- 1750 Crispus Attucks escaped from his slavemaster in Framingham, Massachussets.
- 1919 The Elaine Race Riot occurred in Elaine, Arkansas.
- 1960 Fifteen African nations were admitted to the United Nations.
- 1962 U.S. Marshals escorted James Meredith into the University of Mississippi, sparking riots on the Oxford campus that left two people dead.
- 1966 Botswana (previously known as Bechuanaland) achieved independence from Britain.
- 1986 Edward Perkins was appointed as U.S. ambassador to South Africa, becoming the first African-American to hold that position.
- 1989 The Senegambia Confederation between Senegal and Gambia was dissolved.
- 1991 The military in Haiti overthrew Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the country’s first freely elected president
(Source: diasporicroots, via hamburgerjack)
