Death of Algerian President Houari Bouemdienne

Houari Boumedienne had been a leader in the Algerian fight for independence from France. In July 1965 he led a military coup which ousted Muhammad Ahmed Ben Bella from Power. Ben Bella had declared Algeria to be a socialist state and made his party , the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN, National Liberation Front) the only legal political party.

After 11 years under a military government Boumedienne was elected president, and the following year, 1977, a National Assembly was elected (again only with members form the FLN). Boumedienne died in office on 27 December 1978 and was succeeded by Chadli Bendjedid. Benjedid introduced multi-party elections in 1991.