Ibukun's Blog

Nigeria’s U-17 national team will play a friendly match against Argentina’s cadet team in Buenos Aires today in continuation of their preparations for the FIFA kiddies World Cup billed for Chile this month. The Golden Eaglets, who arrived in Buenos Aires for a pre-World Cup training camp last weekend, are training at the Buenos Aires Football ground (BAF) under the supervision of Coach Emmanuel Amuneke. The team will also play the U-20 side of either Racing FC or Boca Juniors before leaving Buenos Aires for Santiago de Chile. According to the team’s Media Officer, Morakinyo Abodurin, Coach Amuneke is satisfied with the standard of BAF, which has about seven training pitches with a state of the art gymnasium, swimming pool and other separate camping facilities. The former African Footballer of the Year added that the camp facilities will bring out the best in the players. Nine players from the team that finished fourth at the last Africa U-17 Nations Cup in Niger were li...

Today in History August 7 1782 General George Washington authorizes the award of the Purple Heart for soldiers wounded in combat. 1864 Union troops capture part of Confederate General Jubal Early’s army at Moorefield, West Virginia. 1888 Theophilus Van Kannel of Philadelphia receives a patent for the revolving door. 1906 In North Carolina, a mob defies a court order and lynches three African Americans which becomes known as "The Lyerly Murders." 1916 Persia forms an alliance with Britain and Russia. 1922 The Irish Republican Army cuts the cable link between the United States and Europe at Waterville landing station. 1934 In Washington, the U.S. Court of Appeals rules that the govenment can neither confiscate nor ban James Joyce’s novel  Ulysses . 1936 The United States declares non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War. 1942 The U.S. 1st Marine Division under General A. A. Vandegrift lands on the islands of Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the Solomon islands. This is...

8000 B.C. – Creation of oldest currently known artifacts and stone shelters. Igboland mostly occupied by foragers, including  Bantu ancestors. 3000–500 B.C. – Development of agriculture (probably including yam cultivation) and animal husbandry. 500 B.C. – A.D. 200 –  Nok culture  flourishes in Northern Nigeria. 400–100 B.C. – Ironworking develops around  Opi . 770 A.D. – Early  Ijaw  settlement. 800 – Yoruba civilization already well established, based on thirteen farming villages centered at  Ilé-Ifẹ̀ . Mega-state at  Igbo-Ukwu  has complex social structure,  produces copious artifacts  including bronzes. 1000 – The reign of the  Kingdom of Nri  began. 1100 – The  Islamic state  of  Borno  was established. 1200 – Ilé-Ifẹ̀ becomes Yoruba metropolis. 1255 –  Oba  Ewedo comes to power in  Benin Empire . 1450 – Beginning of European contact on the Atlantic coast. [1] 15...

Synopsis Jesse James was born on September 5, 1847, in Kearney, Missouri. James and his brother Frank served for the Confederate Army before embarking on criminal careers in the Old West. The James brothers made a name for themselves as bank and train robbers, leading the James-Younger gang. Gang member Robert Ford killed Jesse James in 1882, after which James became a legend of the Old West. Early Life American outlaw, robber and legendary figure Jesse Woodson James was born on September 5, 1847, in Kearney, Missouri. Jesse and his brother Frank James were educated and hailed from a prestigious family of farmers. Their father, the Reverend Robert James, was a Baptist minister who married Zerelda Cole James and moved from Kentucky to Missouri in 1842. In the summer of 1863, the James farm was brutally attacked by Union soldiers. Jesse was 16 when he and Frank became Confederate guerrilla soldiers, riding alongside William Quantrill and “Bloody Bill” Anderson. Partners i...

Booker Taliaferro Washington  (April 5, 1856 – November 14, 1915) was an African-American educator, author, orator, and advisor to presidents of the United States. In 1856, Washington was born a slave in Virginia to a woman named Jane. After emancipation, his family resettled in  West Virginia . He worked his way through Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (now  Hampton University ) and attended college at  Wayland Seminary  (now  Virginia Union University ). In 1881, he was named as the first leader of the new  Tuskegee Institute  in Alabama. Washington attained national prominence for his  Atlanta Address of 1895 , which attracted the attention of politicians and the public, making him a popular spokesperson for African-American citizens. He built a nationwide network of supporters in many black communities, with black ministers, educators and businessmen composing his core supporters. Washington played a dominant role in...