Browse the year
June
30 days, 30 stories. Pick a date — or jump straight to one:
- 1 1994 South Africa Comes Home
On June 1, 1994, South Africa was readmitted to the Commonwealth of Nations, ending thirty-three years of isolation that began when apartheid drove it out in…
- 2 2012 Mubarak Sentenced
On June 2, 2012, an Egyptian court sentenced former president Hosni Mubarak to life in prison, the first modern Arab autocrat tried by his own people…
- 3 2019 Khartoum's Fallen
On June 3, 2019, paramilitaries stormed the pro-democracy sit-in outside Sudan's army headquarters in Khartoum, where thousands had camped for weeks demanding civilian rule. The assault…
- 4 1979 Ghana's June 4th Revolution
On June 4, 1979, junior Ghanaian officers led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings seized power in Accra, toppling the military government of General Fred Akuffo. Rawlings…
- 5 1873 The Slave Market Closed
On June 5, 1873, the Sultan of Zanzibar bowed to British pressure and closed the island's great slave market, then the largest open slave market in…
- 6 1882 The Battle of Embabo
On June 6, 1882, Menelik II of Shewa crushed Negus Tekle Haymanot of Gojjam at the Battle of Embabo in the Ethiopian highlands. It was a…
- 7 1962 Algiers' Library Burned
On June 7, 1962, saboteurs of the OAS, French extremists desperate to keep Algeria, set fire to the library of the University of Algiers. Some five…
- 8 1948 Oujda and Jerada
On June 7 and 8, 1948, mobs swept through the Moroccan towns of Oujda and Jerada, attacking the Jewish quarters. More than forty people were killed…
- 9 2008 The Beni Amrane Station Bombings
On June 9, 2008, two bombs exploded minutes apart at the railway station in Beni Amrane, east of Algiers, Algeria, killing thirteen people. The first blast…
- 10 1805 America's First War Ended
On June 10, 1805, the United States and Tripoli concluded the Treaty of Peace and Amity, ending America's first foreign war. The war had begun when…
- 11 2010 The World Cup Comes Home
On June 11, 2010, the FIFA World Cup kicked off in Johannesburg, the first World Cup ever played on African soil. Soccer City thundered with vuvuzelas…
- 12 1993 Nigeria's Stolen Election
On June 12, 1993, millions of Nigerians voted in what became the freest and fairest election in the country's history. The voting itself was a national…
- 13 1325 Ibn Battuta's Great Journey
On June 13, 1325, a twenty-one-year-old Moroccan scholar rode out of Tangier on a donkey, intending a simple pilgrimage to Mecca. His name was Ibn Battuta,…
- 14 1821 The Fall of Sennar
On June 14, 1821, the Funj Sultanate of Sennar, the "Blue Sultanate" that had ruled the Sudanese Nile for three centuries, collapsed before an invading Turco-Egyptian…
- 15 1918 The Birth of Chad's First President
On June 15, 1918, François Tombalbaye was born in the village of Bessada, in what is now southern Chad. He began as a teacher and trade…
- 16 1976 The Soweto Uprising
On June 16, 1976, students in Soweto, South Africa, marched against the apartheid government's order to teach in Afrikaans. They were schoolchildren protesting a language imposed…
- 17 1795 Swellendam's Short-Lived Republic
On June 17, 1795, the burghers of Swellendam, a frontier town in the Dutch Cape Colony, rose up and expelled their magistrate. Led by Hermanus Steyn,…
- 18 1953 Egypt Becomes a Republic
On June 18, 1953, the monarchy of Egypt and Sudan was abolished and the Republic of Egypt proclaimed, ending the Muhammad Ali dynasty. Cairo celebrated a…
- 19 1913 The Natives Land Act
On June 19, 1913, the Natives Land Act took effect in the Union of South Africa, restricting Black South Africans, eighty percent of the population, to…
- 20 1960 The Mali Federation Is Born
On June 20, 1960, the Mali Federation, the union of Senegal and the Sudanese Republic, gained independence from France. Dakar and Bamako celebrated together under the…
- 21 1922 The Birth of Joseph Ki-Zerbo
On June 21, 1922, Joseph Ki-Zerbo was born in Toma, Upper Volta, now Burkina Faso. The child born that day in a small town would grow…
- 22 217 BC The Battle of Raphia
On June 22, 217 BC, the largest battle of the Hellenistic age raged near Gaza: the Battle of Raphia, the only major Hellenistic battle fought on…
- 23 1956 The Law That Redrew French Africa
On June 23, 1956, France's National Assembly passed the loi-cadre Defferre, the framework law that rewrote the political map of French Africa. Each colony gained its…
- 24 2002 Remembering Igandu
On June 24, 2002, a packed passenger train at Igandu, Tanzania, lost its brakes climbing a hill and rolled backward at terrifying speed, racing past two…
- 25 1975 Mozambique Proclaims Independence
On June 25, 1975, Mozambique proclaimed independence from Portugal after a decade of guerrilla war. In Maputo, FRELIMO leader Samora Machel became president and raised the…
- 26 1960 Madagascar Becomes Independent
On June 26, 1960, Madagascar became independent from France after 64 years of colonial rule. Antananarivo erupted in celebration as Philibert Tsiranana became the new republic's…
- 27 1977 Djibouti's Independence
On June 27, 1977, Djibouti gained independence from France, the last colony in Africa to break free. Hassan Gouled Aptidon became the nation's first president as…
- 28 1911 A Piece of Mars Falls on Egypt
On June 28, 1911, a fireball streaked over the Egyptian village of Nakhla and exploded, raining down fragments of a rock from Mars. Villagers who watched…
- 29 1976 Seychelles Raises Its Flag
On June 29, 1976, the Seychelles raised its flag at independence from Britain. James Mancham became the first president of the 115-island nation in the Indian…
- 30 1960 Congo's Independence
On June 30, 1960, the Democratic Republic of Congo became independent from Belgium. At the ceremony in Leopoldville, the new nation marked the end of Belgian…