Jean-Bédel Bokassa

Jean-Bédel Bokassa was born on February 22, 1921, in Bobangui into a M'Baka chieftain family. Joining the Free French forces during World War II, Bokassa fought in the Rhine campaign and the First Indochina War, earning the Legion of Honour and Croix de Guerre over two decades of French military service.

In December 1965, as army chief of staff, Bokassa staged the Saint-Sylvestre coup, deposing his cousin David Dacko. In December 1977, in a spectacle costing tens of millions of dollars, he crowned himself Emperor Bokassa I of the Central African Empire. Deposed in September 1979 by French military intervention (Operation Caban), he was later tried in Bangui, cleared of capital charges, and lived quietly until his death in 1996.