Timeline Benin
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AfricaNet: http://www.africanet.com/countries/benin.htm
Yoruba masters created decorative masks,
headdresses,
figures and other objects of art from this area and Nigeria.
(WSJ, 2/10/98, p.A16)
1471 The
Portuguese arrived in Ghana as intermediaries, bringing slaves and
other goods from Senegal and Benin in order to sell them to the
Asante and other local people.
(Econ, 2/24/07, p.73)
1600-1900 A succession of 12 kings ruled from
Abomey (Dahomey-Benin) and each one built a lavish palace.
(SFEC, 8/28/98, p.T4)
1717 Apr 26, Pirate Black Sam
Bellamy died along with 143 others when their ship, the Whydah, sank
off of Wellfleet, Cape Cod. 2 men on the Whydah survived as did 7
others aboard the Mary Anne, a smaller ship loaded with Madeira
wine. The slave ship Whydah had just been captured by Bellamy in
February as it left Ouidau, Benin, with a load of sugar and indigo
as well as chests of silver and gold. 6 or the 9 survivors were
later hanged for piracy in Boston. In 1984 the wreck of the ship was
discovered by Barry Clifford.
(WSJ, 9/12/07, p.D9)
1890 French foreign
legionnaires massacred the amazonian army of Dahomey (Benin).
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.62)
1892 Nov 16, King Behanzin of
Dahomey (now Benin), led soldiers against the French.
(HN, 11/16/98)
1946 Dahomey (later Benin)
became an Overseas Territory of France.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/country_profiles/3638535.stm)
1958 Dec 4, A territorial
assembly declared Dahomey a republic.
(EWH, 1st ed., p.1172)
1960 Aug 1, Dahomey (Benin),
just west of Nigeria, became independent from France with Hubert
Maga as president (1960-1963). Porto Novo was made the capital.
(WUD, 1994, p.139)(PC, 1992, p.973)(EWH, 1st ed.,
p.1172)
1961 Aug 1, Dahomey (Benin)
seized the Portuguese territory of Ajuda.
(EWH, 1st ed., p.1172)
1963 Oct 27-1963 Oct 29, Col.
Christophe Soglo, chief of staff, assumed power as head of a 3-man
provisional government in Dahomey. Pres. Maga became premier
(1963-1964).
(EWH, 1st ed., p.1172)
1964 Jan, The government of
Dahomey was revamped and Sourou Migan Apithy became president
(1964-1965).
(EWH, 1st ed., p.1172)
1965 Christophe Soglo became
premier (1965-1967) of Dahomey for a 2nd time.
(http://tinyurl.com/9ryq5)
1967 Alphonse Alley became
premier (1967-1968) of Dahomey.
(http://tinyurl.com/9ryq5)
1968 Zinsou became premier
(1968-1969) of Dahomey.
(http://tinyurl.com/9ryq5)
1969 Paul-Emile de Souza
became premier (1969-1970) of Dahomey (later Benin).
(http://tinyurl.com/9ryq5)
1970 Hubert Maga became
premier (1970-1972) of Dahomey (later Benin).
(http://tinyurl.com/9ryq5)
1972 May 7, Justin
Ahomadegbe-Tometin (1917-2002) became president of Dahomey (later
Benin) as part of a system that rotated the office between three
leading political figures: Ahomadegbe, Hubert Maga, and Sourou-Migan
Apithy. He was overthrown on October 26.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Ahomadegb%C3%A9)
1972 Oct 26, Major Mathieu
Kerekou (b.1933) took power in Dahomey (later Benin) in a coup and
proclaimed it a Marxist-Leninist state.
(www.answers.com/topic/ahmed-mathieu-kerekou)
1974 Oct 26, Mathieu Kerekou
(b.1933) seized power in Dahomey (later Benin) and ruled until 1991.
He was elected president in 1996 and served until 2006.
(WSJ, 3/20/96,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathieu_K%C3%A9r%C3%A9kou)
1975 May 25, ECOWAS Treaty1 was
signed. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was
formed in Nigeria with 15 members that included: Benin, Burkina
Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea,
Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone,
and Togo.
(www.sec.ecowas.int/sitecedeao/english/achievements.htm)
1975 Dahomey was renamed as
Benin. From 1960-1975 Benin was called the Republic of Dahomey.
(http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/Cambridge/entries/009/Benin-republic.html)
1989 Benin abolished Communism.
(http://tinyurl.com/9ryq5)
1990 Mar 1, Benin nullified its
constitution.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1991 Feb 17, Benin held
elections for the National Assembly, its first multi-party election
since 1964. No party secured an overall majority. The largest
grouping was an alliance of the pro-Soglo parties.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beninese_parliamentary_election,_1991)
1991 Mar 10, In Benin President
Kerekou was beaten by Nicephore Soglo (b.1934) in the first
multi-candidate presidential elections. A runoff on March 24 gave
Soglo 67.7% of the vote. Kerekou was granted immunity from
prosecution over actions taken since October 1972.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nic%C3%A9phore_Soglo)
1991 Apr 4, In Benin Nicephore
Soglo (1991-1996) took office as president. He had defeated Mathieu
Kerekou in the country’s first free presidential elections. For the
first time in mainland Africa a leader let himself be ousted
peacefully.
(http://people.africadatabase.org/en/person/3534.html)(Econ,
10/24/09, p.20)
1996 Jan 9, Benin’s President
Nicephoro Soglo's government said that, in an effort to "correct an
injustice," it was formally recognizing voodoo as a religion. He
declared Jan 10th as a voodoo holiday.
(www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/34/011.html)
1996 Mar 20, Mathieu Kerekou,
former Benin dictator, was elected over incumbent Nicephore Soglo.
(WSJ, 3/20/96, p.A-1)
1999 Apr 21, In Benin police
arrested Yacoubou Adam Fassassi, the Benin ambassador to the UN, for
alleged involvement in drug trafficking.
(SFC, 4/22/99, p.A15)
2000 Jun 23, The Cotonou
Agreement, a treaty between the European Union and the group of
African, Caribbean and Pacific states (ACP countries), was signed in
Cotonou, the largest city in Benin, by 79 ACP countries and the then
fifteen Member States of the EU. It entered into force in 2002 and
is the latest agreement in the history of ACP-EU Development
Cooperation. As of Dec 31, 2007, the Cotonou Agreement ceased to be
legal under the rules of the WTO.
(Econ, 5/28/05, p.78)(Econ, 1/5/08,
p.74)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotonou_Agreement)
2001 Apr 14, As many as 250
suspected child slaves were returned to Benin after being stranded
for weeks on a ship with limited supplies.
(SSFC, 4/15/01, p.D1)
2001 Apr 15, Benin authorities
sought Staneslas Abatan and 2 collaborators believed to be
responsible for the child slave ship off the coast of the Gulf of
Guinea. It was reported that human cargo had been shipped from Benin
to Gabon on the ship MV Etireno over the past 5 years. The Etireno
was later reported to have been confused with another ship, which
was missing. The slave ship was later held to be a false alarm. 30
of the children on the ferry remained unclaimed after 3 days at
dock.
(SFC, 4/16/01, p.A8)(SFC, 4/17/01, p.A10)(SFC,
4/18/01, p.A13)(SFC, 4/21/01, p.A16)
2003 Jan 10, Benin's National
Voodoo Day drew about 12,000 people.
(AP, 1/10/03)
2003 May 3, In Cotonou, Benin,
16 people died in a late night concert stampede at the gates of the
nation's Friendship Stadium.
(AP, 5/5/03)
2003 Oct 15, Nigerian police
returned 74 child workers to Benin. As young as 4 years old, their
skin broken and palms callused from months of hauling granite, they
received food, clothes and medical care in the West African state of
Benin after being rescued from the traffickers who sold them into
heavy labor. On Sept. 27 authorities brought back 116 children who
had been put to work in the granite quarries of southwest Nigeria.
(AP, 10/16/03)
2003 Dec 25, A passenger plane
bound for Beirut crashed into the sea shortly after takeoff from the
west African nation of Benin and at least 138 people, mostly
Lebanese, were killed. Some 35 people survived.
(AP, 12/25/03)(SFC, 12/26/03, p.A3)(AP, 12/27/03)
2004 Sep 15, Eight French
speaking African countries began retiring over 1 billion in decaying
currency with new CFA francs. Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau,
Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo had until Dec 31 to turn
in old bills for new ones.
(SFC, 9/15/04, p.C8)
2006 Mar 5, Benin held its 4th
presidential elections since multi-party democracy was introduced in
1990. A 2nd round would determine the winner.
(Econ, 3/18/06, p.50)
2006 May 24, In northern Benin
a tanker truck overturned and then exploded when people with
lanterns began siphoning gasoline. At least 35 people were killed.
(AP, 5/25/06)
2006 Nov 22, Police in the west
African state of Benin arrested two rebel leaders from the Central
African Republic (CAR), whose forces are waging a violent offensive
in their home country. The leader of the rebel Union of Democratic
Forces for Unity, Michel Am Non Droko Djotodia, and his spokesman
Abakar Sabone, were apprehended in Benin's capital, Cotonou, under
an international arrest warrant. In 2008 President Boni Yayi asked
for and obtained the lifting of the international arrest warrant"
for the two rebel leaders.
(AP, 11/25/06)(AFP, 2/19/08)
2007 Jan 1, Li Zhaoxing,
China's foreign minister, signed a string of accords in Benin as
part of a whistle-stop tour of seven African nations as Beijing
bolsters economic ties on the continent. From Benin Li flew to
Equatorial Guinea ahead of visits in the coming days to
Guinea-Bissau, Chad, the Central African Republic, Eritrea and
Botswana.
(AFP, 1/2/07)
2007 Feb 8, Benin, Nigeria, and
Togo formed a new regional body aimed at fast-tracking the
integration of their economies. The body, known as the Co-Prosperity
Alliance Zone (COPAZ), was formally inaugurated following a
mini-summit of Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo, Benin’s
President Boni Yayi and Togo’s President Faure Gnassingbe.
(AFP, 2/8/07)
2008 Feb 16, US President
George W. Bush in Benin, opening a five-country Africa tour,
stepped up pressure on Kenyan leaders to accept a power-sharing deal
to end their country's deadly political crisis.
(AFP, 2/16/08)
2009 Feb 27, The UN Children's
Fund said 53 million children are being targeted by a mass
immunization drive against polio in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory
Coast, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Togo. Some 844 polio cases were
reported in the 8 countries in 2008, 95% of them in Nigeria.
(AFP, 2/27/09)
2009 In the Ivory Coast a
random poll of 10 underage girls in Toulepleu by aid group Save The
Children U.K. found that eight performed sexual acts for UN-Benin
peacekeepers on a regular basis in order to secure their most basic
needs. A 2010 diplomatic cable revealed that "Eight of the 10 said
they had ongoing sexual relationships with Beninese soldiers in
exchange for food or lodging," citing information shared with the
embassy by a protection officer.
(AP, 9/1/11)
2010 Jul 1, In Benin Investment
Consultancy and Computering Services.(ICC) was forced to close, and
more than a dozen of its employees were jailed. More than a hundred
thousand people lost their savings in a Ponzi scheme run by the
company that appeared to be publicly endorsed by the country's
President Boni Yayi. In August the government said that more than
130,000 people gave their savings to the company and altogether lost
more than $130 million.
(AP, 9/1/10)
2010 Oct 18, A UN official said
flooding in the West African nation of Benin has killed 43 people
and left nearly 100,000 homeless, citing numbers collected since the
beginning of October.
(AFP, 10/18/10)
2010 Nov 1, The UN said
flooding in Benin has affected more than half a million people,
destroyed more than 300,000 acres of crops and killed 81,000
livestock.
(AP, 11/2/10)
2010 Dec 25, Benin said three
West African presidents will fly to Ivory Coast to tell incumbent
leader Laurent Gbagbo to quit or face force, a sign of mounting
regional determination to force him out.
(Reuters, 12/26/10)
2010 Dec 28, West African
leaders Boni Yayi of Benin, Sierra Leone's Ernest Bai Koroma and
Pedro Pires of Cape Verde met with incumbent Ivory Coast leader
Laurent Gbagbo to deliver an ultimatum from the ECOWAS regional bloc
to step down or face removal by force. But Gbagbo's government
signaled he was unlikely to agree to cede power to Alassane
Ouattara.
(Reuters, 12/28/10)(SFC, 12/29/10, p.A4)
2010 Benin’s population was
about 8.7 million people. The average yearly income hovered at
around $750.
(AP, 9/1/10)
2011 Mar 5, Benin's
presidential election, due to take place March 6, was postponed
until March 13. President Boni Yayi, first elected in 2006, faced 12
opposition candidates in his bid for a second term.
(AP, 3/6/11)
2011 Mar 13, Benin opened polls
for a twice-delayed presidential election after a last-minute
scramble to register hundreds of thousands of eligible voters left
off voter rolls. Pres. Boni Yayi sought a 2nd term against 13
candidates. Partial and unofficial results indicated President Boni
Yayi and his main challenger, Adrien Houngbedji, may be headed for a
run-off. On March 18 the country's electoral commission announced
that President Thomas Boni Yayi had received more than 53 percent of
the vote, giving him an absolute majority.
(AP, 3/13/11)(SFC, 3/14/11, p.A2)(AFP,
3/15/11)(AP, 3/19/11)
2011 Apr 30, Benin held
parliamentary elections. President Boni Yayi's allies won a majority
of seats in parliament following the polls.
(AFP, 5/6/11)
2011 May 7, Pirates robbed the
chemical tanker MT Sea King and its 17 Filipino crewmen in the port
of Benin's main city, Cotonou. Four days later Christopher Cortez
Ceprado, a Filipino seafarer, was found dead on the ship.
(www.filipinosabroad.com/?p=7134)
2011 Jul 24, Pirates seized the
Rbd Anema e Core, an Italian tanker with a crew of 23, off Benin in
the Gulf of Guinea.
(AFP, 7/24/11)
2011 Sep 14, Armed pirates
raided a tanker off the West African coast and kidnapped 23 sailors,
62 nautical miles from Benin's capital of Cotonou, as the
Cyprus-flagged vessel tried to transfer its cargo of crude oil to a
Norwegian-registered ship. Analysts believed many of the pirates
come from Nigeria, where corrupt law enforcement allows criminality
to thrive.
(AP, 9/14/11)
2011 Sep 13, Benin President
Thomas Boni Yayi held talks in China with his counterpart Hu Jintao
on further Chinese investment in the West African nation.
(AFP, 9/14/11)
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