A military coup deposed the government of the First Republic. Tafawa Balewa, Premier of Northern Nigeria Ahmadu Bello, Finance Minister Festus Okotie-Eboh and Samuel Ladoke Akintola were assassinated in what was deemed a conspiracy by the coup plotters, who were mainly Igbo officers, to pave the way for General Aguiyi-Ironsi to be Head of State of Nigeria. Consequently, the retaliatory events by Northern members of the Nigerian Army that led to deaths of many innocent Igbo soldiers and civilians caused the Nigerian Civil War.

1966 The First Nigerian Republic is overthrown in a military coup d’etat

1966 Kaduna Nzeogwu and Emmanuel Ifeajuna lead a coup d’état in Nigeria, the Prime Minister of Nigeria and other senior political and military figures are killed

1970 Nigerian civil war officially ends after 2 1/2 years (6 July 1967 – 15 January 1970) of fighting when the Republic of Biafra disbands and joins Nigeria

1977 Festac ’77, the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture, begins in Lagos, Nigeria

1970 Philip Effiong surrenders to Nigerian forces. Biafra was reintegrated into Nigeria.

1970 Muammar Gaddafi is proclaimed premier of Libya

1972 World heavyweight boxing champion Joe Frazier stops Terry Daniels in 4 rounds in New Orleans to retain his WBC and WBA titles

1943 1st transport of Jews from Amsterdam to concentration camp Vught

1943 World’s largest office building, the Pentagon is completed to house the US military

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1942 US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt sends his famed “Green Light Letter” to MLB Commissioner Judge Landis, encouraging baseball to continue playing during World War II

1934 While robbing the First National Bank in East Chicago, Indianapolis, Dillinger is shot several times by officer William O’Malley, but survives because he is wearing a bulletproof vest.

1975 Portugal signs accord for Angola’s independence

1990 42-year-old former world heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman stops Gerry Cooney in 2 rounds in Atlantic City in a non-title bout; Cooney’s last fight

1997 Diana, Princess of Wales, calls for an international ban on landmines, angering ministers in the UK

2001 Wikipedia a free Wiki or content encyclopedia is launched by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger

2007 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel about the Biafran War, “Half of a Yellow Sun”, is published

2009 Chesley Sullenberger lands US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in NYC. All passengers and crew members survive in what becomes known as the “Miracle on the Hudson”

2018 US Gynmnast Simone Biles says she is one of more than 130 women sexually abused by former team doctor Larry Nassar

2019 Theresa May’s Brexit deal with the EU is rejected by UK parliament 432 votes to 202, largest parliamentary defeat in its democratic era

2019 Witness in El Chapo trial claims former Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto accepted $100 million bribe from the drug cartel head.

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