*On this date in 1989, Congressman George Thomas "Mickey" Leland was killed in Africa. He and his congressional staff members (including Patrice Johnson of Minneapolis) and State Department officials died when their plane crashed.
Representative Leland, chairman of the House Select Committee on Hunger, died when the small plane he was traveling in crashed en route to a refugee camp in Fugnido, Ethiopia.
Leland was buried in his hometown of Houston, TX, on August 19, 1989.
