There was a memorable Twilight Zone episode where a man opens a bottle and a genie comes out and grants him wishes. One of his wishes was to become a powerful leader of a country and when this happens he sees it might not be as great as it sounded. Throughout history dictators lives end violently-but I have only heard of one dictator whose dictatorship ended due to a deck chair he was sitting in collapsing.

On this day September 3, 1968- 50 years ago today- the Prime Minister of Portugal-and the nations dictator for 36 years- since 1932- 79 year old Antonio de Oliveira Salazar was at his beach resort home in Estoril chillin’- when the deck chair he was sitting in collapsed and he struck his head on the floor. Salazar had a cerebral hemorrhage and three days later was showing signs of a stroke. He went into a coma and by the end of the month was replaced as Portugal’s  leader. When he was finally with it again- his intimates didn’t let him know he had been replaced but let him play ruler in his privacy- he would die in 1970.