Timeline of Portuguese History - 20th Century

20th Century

Year Date Event
1906 João Franco is appointed as Prime Minister of Portugal.
Big strike of the typographers.
Foundation of the Escola Superior Colonial (Superior Colonial School)
1907 João Franco establishes a Dictatorship within the framework of the Monarchy.
Student's strike at the University of Coimbra.
1908 Manuel II of Portugal, King Carlos youngest son, becomes king.
The Portuguese Republican Party manages to elect all its candidates in the local elections of Lisbon.
28 January Failed Republican revolutionary attempt. The conspirators are arrested.
1 February February 1, King Carlos I of Portugal and his son and heir, prince Luis Filipe, Duke of Braganza, are killed in the Regicide of Lisbon by Alfredo Costa and Manuel Buiça, republicans of the Carbonária (the Portuguese section of the Carbonari).
1909 King Manuel II of Portugal goes in a personal trip to Madrid, London and Paris.
The Portuguese Republican Party's Conference takes place in Setúbal, where the motion to accelerate the revolutionary movement to establish the Republic is approved.
In Lisbon a demonstration with more than 100,000 persons protests against the political and economical situation of the Monarchy.
1910 4 October Beginning of the Republican Revolution.
Beginning of the Republican Revolution. The Republic is proclaimed in Loures, just north of Lisbon.
5 October The last King of Portugal, Manuel II of Portugal, flees into exile. After Manuel, several lines of pretenders ensued.
The Portuguese Republic is officially proclaimed in Lisbon. End of the Monarchy.
The Republican Revolution, supported by popular uprising and virtually no resistance, is victorious and puts an end to the Monarchy.
The last King of Portugal, Manuel II of Portugal, and the Portuguese Royal Family embark in Ericeira for exile in England.
The Republic is officially proclaimed in Lisbon.
1917 Portugal joins the allied forces in World War I.
1918 The Monarchy of the North is proclaimed in Porto, and the restoration of the Portuguese monarchy lasts for about a month before being crushed by republican forces.
1921 The Portuguese Communist Party was founded from the ranks of the Portuguese Maximalist Federation as the Portuguese Section of the Communist International.
1925 Bernardino Machado is elected President of the Republic for the 2nd time.
1926 The 28 May 1926 military coup d'état ends the 1st Portuguese Republic.
27 May The General Manuel de Oliveira Gomes da Costa arrives at Braga with the purpose of initiating a Coup d'état.
The Republican Government and Prime Minister António Maria da Silva, knowing of the forthcoming coup, try to organize resistance believing the uprising can be defeated.
28 May A Military coup d'état (henceforth known as the 28th May 1926 coup d'état) begins in Braga led by Gomes da Costa. Believing to have failed, Gomes da Costa announces his surrender.
29 May The Portuguese Communist Party interrupts its 2nd Congress due to the political and military situation.
The Confederação Geral do Trabalho (national trade union center) declares its neutrality in the military confrontations.
The Military Coup spreads to the rest of the country, by influence of Mendes Cabeçadas, Sinel de Cordes and Óscar Carmona, and establishes the Ditadura Nacional (National Dictatorship) against the democratic but unstable 1st Republic.
The Government of Prime Minister António Maria da Silva resigns.
30 May The General Gomes da Costa is acclaimed in Porto.
The President of the Republic, Bernardino Machado, resigns.
José Mendes Cabeçadas Júnior becomes Prime Minister and President of the Republic.
3 June António de Oliveira Salazar becomes Minister of Finance, he resigns 16 days after nomination.
The Congress of the Republic of Portugal (National Assembly) is dissolved by dictatorial decree.
All heads of Municipalities are substituted.
The Carbonária (the Portuguese section of the Carbonari) is banned.
All Political parties are banned.
17 June General Gomes da Costa provokes a military coup.
19 June General Gomes da Costa becomes Prime Minister.
22 June Censorship is instituted.
29 June General Gomes da Costa becomes President of the Republic.
9 July General Gomes da Costa is obliged to step down and goes into exile.
General António Óscar de Fragoso Carmona, of the conservative military wing, becomes Prime Minister.
15 September Failed military coup.
18 September Failed military coup.
29 November General António Óscar Carmona becomes President of the Republic.
16 December The Police of Information of Lisbon, a Political Police, is created.
1927 The Confederação Geral do Trabalho (national trade union center) is dissolved.
February Failed Republican revolutionary attempt against the Ditadura Nacional in Porto and Lisbon.
26 March The Police of Information of Porto, a Political Police, is created.
17 May Minimum School years are reduced from the 6th to the 4th grade; in all levels of non-university schooling students are divided by sex.
August Failed right wing military coup.
1 December Students demonstrate in Lisbon against the Ditadura Nacional.
1928 General António Óscar de Fragoso Carmona remains President of the Republic.
Acordo Missionário (Missionary Agreement) between the Catholic Church and the Portuguese Republic, giving special status to the action of the Catholic Church in Portugal's colonies.
Failed Republican revolutionary attempt against the Ditadura Nacional.
The Portuguese Communist Party's Main Office is closed.
February The Comissão de Propaganda da Ditadura (Commission for the Propaganda of the Dictatorship) is created.
17 March The Police of Information of Porto and Lisbon are fused.
18 April General José Vicente de Freitas becomes Prime Minister.
26 April António de Oliveira Salazar becomes Minister of Finance for the 2nd time.
1929 Catholic religious institutes are again permitted in Portugal.
The Portuguese Communist Party is reorganized under Bento Gonçalves. Adapting the Party to its new illegal status, the reorganization creates a net of clandestine cells to avoid the wave of detentions.
8 July Artur Ivens Ferraz becomes Prime Minister.
1930 The Acto Colonial (Colonial Act) is published, defining the status of Portuguese colonies (Angola, Cabinda, Cape Verde, Portuguese Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe, Mozambique, Portuguese India, Portuguese Timor and Macau).
The fundamental principles of the new regime are present by António de Oliveira Salazar in the 4th anniversary of the 28 May Revolution.
21 January Domingos da Costa e Oliveira becomes Prime Minister.
1932 5 July António de Oliveira Salazar becomes Prime Minister.
1933 A new Constitution is approved in a false referendum, defining Portugal as a Corporative, Single Party and Multi-continental country (in Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania).
A fascist-leaning right-wing Dictatorial regime entitled Estado Novo is installed.
The Single Party União Nacional (National Union) is created.
The Estatuto do Trabalho Nacional (Code of National Labour) is published, prohibiting all free trade unions.
A Political Police, the PVDE (Polícia de Vigilância e de Defesa do Estado; State Defense and Vigilance Police) is created.
Censorship, particularly of the Mass media, is systematic and generalized.
1935 The Portuguese Communist Party's Secretary General Bento Gonçalves participates in the 7th Congress of the Comintern. Soon after returning to Portugal he is arrested by the Political Police PVDE.
1936 The concentration camp for political prisoners of Tarrafal is created in the colony of Portuguese Cape Verde, under direct control of the political police PVDE.
The political police PVDE focuses its action against Communism and the underground Portuguese Communist Party. During this pre-World War II period, several Italian Fascist and German Nazi advisors came to Portugal, to help the PVDE adopt a model similar to the Gestapo.
19 May Creation of the Mocidade Portuguesa (Portuguese Youth), a compulsory paramilitary youth organization similar to the Hitler Youth.
July Beginning of the Spanish Civil War; Portugal promptly supports Nationalist Spain under General Francisco Franco and sends military aid (the Battalion of the Viriatos) in their fight against the Spanish Republicans.
1937 December December, The female section of the Mocidade Portuguesa is created.
1939 The Iberian Neutrality Pact is put forward by Salazar to Francisco Franco.
1942 Salazar meets with Spanish dictator Francisco Franco.
The Portuguese Communist Party's Secretary General Bento Gonçalves dies in the concentration camp of Tarrafal.
1945 The Political Police PVDE is reorganized and renamed PIDE (Polícia Internacional de Defesa do Estado; International Police for the Defense of the State).
8 October 8 The MUD (Movimento de Unidade Democrática - Movement of Democratic Unity) is created with official permission.
1948 January The MUD is banished.
1949 The President António Óscar Carmona meets with Spanish dictator Francisco Franco.
Spanish dictator Francisco Franco receives a Doctorate honoris causa by the University of Coimbra.
In the (forged) Presidential elections, General Norton de Matos, backed by the oppositionist illegal organization MUD tries and fail to win the Presidency of the Republic.
4 April Portugal is a founding member of NATO.
1951 António de Oliveira Salazar becomes Provisional President of the Republic due to the death of President António Óscar de Fragoso Carmona.
Francisco Higino Craveiro Lopes becomes President of the Republic.
The Portuguese government overhauls the entire colonial system in an attempt to curb criticism on Portuguese Colonialism, all Portugal's colonies were renamed Portuguese Overseas Provinces.
1954 The Dadra and Nagar Haveli Portuguese enclave, dependent of Daman, is occupied by India.
1956 Amílcar Cabral founds the PAIGC (Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde, African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde).
December The MPLA, Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola), is founded by Agostinho Neto.
1957 Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola (National Front for the Liberation of Angola), is founded as União das Populações do Norte de Angola (Union of the Populations of Northern Angola).
1958 Américo Thomaz becomes President of the Republic.
1959 Pijiguiti Massacre - Portuguese soldiers open fire on protesting dockworkers in Bissau (Portuguese Guinea), killing 50.
1960 January A group of ten Portuguese Communist Party members escaped from the high-security prison in Peniche. Among the escapees was Álvaro Cunhal.
4 January Portugal is one of the founding member of the EFTA - European Free Trade Association.
1961 The Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar takes on himself the office of Minister of National Defense and reorganizes the Government to face the war in Africa.
4 February The Portuguese Colonial War starts in Portuguese Angola with the attacks to the Prison, Police headquarters and Radio central in Luanda.
15 March Attacks in northern Angola by the UPA (União do Povo Angolano; Union of the Angolan People), against Portuguese colonists and African populations, provoking hundreds of deaths.
12 December the Indian army conquers Portuguese Goa.
19 December the Indian army conquers Portuguese Daman and Diu.
1962 The PAIGC Guerrilla warfare against the Portuguese begins with an abortive attack on Praia.
24 March The Academic Crisis of '62 culminates in a huge student demonstration in Lisbon brutally repressed by the shock police, which caused hundreds of students to be seriously injured.
25 June The FRELIMO - Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Mozambican Liberation Front) is founded in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania).
1963 The FLEC (Frente para a Libertação do Enclave de Cabinda; Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda) is founded.
January Amílcar Cabral and PAIGC declare full scale war against the Portuguese in Portuguese Guinea.
1964 The FRELIMO controls most of Northern Mozambique.
February The first Party Congress of the PAIGC takes place at liberated Cassaca, in which both the political and military arms of the PAIGC were assessed and reorganised, with a regular army (The People's Army) to supplement the guerilla forces (The People's Guerillas).
1965 6th Congress of the Portuguese Communist Party, one of the most important congresses in the Party's history, after Álvaro Cunhal released the report The Path to Victory – The tasks of the Party in the National and Democratic Revolution, which became an important document in the anti-fascist struggle.
1966 The UNITA - União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (National Union for Total Independence of Angola) is founded by Jonas Savimbi.
6 August The Salazar Bridge is inaugurated in Lisbon above the Tagus river. It is the longest suspension bridge in Europe and a replica (made by the same engineers) of the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco.
1967 By this time the PAIGC had carried out 147 attacks on Portuguese barracks and army encampments, and effectively controlled 2/3 of Portuguese Guinea.
1968 Reorganisation of the Government.
Portugal begins a new campaign against the guerillas in Portuguese Guinea with the arrival of the new governor of the colony, General António de Spínola.
25 September António de Oliveira Salazar leaves the Government due to health problems.
28 September Marcello das Neves Alves Caetano becomes Prime Minister.
1969 The Single Party União Nacional is renamed Acção Nacional Popular (National Popular Action).
The Political Police PIDE is renamed DGS (Direcção Geral de Segurança, Directorate-General of Security).
Beginning of the Primavera Marcelista (Marcelist Springtime), a timid and failed opening of the regime.
1970 Portugal invades Conakry, in the Republic of Guinea, 400 amphibious troops attacked the city and freed hundreds of Portuguese Prisoners of war kept there by the PAIGC.
27 July Death of António de Oliveira Salazar.
1973 January Amílcar Cabral, leader of the PAIGC, is assassinated in Conakry by a disgruntled former associate under influence of the Portuguese Political Police DGS.
24 September Independence of Guinea-Bissau (Portuguese Guinea) is unilaterally declared.
November A United Nations' General Assembly vote recognizes the Independence of Guinea-Bissau, unprecedented as it denounced illegal Portuguese aggression and occupation and was prior to complete control and Portuguese recognition.
1974 The Carnation Revolution of the 25 April puts an end to five decades of dictatorship.
25 April The Carnation Revolution puts an end to the authoritarian regime of Estado Novo. Prime-minister Marcello Caetano exiled to Brazil
1975 Independence is granted to all Portuguese colonies in Africa and independence is promised to East Timor.
11 March A right-wing coup fails: A turn to the left in the revolution happens and major industries and big properties are nationalized by government
2 August A meeting takes place in Haga (near Stockholm in Sweden) where the Committee for Friendship and Solidarity with Democracy and Socialism in Portugal is created. This Committee supported democratic trends in Portugal and opposed pro-soviet communist tendencies. In the meeting were present Olof Palme, Harold Wilson, Helmut Schmidt, Bruno Kreisky, Joop den Uyl, Trygve Bratteli, Anker Jørgensen, Yitzhak Rabin, Hans Janitschek, Willy Brandt, James Callaghan, François Mitterrand, Bettino Craxi and Mário Soares.
25 November A coup removes far-left influence in politics
7 December East Timor is violently annexed by Indonesia
1976 2 April a new Constitution is approved. The Constitutional Assembly disestablishes itself.
25 April the Constitution of 1976 enters into force.
19 November Jaime Ornelas Camacho becomes the first President of the Regional Government of Madeira.
1980 4 December Prime minister Francisco Sá Carneiro and the Minister of Defence Amaro da Costa died in a plane crash, in strange circumstances.
1984 Carlos Lopes wins the first Olympic Gold Medal for Portugal in the Los Angeles '84 marathon
1986 1 January Portugal becomes a member of the European Economic Community, today's European Union'
1998 Lisbon organizes the World's Fair Expo '98
28 June in the first Portuguese abortation referendum, the proposal to allow the abortion until 10 weeks of pregnancy is rejected by 50,91% of the voters. This is the first referendum in the History of the Portuguese democracy.
8 November in the regionalisation referendum, a proposal to establish, in mainland Portugal, 8 administrative regions and to disestablish the 18 districts, is rejected in the polls: in the first question, the simple institution of the administrative regions is rejected by 60,67% of the voters; in the second question, the proposal to create 8 regions is rejected by 60,62% of the voters. This is the first referendum in the History of Portugal to have more than 1 question.
1999 20 December Macau, the last overseas Portuguese colony, is returned to China

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