Zimbabwean lieutenant and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Rhodesia (died 2007)

Ian Smith

Ian Douglas Smith was a Rhodesian and later Zimbabwean politician, farmer, and fighter pilot who served as Prime Minister of Rhodesia from 1964 to 1979. He was the country's first leader to be born and raised in Rhodesia, and led the predominantly white government that unilaterally declared independence from the United Kingdom in November 1965 in opposition to the demands for the implementation of majority rule as a condition for independence. His 15 years in power were defined by the country's international isolation and involvement in the Rhodesian Bush War, which pitted the Rhodesian Security Forces against the Soviet and Chinese-funded military wings of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU).

Born

1919

April 8

Died

2007

Era

1910s

Country

—

About

Ian, in brief

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Life timeline

Key dates

1919 Born
2007 Died

Also on April 8

What else happened on this day, through history

217 Roman emperor Caracalla is assassinated and is succeeded by his Praetorian Guard prefect, Marcus Opellius Macrinus.
876 The Battle of Dayr al-'Aqul saves Baghdad from the Saffarids.
1139 Roger II of Sicily is excommunicated by Innocent II for supporting Anacletus II as pope for seven years, even though Roger had already publicly recognized Innocent's claim to the papacy.
1143 Manuel I Komnenos succeeds his father John II Komnenos as Byzantine Emperor.

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The world in 1919

When Ian arrived

april 10 Mexican Revolution leader Emiliano Zapata is ambushed and shot dead by government forces in Morelos.
april 10 The Third Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents is held by the Makhnovshchina at Huliaipole.
april 13 Jallianwala Bagh massacre: British Indian Army troops led by Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer kill approximately 379–1,000 unarmed demonstrators including men and women in Amritsar, India. Approximately 1,500 are injured.
april 16 Mohandas Gandhi organizes a day of "prayer and fasting" in response to the killing of Indian protesters in the Jallianwala Bagh massacre by the British colonial troops three days earlier.

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Same-day contemporaries

Also born on April 8

Adrian Boult 1889–1983 English conductor (died 1983) Alec Stewart 1963– English cricketer August Wilhelm von Hofmann 1818–1892 German chemist and academic (died 1892) Carlos Santana 1986– Dominican baseball player Clarence Hudson White 1871–1925 American photographer and educator (died 1925) Dionysios Solomos 1798–1857 Greek poet and author (died 1857) Emma Caulfield 1973– American actress Franco Corelli 1921–2003 Italian tenor and actor (died 2003) Gennady Golovkin 1982– Kazakhstani boxer

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Same-year contemporaries

Also born in 1919

Alan Young 1919–2016 English-born Canadian-American actor (born 1919) Clifton McNeely 1919– American basketball player and coach (died 2003) David Willcocks 1919–2015 English organist, composer, and conductor (died 2015) Doris Lessing 1919–2013 British novelist, poet, playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1919) Edward Brooke 1919–2015 American captain and politician, 47th Massachusetts Attorney General (born 1919) Émile Bouchard 1919–2012 Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1919) Eva Gabor 1919–1995 Hungarian-American actress (died 1995) Eva Perón 1919–1952 Argentinian politician, 25th First Lady of Argentina (born 1919) Fritz Langanke 1919–2012 German lieutenant (born 1919)

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More to explore

Ian's birthday April 8 Ian's zodiac Aries When Ian arrived 1919