Zimbabwean politician and trade unionist Morgan Tsvangirai is born

Morgan Richard Tsvangirai was born in the Bahure area of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He is the eldest of nine children.  Tsavangirai joined the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), which later became ZANU-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and was a strong supporter of then Prime Minister Robert Mugabe. Tsvangirai later grew to oppose Mugabe’s policies and broke away from ZANU-PF to form his own party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The MDC became the main opposition to Mugabe’s regime. In 2009, he formed a power-sharing government with Mugabe and became Prime Minister. In the 2013 elections, Tsvangirai lost to Mugabe and the office of prime minister was abolished through an amendment to the constitution. He passed away on 14 February 2018 due to colon cancer.