1977 — The Assassination of Marien Ngouabi

On March 18, 1977, President Marien Ngouabi of the Republic of Congo was shot dead in Brazzaville. He was thirty-eight. Ngouabi had seized power in a 1968 coup and renamed the country the People's Republic of the Congo, Africa's first self-declared Marxist-Leninist state, a bold experiment that ended with his killing.

The official story blamed a commando led by Barthélemy Kikadidi; the accused were tried and several executed, among them former president Alphonse Massamba-Débat. But the true motive remains murky, with theories pointing at oil, foreign powers, and regional rivalries. March 18 is still observed as Marien Ngouabi Day, and the state university bears his name.