This day in history

Stephen Biko, leader of South Africa’s Black Consciousness movement, dies shackled on the filthy floor of a police hospital.

Earlier that month, he was nearly beaten to death by Afrikaner police in Port Elizabeth for his alleged subversion.

News of the political killing, denied by the country’s minority white government, led to international protests and a U.N. imposed arms embargo against South Africa. On 12 September, 1978, the first annual Day of Martyrs was observed by opponents of apartheid around the world to remember those who gave their lives in the struggle.

Apartheid finally ended in South Africa in 1991.

The England cricket team win the Ashes from Australia for the first time since 1987.

In a national referendum on devolution, the people of Scotland vote ‘Yes’ to creating their own Parliament with tax raising powers.

In Peru, the leader of the Maoist insurgents the “Shinning Path”, Abimael Guzman, is arrested. He is later tried and convicted on charges of terrorism and sentenced to life in prison.

Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie is deposed in a military coup.