French Upper Volta and French Dahomey gained self-government within the French Community, becoming the Republic of Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) and the Republic of Dahomey (now Benin).
IndependenceOn this day — December 11 in African history
Real events, births and milestones from Africa and the diaspora.
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1937 Italy withdrew from the League of Nations amid international condemnation of its invasion of Ethiopia.
PoliticsFrench police violently cracked down on pro-independence protesters in Algiers during a visit by French President Charles de Gaulle.
PoliticsTwo car bombs exploded in Algiers, Algeria, targeting the Supreme Constitutional Court and United Nations offices.
Tragedy
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1911 Naguib Mahfouz, the Egyptian novelist who became the first Arabic-language writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, was born.
Birth
U.S. Department of State — Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1961 Macky Sall, who became the fourth President of Senegal, was born.
Birth