The 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état was an event which took place on 3 January 1966 in the Republic of Upper Volta (today Burkina Faso), when following large-scale popular unrest the military intervened against the government, forced President Maurice Yaméogo to resign, and replaced him with Lieutenant Colonel Sangoulé Lamizana. Lamizana would go on to rule until 1980, when yet another military coup d'état overthrew him. The 1966 coup would prove to be the first in a long line of Upper Voltan and later Burkinabé coups, both failed and successful such, and marked the beginning of half a century of military rule.
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