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This month’s anniversaries      

1 Jan 1924 birth of Francisco Macías Nguema, first president of Equatorial Guinea (1968–1979)
1 Jan 1956 independence of Sudan (from British-Egyptian condominium)
1 Jan 1960 independence of Cameroon (from UN mandate administered by France)
8–9 Jan 1324 death of Marco Polo, Venetian merchant traveller who passed through the Middle East on his way to China
9 Jan 1909 birth of Anthony Joseph Mamo, first president of Malta (1974–1976)
9 Jan 1922 birth of Ahmed Sékou Touré, first president of Guinea (1958–1984)
13 Jan 1963 assassination of Sylvanus Epiphanio Olympio, first president of Togo (1960–1963)
15 Jan 1918 birth of Gamal Abdel Nasser, second president of Egypt (1956–1970), one of towering political figures in modern Arab history
17 Jan 1961 assassination of Patrice Émery Lumumba, first prime minister of the Congo (present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo) (1960)
20 Jan 1973 assassination of Amílcar Lopes da Costa Cabral, founder of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde, one of Africa’s foremost anti-colonial leaders
20 Jan 1994 death of Jaramogi Ajuma Oginga Odinga, prominent figure in Kenya’s struggle for independence, first vice-president of Kenya (1964–1966)
24 Jan 1915 death of William Henry Irvine Shakespear, British traveller in Arabia
24 Jan 1967 death of Ján Bakoš, Slovak Arabist and Semitist
25 Jan 1922 foundation of the Oriental Institute in Prague (present-day Oriental Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic)
25 Jan 1948 birth of Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, president of United Arab Emirates, ruler of Abu Dhabi (since 2004)
25 Jan 2011 start of revolution in Egypt against Hosni Mubarak regime
26 Jan 1852 birth of Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, French explorer of Italian descent, traveller in West Africa
28 Jan 1841 birth of Henry Morton Stanley, British traveller in Africa
31 Jan 1893 birth of Freya Madeline Stark, British traveller in the Middle East, writer