| Week
starting Saturday 6 August |
|
| Date |
Year |
Event |
|
| 13 |
1942 |
World War II: North Africa
With the death of Lieutenant General William 'Strafer' Gott, who was given
the command of the Eight Army on 3 August, in an air crash Churchill's
plans to split Middle East Command into two parts (Persia and Iraq under
General Sir Claude Auchinleck, and Egypt, Syria, and Palestine under
General Sir Harold Alexander) is dropped and overall command given to
Alexander. Gott's command of the Eighth Army is given to Lieutenant General
Bernard Law Montgomery. |
| 13 |
1960 |
Oubangi-Shari achieves independence as the Central
African Republic (CAR) with David Dacko, the cousin of the former Prime
Minister Barthélémy Boganda (who died mysteriously during the
presidential election campaign), as president. |
|
|
For more on 13 August |
|
| 14 |
1960 |
Belgian troops are finally replaced by UN peace-keeping
forces in the Republic of Congo. |
| 14 |
1989 |
President Pieter Willem Botha of South Africa announces
his resignation |
|
|
For more on 14 August |
|
| 15 |
1960 |
Congo-Brazzaville declares itself independent of France
(previously called Moyen Congo) as the newly instituted Republic of
Congo with Fulbert Youlou as its first president. Some confusion over the
country's title with the neighbouring Republic of Congo, Congo-Kinshasa,
seems inevitable. |
| 15 |
1983 |
Joshua Mqabuko Nyangolo Nkomo, considered by many to be
the true hero of the Zimbabwean independence struggle, returns to Harare
after several months exile in the UK. Nkomo had been implicated in a
planned Zimbabwean African People's Union (ZAPU) rebellion, in the
Matabeleland region of Zimbabwe, against President Robert Gabriel Mugabe's
Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) government. |
|
|
For more on 15 August |
|
| 16 |
1942 |
World War II: North Africa
US Army Air Force planes see action for the first time in North Africa,
bombing German military positions from their base in Egypt. |
| 16 |
1960 |
Patrice Lumumba declares martial law in the Katanga
region of the Congo as a result of the continuing sessession crisis.. |
|
|
For more on 16 August |
|
| 17 |
1940 |
World War II: East Africa
A revolt is started in Abyssinia by those loyal to the Emperor, Haile
Selassie. |
| 17 |
1960 |
Gabon, the last of the four territories which had formed
French Equatorial Africa, achieves independence with Gabriel Léon M'Ba as
president. |
|
|
For more on 17 August |
|
| 18 |
1935 |
An Anglo-French plan to give Italy economic concessions
if they renounce their claims for Ethiopia are rejected by Italy during
talks in Paris. Mussolini is now demanding full control of Ethiopia. |
| 18 |
1968 |
Biafran separatists reject a Nigerian peace offer. |
|
|
For more on 18 August |
|
| 19 |
1940 |
World War II: East Africa
British Somaliland has been yielded to Italy following their invasion which
started on 4 August. |
| 19 |
1968 |
Nigeria's Federal troops have launched a major offensive
against multiple targets in Biafra. Despite claims of 2,000 people being
massacred, the leader of the Nigerian military government, General Yakubu
Gowon, has stated that his troops are 'behaving correctly'. |
|
|
For more on 19 August |
|
