What’s Happening Today?

The International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. it is an international day celebrated August 23 of each year, the day designated by UNESCO to memorialize the transatlantic slave trade. The date is significant because, during the night of August 22 to August 23, 1791, on the island of Saint Domingue (now known as Haiti), an uprising began which set forth events which were a major factor in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.

Umhlanga. Also called the Reed Dance ceremony, it is an annual Swazi event. In Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, tens of thousands of unmarried and childless Swazi girls and women travel from the various chiefdoms to the Ludzidzini Royal Village to participate in the eight-day event. The young, unmarried girls were placed in female age regiments; girls who had fallen pregnant outside wedlock had their families fined a cow. The official purpose of the annual ceremony is to preserve the women's chastity, provide tribute labour for the Queen Mother, and produce solidarity among the women through working together.

What Happened Today?

1.    In 1966, the Lunar Orbiter 1 took the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon. The Lunar Orbiter 1 was the first American spacecraft to orbit the Moon. It was designed primarily to photograph smooth areas of the lunar surface for selection and verification of safe landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo missions. It was also equipped to collect selenodetic, radiation intensity, and micrometeoroid impact data.

2.    In 1973, a bank robbery gone wrong in Stockholm, Sweden, turned into a hostage crisis. Over the next five days the hostages began to sympathize with their captors, leading to the term "Stockholm syndrome".

3.    In 2011, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown after the National Transitional Council forces took control of Bab al-Azizia compound during the Libyan Civil War.

Birthdays

1.    1950 – Jim Muhwezi, Minister of State for Security in the Ugandan cabinet.

2.    1993 – Winnie Nanyondo, Ugandan middle-distance runner who competed in the 800 meters and 1,500 meters races at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in japan.

Sources: Wikipedia & bornglorious.com

Image: africanews