TODAY IN HISTORY

|ALGERIA GAINS ITS INDEPENDENCE|

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On this day in 1962, French President Charles De Gaulle pronounced Algeria an independent country, thus ending 132 years of French colonial rule in the North African Country.

The pronouncement came after the signing of the Évian Accords—a treaty between France and the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic—which ended a 7-year long violent war for independence.

Ahmed Ben Bella became the country’s first president.