page_title: April 1980
section_title: April 12, 1980 (Saturday)
hierarchical_section_title: April 1980 / April 12, 1980 (Saturday)
context_page_description: The following events happened in April 1980:
context_section_description: Master Sergeant Samuel K. Doe of the Liberian Army overthrew the government of Liberia in a violent coup d'état', ending over 130 years of democratic presidential succession and Americo-Liberians rule in that country. William Tolbert, President of Liberia since 1971, was shot and killed by Sergeant Harrison Pennoh at the Presidential Mansion in Monrovia. Master Sgt. Doe, age 28, became the new President as chairman of the National Redemption Council.  He gave a 12-minute speech and pledged "a new society without discrimination" between the privileged descendants of former American slaves and the descendants of area natives.  "Gone forever are the days of 'Who do you know,' and 'Do you know who I am?' Doe said. "We now enter a time of 'What can you do?'".  He added that "Privilege had held down our people too long."   Another 26 surviving members of Tolbert's cabinet and staff were arrested, tried and executed 10 days later.  Liberia's Vice President, Bennie Warner, was spared the carnage because he was in the United States, attending a conference of United Methodist Church ministers in Nashville, Indiana.
  Fifty-five of the 58 people board Transbrasil Flight 303 were killed when the Boeing 727, crashed into a mountain as it approached the airport in Florianópolis in Brazil. The airliner impacted at 8:38 in the evening partway through the end of a three-stop flight from São Paulo.
  The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) House of Delegates voted, 1,604 to 797, in favor of U.S. President Carter's request to boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.  The vote came at the USOC meeting in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
  Terry Fox began his Marathon of Hope, a plan to run from one side of Canada to the other, starting at St. Johns in Newfoundland.  Fox, who had a prosthetic right leg after an amputation for cancer in 1977, had decided to make the cross-Canada run as a fundraiser for the Canadian Cancer Society.
  Born: Brian McFadden, Irish singer and songwriter for Westlife and later as a solo artist; in Dublin
  Died: 
  Clark McConachy, 84, New Zealand World Professional Billiards Champion from 1951 until 1968
  Stanley de Silva, 23, Sri Lanka national team cricketer, was killed in a motorcycle accident at Balapitiya.
caption: Liberian flag