23 July 1892 - Birth of Haile Selassi I

Haile Selassi I, emperor of Ethiopia between 1930 and 1974, was born as Tafari Makonnen on 23 July 1892, at Ejersa Goro in the Harar province, Ethiopia (then Abyssinia). As emperor of Ethiopia he steered the country towards modernization, brought it into the League of Nations and the United Nations, and helped establish the Organization of African Unity. He was deposed by a Marxist military coup in 1974, and died whilst under house arrest. Haile Selassi is regarded as an African Messiah figure by the adherents of the Rastafarian Movement.