This day in history

At the end of a sensational trial, Irish writer Oscar Wilde is convicted of gross indecency in his relations with the son of the Marquess of Queensberry. He is sentenced to two years hard labour.

Wilde, whose wit and flamboyance placed him at the centre of London social and literary circles, is best remembered for his comic masterpieces Lady Windermere's Fan and The Importance of Being Earnest. In his writing and conduct, he often tested the bounds of the prudish Victorian society of his day, which led to his imprisonment for homosexuality in 1895 at the height of his career. After his release in 1897, he moved to Paris, where he died two and a half years later.
 

32 African nations form the Organisation of African Unity.
 

In Baltimore, Maryland Father Stephen Theodore Badin becomes the first Catholic priest to be ordained in the America.