Nigeria Timeline of Events

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Nigeria

Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in the north. Its coast in the south lies on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean...

Timeline of Events

1861

8.6.1861

The United Kingdom annexes Lagos, Nigeria.

1901

1.1.1901

Nigeria becomes a British protectorate.

1960

10.1.1960

Nigeria gains independence from the United Kingdom.

10.7.1960

Nigeria joins the United Nations.

1966

1.15.1966

The government of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa in Nigeria is overthrown in a military coup d’état.

1967

5.30.1967

The Nigerian Eastern Region declares independence as the Republic of Biafra, sparking a civil war.

1969

6.30.1969

Nigeria bans Red Cross aid to Biafra.

1970

1.15.1970

After a 32-month fight for independence from Nigeria, Biafra surrenders.

1995

11.10.1995

In Nigeria, playwright and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, along with eight others from the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop), are hanged by government forces.

1998

10.17.1998

At Jesse, in the Niger Delta, Nigeria, a petroleum pipeline explodes killing about 1200 villagers, some of whom are scavenging gasoline.

1999

2.27.1999

Olusegun Obasanjo becomes Nigeria's first elected president since mid-1983.

5.29.1999

Olusegun Obasanjo takes office as President of Nigeria, the first elected and civilian head of state in Nigeria after 16 years of military rule.

2002

5.4.2002

An EAS Airlines BAC 1-11-500 crashes in a suburb of Kano, Nigeria shortly after takeoff killing more than 148 people.

11.22.2002

In Nigeria, more than 100 people are killed at an attack aimed at the contestants of the Miss World contest.

2004

5.2.2004

Yelwa massacre of more than 630 nomad Muslims by Christians in Nigeria.