1966 — The Fall of the Osagyefo: Nkrumah Overthrown

On February 24, 1966, while Kwame Nkrumah was in Beijing on a Vietnam peace mission, Ghana's army and police struck in a coup codenamed "Operation Cold Chop." By dawn, the National Liberation Council had dissolved his Convention People's Party, suspended the constitution, and seized the radio station.

Nkrumah learned of his fall from a radio broadcast and took refuge in Guinea, where Sekou Toure made him co-president. The coup ended Ghana's First Republic and opened an era of military rule. The Osagyefo, Africa's most famous independence leader, heard that he had fallen from a voice on the radio, far from home.