Historical calendar/ What happened on October 9?

2023-10-09 08:29:00, Blog CNA

1967 - Bolivian forces execute renowned communist revolutionary leader Ernesto Che Guevara

Socialist revolutionary and guerrilla leader Ernesto Che Guevara, 39, is killed by the Bolivian army. Bolivian forces backed by the US military captured Guevara on October 8 while fighting his guerrilla band in Bolivia and executed him the next day.

His hands were cut off as evidence of death, while his body was buried in an unmarked grave. However, in 1997, Guevara's remains were found and returned to Cuba, where they were reburied in a ceremony attended by then-president and close friend Fidel Castro and thousands of Cubans.

Ernesto Rafael Guevara De la Serna was born into a wealthy family in Argentina in 1928. While studying medicine at the University of Buenos Aires, he took a few weeks off to travel around South America on a motorcycle. During this time, he witnessed the poverty and oppression of the lower classes.

He graduated in medicine in 1953 and continued his travels through Latin America, getting involved in the activities of far-left organizations. In the mid-1950s, Guevara met with Fidel Castro and his group of exiled revolutionaries in Mexico. He played a key role in Castro's seizure of power by toppling Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959, and later served as Castro's right-hand man and Minister of Industry in his government. Guevara opposed US dominance in Latin America and advocated revolutions that had the support of the peasantry to fight social injustice in Third World countries.

Guevara resigned—some claim he was fired—as minister in April 1965, possibly due to disagreements with Castro over the country's economic and foreign policies. He left Cuba, and went for some time to Africa to end up in Bolivia, where he was killed.

After his death, Guevara achieved hero status among people around the world as a symbol of anti-imperialism and revolution. A 1960 photo taken by Alberto Korda showing Geevara in a beret became iconic, and has since appeared on many posters and t-shirts. But not everyone considers Guevara a hero. He is accused of ordering the death of hundreds of people in Cuban prisons.

Other important events:

1779 - In Manchester, England, the "Luddite" riots begin, as a reaction against the introduction of mechanized machinery into use in factories, which gradually replaced manual labor.

1934 - In the French city of Marseille, a Macedonian revolutionary linked to Croatian terrorists in Hungary assassinates King Alexander I of Yugoslavia and the French foreign minister, Louis Bartou, in an assassination attempt.

1940 - The famous British singer John Lennon, member of the music group "Beatles", was born.

1944 - Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin meet to divide their spheres of influence in post-war Europe. The division they made remained in effect until the early 1990s.

1970 - In Cambodia, the Communists announce the establishment of the Khmer Rouge Republic. The civil war that followed this act would cause the death of hundreds of thousands of people in 2 years.

2012 - The Taliban seriously injure young Pakistani women's rights activist Malala Yousafzai. She survived the attack, and has since become one of the leading voices for girls' education in the world./ Adapted from CNA