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 and his Arab-dominated government were swept from power. Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah fled into exile, and the People's Republic of Zanzibar was proclaimed under Abeid Karume.

But triumph turned to terror. Arab and South Asian civilians were massacred in the revolution's wake, a horror that shadows its founding story. Three months later, Zanzibar merged with Tanganyika to form Tanzania. The island's single day of upheaval had thus remade its own future and helped create a new nation on the mainland's shore.