This Day in History: April 27, 1972
Kwame Nkrumah became the first prime minister and president of Ghana in 1957 until 1966.Ghana (formerly known as The Gold Coast) gained its independence and became a republic in 1960. Nkrumah was a founder of the Convention People’s Party. Nkrumah experienced several assassination attempts. The first assassination attempt on Nkrumah took place in October 1962. Presumably the assassination attempts were precipitated by Nkrumah’s announcement to ban opposition parties in 1960. Consequently opposition to his governance grew and led to several militants’ arrests. In 1966 while Nkrumah was on a visit to China, he was deposed by the police and military. He spent his later years in exile in Bucharest, Romania. Kwame Nkrumah died on 27 April 1972.