On this day: April 14 in African history

SrA Felicia Wilson, U.S. DoD, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

Gnassingbé Eyadéma, who had ousted President Nicolas Grunitzky in a military coup in January 1967, assumed the presidency of Togo.

Sources: GlobalSecurity.org ; U.S. Department of State

Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed

Voice of America, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

Boko Haram militants abducted 276 schoolgirls from a boarding school in Chibok, Nigeria, in a mass kidnapping that drew global attention through the #BringBackOurGirls campaign.

Sources: BBC News ; Al Jazeera

Boko Haram bombed a crowded bus station in Nyanya, near Nigeria's capital Abuja, killing at least 71 people, a toll later reported as 75.

Sources: Al Jazeera ; Deutsche Welle

Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed

Koen Suyk / Anefo, CC0, Wikimedia Commons

Abel Muzorewa, Zimbabwean bishop and politician who became the first and only Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Rhodesia, was born near Umtali, Southern Rhodesia.

Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica ; The Guardian

More than 12,000 people marched in Monrovia against a proposal by the agriculture minister, Florence Chenoweth, to raise the price of imported rice from $22 to $26 a hundredweight. Soldiers and police fired on the crowd, and about 500 people were wounded. Counts of the dead run from dozens to more than 70, and a Liberian history archive puts them in the hundreds. The shooting started the unravelling of William Tolbert's government, which fell to a coup the following April.

Sources: The Yale Globalist ; Liberia Past and Present

Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed