On September 21

On this day in ...
... 1955 (55 years ago today), Gladys Teresa Notario Cortaza (left) was born. (photo credit) She earned university degrees in business administration. In 1985, during the 35-year dictatorship of General Alfredo Stroessner, she was a clandestine founder of the Partido Humanista Paraguayo. She ran for a seat in the legislature on the party's ticket in 1989, a month after Stroessner was forced out of office. Then, in 2003, she became the 1st woman to run for President of Paraguay. Notario garnered fewer than 1,200 votes -- 0.08% of all ballots cast.

(Prior September 21 posts are here, here, and here.)

On February 3

On this day in ...

... 1989 (20 years ago today), in Paraguay, "a violent coup" overthrew the 34-year dictatorship of General Alfredo Stroessner. "Within weeks," Human Rights Watch stated in its country report for that year, "Paraguay was transformed from one of the more repressive countries in Latin America to a much more open society preparing busily for its first free and relatively fair elections in decades."

... 1967, in the nearly century-old Pentridge prison (right), convicted murderer Ronald Ryan was hanged at 8 a.m. "He is remembered as the last person to be judicially executed in Australia."