under a 1974 Security Council resolution, South Africa was required to begin the transfer of power or face UN action. Prime Minister Balthazar J. Vorster rejected UN supervision, claiming that his government was prepared to negotiate Namibian independence, but not with SWAPO, which the UN had recognized as the “sole legitimate representative” of the Namibian people.
South Africa handed over limited powers to a new multiracial administration in 1985 (the previous government had enforced South Africas apartheid laws). Installation of this government ended South Africas direct rule, but it
Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia died in 1975 at the age of 83. During his reign, Selassies main ambitions included the modernization of Ethiopia, international recognition for his nation, the abolishment of slavery, expanded eduacation and the elimination of foreign intervention. In 1936, a year after Italy invaded Ethiopia, Selassie was forced to flee his country. He remained a strong symbol for many Blacks worldwide who saw the struggle of Ethiopia as one of their own. He returned to organize a resistance movement in Ethiopia which was finally liberated in May of 1941. Despite his many progresses however, Selassies failure at class and land ownership reform eventually led to a coup thus putting a close to the 3,000 year old Makkeda-Solomonic Dynasty.
Ambassador Richard Lewis Baltimore III was born on December 31, 1947 in New York City, New York to Judge Richard Lewis Baltimore, Jr. and Lois Madison-Baltimore. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in International Affairs from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. in 1969 and earned a juris doctor from Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1972. Upon graduating from law school, Baltimore entered the Foreign Service. He accepted a position with the U.S. State Department and was posted to the U.S. Embassy in Lisbon, Portugal, where he served as Economic/Political Officer until 1975. After his post in Lisbon ended, Baltimore accepted a special assignment to Zambia during the civil war in Rhodesia.
Baltimore was posted to the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa from 1976 to 1979. During this period, South Africa was under apartheid, which entailed white minority rule and the obstruction of civil rights for South Africa’s black population. Despite these challenges, Baltimore made great progress in improving relations with South Africa. After his post in South Africa ended, Baltimore served as Special Assistant to three Secretaries of State (Cyrus Vance, Edmund Muskie, and Al Haig) from 1979 to 1981.
In 1981, Baltimore served as a political officer at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, Egypt. His next assignment was in the office of the political chief at the U.S. Embassy in Budapest, Hungary. He worked in this capacity from 1984 to 1987. Baltimore was then appointed Deputy Director of the Regional Affairs Office of the State Departments Bureau of Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs in 1987. A year later, he became its Director. He returned to Budapest in 1990 as Deputy Chief of Mission for the U.S. Embassy and remained in this position for four years. After returning to Washington, D.C., Baltimore became senior policy adviser to the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs. Other positions held by Baltimore include Deputy of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in San Jose,
Best Known As:
Canadian jazz piano virtuoso
Oscar Peterson was a teen sensation on piano in his native Montreal, playing in dance bands and recording in the late 1930s and early 1940s. In the late 40s he began touring the United States and Europe and quickly made a name for himself as a jazz virtuoso, often compared to piano great Art Tatum for his speed and technical skill. Though Peterson usually played in a trio (notably with Ray Brown on bass and Herb Ellis on guitar in the 1950s), he has also played with some of the biggest names in jazz, including Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie. A recipient of Canadas highest awards and honors, he also has a Lifetime Grammy (1997) and a spot in the International Jazz Hall of Fame.
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Mary Church Terrell, the daughter of former slaves, became by the beginning of the 20th century one of the most articulate spokespersons for womens rights including full suffrage. In 1896 she was elected president of the National Association of Colored Women and by 1910 she was a charter member of the newly formed National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In the address below she describes the specific challenges facing African American women and argues that education and religious faith are the safeguards against discrimination.
WHEN ONE CONSIDERS the obstacles encountered by colored women in their effort to educate and cultivate themselves, since they became free, the work they have accomplished and the progress they have made will bear favorable comparison, at least with that of their more fortunate sisters, from whom the opportunity of acquiring knowledge and the means of self-culture have never been entirely withheld. Not only are colored women with ambition and aspiration handicapped on account of their sex, but they are almost everywhere baffled and mocked because of their race. Not only because they are women, but because they are colored women, are discouragement and disappointment meeting them at every turn. But in spite of the obstacles encountered, the progress made by colored women along many lines appears like a veritable miracle of modern times. Forty years ago for the great masses of colored women, there was no such thing as home. Today in each and every section of the country there are hundreds of homes among colored people, the mental and moral tone of which is as high and as pure as can be found among the best people of any land.
To the women of the race may be attributed in large measure the refinement and purity of the colored home. The immorality of colored women is a theme upon which those who know little about them or those who maliciously misrepresent them love to descant. Foul aspersions upon the character of colored women are assiduously circulated by the
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?
For the first two years of the Civil War black and white abolitionists urged both the liberation of the slaves and the recruitment of African American men in defense of the Union. Barely three months after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation went into effect, Frederick Douglass gave a speech in Rochester, New York on March 2, 1863, titled “Men of Color, To Arms!” which urged African American men to join what was increasingly a war to make real what the Proclamation only promised—complete freedom.
When first the rebel cannon shattered the walls of Sumter and drove away its starving garrison, I predicted that the war then and there inaugurated would not be fought out entirely by white men. Every months experience during these dreary years has confirmed that opinion. A war undertaken and brazenly carried on for the per¬petual enslavement of colored men, calls logically and loudly for colored men to help suppress it. Only a moderate share of sagacity was needed to see that the arm of the slave was the best defense against the arm of the slaveholder. Hence with every reverse to the national arms, with every exulting shout of victory raised by the slaveholding rebels, I have implored the imperiled nation to unchain against her foes, her powerful black hand. Slowly and reluctantly that appeal is beginning to be heeded. Stop not now to complain that it was not heeded sooner. It may or it may not have been best that it should not. This is not the time to discuss that question. Leave it to the future. When the war is over, the country is saved, peace is established, and the black mans rights are secured, as they will be, history with an impartial hand will dispose of that and sundry other questions. Action! Action! not criticism is the plain duty of this hour. Words are now useful only as they stimulate to blows. The office of speech now is only to point out when, where, and how to strike to the best advantage. There is no time to delay. The tide is at its flood that leads on to fortune. From East to West, from
Ambassador June Carter Perry was born November 13, 1943 in Texarkana, Arkansas. After completing grade school, Perry was accepted at the Loyola University in Chicago, Illinois where in 1965 she earned her degree in history. Two years later she earned a master’s degree in European History at the University of Chicago. Shortly afterwards she married Frederick M. Perry and the couple had two children, Chad and Andre.
From May 1972 to October 1974, Perry served as the Public Affairs Director and broadcaster for WGMS/RKO Radio in Washington, D.C. In October 1974, she became a Special Assistant in the Community Services Administration, a national anti-poverty agency. In September 1976, Perry became the Public Affairs Director for the Peace Corps, the ACTION agency, and VISTA. Perry remained the Public Affairs Director of the three programs until 1982.
In 1983, Perry began her career as Foreign Service Officer for the U.S. Department of State. Over her 21 year career, she worked at U.S. embassies in Lusaka, Zambia, Harare, Zimbabwe, and Paris, France. She was the Deputy Chief of Mission at U.S. embassies in Antananarivo, Madagascar and Bangui, Central African Republic. Perry served as the State Department’s Director of Office of Social and Humanitarian Affairs where she handled United Nations Commissions that dealt with women and human rights. She worked as Deputy Director for Policy and Plans in the Political-Military Affairs Bureau and served as Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of State. Perry also worked at Department of State’s Africa Bureau.
On April 30, 2004, President George W. Bush nominated Perry to become Ambassador to the Kingdom of Lesotho. After U.S. Senate confirmation she arrived in Maseru, the capital, on September 23, 2004. As ambassador, Perry supported programs that helped improve Lesotho’s health, education, and economic infrastructure. She helped arrange the funding of nearly $400 million to establish the first water delivery system throughout the country. She also worked
Brazil covers nearly half of South America and is the continents largest nation. It extends 2,965 mi (4,772 km) north-south, 2,691 mi (4,331 km) east-west, and borders every nation on the continent except Chile and Ecuador. Brazil may be divided into the Brazilian Highlands, or plateau, in the south and the Amazon River Basin in the north. Over a third of Brazil is drained by the Amazon and its more than 200 tributaries. The Amazon is navigable for ocean steamers to Iquitos, Peru, 2,300 mi (3,700 km) upstream. Southern Brazil is drained by the Plata system—the Paraguay, Uruguay, and Paraná rivers.
Federal republic.
Brazil is the only Latin American nation that derives its language and culture from Portugal. The native inhabitants mostly consisted of the nomadic Tupí-Guaraní Indians. Adm. Pedro Alvares Cabral claimed the territory for Portugal in 1500. The early explorers brought back a wood that produced a red dye, pau-brasil, from which the land received its name. Portugal began colonization in 1532 and made the area a royal colony in 1549.
During the Napoleonic Wars, King João VI, fearing the advancing French armies, fled Portugal in 1808 and set up his court in Rio de Janeiro. João was drawn home in 1820 by a revolution, leaving his son as regent. When Portugal tried to reimpose colonial rule, the prince declared Brazils independence on Sept. 7, 1822, becoming Pedro I, emperor of Brazil. Harassed by his parliament, Pedro I abdicated in 1831 in favor of his five-year-old son, who became emperor in 1840 (Pedro II). The son was a popular monarch, but discontent built up, and in 1889, following a military revolt, he abdicated. Although a republic was proclaimed, Brazil was ruled by military dictatorships until a revolt permitted a gradual return to stability under civilian presidents.
President Wenceslau Braz cooperated with the Allies and declared war on Germany during World War I. In World War II, Brazil again cooperated with the Allies, welcoming Allied air bases, patrolling the South Atlantic, and joining
African History: Biographies | FactMonster
People /
African History: Biographies
Abacha, Sani
Abdallahi, Sidi Ould Cheikh
Abiola, Moshood Kashimawo Olawale
Abubakar, Abdulsalam Alhaji
Abubakar, Atiku
Acheampong, Ignatius Kutu
Afewerki, Isaias
Aguiyi-Ironsi, Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe
Ahidjo, Ahmadou
Akintola, Samuel Ladoke
Amin, Idi
Atta Mills, John Evans
Awolowo, Obafemi
Azikiwe, Benjamin
John Boyega is the rising young actor who was cast as one of the heroes of the 2015 film Star Wars: The Force Awakens. John Boyega was born to Nigerian parents in the Peckham neighborhood of London, which had a reputation as a rough urban area. However, Boyega became involved in youth theater and then studied performing arts at South Thames College. He enrolled at Greenwich University but left school to focus on acting. His first starring role was in the 2011 sci-fi horror comedy Attack the Block, where he led a gang of teens protecting South London from an alien attack. He also had guest roles on TV shows like Law & Order: UK (2011) and Major Lazer (2015) and larger parts in smallish movies like Half of a Yellow Sun (2013) and Imperial Dreams (2014). In April of 2014 he was officially cast in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Much was made of the fact that Boyega is black, making him a rarity in the Star Wars universe. His character, Finn, is a white-suited stormtrooper who abandons his post with the evil First Order and joins the fight with the heroic Resistance.
Extra Credit
John Boyega’s co-star in Star Wars: The Force Awakens is an even lesser-known young actress, Daisy Ridley.
Madagascar măd˝əgăs´cär [key], officially Republic of Madagascar, republic (2005 est. pop. 18,040,000), 226,658 sq mi (587,045 sq km), in the Indian Ocean, separated from E Africa by the Mozambique Channel. Madagascar is the worlds fourth largest island. The country also claims several small islands including the French possessions of Juan de Nova Island , Europa Island , the Glorioso Islands , Tromelin Island , and Bassas da India . The capital and largest city is Antananarivo .
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Despite instability, political progress continued. In May 2005, a new constitution was adopted by the national assembly, and overwhelmingly ratified in Jan. 2006. On July 30, 2006, the first democratic election in the country since 1970 took place. President Kabila received 44.8% of the vote, which was not enough to win the election outright. Fighting broke out between factions supporting the two major candidates, setting off the worst violence the country has seen since the 2002 peace deal was signed. Kabila was declared the winner in the October run-off election, winning 58% of the vote, the countrys first freely elected president in four decades.
In August 2007, a rebel general, Laurent Nkunda, led battles between his militia, made up of fellow Tutsis, and the Congolese Army. The fighting continued throughout the year, driving hundreds of thousands of people from their homes in eastern Congo and threatening to spiral the already fragile country back into civil war. Nkunda claimed he was protecting Tutsis from extremist Rwandan Hutus. In January 2008, the government and the rebels signed an agreement that had both sides withdrawing their troops and the rebels disarming and eventually being integrated into the national army. The cease-fire fell apart in August, and fighting resumed between Nkundas militia and the army. By the end of October 2008, the rebels had captured the major army base of Rumangaboebel and were advancing towad Goma, the capital of North Kivu province. In addition, angry civilians attacked UN peacekeeping troops, who proved ineffectual in both thwarting the rebels and protecting citizens. Nkunda was arrested in January 2009, and a cease-fire was signed on March 23, 2009. Members of Nkundas militia joined the government forces. The militaries of Congo and Rwanda worked together to eliminate remaining rebel fighters from eastern Congo. The joint mission lasts about five weeks.
A report released in January 2008 by the International Rescue Committee found that despite billions in aid, the
Chad chăd, chäd [key], officially Republic of Chad, republic (2005 est. pop. 9,826,000), 495,752 sq mi (1,284,000 sq km), N central Africa. Chad is bordered by the Central African Republic on the south, Sudan on the east, Libya on the north, and Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria on the west. Ndjamena is the capital and largest city.
South Africa expects to receive its first batch of Covid-19 vaccines from the global vaccine distribution scheme, Covax, in the second quarter of 2021.
On June 8, 1849, Frederick Douglass gave a major oration at Faneuil Hall in Boston soon after he returned from Europe. The speech addressed a number of issues including the politics of Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky. After his main address, Douglass returned to the podium following an eulogy by William Lloyd Garrison on Scottish abolitionist John Murray. Douglass used this opportunity to critique the recently ended war with Mexico. His remarks appear below.
It is a poor rule that won’t work both ways. Most people think their Lord is like themselves. A certain very pious man was horribly shocked by hearing an abolitionist say that the Negro was made in the image of God. The Lord is in their image, they seem to think, and the devil in the image of the black man.
I desire to bear my testimony, after hearing the eulogy pronounced by Mr. Garrison, with regard to our departed brother and co-laborer, John Murray, of Scotland. About three years ago I had the pleasure of bidding that noble man farewell on the shores of Scotland; and I remember well the deep interest he took in the antislavery questions of this country. His last battle in behalf of the slave was with the Free Church of Scotland; and while he lived, that Church, for its alliance with slaveholders—for receiving their money into its treasury, and extending to them its fellowship in return—obtained no repose. He bore a noble testimony against it; he had borne a noble testimony against slavery before. For the last twenty-eight years, John Murray stood up in Scotland, the firm, the untiring, the devoted friend of the slave. There are two or three colored persons, at least, now in this Hall, who have shared his generous hospitality, and received his hearty “God-speed” in their endeavors to break down slavery and prejudice against color in this country, by creating a public sentiment on that side of the Atlantic that should react in favor of human liberty here. I have no more to say respecting this good man; his consistent and irreproachable character is his
Angola, more than three times the size of California, extends for more than 1,000 mi (1,609 km) along the South Atlantic in southwest Africa. The Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Congo are to the north and east, Zambia is to the east, and Namibia is to the south. A plateau averaging 6,000 ft (1,829 m) above sea level rises abruptly from the coastal lowlands. Nearly all the land is desert or savanna, with hardwood forests in the northeast.
Angola underwent a transition from a one-party socialist state to a nominally multiparty democracy in 1992.
The original inhabitants of Angola are thought to have been Khoisan speakers. After 1000, large numbers of Bantu speakers migrated to the region and became the dominant group. Angola derives its name from the Bantu kingdom of Ndongo, whose name for its king is ngola.
Explored by the Portuguese navigator Diego Cão in 1482, Angola became a link in trade with India and Southeast Asia. Later it was a major source of slaves for Portugals New World colony of Brazil. Development of the interior began after the Berlin Conference in 1885 fixed the colonys borders, and British and Portuguese investment fostered mining, railways, and agriculture.
Following World War II, independence movements began but were sternly suppressed by Portuguese military forces. The major nationalist organizations were the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), a Marxist party; National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA); and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). After 14 years of war, Portugal finally granted independence to Angola in 1975. The MPLA, which had led the independence movement, has controlled the government ever since. But no period of peace followed Angolas long war for independence. UNITA disputed the MPLAs ascendancy, and civil war broke out almost immediately. With the Soviet Union and Cuba supporting the Marxist MPLA, and the United States and South Africa supporting the anti-Communist UNITA, the country became a
Ancient History, Egypt | FactMonster
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Tunisia, at the northernmost bulge of Africa, thrusts out toward Sicily to mark the division between the eastern and western Mediterranean Sea. Twice the size of South Carolina, it is bordered on the west by Algeria and by Libya on the south. Coastal plains on the east rise to a north-south escarpment that slopes gently to the west. The Sahara Desert lies in the southernmost part. Tunisia is more mountainous in the north, where the Atlas range continues from Algeria.
Tunisia was settled by the Phoenicians in the 12th century B.C. By the sixth and fifth centuries B.C., the great city-state of Carthage (derived from the Phoenician name for “new city”) dominated much of the western Mediterranean. The three Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage (the second was the most famous, pitting the Roman general Scipio Africanus against Carthages Hannibal) led to the complete destruction of Carthage by 146 B.C.
Except for an interval of Vandal conquest in A.D. 439–533, Carthage was part of the Roman Empire until the Arab conquest of 648–669. It was then ruled by various Arab and Berber dynasties, followed by the Turks, who took it in 1570–1574 and made it part of the Ottoman Empire until the 19th century. In the late 16th century, it was a stronghold for the Barbary pirates. French troops occupied the country in 1881, and the bey, the local Tunisian ruler, signed a treaty acknowledging it as a French protectorate.
Nationalist agitation forced France to recognize Tunisian independence and sovereignty in 1956. The constituent assembly deposed the bey on July 25, 1957, declared Tunisia a republic, and elected Habib Bourguiba as president. Bourguiba maintained a pro-Western foreign policy that earned him enemies. Tunisia refused to break relations with the U.S. during the Arab-Israeli War in June 1967. Concerned with Islamic fundamentalist plots against the state, the government stepped up efforts to eradicate the movement, including censorship and frequent detention of suspects.
In 1987, the aged Bourguiba was declared
By 1816 there were several African Methodist
Churches around the country and that year they met
to form the African Methodist Episcopal (AME)
church. On April 11, 1816 Richard Allen was name
the first bishop of this church.
Dahomey proclaimed independent. Independence was also celebrated in Niger (August 3), Upper Volta (August 5), Ivory Coast (August 8), Chad (August 11), Congo Brazzaville (August 15), Gabon (August 17), and Senegal (August 20).
The U.S. again has reported a record number of daily coronavirus-related deaths — the third time this month it has done so — with the toll topping 3,000 for the first time throughout the pandemic.