Ethiopia

State · 1942–2026 CE · at its largest around 1956 CE

The ancient East African country, restored to independence in 1941 after Italian occupation, under Emperor Haile Selassie. He was deposed in 1974 by the Marxist Derg, which was in turn overthrown in 1991.

On its lands while it lasted

Haile Selassie (1892 CE – 1975 CE): Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974 who appealed to the League of Nations against the Italian invasion; deposed by the Derg military junta in 1974.
African Unity founded (1963 CE): Founded in Addis Ababa on 25 May 1963 by 32 independent African states to promote unity and end colonialism; replaced by the African Union in 2002.
Aden (c. 1969 CE): Capital of People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (1969–1989), Republic of Yemen (1990–1990).
Lucy discovered (1974 CE): Partial skeleton of Australopithecus afarensis about 3.2 million years old, found at Hadar in 1974 by Donald Johanson's team.
1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia (1983–1985 CE): Famine in northern Ethiopia, worsened by drought and civil war, that killed hundreds of thousands and prompted Band Aid and Live Aid.
Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (2011 CE): Hydroelectric dam on the Blue Nile begun in 2011, the largest in Africa; it has been a source of dispute with Egypt and Sudan.
Yemeni civil war (2014 CE): Houthi forces seized Sanaa in 2014 and a Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015; the war has caused one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
Tigray War (2020–2022 CE): Armed conflict between Ethiopia's federal government, allied with Eritrea, and the Tigray People's Liberation Front, which caused mass casualties and famine conditions.