On this day in 1956, the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) was founded. Initially committed to peaceful change, PAIGC turned to armed struggle following the Pidjiguiti Massacre. PAIGC had six founding members, including Amílcar Cabral and his half-brother Luís.

Originally formed to peacefully campaign for independence from Portugal, the party turned to armed conflict after the Pidjiguiti Massacre in 1956, where police fired into a crowd of striking workers, killing dozens.

PAIGC was one of the belligerents in the Guinea-Bissau War of Independence, fought against Portugal. Towards the end of the war, the party established a Marxist-Leninist one-party state, which remained intact until multi-party democracy was introduced in the early 1990s.