FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
December 4, 1892 - Spanish dictator Francisco Franco was born
Franco ruled Spain with an iron fist from the end of the Civil War in 1939 until his death in 1975. He rose to power after his nationalist forces, heavily aided by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, defeated the Second Republic in a brutal civil war.
As “El Caudillo” (The Boss), he established a harsh authoritarian regime that suppressed any opposition. Always devoted to the military, Franco made a rapid career as a military commander in the Spanish colonies of Morocco. He became the youngest general in Europe.
But the fall of the monarchy and the advent of the Second Republic, with its reforms against the army and the church, made him an outspoken opponent of the new regime. When a leftist coalition won the 1936 elections, Franco joined a military coup.
After the uprising began, he took command of the rebel forces and secured the decisive support of Hitler and Mussolini. This assistance also determined the course of the Spanish Civil War in favor of the Nationalists.
After three years of war, with horrific destruction and mass executions on both sides, Franco's forces emerged victorious. With the cessation of fighting, he immediately began a systematic suppression of the remnants of the opposition through military trials, imprisonments, and mass executions, consolidating his absolute control.
Franco's Spain was a closed and centralized state. He made Catholicism the sole official religion, banned the public use of regional languages such as Catalan and Basque, and banned any independent trade unions. A vast network of secret police monitored society to suppress any dissent against the regime.
During World War II, Franco maintained a formal neutrality, but in practice was inclined towards the Axis powers. This plunged Spain into international isolation in the years after the war, until the context of the Cold War made it a useful ally for the West against communism, leading to the achievement of a military agreement with the United States.
In the final decades of the regime, as Franco aged, some of the most stringent measures began to be lifted. Control over the media was eased somewhat, and the economy began to open up to tourism and some market reforms. However, the authoritarian core of the regime remained unchanged until the end.
Franco died in November 1975. He appointed King Juan Carlos as his successor, but this did not preserve the dictatorship. The new king led a volatile but successful transition to democracy, ending a dark era in Spanish history.
Other important events
December 4, 1642 - Cardinal Richelieu, the plenipotentiary minister of the French king Louis XIII, dies in Paris. He helped strengthen royal power and founded the French Academy.
December 4, 1918 - US President Woodrow Wilson travels to Europe to attend the peace talks at Versailles, following the end of World War I. He was the first US president to visit the old continent while in office.
December 4, 1942 - During World War II, the Germans launch Operation "Winter Storm", a major offensive to liberate part of the army already surrounded by the Soviets in Stalingrad.
December 4, 1943 - In Yugoslavia, communist leader Josip Broz Tito proclaims a provisional democratic state from illegality.
December 4, 1945 - With 65 votes in favor and 7 against, the US Senate approves the United States' membership in the UN.
December 4, 1975 - Prominent German-American philosopher Hannah Arendt dies. She wrote 18 books and numerous articles, on topics ranging from totalitarianism to epistemology, and which had a lasting influence on contemporary political philosophy.
Born in Königsberg, Germany to a Jewish family, she left the country in 1933 when the Nazis came to power, and lived in transit in Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, and France, before finally settling in the United States in 1941. During World War II, Arend worked for Youth Aliyah, a Zionist organization that saved thousands of children from the Holocaust by sending them to Palestine.
December 4, 1977 - A Malaysian civilian airliner is hijacked and crashed in Tanjong Kupang, killing all 100 people on board.
December 4, 1991 - The famous company "Pan American World Airways" declares bankruptcy and ceases to operate after 64 years. / Prepared by Pamphlet
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