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The Saint-Sylvestre coup d'état was a coup d'état staged by Jean-Bédel Bokassa, leader of the Central African Republic army, and his military officers against the government of President David Dacko on 31 December 1965 and 1 January 1966. Dacko was aware that Bokassa had made plans to take over his government, and countered by forming the gendarmerie headed by Jean Izamo. Bokassa and his men started the coup on New Year's Eve in 1965 by first capturing Izamo and locking him in a cellar at Camp de Roux. They then occupied the capital, Bangui, and overpowered the gendarmerie and other resistance. After midnight, Dacko was arrested and forced to resign from office and then imprisoned at Camp Kassaï. According to official reports, eight people died while resisting the coup. Izamo was tortured to death within a month, but Dacko's life was spared due to foreign intervention. Soon after the coup, Bokassa dissolved the National Assembly, abolished the Constitution and issued a number of decrees, banning begging, female circumcision, and polygamy, among other things. Bokassa initially struggled to obtain international recognition for his regime, but the new government eventually obtained recognition from other African nations.

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George John Douglas Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll KG, KT, PC, FRS, FRSE (30 April 1823 – 24 April 1900), styled Marquess of Lorne until 1847, was a Scottish peer, Liberal politician as well as a writer on science, religion, and the politics of the 19th century.

Did you know...

• ...that the Communist League of America was formed after some members of the Communist Party USA were expelled for Trotskyism?
• ...that the 1968 pamphlet Is the School House the Proper Place to Teach Raw Sex? claimed that sex education was a Communist conspiracy?
• ...that the American Society of Magazine Editors book The Best American Magazine Writing 2007 features investigative journalism about the Beslan school hostage crisis and survivors of Agent Orange?
• ...that the Libyan opposition has embraced "Zenga Zenga", an Israeli-created auto-tuned song and viral YouTube video that parodies Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi (pictured)?
• ...that just before the invasion of Poland, members of the German minority from Deutscher Volksverband were trained in sabotage by the Abwehr agents arriving in Poland from Germany?
• ...that the 2013 United States federal budget may impose a 23% cut on the defense budget due to the Budget Control Act of 2011, according to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta?

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Selected biography

Barack Obama (born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was president of the Harvard Law Review. He served three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004, running unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in 2000. He began his presidential campaign in 2007, and in 2008, after a close primary campaign against Hillary Rodham Clinton, he won sufficient delegates in the Democratic party primaries to receive the presidential nomination. He then defeated Republican nominee John McCain in the general election, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Nine months later, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. In foreign policy, Obama ended U.S. military involvement in the Iraq War, increased troop levels in Afghanistan, signed the New START arms control treaty with Russia, ordered U.S. military involvement in Libya, and ordered the military operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden.

News and Current Events

• May 19: White House releases Benghazi emails
• May 14: Australian Treasurer hands down budget, announces two years of deficits
• May 10: Former Pennsylvania Governor George Leader dies aged 95
• May 9: Lord Falconer proposes bill to legalise assisted dying for terminal ill in UK
• May 3: President Obama renews his push to close Guantanamo detention facility
• April 28: As Italy prepares for new government, shots fired near prime minister's office
• April 19: Gun background checks a no-go in US Senate
• April 15: Nuclear weapons protest at Faslane leads to 47 arrests
• April 14: BBC to play 'four to five seconds' of Thatcher protest song
• April 13: French Senate vote in support of same-sex marriage

Other current events:

• Iran's nuclear program
• United States debt-ceiling crisis
• European sovereign-debt crisis

In this month

• May 5, 2005 – A General Election in the United Kingdom sees Tony Blair's Labour government returned to office with a reduced majority of 66.
• May 14, 1948 – The Declaration of Independence of Israel is made.
• May 18, 1948 – The first Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China officially convenes in Nanking.

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