1961

12.01.1961 Captain Henrique Galvão attacks the ship Santa Maria, changes its name to Santa Liberdade (“Holy Freedom”), and sail it to Brazil. He is denouncing the Portuguese dictatorship. 04.02.1961 The Portuguese colonial wars in Africa start and will last 13 years (1961-1974). They include conflicts in Angola (1961-1974), Portuguese Guinea (1963-1974) and Mozambique (1964-1974). In contrast to other European colonial powers, the Portuguese government views the preservation of the Portuguese Africa as a core issue of national policy, and critics of the colonial wars are branded as traitors. The Communist Party (PCP) is the first political organization in Portugal to demand complete independence of the colonies (1957).  PCP support Humberto Delgado’s candidature in 1958, but they had different positions, on the colonial issues and others. The communist and - later - the radical left speaks clearly in terms on independence to the colonies. Socialists and ”democratic” military are very suspicious of this idea during the ’50 and ’60. 15.03.1961 The Union of Peoples of Angola attacks strategic locations in the north of Angola. 13.04.1961 An attempted coup d’État, leaded by the General Júlio Botelho Moniz, Minister of Defense, fails. 18.04.1961 The government sends the first Portuguese military reinforcements to Angola. 17.12.1961 - 19.12.1961 India occupies the Portuguese colonies of Goa, Damão and Diu. Goa is officially ceded to India, as well as Damão and Diu on December 19, 1962. 19.12.1961 A Pide brigade (the political police) kills the painter José Dias Coelho.

1962

09.03.1962 The First National Meeting of Students Take takes place in Coimbra. It is prohibited by the authorities. The student movements adopt an explicit syndicalism view 21.03.1962 The regime does not authorize the commemoration of the Students Day. Clashes between students and the police and several arrests during the next days. 05.04.1962 After recognizing the possibility of a new Students Day (April 7 and 8), new clashes occur. Marcello Caetano, rector of the University of Lisbon, resigns in opposition to the way that the police violate the “university autonomy.” 01.05.1962 Major demonstration in Lisbon. Clashes between police and demonstrators provoke several injuries and one death. Major strikes among rural workers in Alentejo. 10.05.1962 - 11.05.1962 Police invades Associação Académica de Coimbra (Students Association of Coimbra). Students declare an academic mourning” –euphemism for “strike” – and boycott the exams. December, 1962 The Portuguese Front of National Liberation (FPLN) is established.

1963

23.01.1963 PAIGC starts the armed fight in Portuguese Guinea.

1964

January, 1964 Francisco Martins Rodrigues and other dissidents from the PCP form the first Portuguese Maoist group (Comité Marxista-Leninista Português / Portuguese Marxist-Leninist Committee). They propose a more active and violent confrontation with the regime and the open contestation of the colonial wars. April, 1964 The Portuguese Socialist Action is established in Geneva, Switzerland by Mário Soares, Francisco Ramos de Costa and Manuel Tito de Morais (later the Socialist Party in 1973). The Socialist Action claims that there must be a political solution to the colonial question, but it was not a defense of the independence of the colonies. December, 1964 29 students are arrested due to their alleged membership in the illegal Communist party and for engaging in “subversive activities.”

1965

12.01.1965 5 men on trial for allegedly plotting to provoke a national uprising on May 1, 1964. They are accused of belonging to the illegal Portuguese Communist party and for planning to blow up bridges, electric lines and other public utilities. 21.01.1965 The political police arrests at least 24 high school and college students in their homes due to alleged “subversive activities.” 02.02.1965 Several hundred university students gather on the Rua de Santa Justa in the downtown shopping area of Lisbon screaming “Liberty!” in protest against the trial of four students beginning the same day. Police armed with steel helmets and submachine guns, rifles and teargas chase the student demonstrators into the heart of Lisbon. The police hit students and passersby with rifle butts and batons. The Portuguese press does not mention the student unrest in Lisbon. Although denying any direct connections between the protests movements, the Portuguese students declare that demonstrations in Spain and Portugal share the same goals: the right to have nongovernmental-controlled student organizations. 04.02.1965 3 university students, a woman pharmacist and two workers, accused of subversive activities and of membership in the illegal Communist party, are sentenced to jail terms of one to two years by a Lisbon court. 08.02.1965 In a letter to the president, the Portuguese democratic opposition accuses the Salazar regime of driving the youth to Communism. They also denounce the police action against university and high school students and demand the resignation of the Salazar government. 12.02.1965 The National Theater Company is ordered to close down its performance of “The Mutiny” after six nights. The play written by the Portuguese writer Miguel  Franco is based on a grape farmers’ revolt against prices set by the government in Oporto in 1757. The play is apparently banned due to too enthusiastic public reaction. 17.03.1965 Premier António Salazar ousts alleged “regime progressive” from economic posts in the cabinet. 26.03.1965 Lieut. General Humberto Delgado, the Portuguese opposition leader who vanished in February, is reportedly arrested and imprisoned in Madrid, Spain. 27.03.1965 A body believed to be Lieut. General Humberto Delgado is found killed near Villa nueva de Fresno in Spain, two miles from the Portuguese border. He was killed by a brigade of the political police (PIDE). Delgado was the principal opponent of the Salazar regime in Portugal. 29.04.1965 Premier António Salazar blames the killing of Humberto Delgado on the Communist Party and denies any connections of the Portuguese government to the killing. 20.05.1965 Clashes between 2,000 striking marble factory workers and the National Guard in the village of Pero Pinheiro, west of Lisbon. The workers demand higher wages; 38 of them are arrested. 21.05.1965 The government dissolves the Portuguese Writers Association after it had awarded a prestigious literature prize to Luandino Vieira, a pseudonym for José Vieira Mateus da Graça, who is accused and convicted of terrorism in Angola in 1963. 04.06.1965 The Portuguese opposition calls for a day of national mourning in memory of the killed Lieut. General Humberto Delgado, making plans for a demonstration to pay homage to Delgado. Pamphlets that are distributed illegally in Lisbon condemn the cowardly assassination of Delgado and urge people to place flowers at the monuments he visited during his election campaign. 23.06.1965 The International Labor Organization (ILO) condemns Portugal for using forced labor in her African territories. 27.06.1965 13 persons are arrested by Portuguese security forces on charges of Communist agitation in the Sado River area, south of Lisbon. 01.07.1965 Roman Catholics opposed to the regime form an underground organization called the Christian Movement for Democratic Action. Their first manifesto attacks the local Roman Catholic hierarchy for supporting “a regime based on force, the negation of the rights of man and the suppression of freedom of thought and information.” 10.07.1965 9 college students and a civil servant are found guilty of “subversive activities on behalf of the illegal communist party and their pro-Chinese faction.” 19.07.1965 31 students on trial in Lisbon’s Criminal Court for Political Affairs (”Tribunal Plenário”) for belonging to the Communist Party, which they all deny. 25.07.1965 Portuguese presidential elections: The most important issue is the president’s possible election of a successor for the 75 years old Premier António Salazar. The incumbent 70-years-old president Américo Tomás is reelected. September, 1965 Police closes Casa dos Estudantes do Império, in Lisbon, a gathering point for the emergent intellectual African elite favoring independence. 05.09.1965 The Minister of Interior, Alfredo Santos Júnior opens the nationwide parliamentary election campaign with a sharp warning that the government would not tolerate disagreement over its policy of continued Portuguese rule in Africa. 10.09.1965 5 leaders of the democratic opposition are arrested on their way to Spain for the funeral of Humberto Delgado, among them two prominent political lawyers (Fernando Abranches -Ferrão, the vice president of the Portuguese bar association, and Mário Soares, both lawyers for the Delgado family) and Raul Rego, President of the Portuguese National Press Association. They are released on September 22 after international pressure. 19.09.1965 An extreme rightwing association called “The Centurions” extends its campaign of intimidation against Portuguese liberals to include the British and American quarters in Portugal. They paint the walls of the British embassy with its emblem – a dagger, a helmet and the number 100. 02.11.1965 100 prominent Roman Catholics denounce the regime of António Salazar for “systematically offending and violating Catholic values.” Many of those who signed the testimony are believed to be the nucleus of the new and illegal Christian Democratic Party, formed in secretly in May 1965. Representing a younger generation of laymen in the Portuguese Catholic Church, the signers give strong support to the democratic opposition. 04.11.1965 Premier Salazar permits the newspapers to publish the pre-election manifesto of the 100 Roman Catholics. 07.11.1965 General election to the National Assembly. Premier Salazar refuses to appoint poll-watchers for election day, which leads to the opposition’s withdrawal of their candidates from the election. Premier Salazar’s party, the National Union, wins all 130 seats.

1966

04.03.1966 The Foreign Minister announces that charges of spreading “false and tendentious reports” against the correspondents of the Associated Press (AP) and Agence France Presse (AFP) are dropped. The correspondents had reported that 12 Portuguese students had been arrested and two of them hospitalized. 15.03.1966 Portugal officially marks with church services five years of colonial wars in Africa. 21.05.1966 4 Angolans charged with activities against the state are sentenced to 3.5 years in prison. 25.05.1966 Leaders of Portugal’s Socialist, Republican and Christian opposition groups demand an amnesty for political prisoners. 14.06.1966 49 Jehovah’s Witnesses on trial for “constituting a political movement for subversion and instigating collective disobedience.” 25.09.1966 The Portuguese embassy in Congo is attacked. 21.10.1966 3 leading Socialists (Mário Cal Brandão, Artur de Andrade, and Luis Roseira) with close political and personal relations to the murdered General Humberto Delgado are arrested in northern Portugal. November, 1966 The clandestine revolutionary organization League of Union and Revolutionary Action – LUAR (“moonlight”) is established. The organization is believed to have about 50 to 75 members, most of them armed forces officers and former military men. The organization funds itself through bank robbery. 09.11.1966 The political police arrests Francisco Sousa Tavares, a leader of the new Christian opposition group, for “activities against the security of the state.” 27.11.1966 Luis de Sttau Monteiro, who at the time is considered Portugal’s leading playwright, is arrested and his latest book “Two Plays in One Act” seized. The book satirizes the army and, in particular, its generals. 22.12.1966 Portugal plans to extend the maximum draft period from 18 to 24 months to 4 years due to is defense needs in Portuguese Africa.

1967

12.03.1967 Secretary General of the Socialist International, Albert Carthy, visits Portugal for the first time to meet with leaders of the Portuguese Socialist movement.  05.04.1967 The remains of Dom Miguel, a pretender to the Portuguese throne, who died in exile in 1866, are returned to Portugal. About 300 Portuguese royalists participate in a major monarchist rally outside the Church of São Vincente de Fora. They shout “Long live the King!” and “Long live the Monarchy!”  The demonstration had no political or social importance, but it is the first political rally that is officially permitted to take place outside election time. 11.04.1967 The Roman Catholic-led Cultural Society Pragma is closed by the political police for “spreading ideas of subversive political indoctrination,” and 5 of their leaders are arrested. The Society was a ”cooperative”, a very specific form of association, politicized during this years, and it was severely attacked in the Marcelism. 09.05.1967 A letter signed by 545 Portuguese Catholics in protest of the closing of Pragma is delivered to the bishops before the visit of Pope Paul VI to Portugal. 13.05.1967 Pope Paul VI visit Portugal. 16.05.1967 3 men sentenced to three to six years in prison on charges of an unsuccessful attempted bank robbery to obtain funds for an armed coup against the regime of António Salazar. 17.05.1967 5 masked gunmen get away with $1-million from a robbery from a branch office of the Bank of Portugal in the resort of Figueira de Foz, 120 miles north of Lisbon. The political organization LUAR executed the robbery. 31.07.1967 The International PEN Club calls for the release of writers imprisoned by Greece, Spain, Haiti, Bolivia, South Vietnam, Portugal, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union. 13.12.1967 Mário Soares is arrested and imprisoned in Caxias, a political prison outside Lisbon.

1968

03.01.1968 The Overseas Press Club of America protests to the Portuguese government about “harassment of American correspondents.” Tad Szulc from the New York Times and Roger Stone from Time Magazine were barred from entering Portugal. Other correspondents had equally been “reprimanded” for their dispatches. 13.01.1968 More than 100 lawyers send a telegram to the Ministry of Justice protesting the arrest of Mário Soares, a leader of various democratic opposition forces. 17.01.1968 In the first anti-Vietnam war demonstration against in Portugal, 100-200 students at University of Oporto rally outside the Rector’s office due to the planned visit of the U.S. ambassador to the university. The visit is canceled and two students are arrested. 18.01.1968 Francisco Sousa Tavares, a liberal Catholic leader, is arrested. 19.01.1968 Urbano Tavares Rodrigues, a prominent Portuguese novelist and newspaper columnist, is arrested. He was near to the communist party, and he was the third leading figure of the Democratic opposition to be arrested in a matter of a few weeks. They had all signed a petition to the National Assembly against censorship. February, 1968 The government bans Wilfred Burchett’s book “Bombs Over Hanoi”, a Seara Nova publication in Portuguese. Seara Nova is a monthly review of arts, literature and economic and social issues and is considered the most influential intellectual publication in Portugal with about 10,000 subscribers. 22.02.1968 500 demonstrators in Lisbon protest the American war in Vietnam and clash with the police. The police use steel helmet, batons, machine-guns and teargas to disperse the protesters that marched against the U.S. embassy. The demonstrators shout “Out with the Americans!” and “Peace and liberty for the Vietnamese people!” and burn a Johnson-puppet made out of straw.  01.03.1968 Mário Soares is released from prison. 03.03.1968 A bomb explosion outside the Portuguese embassy in Haag, Netherlands. 19.03.1968 Mário Soares is arrested again. Premier António de Salazar deports him and his family to São Tomé in the Gulf of Guinea. This harsh government action involuntarily confirms Soares position as one of the leaders in the opposition movement. 12.04.1968 The government dissolves the Roman Catholic inspired cultural society Pragma on the ground that it was engaging in “activities prejudicial to the state.” The secret police arrests 5 of its leaders the year before (1967). Pragma’s conflict with the government reflects an increasing discontent among younger liberal Catholics with the Salazar regime. 06.05.1968 A group of 159 prominent members of the democratic opposition appeal to the National Assembly to end censorship and demand a new press law. 08.05.1968 Raul Rego, a prominent Portuguese newspaperman and subeditor of the liberal evening newspaper Diário de Lisboa, published a book of letters to the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon (“In Favor of a Dialogue with the Cardinal Patriarch”) criticizing the church’s support of the authoritarian regime of Premier Salazar. He thereby challenges the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Portugal to its break silence with regard to issues of social justice and public liberties. 09.05.1968 The Portuguese political police seize remaining copies of Raul Rego’s book. 10.05.1968 The political police arrest Raul Rego in his home and transport him to the political prison at Caxias. 16.05.1968 More than 1,000 persons from all over Portugal have signed a petition against the deportation of Mário Soares. The document is signed by university professors, students, writers, journalists, doctors, lawyers, architects, engineers, workers and priests and presented by a commission of five lawyers to the Secretary of the Presidency. 19.05.1968 Raul Rego is released from prison after the intervention of Lisbon’s Cardinal Patriarch. 07.06.1968 Maurice Béjart, the French choreographer, is expelled from Portugal after a tribute to Robert F. Kennedy before a crowd of nearly 7,000 in the Coliseum Theater. He reportedly shouted “Down with dictatorship!” A crowd of about 100 people gathers in front of the theater to protest against the government’s decision before the police clear the street. 25.06.1968 The Portuguese police raids the office of the publisher of Seara Nova. The publisher is considered the only authentic voice of the opposition in Portugal. Seara Nova’s latest publication “The British Labor Movement,” by A.L. Morton and George Tate had been suspended and was ordered to be submitted to censors. 16.08.1968 Premier António Salazar appoints 7 new people to his cabinet. 23.08.1968 The Portuguese police announce the captures of 6 men claimed to belong to the clandestine anti-Salazar organization LUAR – the League of Union and Revolutionary Action. 07.09.1968 Premier António Salazar undergoes an operation to remove a blood clot in his head after a fall. 16.09.1968 Premier Salazar relapses in hospital and is left in a coma. 17.09.1968 The Council of State, Portugal’s highest consultative body meets to discuss the problem of choosing a successor to Salazar. 25.09.1968 Marcelo Caetano is named Salazar’s successor by President Américo Thomaz and is asked to form a government. 27.09.1968 The new Premier Marcello Caetano takes office. 02.10.1968 Caetano tells newspaper editors that he would not end censorship, but favor a lighter control of the press. Lisbon’s evening newspapers respond by telling the Premier that Portugal needs far-reaching reforms in many areas. 04.10.1968 Premier Caetano informs the President of the Lisbon Bar Association that he intends to release Mário Soares and that he would be allowed to return to Portugal on December 13. 05.10.1968 The democratic opposition rallies 600 participants for a traditional ceremony on the graves of the heroes who on Oct. 5, 1910 founded the republic that preceded the long rule of Salazar calling for “amnesty, election and liberty!” Clashes between demonstrators and police occur at the close of the ceremony as 130 students try to force their way through a police barrier carrying posters saying “Down with political police!”, “No more deportation!” and “Mário Soares back home!” The police chase the students using batons. The regime gives a clear signal that liberalization does not include street demonstrations. The incident is the first time in years that anyone dared to go into the streets with posters demanding liberty and elections. 07.10.1968 A long latent dispute in the Roman Catholic Church in Lisbon becomes public. Rector, Vice Rector and five prominent professors at the Olivais seminary resign in protest. The seminary considered the spearhead for church reforms has been under attack from the conservative members of the church hierarchy as a center of subversion. The resignation follows an order to transfer the seminary to the new Catholic University. 08.11.1968 The Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon announces the dismissal of Father Felicidade, who had demanded structural reforms of the Roman Catholic Church in Portugal, and accuses him of “questioning the church itself as an institution.” The Cardinal demands that Father Felicidade makes “public and adequate reparation” within one week to the church hierarchy and to the Pope in particular.  10.11.1968 Premier Marcello Caetano releases Mário Soares who returns to Portugal from São Tomé. 10.11.1968 300 Roman Catholics occupy the foyer of the Lisbon Patriarchate for 3.5 hours in protest against the dismissal of Father Felicidade from his position as curate of Belém after his criticism of the church and his demands for reform. 22.11.1968 Portugal’s Roman Catholic bishops announce their support of the papal encyclical banning artificial contraception. 25.11.1968 About 5,000 students at University of Coimbra demand university reforms and clash with the police. 27.11.1968 In his first policy speech to the National Assembly, Premier Caetano firmly upholds Portugal’s defense of her African territories as a core issue national policy. 29.11.1968 The Catholic University of Lisbon is inaugurated. It will provide a seven-year course in theology and Faculties of Philosophy and Social Sciences. The university is the first Catholic university in Portugal. Portuguese theological students previously had to go to Salamanca (Spain), Heidelberg (Germany) or Louvain (Belgium). 04.12.1968 Premier Marcello Caetano proposes in a special bill to the National Assembly to give all adult Portuguese women the right to vote – if they can read or write and have no police record. The proposals are welcomed by the democratic opposition. 08.12.1968 The government moves to quell budding student agitation by closing down Lisbon University’s Higher Technical Institute and suspending the school’s student association leadership. For the last month Portuguese students at various institutions have organized mild protest demonstrations as a test of the new government. The government finally intervened when the students at the Technical Institute called for “an unlimited strike.” 11.12.1968 300 students at the University of Lisbon boycott lectures for 3 days in protest against the closing of the Technical Institute. 17.12.1968 The democratic opposition is for the first time acting as one united opposition, a group of 239 sign a manifesto asking Premier Caetano for reforms and political recognition.

1969

January, 1969 Several thousand workers participate in a go slow action in Lisbon’s industrial belt. 01.01.1969 In the first protest demonstration against Portugal’s colonial wars, a group of 150 Roman Catholics occupy S.Domingos, one of Lisbon’s principal churches, and calls for peace in Portuguese Africa. The peace vigil lasts five hours and includes chants accompanied by guitars, as well as the reading of religious texts and testimonies on the evils of war in Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea. The assembly concludes with a firm denunciation of all wars “from Vietnam to Portuguese Africa,” and a pledge to “initiate concrete work for peace.” The police remain outside the church during the protest. 10.01.1969 The Spanish Reverent Manuel Marianas Castro is expelled from the country after taking part in the New Year’s Day vigil. 17.01.1969 600 lawyers’ calls for better treatment of political prisoners in a meeting of the Madrid bar association. 22.01.1969 A group of opposition democrats urges Premier Caetano to initiate the process of democratization of Portuguese public life by ensuring free elections. 24.01.1969 The Minister of Interior Gonçalves Rapazote declares that “our political structures do not admit the schemes of parties, their programs and their methods,” and “our basic laws do not acknowledge their existence.” The statement follows appeals from opposition groups for a new electoral law and free parliamentary elections in October 1970. 01.02.1969 More than 3,000 demonstrators participate in a rally in Oporto, northern Portugal, urging the government to make real steps toward political liberalization. The demonstration is the country’s first mass rally for more than a decade. The rally is was held in a theater in Porto, thereby ostensibly commemorating the 78th anniversary of an unsuccessful antimonarchist revolt. A group of 400 students and workers challenge the traditional opposition leaders with heckling and leftist slogans from the balcony in the theater. The rally demands a free press, the rights to free assembly and a broad amnesty for political prisoners and exiles. 03.02.1969 Dr. Eduardo Mondlane, leader of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) is killed by a time bomb in Dar Es Salam, Tanzania. 20.03.1969 In one of the first critical public discussion in Portugal for many years, more than 600 students, professionals, intellectuals, workers and others associate with the opposition and participate in a rally at the premises of a Lisbon cigarette-paper factory. Mário Soares give speech at the rally where he analyzes the regime and argues that it lacks any ideological or political vigor and only maintains itself by using the police and economical “baronies.” A series of speakers assail Portugal’s policy in Angola. 24.03.1969 Bishop of Oporto, Dom António Ferreira Gomes, briefly returns after 10 years of exile. Gomes is seen as the spiritual leader of liberal Roman Catholics in Portugal. He was expelled to Spain after an open conflict with Salazar over issues of public liberties and social justice. 17.04.1969 Alberto Martins, president of the Students Association of Coimbra, is not allowed to speak at the inauguration of a building in the campus together with some Ministers. Instead, students hold their own inauguration and a major demonstration against the regime. 23.04.1969 - 06.05.1969 More than 5,000 students and scores of professors at the University of Coimbra boycott classes and attend solidarity meetings in protest against the suspension of 8 student leaders on charges of lacking respect for the Portuguese President. The students had shouted “Clown” and “Puppet” at the President during a ceremony at the university the week before. Students in Lisbon and Oporto hold solidarity meetings. 06.05.1969 The government closes down the University of Coimbra until final exams in June for defying a general ban on strikes. With more than 7, 700 students, the University of Coimbra had previously been seen as a traditional center of conservatism in Portugal. 16.05.1969 - 17.05.1969 “The Second Republican Congress” opens in Aveiro, northern Portugal. More than 1,300 critics of the regime participate. The congress gathers all sectors of the opposition and is the first meeting of its kind to be allowed by the government since 1957. The government’s decision is seen as a gesture by Premier Caetano that raises hopes for a liberalization of the regime. 24.05.1969 A group of intellectuals in Lisbon announce the formation of a new movement aimed at the restoration of the monarchy. Leading figures in this small minority group are: Lopes Roseira, well known Roman Catholic professors such as Caldeira Cabral of Lisbon and Luis Sampayo of Coimbra, and four former leaders of the Monarchist cause: Manuel Galvão, Mario Saraiva, Henrique Ruas and Magalhães Silva. 02.06.1969 - 13.06.1969 Almost all the students at University of Coimbra boycott the final exams in protest against the suspension of 8 student leaders. Guards and riot police surround the university to assure access to the examination rooms. Only 100 students defy the boycott. The student association claims that almost 90 % of the students participated in the boycott and more than 150 professors express their sympathy for it. 13.06.1969 4,000 students at the University of Coimbra participate in a “balloon” demonstration, an orderly march through the center of Coimbra (110 miles northeast of Lisbon). 15.06.1969 The government lifts the suspension of the 8 student leaders at the University of Coimbra. 05.07.1969 Bishop of Oporto, Dom António Ferreira Gomes, returns from exile. 22.07.1969 The government curtails the authority of Dr. Adriano Moreira, a leading opponent within the regime. Moreira is the Director of the Higher Institute of Social Science and Overseas Policy. Two of the three departments in the institute are removed. The institute and its student body are accused of “promoting the spread of agitation” in university quarters. 18.08.1969 The oppositions announces their conditions for participate in the election: Broad and free electoral registration, distribution of registration list to all the candidates, liberty to campaign with the suspension of censorship and equal radio and television time granted, the right to organize political groups, and the supervision of the vote counting by representatives of the candidates. 08.09.1969 The government authorizes 3 of the 8 priests who were banned from Angola in 1961 to return to their diocese in Angola. Four others are allowed to make holiday visits to their native land. Only Joaquim Pinto de Andrade is denied the opportunity to return.   16.09.1969 The democratic opposition splits before the election. The opposition presents two lists of candidates from Lisbon for the National Assembly election in October. The Social Democratic list for Lisbon is headed by Mário Soares, and the Radical Democratic list is led by Francisco Pereira.  CEUD is headed by the socialists and CDE is hegemonized by the communists and had more impact in the politicized youth. All the opposition condemned the methods and defy of the results of the “election.” 04.10.1969 750 participate in a democratic rally in Lisbon and applaud the call for “negotiation with the legitimate representatives of the insurrectional movements and the recognition of their right to self-determination.” The rally is sponsored by the Catholic progressives and the radical left. For the first time since the outbreak of the colonial wars in 1961, the colonial question is permitted to be debated in the election campaigns and in the press, but the Socialists and the Communists was too afraid (politically and strategically) to speak clearly about it. 12.10.1969 1,500 participate in a rally in Lisbon led by Mario Soares. Portugal’s opposition candidates vow to support the regime against rumored right-wing intervention or a coup. 12.10.1969 Portugal protests Sweden’s support of rebels in Africa and recalls the Portuguese ambassador to Stockholm for consultations. 26.10.1969 General elections to the National Assembly. The governing party wins all seats. The opposition gets 12% of ballots. For the first time, all women are given the right to vote. The opposition was given the right to participate in the control of the voting procedure and to count the ballots, as well as the right to form electoral commissions and prepare their campaign. In this election, they for the first time got access to the lists of registered voters. The censorship of the press was maintained and debates were transmitted on the state run television channels, but restrictions were eased. All the opposition condemned the “election”, the methods and the defies the results. 08.11.1969 The Ministry of the Interior warns that opposition groups that were officially permitted for Portugal’s parliamentary elections in October are now illegal again and cease to have a legal existence after the votes were counted. 19.11.1969 Premier Caetano announces the abolition of Portugal’s secret police.Just the name was changed from PIDE to DGS. The political police maintained. 29.11.1969 66 Catholic young priests hold a three days conference in Entroncamento and calls for changes in the Church of Portugal. December, 1969 The Comissão Nacional de Socorro aos Presos Políticos (Political Prisoners Aid National Committee) is founded by several groups. 06.12.1969 Portuguese leftists meet in secret and establish the Democratic Opposition Movement as an act of defiance to the government that disbanded opposition groups after the election.

1970

07.01.1970 The Portuguese revolutionary leader, Herminio da Palma Inácio is on trial in absentia for the robbery from Bank of Portugal in 1967. The robbery was allegedly part of a plan to fund a revolution. The press is not allowed to cover the proceedings. 14.01.1970 Premier Marcello Caetano reorganizes his cabinet and governmental structure. The Ministries of National Defense and of the Army are merged into one Ministry of Defense. 22.02.1970 Maria Eugenia Varela Gomes, wife of opposition leader João Varela Gomes, is arrested for demonstrating against the Portuguese policy in Africa. 25.02.1970 Francisco Salgado Zenha, a lawyer and a socialist candidate in the October elections (1969), is arrested when he tries to take part in an announced – but banned demonstration. Zenha is the first prominent opposition leader to be arrested since Caetano became Premier in September 1968. March, 1970 Political prisoners in Peniche contest the conditions in prison and are severely repressed. 16.04.1970 The Portuguese government charges 10 alleged left-wing political activists for having links to the anti-Portuguese guerrilla movements in Africa. Also facing trial is the priest Joaquim da Rocha Pinto de Andrade, brother of Mario Pinto de Andrade, the leader of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola. 09.05.1970 - 10.05.1970 Clashes between demonstrating students and police at the University of Coimbra. The trouble began at the university theater when spectators accused the actors of being fascist because they had broken a student strike and had gone on a tour to Angola. One student is shot in the clashes. 12.05.1970 Student rally in Lisbon demands an inquiry of the clashes at University of Coimbra on May 9-10. 01.07.1970 Pope Paulo VI received in Vatican the PAICG, FRELIMO and MPLA. 27.07.1970 António de Oliveira Salazar dies in Lisbon at the age of 81. 18.09.1970 Foundation of MRPP (Movimento Reorganizativo do Partido do Proletariado / Movement of Reorganization of the Party of Proletariat), a Maoist organization very active in the student milieu of Lisbon. In the next years, the influence of these kinds of radical socialist organizations increases. They openly contest the colonial wars and, in contrast to the PCP, advocate “desertion” (with guns, if possible). October, 1970 Armed Revolutionary Action (ARA) and the Revolutionary Brigades (BR), a left-wing organization, begin their first military which they keep up until August 1972. 11.10.1970 Some clandestine trade-unions form the Inter syndical.

1971

January, 1971 Beginning of Veiga Simão’s educational reform. 21.01.1971 The government determines that universities should function by the rules of the “Emergency State” (police in campus, expulsions, etc.) February, 1971 Coimbra’s students association is closed once more. 08.03.1971 ARA attacks on the Tancos air base. Several helicopters destroyed. August, 1971 Angola independents group MPLA forms a government in the exile. October, 1971 ARA attacks the NATO headquarter at Oeiras. 07.11.1971 BR sabotage of the NATO base at Pinhal de Armeiro.

1972

January, 1972 The PCP creates the UEC (Communist Students Union). March, 1972 New clashes between students and authorities in Lisbon, Coimbra and Oporto. 12.10.1972 Student José António Ribeiro dos Santos, from the MRPP, is killed by the police during a meeting in the ISCEF (High Institute for Economic and Financier Sciences). November, 1972 Almost all the students associations are closed or waiting for legalization. 03.11.1972 ONU approves a resolution appealing for the support of the liberation movements. 30.12.1972 A group of opponents organize a vigil in the Capela do Rato against the colonial wars. Police invades the space and arrest 70 people.

1973

20.01.1973 Amílcar Cabral is killed in Conacry. 04.04.1973 - 08.04.1973 3rd Opposition Congress in Aveiro. 19.04.1973 The Portuguese Socialist Action becomes the Socialist Party. The party is established in Bad Münstereifel, Germany. 10.06.1973 - 14.06.1973 Students protest against a chorus festival in Oporto. 24.09.1973 Unilateral declaration of independence of the Guinea, in Madina do Boé, by the PAIGC. 08.12.1973 Captain’s Movement reunites in Costa da Caparica and elects a commission to prepare the military coup. 16.12.1973 Police invades a high-school reunion and arrest 151 students, many of which are brought to the political prison of Caxias.

1974

05.03.1974 The MFA (Armed Forces Movement) is officially founded, defending a political solution to the colonial wars. 16.03.1974 A failed military coup in Caldas da Rainha. 09.04.1974 BR action against the Niassa ship which was preparing for transport of troops from Lisbon to Guinea. 25.04.1974 The Carnation Revolution: An almost bloodless leftist, military coup results in the end of the Portuguese wars in Africa. After two year long transitional period (PREC) a parliamentary democracy was established in Portugal. An exodus of Portuguese citizens of mixed ethnicity starts from Africa to Portugal. In some way, the period of 1974-1976, is one of the most democratic periods of the history of Portugal, with a huge participation of people in everyday life and decisions.