Browse the year
July
31 days, 31 stories. Pick a date — or jump straight to one:
- 1 1960 Ghana's Republic Day
On July 1, 1960, Ghana's new republican constitution took effect, ending the Queen of England as head of state and cutting the country's last tie to…
- 2 1839 The Amistad Mutiny
On July 2, 1839, Sengbe Pieh, known as Joseph Cinqué, worked a hidden file loose, broke his chains, and led fifty-three illegally enslaved Mende captives in…
- 3 2013 Egypt's 2013 Ouster
On July 3, 2013, Egypt's military ended the country's first democratic presidency. Army chief Abdel Fattah el-Sisi announced on live television that President Mohamed Morsi, elected…
- 4 1994 Rwanda's Liberation Day
On July 4, 1994, the Rwandan Patriotic Front under Paul Kagame secured the capital, Kigali, defeating the regime behind the Genocide against the Tutsi. The victory…
- 5 1962 Algeria's Independence Day
On July 5, 1962, white and green flags flooded the streets of Algiers as Algeria marked its independence day, exactly 132 years after French troops first…
- 6 1967 The Biafran War Begins
On July 6, 1967, just five weeks after Biafra seceded, Nigerian federal forces attacked its positions, and Africa's most populous nation plunged into a bitter civil…
- 7 1954 Saba Saba Day
On July 7, 1954, Julius Nyerere founded the Tanganyika African National Union, the party that would lead his country to independence from Britain in 1961. Tanzania…
- 8 1497 da Gama's Voyage Begins
On July 8, 1497, Vasco da Gama led four ships and about 170 men out of Lisbon on the voyage that would open the first European…
- 9 2011 South Sudan Is Born
On July 9, 2011, celebrations erupted in Juba as Africa's newest nation was born. After decades of brutal civil war, South Sudan broke free from the…
- 10 1991 The Nuclear Rollback
On July 10, 1991, South Africa signed its accession to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, opening its nuclear facilities to international inspectors. Behind the signature lay a…
- 11 1960 The Katanga Crisis
On July 11, 1960, just eleven days after Congo won independence, the country's richest province broke away. Moïse Tshombe declared Katanga an independent state, backed by…
- 12 1975 São Tomé's Freedom
On July 12, 1975, the green, red, and yellow flag of a brand-new nation rose for the first time over São Tomé. After more than five…
- 13 1985 Live Aid
On July 13, 1985, the biggest concert the world had ever seen was really a call to save Africa. Bob Geldof's Live Aid raised famine relief…
- 14 1960 The UN's First War
On July 14, 1960, the United Nations became a peacekeeping force in earnest. Two weeks after Congo's independence, Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba begged the world for…
- 15 1799 The Rosetta Stone
Likely on July 15, 1799, Napoleon's army was rebuilding a crumbling Egyptian fort when a soldier spotted something extraordinary in the rubble: a black granite slab…
- 16 1960 The Blue Helmets Land
On July 16, 1960, the blue helmets arrived in Congo. Just two days after the Security Council created the ONUC mission, the first United Nations peacekeepers…
- 17 1998 The Court Is Born
On July 17, 1998, the world finally promised that no tyrant would be beyond the law. After five weeks of negotiations in Rome, 120 nations voted…
- 18 1918 Madiba Is Born
On July 18, 1918, in the village of Mvezo, South Africa, a boy named Rolihlahla was born. The world would know him as Nelson Mandela. He…
- 19 1971 The Three-Day Coup
On July 19, 1971, Major Hashim al-Atta and a group of leftist officers launched a coup in Khartoum, overthrowing President Gaafar Nimeiry while he was away.…
- 20 1963 The Yaoundé Handshake
On July 20, 1963, Europe and Africa shook hands on trade. In Yaoundé, Cameroon, eighteen newly independent African nations signed the Yaoundé Convention with the six…
- 21 1798 The Battle of the Pyramids
On July 21, 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte's army met the Mamluks at the Battle of the Pyramids. His 20,000 troops faced a Mamluk force of nearly 60,000,…
- 22 1921 The Disaster of Annual
On July 22, 1921, Spain's African empire began to crumble. Rifian warriors under the brilliant commander Abd el-Krim annihilated a Spanish army at Annual, in northern…
- 23 1952 The July 23 Revolution
On July 23, 1952, Egypt's destiny changed hands. A secret group of young army officers, the Free Officers Movement, led by Gamal Abdel Nasser, seized power…
- 24 2014 Remembering Flight 5017
On July 24, 2014, a routine flight became a tragedy in the Sahel skies. Air Algérie Flight 5017, flying from Ouagadougou to Algiers, lost contact just…
- 25 1996 The Bujumbura Coup
On July 25, 1996, Burundi's fragile peace collapsed. Former president Pierre Buyoya seized power in a military coup in Bujumbura, overthrowing Sylvestre Ntibantunganya. The country had…
- 26 1847 Liberia's Independence Day
On July 26, 1847, Africa got its first modern republic. The Americo-Liberian settlers in Monrovia declared the Republic of Liberia independent, the first African state of…
- 27 1985 The Kampala Coup
On July 27, 1985, Uganda's army turned on its own president. The Uganda National Liberation Army overthrew President Milton Obote, who had returned to power in…
- 28 2013 Mali Votes Again
On July 28, 2013, Mali went to the polls to choose a new president. The election came just a year after a 2012 military coup and…
- 29 1966 The Counter-Coup
On July 29, 1966, Nigeria's second military coup came like a thunderclap. Northern soldiers struck back against General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, the head of state who had…
- 30 2005 The Day Garang Fell
On July 30, 2005, South Sudan lost its founding father. John Garang, the leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Army who had fought Khartoum for two…
- 31 2013 The Disputed Vote
On July 31, 2013, Zimbabwe went to the polls in its most bitterly contested election in years. President Robert Mugabe, at eighty-nine and in power since…