Equatorial Guinea Independence Day

This day commemorates when Equatorial Guinea marked independence from Spain in 1968. The Portuguese first colonised one of the islands Bioko in 1471, but ceded its control to Spain in 1778 under the Treaty of El Pardo. In 1900 it became a colony called Spanish Guinea, it was split into two provinces in 1959, and then both were joined in 1963 to become Equatorial Guinea. Under pressure from the United Nations, Spain announced that it would grant independence in 1968.