Guinea rejects France’s proposed community and chooses independence

Gamal Abdel Nasser announced nationalization of the Suez Canal Company, asserting Egyptian control over a strategic waterway and revenue for the Aswan Dam. The canal had been built through Egyptian...

Israel invaded Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, followed by British and French attacks framed as intervention to secure the canal. Egypt resisted the assault, and international pressure and UN action...

A ceasefire took effect after UN diplomacy and pressure from the United States and Soviet Union forced Britain, France, and Israel to stop military operations and withdraw. The crisis marked a shift...

The former Gold Coast became independent as Ghana, with Kwame Nkrumah as prime minister. The transition followed decades of organizing by workers, veterans, women, and political movements, including...

Malaya became independent after negotiations between the British government, the Alliance coalition, and Malay rulers. Independence arrived during the Malayan Emergency, when colonial authorities used...

Delegates from independent states and liberation movements met in Accra at the All-African Peoples’ Conference. The gathering linked struggles against colonial rule and racial domination and...

Rebel forces led by Fidel Castro entered Havana after the collapse of Fulgencio Batista’s government. The revolution overthrew a US-backed dictatorship and sought greater control over land,...

Black residents gathered at Sharpeville in a Pan Africanist Congress campaign against pass laws that controlled African movement and labor. Police opened fire, killing 69 people and wounding many...

The Republic of the Congo became independent from Belgium. At the ceremony, King Baudouin praised Belgian rule; Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba replied that independence had been won through struggle...

The former Italian-administered Trust Territory and British Somaliland joined to form the Somali Republic after separate paths to independence. The union answered a popular pan-Somali project but left...