Patrice Lumumba, Congolese independence leader and the first democratically elected leader of the Congo, is arrested after an American-Belgian backed coup d’etat on 1 December 1960 and flown to Léopoldville (now Kinshasa). Lumumba is charged with inciting the army to rebellion and other crimes by General Mobutu who would subsequently become president from 1965 -1997.

Lumumba was secretly executed by firing squad on 17 January 1961 in the state of Katanga. Image composed from numerous world press newsreels.