July 1966: Black Panther

The Black Panther, the first African American superhero*, appeared in Marvel Comics' "Fanastic Four" #52 in 1966. Born as T'Challa in the fictional African land of Wakanda, his father, a tribal chief, was killed by a white Dutchman intent on stealing Wakanda's natural resources. T'Challa swore to avenge his father's death and traveled to the West to study science. He returned to Wakanda to rule as the Black Panther and transformed his homeland into a prosperous nation.

     -- From "Africana: the Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience" (edited by Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr., 2005): @

     * Note: The Black Panther is often referred to as the first black superhero, as his origins are African rather than African-American.

* Summaries of Fantastic Four #52 and #53 (Marvel Masterworks): @ and @

* Summaries of Fantastic Four #52 and #53 (Marvel Database): @ and @

* Black Panther profile (Marvel.com): @
* Profile (Marvel Directory): @

* Profile (ComicBookDB.com): @
* Profile (Comic Vine): @
* "Everything You Need To Know About Black Panther Before Marvel's 'Civil War' " (io9.gizmodo.com, 2016): @
* Summary from "Icons of the American Comic Book: From Captain America to Wonder Woman" (2013): @
* "Marvel in the Civil Rights Era: A noble Panther, a gritty Cage" (Gary Phillips, 2012): @
* "Super Black: American Pop Culture and Black Superheroes" (Adilifu Nama, 2011): @ 
* Stan Lee website: @

* Jack Kirby Museum: @

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Monday, June 6, 1966: Robert Kennedy's 'Ripple of Hope' speech

CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- U.S. Senator Robert Kennedy branded apartheid as one of the evils of the world Monday night in a speech certain to anger the South African Government. The 40-year-old New York Democrat, brother of the late President John F. Kennedy, was speaking to the multi-racial National Union of South African Students, which invited him to South Africa, at Cape Town University. Many observers believed this to be the most important speech made by an visitor to South Africa, where race separation is official policy, since a former British prime minister, Harold Macmillan, was here in 1960.

The speech's most famous passage: 

Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

Note: The quotation is inscribed at Kennedy's gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery. Photo: @

-- Story by Reuters: @; photo taken June 8 in Soweto by Alf Kumalo

* Text and audio (JFK Library): @

* Summary (RFK Legacy Education Project): @

* Summary from "American Voices: An Encyclopedia of American Orators" (Bernard K. Duffy and Richard W. Leeman, 2005): @
* "Kennedy hits at apartheid" (The Glasgow Herald): @
* "50th anniversary of Robert Kennedy's 'Ripple of Hope' speech (University of Cape Town): @
* "50 Years Later, South Africa Still Feels RFK's Message of Hope" (Voice of America): @ 
* "RFK in the Land of Apartheid: A Ripple of Hope" (film by Larry Shore and Tami Gold, 2009; site includes several links to other resources): @

* Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights: @

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Tuesday, August 18, 1964: South Africa banned from Summer Olympics

South Africa has been barred from taking part in the 18th Olympic Games in Tokyo over its refusal to condemn apartheid. The International Olympic Committee announced the decision in Lausanne, Switzerland, after South Africa failed to met an ultimatum to comply with its demands by 16 August. The IOC originally withdrew South Africa's invitation to Japan during the winter games in Innsbruck, Austria. It said the decision could be overturned only if South Africa renounced racial discrimination in sport and opposed the ban in its own country on competition between black and white athletes.

     -- From BBC; link: @

* "South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games" (South African History Online): @

* Excerpt from "The Politics of South African Football" (Oshebeng Alpheus Koonyaditse, 2010): @ 

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Thursday-Friday, June 11-12, 1964: Rivonia Trial

Photo from Agence France Presse. Caption: Eight men, among them anti-apartheid leader and African National Congress (ANC) member Nelson Mandela, sentenced to life imprisonment in the Rivonia trial leave the Palace of Justice in Pretoria with their fists raised in defiance through the barred windows of the prison car. The eight men were accused of conspiracy, sabotage and treason. (Note: The AFP website says this photo was taken June 16, but the men had been transferred to Robben Island prison just after the sentencing.)

June 11

     Eight of nine defendants in South Africa's major treason trial were found guilty Thursday. A white defendant was acquitted. Among those convicted were African nationalist leaders Nelson Mandela, known as the "black pimpernel" for his feats in eluding police, and Walter Sisulu. The six Africans, two whites and one Indian had been on trial for several months. They were charged by the white supremist government of assisting in acts of sabotage in 1962 to prepare for guerrilla warfare and an invasion to overthrow the state. -- Associated Press (story: @)

     * "Nelson Mandela Found Guilty" (Australian Associated Press/Reuters): @

June 12

     All the eight men found guilty in the Rivonia Trial were sentenced to life imprisonment today. -- The World (Johannesburg newspaper; front page: @)

* "Rivonia Trial 1963-1964" (from South African History Online): @

* Trial summary (Douglas Linder, University of Missouri-Kansas City): @

* Entries from African National Congress website: @

* "1964: Nelson Mandela jailed for life" (BBC): @

* "Nelson Mandela: Prison Years" (Google Cultural Institute): @

* Summary, www.nelsonmandela.org: @

* Summary, NBC News: @

* "Rivonia: The Story of Accused No. 11" (Bob Hepple; from South African History Online: @ 

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Monday, April 20, 1964: 'I am prepared to die'

Charged with sabotage and conspiring to overthrow the South African government, Nelson Mandela makes a statement to the court as the defense begins its case in what is known as the Rivonia Trial. He concludes by saying:

During my lifetime I have dedicated my life to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an idea for which I hope to live for and to see realized. But, My Lord, if it needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

-- Image from Australian Broadcasting Commission. Caption: "These are the five points Nelson Mandela jotted down in preparation for his statement ... 1. Statement from the dock 2. I meant everything I said. 3. The blood of many patriots in this country have been shed for demanding treatment in conformity with civilized standards. 4. That army is beginning to grow. 5. If I must die, let me declare for all to know that I will meet my fate like a man."

* Text of speech (Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory): @

* "Rescuing the Rivonia Trial recordings" (British Library; includes sound clips): @

* Trial summary (The Guardian): @
* Trial summary (South African History Online): @

* "The Rivonia Trial Fifty Years Later" (South African History Online): @
* "The Nelson Mandela (Rivonia) Trial" (Douglas Linder, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law): @

* "The State vs. Nelson Mandela" (Joel Joffe, 2007): @
* "Saving Nelson Mandela: The Rivonia Trial and the Fate of South Africa" (Kenneth S. Broun, 2012): @ 

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Thursday, December 12, 1963: Kenya

     NAIROBI, Kenya -- Nearly 100,000 Africans whistled, sang and cheered today as Kenya became Africa's 35th independent nation.

     But even as the shouts of "Uhuru" -- freedom -- echoed through the streets of this formal British colonial capital, monumental problems confronted the new nations. It must conquer tribal warfare, tribal rivalries and economic difficulties.

     When the Union Jack was hauled down and Kenya's flag of black, red and green went up amid wild jubilation at Nairobi's Freedom Stadium, Britain relinquished its last colonial holding in East Africa.

     -- From Associated Press; full story: @

     -- Photo of Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta from May 1963 (from Corbis Images)

* "A Free Kenya" (The Windsor Star, December 11): @

* "Kenya Gains Independence" (from New York Times Learning Network): @

* 1963 Kenya Constitution: @

* Kenya Independence Act (from legislation.gov.uk): @

* Kenya profile (from CIA): @

* Kenya timeline (from BBC): @ 

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Friday, October 4, 1963: Haile Selassie at the United Nations

     Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia mounted the rostrum in the U.N. General Assembly yesterday and recalled how 27 years ago he appealed in vain to the League of Nations for help against aggression.
     Then, looking to the future, the frail-looking 71-year-old bearded monarch told delegates from 111 nations that "Here, in this Assembly, reposes the best -- perhaps the last -- hope for the survival of mankind."
     -- Associated Press, October 5 (full story: @)
    -- Photo from Corbis Images, January 1963
* Text of speech (from United Nations): @

(Note: If link does not work, go to www.un.org/en/documents/ods and search for Haile Selassie 1963. The first result is the speech.)
* Audio of speech: @
* "Haile Selassie Looks Back Without Anger at U.N." (St. Petersburg Times, October 5, 1963): @
* Selassie's 1936 speech (from www.mtholyoke.edu): @

* "Haile Selassie vs. Mussolini" (from OneWorld Magazine): @

* Selassie biography (from biography.com): @

Note: Bob Marley & the Wailers' 1976 song "War" takes most of its lyrics from this passage in Selassie's 1963 speech:

On the question of racial discrimination, the Addis Ababa conference taught, to those who will learn, this further lesson: that until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, until there are no longer any first-class and second-class citizens of any nation, until the color of a man's skin is of no more signficance than the color of his eyes, until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all, without regard to race -- until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion, to be pursued but never attained. And also, that until the ignoble and unhappy regimes that hold our brothers in Angola, in Mozambique and in South Africa in subhuman bondage have been toppled and destroyed, until bigotry and prejudice and malicious and inhuman self-interest have been replaced by understanding, tolerance and goodwill, until all Africans stand and speak as free beings, equal in the eyes of all men as they are in Heaven -- until that day, the African continent will not know peace. We Africans will fight, if necessary, and know that we shall win, as we are confident in the victory of good over evil.
* Listen to "War": @
* bobmarley.com: @ 

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Thursday, July 11, 1963: Liliesleaf raid

     South African police raid the African National Congress headquarters, the Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, just outside Johannesburg. Virtually the entire leadership of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), armed wing of the ANC, were arrested. Nelson Mandela, the commander in chief of the MK, was not arrested as he was serving a five-year prison sentence for leaving the country illegally in 1962. The farm was privately owned by Arthur Goldreich, but bought with funds from the Communist Party of South Africa. At the farm police found documents relating to the manufacture of explosives, Mandela's dairy of his African tour and copies of a draft memorandum, "Operation Mayibuye." It outlined a possible strategy of guerrilla warfare. More arrests followed shortly after this incident. Mandela and his co-accused were sentenced to life imprisonment in the Rivonia trial that ended in June 1964.
     -- From South African History Online (www.sahistory.org.za)

* "The Rivonia Trial Fifty Years Later" (Longer summary from South African History Online): @
* The Liliesleaf Trust: @
* "Operation Mayibuye" document (from nelsonmandela.org): @
* "The Last Meeting at Liliesleaf Farm" (from City of Johannesburg website): @
* African National Congress: @
* Post on Mandela's arrest (August 5, 1962): @ 

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Sunday, August 5, 1962: Nelson Mandela arrested

Anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela is arrested on charges of inciting a workers' strike and leaving South Africa illegally; he is confined, the beginning of imprisonment that would last until 1990. (He would be sentenced on November 7.) Photo from June 1962.
* Excerpts from trial: @

* "Fiftieth anniversary of Nelson Mandela's sentencing" (from www.nelsonmandelaorg): @
* "The Mystery of Mandela's Arrest" (Wall Street Journal, December 2012): @
* Nelson Mandela Museum: @

* Mandela entry on African National Congress site: @ 

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July 1962: Algerian independence

July 1: Residents of Algeria vote on this question: "Do you want Algeria to become an independent state, cooperating with France, according to the conditions defined by the declaration of March 19?" Nearly 6 million people vote; more than 99% of them vote "oui." (A similar April 8 referendum in France had been approved by nearly 91% of the nearly 20 million voters.)

July 3: French President Charles de Gaulle signs an agreement recognizing Algeria as an independent country.

July 5: Algeria's provisional government proclaims the country's independence, 132 years to the day of France's invasion of Algeria. (July 5 is still celebrated as the country's national holiday.)

Photo shows women in line to vote. (From Magnum Photos)

* "Independent Algeria" (from exhibition at musée de l’Armée, Paris): @

* "Algeria - What Now" (newsreel): @

* Official Algerian announcement of results (PDF): @

* "America Salutes Algerian Independence" (short documentary): @

* "Algeria: France's Undeclared War" (book by Martin Evans, 2011): @

* algerie.com: @
* Country Studies: Algeria (from The Library of Congress): @

* Earlier post on Paris massacre (October 17, 1961): @

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Tuesday, January 30, 1962: Laughter epidemic

Excerpted from "Humoring the Gerontologists" (from the website www.damninteresting.com):

... In the small village of Kashasha, Tanganyika (modern Tanzania), students at a girls' boarding school began to laugh following some remark or event which is now lost to history. ... The laughter was abnormallly infectious, and soon the greater part of the student body was incapacitated with the convulsions. In an effort to quell the outbreak, administrators closed the school and sent the students home, but this allowed the epidemic to spread ... (it) propagated to thousands of people, including other schools, workplaces a neighboring village. The episodes became unpleasant for the sufferers, leading to abdominal pain, fainting, respiratory problems, rashes and uncomfortable weeping. ... Reports vary regarding the duration of the epidemic -- anywhere from six to eighteen months -- but over time it faded. ... Most historians and scientists attribute the bizarre incident to mass hysteria (specifically, mass psychogenic illness). The nation had won its independence from Great Britain only months prior, and the resulting increase in expectations among the citizenry was said to have produced unusually high levels of stress.

* "An epidemic of laughing in the Bukoba district of Tanganyika" (from Central African Journal of Medicine, May 1963): @

* "Examining 1962's 'laughter epidemic' " (Chicago Tribune, July 2003): @

* "Contagious Laughter" (2008 broadcast from radiolab.org): @

* "Laughter" (American Scientist, January-February 1996): @

* International Society for Humor Studies: @

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Tuesday, October 17, 1961: Massacre in Paris

A protest by some 30,000 Algerians living in Paris turns violent, as local police are ordered to use force to stop the demonstration. The number of protesters killed is estimated at up to 300; many bodies were found dumped in the Seine. The demonstration, organized by the FLN movement (National Liberation Front), was part of an years-long campaign, often violent, by Algerians to gain independence from France.

The caption on the top photo (from Corbis Images) reads: "Police shoot Algerian demonstrators dead in Paris." The bottom photo, showing words painted on a bridge, translates as "Algerians are drowned here."

* The day's events (from rfi.fr): @

* Photo gallery (from Le Monde newspaper): @

* "The Paris Massacre of 1961 and Memory" (from the book "Crisis and Renewal in France, 1918-1962"): @

* "Paris 1961: Algerians, State Terror and Memory" (book by Jim House and Neil McMaster, who also wrote the article cited above): @

* "A 1961 Massacre of Algerians in Paris: When the Media Failed the Test" (from Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, 1997): @

* Short summary of Algerian War of Independence (from encyclopedia.com): @

* Medium-length summary (from Armed Conflicts Events Data): @

* Long summary (from statemaster.com): @

* Chronology of war (from Atlantic magazine, 2006): @

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Monday, September 18, 1961: Dag Hammarskjöld dies

A plane crash in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) kills the secretary-general of the United Nations. He was on a mission to work out a cease-fire between U.N. forces and insurgents in the Katanga region of what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Speculation quickly surfaces that his death was no accident.

* Short biography (from United Nations website): @

* Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation: @

* Website about Hammarskjöld: @

* President Kennedy's speech to General Assembly (September 25, text and audio): @

* Newsreel of Kennedy's speech: @

* Newsreel of Hammarskjöld's death: @

* Newsreel of funeral: @

* United Nations report on plane crash (April 24 1962; click on "English"): @
* "Evidence suggests UN chief's plane was shot down" (The Guardian, August 17, 2011): @
* More about the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including history (from Library of Congress): @

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Monday-Wednesday, August 28-30, 1961: Peace Corps

Background: Earlier entries on the Peace Corps, from October 14, 1960 and March 1, 1961.

Monday, August 28: President Kennedy hosts ceremony for the first group of Peace Corps volunteers. (Audio: @; video: @)

Tuesday, August 29: The volunteers leave for the African nations of Ghana and Tanganyika. (Left, members of Ghana I, before leaving Washington.)

Wednesday, August 30: Volunteers arrive.

* Timeline (from www.peacecorps.gov): @

* Founding Documents of the Peace Corps" (from National Archives): @

* Peace Corps News (Vol. 1, No. 1, June 1961): @

* First-person account of leaving for Ghana: @

* Peace Corps Ghana: @

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Wednesday, May 31, 1961: The Republic of South Africa

The country officially becomes a republic, breaking away from the Commonwealth of Nations (the remnants of the British Empire). The act followed a referendum in October 1960 in which 52 percent of whites had voted in favor of such a move.

* "Formation of the South African Republic": @

* South African History Online: @

* Country Studies: South Africa (from Library of Congress): @

* Newsreels: @ and @ and @

* Interview with Nelson Mandela (May 1961): @

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Wednesday, March 29, 1961: End of South Africa's Treason Trial

Members of the anti-apartheid African National Congress -- including Nelson Mandela, left -- are acquitted of high treason after a trial that began in 1956. The accused all had a hand in adopting the Freedom Charter in 1955; South Africa's government had claimed they were conspiring to set up a Communist state.

* Summary of trial (from about.com): @

* In-depth look at trial (from South African History Online): @

* Links to trial materials: (from overcomingapartheid.msu.edu): @

* Text of Freedom Charter (from ANC website): @

* Mandela's testimony from 1960 (from nelsonmandela.org): @

* Banning of ANC (blog entry from March 8, 1960): @

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Undated*: Independence throughout Africa

Starting with Cameroon (January 1) and ending with Mauritania (November 28), the year 1960 sees 17 African countries, all former European colonies, achieve their independence. Of those countries, 14 become free of French rule. The transitions are not always smooth or peaceful, particularly in the case of Belgian Congo, where United Nations troops would be sent in and a military coup would take place before the year is out. (* More than half of the African changeovers -- 9 -- are in August.)

* Map: @

* Timeline: @

* Summaries: @

* More about Congo crisis: @ and @

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Thursday, July 14, 1960: Jane Goodall

A novice researcher with no formal college training, Jane Goodall arrives by boat on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in modern-day Tanzania and begins her pioneering studies of chimpanzee behavior. The world would learn of her work three years later when "My Life Among Wild Chimpanzees" is published in National Geographic magazine.

* Timeline of Goodall's life: @

* Jane Goodall Institute website: @

* Interviews: @ and @ (video) and @ (audio)

* More about Gombe National Park: @

* National Geographic site: @

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Friday-Saturday, April 8-9, 1960: Unrest in South Africa

April 8: The political groups PAC (Pan Africanist Congress) and the ANC (African National Congress) are banned by the apartheid government under the Unlawful Organisations Act. The order follows the Sharpeville massacre (see March 21) and the state of emergency imposed on March 30. Members of the groups flee the country or go into hiding for fear of arrest; the ban would lead to the rise of armed resistance the next year under the banner of Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), or MK.

* Timeline (from South African History Online): @

* History of the ANC (from ANC website): @

* More about ANC (from South African History Online): @

* PAC website: @

* The Road to Democracy Project: @

April 9: Prime minister Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd is shot twice in the face by a white farmer who called Verwoerd "the epitome of apartheid." Verwoerd survives.

* More about the assassination attempt: @

* Newsreel: @

* Brief biography: @

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Monday, March 21, 1960: The Sharpeville massacre

Police in Sharpeville, South Africa (a township south of Johannesburg) open fire on a crowd protesting the country's pass laws, under which black people were required to carry identification with them at all times. Failure to do so could mean arrest and jail. The pass books also were used to restrict where blacks could go. 69 people were killed and at least 180 were wounded at Sharpeville; many of them were shot in the back as they ran from the gunfire. South Africa and its apartheid policies were quickly condemned around the world.

* More about Sharpeville: @

* More about pass laws: @ and @

* Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg: @

* Artists on the massacre: @

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