On This Day: What happened on 07 July?

Here’s a look at what happened on this day, 07 July, throughout history. We remember the news, events, and people that influenced the course of history forever.

1974 | New Zealand imposes a blanket ban on sports teams from South Africa.

1996 | SA President Nelson Mandela to step down.

1998 | Riots have broken out in Lagos, Nigeria following the death of the opposition leader “Chief Moshood Abiola”. The riots continued for 4 days leaving over 50 dead.

2006 | Nigeria announced that 33,000 civil service workers were to be fired by the end of 2006. These mass layoffs came from the civil service reform instated a year before the elections in 2007.

READ: On This Day: What happened on 06 July?

DEATHS

1998 | Nigerian businessman and politician, Moshood Abiola (60)

2013 | South African-American pastor, theologian, and author, Robert Hamerton-Kelly (74)

BIRTHDAYS

1898 | Nursing sister and recipient of the Florence Nightingale Medal’, Constance Nothard.

1924 | Nigerian sprinter and long jumper, Karim Olowu.

1928 | Zambian nurse and health official, Kapelwa Sikota.

1941 | Cameroonian politician, John Fru Ndi.

1975 | South African rugby player, Louis Koen.

SPORT

1985 | Boris Becker of West Germany beats Kevin Curren of SA at Wimbledon.

1992 | SA national soccer team, Bafana Bafana, win the SA’s first ever FIFA sanctioned match.

2010 | Egypt loses to China 72 – 103 in the FIBA Under-17 World Championship.

2010 | The FIFA World Cup semi-final is held in Durban’s Moses Mabhida stadium.

ENTERTAINMENT

1907 | Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. staged his first Follies on the roof of the New York Theater in New York City.

2007 | An official declaration of the new Seven Wonders of the Modern World was made determined from a worldwide poll organized by the New7Wonders Foundation.

2009 | A public memorial service is held for musician Michael Jackson at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California broadcast live around the world.

AFRICA FACT

Megafauna like giraffe, zebra, gorilla, hippopotamus, chimpanzee and wildebeest are unique to the continent and only found here.