On this date in 1978, the South Yemen president Salim Rubai Ali was executed after an attempted self-coup.
The very first president of the short-lived (1967-1990) polity, Salim had been an anti-colonial fighter in the National Liberation Front but had his reservations about his coalition partner’s tilt towards the Soviet model and figured he wouldn’t mind being solely in charge.
He attempted in June 1978 to seize power against other top coalition officials; Ali Nasir Muhammad, who is still an important political figure in unified Yemen to this day, overthrew the short-lived putsch and executed the former boss.
On this day..
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- 1917: Dragutin "Apis" Dimitrijevic, of the Black Hand
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- 1621: Christenze Kruckow, philanthropic witch
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- 1668: A Dutch suicide, posthumously gibbeted
- 1943: Marianne Elise Kurchner condemned for a joke
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- 1885: James Arcene, the youngest juvenile offender hanged in the US?
- 1574: Gabriel de Lorges, accidental regicide
- 1979: Two former dictators of Ghana with four of their aides