What’s Happening Today?

The Day of the African Child. This day has been celebrated on June 16 every year since 1991, when it was first initiated by the Organization of African Unity (OAU). It honours those who participated in the Soweto Uprising in 1976 on that day. It also raises awareness of the continuing need for improvement of the education provided to African children. On June 16 every year, governments, NGOs, international organizations, and other stakeholders gather to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the full realization of the rights of children in Africa.

Youth Day (South Africa). Youth Day on 16 June is a public holiday in South Africa and commemorates a protest which resulted in a wave of protests across the country known as the Soweto uprising of 1976. It came in response to multiple issues with the Bantu Education Act and the government edict in 1974 that Afrikaans will be used as a medium of instruction for certain subjects in black schools.

What Happened Today?

1.    In 1944, George Junius Stinney, Jr, 14. became the youngest person to be executed in the United States in the 20th century when he was killed by the Electric Chair. Stinney was convicted, in a proceeding later vacated as an unfair trial, of murdering two white girls, ages 7 and 11, in his hometown of Alcolu, South Carolina.

2.    In 1963, 1963 Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space. The Soviet cosmonaut completed 48 orbits on board the spaceship “Vostok 6” before returning safely to Earth. The former textile worker was declared “Hero of the Soviet Union” and received the United Nations Gold Medal of Peace.

3.    In 2010, the world's first country-wide total tobacco ban went into effect. Bhutan banned the cultivation, harvesting, production, and sale of tobacco and tobacco products. It is still legal in the South Asian country to smoke in a private setting, but obtaining tobacco products legally is close to impossible.

Birthdays

1.    1971 – Tupac Shakur, legendary Hip-Hop rapper considered to be the best rapper of all time by many. He died in 1996.

2.    1967 – Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool FC Manager.

Sources: Wikipedia & checkiday.com

Image: Mk Status