1967 — Eyadéma Seizes Togo

On April 14, 1967, Gnassingbé Eyadéma became president of Togo, months after his second military coup. He had already helped overthrow the country's first president in 1963. From that beginning he would build a one-party state and a personality cult, holding power in Togo for decades in a rule that reshaped the small West African nation around a single man.

Eyadéma ruled for thirty-eight years until his death in 2005. Then the military skipped the constitutional line of succession and installed his son Faure as president. A presidency begun in a coup thus passed, at its end, directly from father to son.