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12th September

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1977: Day of Martyrs


On September 12, 1977, Stephen Biko, leader of South Africa's Black Consciousness movement, dies shackled on the filthy floor of a police hospital. Earlier that month, he was nearly beaten to death by Afrikaner police in Port Elizabeth for his alleged subversion. News of the political killing, denied by the country's minority white government, led to international protests and a U.N.-imposed arms embargo against South Africa. On September 12, 1978, the first annual Day of Martyrs was observed by opponents of apartheid around the world to remember those who gave their lives in the struggle. Apartheid finally ended in South Africa in 1991.

1977

South African black civil rights activist Steve Biko dies after six days in police detention in Port Elizabeth.

1974

Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie is deposed.

1970

Concorde, the world's first supersonic airliner, lands at Heathrow Airport in London for the first time to a barrage of complaints about the noise.

1969

American President Richard Nixon orders the bombing of NorthVietnam to be resumed.

1959

The first spacecraft from earth to land on another planet. A Russian craft crash-lands on the moon.

1953

American Senator John F.Kennedy - later to be elected US President - marries Jacqueline Lee Bouvier in Newport, Rhode Island.

1940

In France, the discovery of the Lascaux Caves, containing many prehistoric wall paintings.

1935

United States multi-millionaire Howard Hughes achieves the first of several aviation records - flying a plane of his own design at 352.46 mph.

1910

The Los Angeles Police Department appoints the world's first police woman - former social worker Alice Stebbin Wells.

1878

An ancient Egyptian obelisk - a 68 feet high pillar of granite known as Cleopatra's Needle, is presented toBritain and erected on the embankment of the River Thames in London.

1609

English explorer Henry Hudson sails his ship 'Half Moon' into New York harbour and 150 miles further inland to Albany along the waterway now called Hudson River.

1440

Eton College in England is founded by King Henry VI.

1957

US singing star Donny Osmond.

1941

American actress Linda Gray.

1937

West Indian Test cricketer Wes Hall. Becomes one of the West Indies' greatest fast bowlers in late 1950s and early 1960s.

1925

American jazz singer and musician Mel Torme born in Chicago.

1913

Black American athlete Jesse Owens born in Alabama. Wins four gold medals at the 1936 OlympicGames in Berlin - 100m; 200m, long jump and 4x100m relay which causes the Naxi leader Adolf Hitler to leave the stadium - apparently to avoid having to congratulate a black non-Aryan athlete. Dies in 1980.

1907

Northern Irish poet Louis Macniece born in Belfast

1888

Maurice Chevalier, French singer and entertainer is born in Paris. .

1852

British politician Herbert Henry Asquith. Dies in 1928.

1977

South African black civil rights activist Steve Biko dies after six days in police detention in Port Elizabeth. One of the founders (and first President) of the black South African Students Organisation. His death becomes a symbol of the struggle against Apartheid in South Africa and his life story is the basis of the film 'Cry Freedom' (1987).