Today in History: Gyan’s penalty miss and the victory for civil rights in USA

Suarez ‘hand of God’ and the Gyan Penalty miss

Ghanaian hearts were broken ten years ago today when striker Asamoah Gyan failed to convert a 120-minute penalty that would have made the country the first in Africa to progress to the last four of the Fifa World Cup.

Adiyah had headed the ball and it was destined for goal but Lius Suarez which fast became a household name in Ghana smacked the ball away with his hand.

After his dismissal from the game, the Black Stars were given the chance to break the 1-1 tie but the shot from the team’s highest goal scorer hit the cross bar, and with it, the dreams and cheers of some 24million Ghanaians (2010).

The Civil Rights Movements in USA

Also, on this day in 1964, the Civil Rights Movement in the United States of America won a massive victory when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act.

Britannica describes the Act as “perhaps the most important U.S. law on civil rights since Reconstruction (1865–77) and a hallmark of the American civil rights movement.”

Among a host of others, the Act prohibited discrimination in public places, provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, and made employment discrimination illegal.

“This document was the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction,” ourdocuments.gov says.

Patrice Lumumba

And for the Pan-Afrikanists, this is for you.

Patrice Lumumba, renowned African nationalist leader was born on this day in 1925 in Belgian Congo, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

He was the first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (June-September 1960).

Like most first African leaders, however, he was forced out of office amid a political crisis. He was later assassinated.

Belguim who supported his opponents formally apologised for its role in the assassination in 2002.