Zimbabwean minister and politician, 1st President of Zimbabwe (died 2003)

Canaan Banana

Canaan Sodindo Banana was a Zimbabwean Methodist minister, theologian, and politician who served as the first President of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987. He was Zimbabwe's first head of state, a ceremonial president, after the Lancaster House Agreement that led to the country's independence. In 1987, he stepped down as president and was succeeded by Prime Minister Robert Mugabe, who became the country's executive president. In 1997, Banana was accused of being a homosexual, and after a highly publicised trial, was convicted of 11 counts of sodomy and "unnatural acts", serving six months in prison.

Born

1936

March 5

Died

2003

Era

1930s

Country

—

About

Canaan, in brief

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Life timeline

Key dates

1936 Born
2003 Died

Also on March 5

What else happened on this day, through history

363 Roman emperor Julian leaves Antioch with an army of 90,000 to attack the Sasanian Empire, in a campaign which would bring about his own death.
1046 Nasir Khusraw begins the seven-year Middle Eastern journey which he will later describe in his book Safarnama.
1279 The Livonian Order is defeated in the Battle of Aizkraukle by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
1496 King Henry VII of England issues letters patent to John Cabot and his sons, authorising them to explore unknown lands.

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The world in 1936

When Canaan arrived

april 15 First day of the Arab revolt in Mandatory Palestine.
april 19 The Jaffa riots commence, initiating the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine.
april 27 The United Auto Workers (UAW) gains autonomy from the American Federation of Labor.
april 3 Bruno Richard Hauptmann is executed for the kidnapping and death of Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr., the infant son of pilot Charles Lindbergh.

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Same-day contemporaries

Also born on March 5

David II of Scotland (died 1371) 1324– Dean Stockwell 1936–2021 American actor (died 2021) Dora Marsden 1882–1960 English author and activist (born 1882) Edward Cornwallis 1713–1776 English general and politician, Governor of Gibraltar (born 1713) Emmanuel Mudiay 1996– Congolese-American basketball player Gordon Bajnai 1968– Hungarian businessman and politician, 7th Prime Minister of Hungary Heitor Villa-Lobos 1887–1959 Brazilian guitarist and composer (died 1959) J. Hillis Miller 1928– American academic and critic (died 2021) James Tobin 1918–2002 American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1918)

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Same-year contemporaries

Also born in 1936

Silvio Berlusconi 1936–2023 Italian businessman and politician, Prime Minister of Italy (born 1936) Anthony Lester 1936– Baron Lester of Herne Hill, English lawyer and politician (died 2020) Anthony Payne 1936–2021 English composer (born 1936) Antonin Scalia 1936–2016 American lawyer and judge, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (born 1936) B. J. Habibie 1936–2019 Indonesian engineer and politician, 3rd President of Indonesia (died 2019) Bill Mazeroski 1936– American baseball player and coach (died 2026) Bobby Ross 1936– American football player and coach Brian Blessed 1936– English actor Carl Icahn 1936– American businessman and investor

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Keep going

More to explore

Canaan's birthday March 5 Canaan's zodiac Pisces When Canaan arrived 1936