TODAY IN HISTORY: SEPTEMBER 7

September 7 1952
Ali Mahir Pasha resigned from appointment as prime minister of Egypt. General Muhammad Naguib took over post of president, prime minister, minister of war and commander-in-chief of the army.

September 7 1986: Tutu became archbishop
Bishop Desmond Tutu becomes the archbishop of Cape Town, two years after winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent opposition to apartheid in South Africa. As archbishop, he was the first black to head South Africa’s Anglican church.

In 1948, South Africa’s white minority government institutionalized its policy of racial segregation and white supremacy known as apartheid–Afrikaans for “apartness.” Eighty percent of the country’s land was set aside for white use, and black Africans entering this territory required special passes. Blacks, who had no representation in the government, were subjected to different labor laws and educational standards than whites and lived in extreme poverty while white South Africans prospered.

Organized anti-apartheid protests began in the 1950s, and in the 1960s Nelson Mandela and other anti-apartheid leaders were imprisoned. In the 1970s, a new phase of protest began, with black trade unions organizing strikes and Steve Biko, leader of the Black Consciousness movement, calling on blacks to defend their African culture. After the Soweto uprising of June 1976, more than 500 black activists, including Biko, were killed by police. In the 1980s, protests continued, and the South African government resorted to strong-arm tactics, using the military and police to suppress opposition to white rule. Thousands of blacks were killed.

Meanwhile, a black Anglican minister named Desmond Tutu, who in 1975 became the first black dean of St. Mary’s Cathedral in Johannesburg, was emerging as an important leader of the anti-apartheid movement. He advocated nonviolence and successfully pushed for international sanctions against South Africa. In 1984, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. The next year, he was installed as Johannesburg’s first black Anglican bishop.

When Desmond Tutu was elected the first black archbishop of Cape Town, he became the spiritual leader of nearly two million Anglicans in South Africa and more than a million others in neighboring countries. In his new position, he continued his outspoken criticism of apartheid. Desmond Tutu retired as Anglican archbishop in 1996, two years after majority rule came to South Africa with the election of Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress.

September 7 1996: Tupac Shakur was shot
Actor and hip-hop recording artist Tupac Shakur was shot several times in Las Vegas, Nevada, after attending a boxing match. Shakur was riding in a black BMW with Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight when a white Cadillac sedan pulled alongside and fired into Shakur’s car. Knight was only grazed in the head, but Shakur was hit several times. He died in a hospital several days later.

Although Shakur’s killer was never identified, some believe Orlando Anderson, a member of the Los Angeles gang Southside Crips, was responsible. Earlier in the evening, prior to the Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon heavyweight fight, Anderson had been attacked in the lobby of the MGM Grand Hotel by a group from Death Row Records, including Suge Knight. When a videotape of the attack came to light, Knight, who was out on parole at the time, had to return to prison to serve out a nine-year sentence. Suspecting revenge as a motive, Shakur’s mother filed suit against Anderson for her son’s death; but the case was never resolved because Anderson was shot to death in May 1998 in a shoot-out outside a Los Angeles car wash.

Shakur had been involved in a string of violent encounters before the shooting in Las Vegas. In 1993, he was convicted of assault and battery after an attack on a music video producer. That same year, a limousine driver claimed that Shakur had severely beaten him. In 1995, while on trial for sexually abusing a young woman in a hotel room, Shakur was shot five times during an alleged robbery attempt at a New York recording studio. He was later convicted of sexual assault. In 1996, he was sent to prison for violating probation and for failure to complete his mandated community service.

Before his death, Shakur was also the defendant in a couple of civil lawsuits. When Ronald Ray Howard shot a Texas state trooper to death after listening to Shakur’s songs in 1993, the trooper’s widow filed suit against Shakur for manufacturing and distributing music that allegedly incited “imminent lawless action.” In October 1994, two 17-year-old kids in Milwaukee killed a police officer in a sniper attack after claiming they had been “geeked up” by Shakur’s music.

Source: history.com, africanhistory.about.com