1895: Alexander Popov demonstrates the world’s first radio receiver. The Russian physicist had initially built the device as a lightning detector. He achieved the first radio transmission between two buildings the following year.
1915: A German U-boat sinks the RMS Lusitania. 1198 lives were lost in the attack, making it the deadliest shipwreck during World War I. The fact that some of the dead were U.S. citizens influenced the country’s decision to enter the war in 1917.
1945: Germany’s Nazi regime surrenders unconditionally. The capitulation ended World War II, one of the bloodiest conflicts of all time. According to estimates, between 40 and 71 million people died in the war and the Holocaust initiated by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime.
1946: Herbert Macaulay, Nigerian nationalist, politician, engineer, architect, journalist, and musician, died aged 81. Olayinka Herbert Samuel Heelas Badmus Macaulay is considered by many Nigerians as the founder of Nigerian nationalism.
1946: Sony is founded. The company started as Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering. It is now one of the leading manufacturers of electronic products.
1960: Leonid Brezhnev, one of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s most trusted proteges, is selected as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet—the Soviet equivalent to the presidency. This was another important step in Brezhnev’s rise to power in Russia, a rise that he later capped by taking control of the Soviet Union in 1964.
1994: Norway’s most famous painting, “The Scream” by Edvard Munch, was recovered almost three months after it was stolen from a museum in Oslo. The fragile painting was recovered undamaged at a hotel in Asgardstrand, about 40 miles south of Oslo, police said.
1998: The Abacha government in Nigeria released 142 prisoners including political prisoners and journalists. The freed journalists were Muhammad Amadu and Soji Omotunde of the newspaper African Concord; Babafemi Ojudu of The News; and Onome Osifo-Whiskey of Tell magazine. Also freed was Ogaga Ifowodo of the Civil Liberties Organization.
1998: Oyo State in Nigeria, Administrator, Colonel Ahmed Usman, says all suspects arrested in connection with the May Day 1998 violent protest in Ibadan are to be treated as ‘prisoners of war’ (POWs).
1998: G-34, a multi-ethnic coalition of eminent Nigerians led by Dr. Alex Ekwueme, former vice president, sends a letter to Abacha, adducing eight grounds on which the latter’s adoption as sole presidential candidate by the five political parties breached all relevant laws. It urges him to decline the purported nomination.
2000: Vladimir Putin becomes President of Russia. The former KGB officer enjoys high approval ratings in his country as living standards in Russia have improved drastically under his rule. Internationally, he has been criticized for his authoritarian style of government.
2008: The Federal Government announced the suspension of import duties and other taxes on rice, and launched a raft of other measures to head off the food crisis in the country.
BIRTHS ON THIS DAY: May 7
1892 Josip Broz Tito (7 May 1892 – Died: 4 May 1980)
Josip Broz, commonly known as Tito, was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and politician who served in various positions of national leadership from 1943 until he died in 1980. He was 87 years old when he died.
1861 Rabindranath Tagore (7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941)
Rabindranath Tagore FRAS was a Bengali polymath who was active as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter during the age of the Bengal Renaissance. He reshaped Bengali literature and music as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He died at the age of 80.
Guru (Maradona Yeboah Adjei)
Maradona Yeboah Adjei was on born May 7, 1987, in Ghana He also known by his stage names Guru and Gurunkz, is a Ghanaian rapper, and fashion designer. He is known for his contemporary hip-hop rap style that combines English and Ghanaian indigenous languages. Guru’s breakthrough was in 2011 when his hit song “Lapaz Toyota” appeared on the Ghanaian music charts. Guru is considered a contemporary hip-hop artist, as his songs venture new ground in the Ghanaian music scene, mixing hip-hop, Afrobeats, highlife, and dancehall sounds.
Marcelino da Mata Born: (7 May 1940 – 11 February 2021)
Guinean soldier who was the most decorated Portuguese military officer in the history of the Portuguese Army, in Ponte Nova, Portuguese Guinea. His life story captures the complexities of African soldiers who served colonial powers.
His extraordinary polyglot skills made him an essential interpreter for the Portuguese before he trained to be a commando specialising in anti-insurgency warfare.
He participated in 2,412 operations against insurgencies that were battling Portuguese colonial rule. He was in Portugal recovering from a gunshot wound when independence was achieved by Guinea-Bissau in 1974.
His absence from his country saved his life. The new government of Guinea-Bissau executed 7,447 black Guinea-Bissauan soldiers who served Portugal as commandos.
Nevertheless, Mata was tortured by left-wing Portuguese forces when they took power in Portugal in 1975. He died of Covid-19 in 2021.
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