1981 — Rawlings's Second Coup

On New Year's Eve 1981, Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings staged his second coup, overthrowing President Hilla Limann and installing the Provisional National Defence Council in Ghana. Rawlings accused the government of corruption and economic failure — inflation had topped 140 percent — and seized the year's final day to bring down an elected president.

Rawlings first tried a Marxist experiment, then embraced IMF-backed reforms. He ruled until 2001, guiding Ghana toward multiparty democracy in 1992. His long arc is the paradox of this date: a soldier who twice took power by force became the ruler who led Ghana back to multiparty elections, then finally left office two decades after that New Year's Eve.