1811: Venezuela declares independence from Spain
Under the leadership of Francisco de Miranda, Venezuela declared its independence from Spain. This started the Venezuelan War of Independence. The country gained independence 10 years later in 1821.
1865: President Andrew Johnson signs an executive order that confirms the military conviction of a group of people who had conspired to kill the late President Abraham Lincoln, then commander in chief of the U.S. Army. With his signature, Johnson ordered four of the guilty to be executed.
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1884: For the first time the German flag is raised over the African continent. Mlapa III of the West African “Slave Coast” (Togo) – an area given its name because it is a source of enslaved Africans for the slave trade – agrees to make the location a German protectorate.
1946: French designer Louis Réard unveils a daring two-piece swimsuit at the Piscine Molitor, a popular swimming pool in Paris. Parisian showgirl Micheline Bernardini modeled the new fashion, which Réard dubbed “bikini,” inspired by a news-making U.S. atomic test that took place off the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean earlier that week.
1960: Congolese soldiers In Léopoldville mutiny against their all-white leadership and bad working conditions. The revolt will spread across the region, and ends with the Africanisation of the garrison. However, the Congo Crisis will become the bloodiest event in Africa’s era of national independence. The issue fueling this revolt will be resolved until January 1963, but conflict in the country will continue in various forms into the 21st Century.
1965: Having overthrown Algeria’s first president Ben Bella in a bloodless coup d’état, Colonel Houari Boumédiène creates a Revolutionary Council to run the country, with himself as president of the council as well as President of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Defense. Bella will remain under house arrest for 14 years, and his supporters will be suppressed. Boumédiène will rule until his death in 1978.
1966: Kenya’s independence leader Tom Mboya is assassinated. His energy and eloquence moved the American and European public to embrace Africa’s independence movement in the 1950s, and Time magazine chose him for its cover as the face of Kenyan independence. There is widespread suspicion that Kenya President Jomo Kenyatta is responsible for Mboya’s killing, and this will be suppressed with the Kisumu Massacre of Mboya supporters by Kenyatta’s corps of presidential bodyguards in October.
1973: The commander of Rwanda’s National Guard, Major-General Juvénal Habyarimana, leads a military coup d’état. He names himself the country’s leader. He executes 55 people, and pays off their families so he can claim the coup is “bloodless.” President Grégoire Kayibanda, who has been monopolising power since 1962 and revised the constitution to make himself President for Life, and his wife are taken to an unknown location where they will be starved to death. Habyarimana then held the post of president for 20 years.
1975: Cape Verde gains independence from Portugal
The Island country had come under Portuguese colonial control in the late 15th century.
1975: Arthur Ashe defeats the heavily favored Jimmy Connors to become the first Black man ever to win Wimbledon, the most coveted championship in tennis. Arthur Ashe began playing tennis as a boy in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia. After winning a tennis scholarship to UCLA, Ashe was taken under the wing of tennis star Pancho Gonzales, who recognized the young player’s potential.
1980: Slavery is outlawed in Mauritania, for the third time. The end of slavery was also proclaimed in 1960 and 1966. Without enforcement, however, the practice of slavery continues.
1995: Armenian Constitution is adopted
A nation-wide referendum led to the approval and adoption of Armenia’s constitution. The country had gained its independence after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
BIRTHS ON THIS DAY: July 05
Cecil Rhodes (5 Jul 1853 – 26 Mar 1902)
British mining magnet and Prime Minister of Cape Colony (1890-1896), in Bishop’s Stortford, England was born on July 5, 1853. The personification of British Imperialism, he named the territory Rhodesia (Zambia and Zimbabwe) after himself, and worked for a Cape to Cairo railway line for an African continent that would exist to serve British business interests. Revered in the Western world during his lifetime, he became a symbol of colonialism in the 2010s, and his statues were removed from campuses and public areas during a student-led “Rhodes Must Fall” campaign. He died at the age of 48.
Johnny Drille, 34 years
John Ighodaro, professionally known as Johnny Drille, is a Nigerian singer and songwriter born in 5 July 1990. His career came into the spotlight when he released a cover of “Awww” by Di’Ja. He is currently signed to Mavin Records.
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