Timeline Benin
Return to home
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 Mar, In Benin President
Kerekou was beaten by Nicephore Soglo in the first multi-candidate
presidential elections. Kerekou was granted immunity from prosecution
over actions taken since October 1972.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/country_profiles/3638535.stm)
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.
(Econ, 3/18/06,
p.50)(http://people.africadatabase.org/en/person/3534.html)
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)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = Benin
End of file.