Although it occurred some weeks before, the execution/murder of Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba only became public on February 13, 1961.

A week later, on February 20, pro-Lumumba forces in Stanleyville (today, Kisangani) shot approximately 15 prisoners in retaliation. Stanleyville was the headquarters of Lumumba ally Antoine Gizenga, whose enclave the late Lumumba had been trying to reach when he was captured. In the confused post-Lumumba days, Gizenga elevated himself to head of state for the rebellious Lumumbist state; 21 Communist-backed states would recognize this as Congo’s legitimate government, in opposition to the official one of Joseph Kasavubu.

Those suffering the Lumumba-backers’ wrath this date included ten politicians — notably Alfonse Songolo, a former Lumumbist minister who had prominently broken with that faction after Lumumba was deposed the previous autumn — plus five soldiers in the anti-Lumumba force of the bright young officer and future definitive author of Congolese horrors, Joseph-Desire Mobutu.

The London Times had reported (Feb. 23-24) that “usually well-informed sources” alleged the execution, but that the U.N. was unable itself to confirm the fact independently.

On this day..

• 2019: Nine for assassinating Hisham Barakat
• 1942: The Laha Massacre
• 1948: Thomas Henry McGonigle, murder without a body
• 1592: Thomas Pormort, prey of Richard Topcliffe
• 1810: Andreas Hofer, Tyrolean patriot
• 1942: Max Hertz, chronicled by Oskar Rosenfeld
• 1645: Conor Macguire, Lord Baron of Enniskillen
• 1677: Five witches at the Gallowgreen of Paisley
• 1570: Hegumen Kornily of the Pskov-Pechery Monastery
• 1388: Nicholas Brembre, Mayor of London
• 1258: Al-Musta'sim, the last Abbasid Caliph
• 1939: Georgy Nikolayevich Kosenko (aka Kislov), NKVD spy