National Day in Benin

It may be recalled that Benin, former Dahomey, is perhaps the "most beaten track by Europeans of any Africa". Each year on August 1, the Republic of Benin celebrates its Independence Day commemorating the day in 1960 on which it gained its full independence from France. It is celebrated as the country’s National Day, a public holiday.

If the first independent Government was ousted by a military coup on October 28, 1963, Dahomey, during the ensuing years up to 1972, went through a lot of political upheavals that always climaxed in military coups. That of October 26, 1972 was the starting point of a 17-year regime which three years later went red with a Marxist Leninist ideology. In other words, on November 30, 1975 Dahomey was under a centrally controlled government and eventually became the People's Republic of Benin.