Why April 25th is a holiday – the Carnation Revolution and the events of 1974

Freedom Day, Revolution Day or simply, Carnation Day, the 25th of April is a national holiday commemorating both the 1974 military coup and the first free elections on that date in 1975.

Peter Booker, the President of the Algarve History Association, writes about at the lead-up to the events in 1974 that changed Portugal from an unhappy, tense place under the Estado Novo regime, even after the death of the dictator António de Oliveira Salazar, into a fledgling democracy:

The dictatorship in Portugal had its roots in the military coup of 28 May, 1926, and this day was officially celebrated until 1974.