In three covert military operations, called Moses, Joshua, and Solomon, over twenty thousand Ethiopian Jews were airlifted to Israel to escape hardship. This ancient community, called Beta Israel (House of Israel in English), lived in relative isolation from the rest of the Jewish world for … Read MoreOperations Moses, Joshua, and Solomon (1984-1991)
Mohammed Ali “Nicholas” Said, an enslaved African from Bornu in what is now northeastern Nigeria, traveled through Europe to the United States. He was born in Kouka, Bornu, the thirteenth of nineteen children to Barca Gana and his wife, Dalia, in 1836. His father was … Read MoreMohammed Ali “Nicholas” Said (1836-1882)
The island of Zanzibar, now a part of Tanzania, was a nineteenth century East African trading empire that fell under the domination of the British who controlled it until the mid-twentieth century. Zanzibar is the leading producer of cloves in the world, which earned it … Read MoreSultanate of Zanzibar (1856–1964)
“Image Ownership: MavsFan28“ Jenean Hampton, at the age of fifty-eight, became the first statewide, black, elected official in Kentucky’s history when she was elected lieutenant governor on November 3, 2015. Hampton ran on the Republican Party ticket headed by GOP gubernatorial candidate Matt Bevin who … Read MoreJenean Hampton (1958– )
On May 26, 1992, career diplomat Kenton Wesley Keith was nominated by President George H.W. Bush to serve as U.S. ambassador to Qatar. After U.S. Senate confirmation, Keith arrived in Ad-Dawhah (Doha), the capital of Qatar and presented his credentials on September 2, 1992. He … Read MoreKenton Wesley Keith (1939- )
Ambassador Gail Dennise Mathieu, ca. 2008 “Image Ownership: Public Domain” Gail Dennise Mathieu, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, was appointed United States Ambassador to Niger by President George W. Bush in 2002. She remained in Niamey, the capital until 2005. In 2007 … Read MoreGail Dennise Mathieu (1951?- )
Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, the first woman diplomat to lead a U.S. consulate in the gender conservative Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, also serves as the U.S. Ambassador to Malta (appointed in 2011). Gina Kay Abercrombie was born in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, where her mother was a secretary … Read MoreGina Kay Abercrombie-Winstanley (1957- )
Marguerita Dianne Ragsdale was born in April 1948 in Richmond, Virginia to Lillie and Vernon Ragsdale and raised alongside her five sisters on a farm in McKenney, Dinwiddie County, Virginia. After starting her undergraduate work at Virginia State University in Petersburg, she transferred to American … Read MoreMarguerita Ragsdale (1948- )
Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat, third President of post-independence Egypt (governing from 1970 to 1981), was born of peasant background in the Nile Delta village of Mit Abu al-Kum on December 25, 1918. The son an Egyptian army clerk and a Sudanese housewife, Sadat was educated in … Read MoreMuhammad Anwar al-Sadat (1918-1981)
From approximately 1000 to 1500 AD, a number of city-states on the eastern coast of Africa participated in an international trade network and became cosmopolitan Islamic cultural centers. The major autonomous, but symbiotic, city-states stretched over 1,500 miles from Mogadishu (in modern day Somalia) in … Read MoreEast African City States (1000-1500)
