1969 — Eduardo Mondlane Assassinated by Letter Bomb

On February 3, 1969, Eduardo Mondlane, founder and president of FRELIMO, the movement fighting Portuguese rule in Mozambique, was killed by a parcel bomb in Dar es Salaam. The bomb was hidden inside a book delivered to FRELIMO's offices on Nkrumah Street.

The killing is widely blamed on Portugal's secret police, though it remains officially unsolved. Mondlane had built the movement that carried Mozambique's liberation struggle, and his death struck at its head far from the battlefield. Yet the cause he founded outlived him: six years later, Mozambique won its freedom from Portugal. That a book was the weapon made the murder colder still: the post brought its leader's death to his own desk.