Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe was born on December 5, 1924. He was a founding member and leader of the Pan-African Congress. His great legacy can be located in his courage and ability to move the dispossessed colonized people to revolt as evidenced by the Sharpeville protest which exposed the brutality of the white supremacist regime. Sobukwe died in Kimberley, Northern Cape on February 27, 1978.

On 17 December 1663 Queen Nzinga (Nzinga Mbande) died. Queen Nzinga was the monarch of the Mbundu people of Angola from 1626  to 1663.  She was a brilliant tactician and revolutionary leader who led the resistance against the Portuguese slave trade in Central Africa