February 23, 1981 (Monday)
- 23-F: At 6:25 pm, the Congress of Deputies of Spain was taken over by 200 members of the Guardia Civil, led by Lt. Col. Antonio Tejero Molina, who seized control of the Cortes building and took 347 legislators hostage. The Deputies were voting on whether to approve Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo as the new Prime Minister. The attempted coup failed seven hours later after King Juan Carlos refused to cooperate with the plotters, and then received the support of the rest of the military. The King appeared on television at 1:24 the next morning and announced the end of the crisis. Lt. Col. Tejero, Lt. Gen. Jaime Milans del Bosch, and the King's aide, General Alfonso Armada, were later arrested.
- Died: Shep Fields, 70, American band leader
Read more about this topic: February 1981
Famous quotes containing the word february:
“If a man is a good lawyer, a good physician, a good engineer ... he may be a fool in every other capacity. But no deficiency or mistake of judgment is forgiven to a woman ... and should she fail anywhere, if she has any scientific attainment, or artistic faculty, instead of standing her interest as an excuse, it is censured as an aggravation and offence.”
—E.P.P., U.S. women’s magazine contributor. The Una, p. 28 ( February 1855)