1951 — Libya's Independence

On December 24, 1951, Libya declared independence in Benghazi — the first country in Africa to become free through the United Nations. King Idris I took the throne of the United Kingdom of Libya, uniting Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, and Fezzan into a single kingdom from lands long treated as separate pieces on a map.

A land of desert and oil discoveries to come, Libya went from one of the world's poorest nations to a kingdom built on what lay beneath the sand. The route matters: Libya's freedom came through a decision of the world body, a first for the continent, and three regions were joined under one crown on a December day in Benghazi.