Yugoslavia’s leader Tito died

PARIS: The leader of communist Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito, died after a long illness on May 4, 1980, just days before his 88th birthday.

There was an outpouring of emotion over the death of Tito, who refused to let his Balkan country come under the Soviet thumb and kept a federation of different ethnicities and religions together.

Here is an account of his death and his funeral, based on AFP copy from the time. On Sunday, May 4, Tito is described as being in a "very grave" and "critical" condition in the latest of the bulletins which reported updates on his health since he was admitted to hospital in Ljubljana nearly four months earlier.

The news of his death finally comes in the early evening, in a statement from the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia and the Presidency.

"Comrade Tito has died." It is addressed to "the working class, all the working people and citizens, and all the nations and nationalities of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia." At his death, Tito only weighed some 40 kilogrammes (88 pounds).