On April 2, French President Georges Pompidou dies of cancer. Pompidou won the 1968 French presidential election against his opponent, interim president Alain Poher, with more than 58% of the vote. Pompidou is also the compiler of an anthology of French poetry and the architecturally interesting Centre Pompidou in Paris is named after him.
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| President Georges Pompidou |
Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou was born on 5 July 1911 in Montboudif. He was the grandson of farmers of modest means in Cantal. His parents were teachers. He taught literature at the lycée Henri IV in Paris. In 1956, he was appointed the bank's general manager, a position that he held until 1962. He served as prime minister of France under de Charles Gaulle from 14 April 1962 to 10 July 1968. After the failure of the 1969 constitutional referendum, de Gaulle resigned and Pompidou was elected president of France. In the general election of 15 June 1969, he defeated the centrist President of the Senate and Acting President Alain Poher by a wide margin (58% to 42%).
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Georges Pompidou and his wife Claude in 1973 |
While still in office, Pompidou died on 2 April 1974. He was was buried on 4 April, in the churchyard of Orvilliers. The official memorial service for him was held at Notre-Dame de Paris with 3,000 dignitaries in attendance (including 28 heads of state and representatives from 82 countries).
Attendees included:
- United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim
- UNESCO Director General René Maheu
- European Union President of the European Commission Jean Rey
- NATO Secretary General Joseph Luns
- France (Interim) President Alain Poher
- United States President Richard Nixon
- Canada Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau
- United Kingdom Prime Minister Harold Wilson and predecessor Edward Heath
- West Germany Chancellor Willy Brandt
- East Germany President Manfred Gerlach
- Austria Chancellor Bruno Kreisky
- Switzerland President Hans-Peter Tschudi
- Morocco King Hassan II
- Belgium King Baudouin
- Netherlands Queen Juliana
- Ethiopia Emperor Haile Selassie
- Tunisia President Habib Bourguiba
- Italy President Giovanni Leone
- Turkey Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit
- Finland President Urho Kekkonen
- Soviet Union President Nikolai Podgorny
- Yugoslavia Prime Minister Petar Stambolić
- Czechoslovakia President Gustáv Husák
- Denmark Prime Minister Poul Hartling
- Sweden Prime Minister Olof Palme
- Portugal President of Portugal Américo Tomás
- Spain Crown Prince Juan Carlos I of Spain
- Monaco Prince Rainier III
- Luxembourg Grand Duke Jean
- Japan Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka[16]
- South Korea Prime Minister Kim Jong-pil[17]
- North Vietnam Foreign Minister Nguyễn Duy Trinh
- South Vietnam President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu
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