Browse the year
January
31 days, 31 stories. Pick a date — or jump straight to one:
- 1 1960 Cameroon Gains Independence
On January 1, 1960, French Cameroun became the independent Republic of Cameroon. It was the second of France's sub-Saharan colonies to break free, after Guinea. Ahmadou…
- 2 1942 South Africans Retake Bardia
On January 2, 1942, South Africa's 2nd Infantry Division retook the Libyan desert fortress of Bardia after a two-day assault. German Major General Artur Schmitt surrendered…
- 3 1966 Burkina Faso's Revolution Day
On January 3, 1966, a general strike and mass protests filled Ouagadougou, the capital of Upper Volta. The crowds were rising against harsh austerity decrees imposed…
- 4 1961 Angola's Martyrs of Colonial Repression
On January 4, 1961, Portuguese colonial forces crushed a cotton-workers' uprising in Baixa de Cassanje, Angola. The response was overwhelming: some twenty villages were bombed from…
- 5 1941 The Battle of Bardia
On January 5, 1941, Australia's 6th Division captured the last Italian defenses at Bardia, in Libya, ending a three-day battle in Operation Compass. Some thirty-six thousand…
- 6 1999 The January 6 Invasion of Freetown
On January 6, 1999, rebels of the Revolutionary United Front stormed Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital. Their three-week occupation brought the worst atrocities of the country's eight-year…
- 7 2019 The Failed Coup in Gabon
On January 7, 2019, soldiers in Gabon seized the national radio station in Libreville and announced that the government had been overthrown. They struck while President…
- 8 1912 The Founding of the African National Congress
On January 8, 1912, Black leaders, chiefs, and intellectuals gathered in Bloemfontein to found the South African Native National Congress. Driven by lawyer Pixley ka Isaka…
- 9 2005 Sudan's Comprehensive Peace Agreement
On January 9, 2005, Sudan's government and southern rebels signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Nairobi, Kenya. The signing ended Africa's longest civil war, after 21…
- 10 2019 Félix Tshisekedi Declared Congo's Winner
In the early hours of January 10, 2019, DR Congo's electoral commission declared opposition candidate Félix Tshisekedi the winner of the long-delayed presidential vote. The announcement,…
- 11 2013 Operation Serval in Mali
On January 11, 2013, French President François Hollande launched Operation Serval in Mali. He acted after Islamist militants, having seized the northern cities of Kidal, Gao,…
- 12 1964 The Zanzibar Revolution
In the early hours of January 12, 1964, rebels led by John Okello stormed police barracks on Zanzibar's island of Unguja. Within a day, the Sultan…
- 13 1963 Togo's First President Assassinated
Shortly after midnight on January 13, 1963, soldiers broke into President Sylvanus Olympio's home in Lomé, Togo's capital. Before dawn, his body was found near the…
- 14 1943 The Casablanca Conference
On January 14, 1943, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill opened a ten-day war summit at the Anfa Hotel in Casablanca,…
- 15 1966 Nigeria's First Military Coup
On January 15, 1966, young army majors led by Kaduna Nzeogwu stormed Kaduna, Ibadan, and Lagos in Nigeria's first military coup. They killed 22 people, including…
- 16 2006 Africa's First Elected Woman President
On January 16, 2006, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was sworn in as president of Liberia in Monrovia, becoming Africa's first democratically elected woman head of state. She…
- 17 1961 The Assassination of Patrice Lumumba
On January 17, 1961, Patrice Lumumba, the Congo's first democratically elected prime minister, was flown to the secessionist province of Katanga, tortured, and executed by firing…
- 18 2002 Sierra Leone's Civil War Declared Over
On January 18, 2002, President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah declared Sierra Leone's eleven-year civil war over at a United Nations-backed disarmament ceremony in Lungi. He told the…
- 19 2017 A President Sworn In at an Embassy
On January 19, 2017, Adama Barrow was sworn in as president of The Gambia, not in Banjul, but at the Gambian Embassy in Dakar, Senegal. Outgoing…
- 20 1973 The Assassination of Amílcar Cabral
On the night of January 20, 1973, Amílcar Cabral, founder and leader of the PAIGC liberation movement, was shot dead outside his home in Conakry, Guinea.…
- 21 2017 Yahya Jammeh Flees The Gambia
On the evening of January 21, 2017, Yahya Jammeh boarded an unmarked plane in Banjul and fled into exile in Equatorial Guinea. His departure ended 22…
- 22 1879 The Battle of Isandlwana
On January 22, 1879, some 20,000 Zulu warriors annihilated a British camp at Isandlwana, in South Africa. The British had invaded the independent Zulu Kingdom just…
- 23 1915 The Chilembwe Uprising
In the evening of January 23, 1915, rebels led by Baptist minister John Chilembwe attacked an estate at Magomero in Nyasaland, today's Malawi. The attack ignited…
- 24 2022 Damiba's Coup in Burkina Faso
On January 24, 2022, soldiers led by Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba seized power in Burkina Faso, detaining President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré. The junta dissolved…
- 25 1971 Idi Amin Seizes Power
On January 25, 1971, army commander Idi Amin seized power in Uganda while President Milton Obote was abroad in Singapore. Many Ugandans first celebrated the takeover,…
- 26 1885 The Fall of Khartoum & General Gordon's Death
Before dawn on January 26, 1885, Mahdist forces stormed Khartoum after a siege of nearly a year. They killed British Major-General Charles Gordon on the palace…
- 27 1996 Niger's 1996 Coup
On January 27, 1996, army chief Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara seized Niger's presidential palace, toppling Mahamane Ousmane, the country's first democratically elected president. The coup ended a…
- 28 1961 Rwanda's Monarchy Falls
On January 28, 1961, Hutu politicians gathered in the Rwandan town of Gitarama and proclaimed the end of the Tutsi monarchy, declaring Rwanda a republic. Backed…
- 29 1986 Yoweri Museveni Sworn In
On January 29, 1986, Yoweri Museveni was sworn in as Uganda's president on the steps of Parliament in Kampala. He took the oath just three days…
- 30 2017 Morocco Rejoins the African Union
On January 30, 2017, Morocco was readmitted to the African Union as its 55th member, ending 33 years of diplomatic exile. King Mohammed VI's months of…
- 31 2022 Africa Day of Peace and Reconciliation
Each January 31 marks the African Union's Day of Peace and Reconciliation. The day was instituted at an extraordinary summit in Malabo, convened as coups and…