Félix Houphouët-Boigny
18 October 1905 – 7 December 1993
Félix Houphouët-Boigny was an Ivorian physician, planter and politician who served as the first President of Ivory Coast from 1960 until his death in 1993. Before independence he was a deputy in the French National Assembly and a minister in French governments, and he sponsored the 1946 law abolishing forced labour in France's African territories. He moved the country's capital to his home town of Yamoussoukro in 1983.
Lived at the same time
Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Félix Houphouët-Boigny.
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- Charlotte Perriand (1903–1999) Overlapped 88 years →
- Deng Xiaoping (1904–1997) Overlapped 88 years →
- Habib Bourguiba (1903–2000) Overlapped 88 years →
- Vehbi Koç (1901–1996) Overlapped 88 years →
Life events
He was born on 18 October 1905 in the Baoulé region of the French colony of Ivory Coast.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe qualified as a medical assistant in 1925, graduating at the top of his class.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe worked in the colonial medical service for some fifteen years before turning to planting and politics.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe union of African planters campaigned against discriminatory colonial labour practices.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe represented Ivory Coast in Paris from 1945 and sat in the French National Assembly for many years afterwards.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe Houphouët-Boigny Law was adopted in April 1946; the same year he helped found the Rassemblement Démocratique Africain.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe held ministerial posts in Paris in the late 1950s, becoming the first African to do so.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgFollowing independence from France in August 1960, he took office as president in November and held the post for 33 years.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe basilica he commissioned at Yamoussoukro was consecrated by Pope John Paul II in September 1990.
Source: en.wikipedia.org