Anker Jørgensen, Danish trade union leader and politician, 16th Prime Minister of Denmark (d. 2016)
Anker Henrik Jørgensen (13 July 1922 – 20 March 2016) was a Danish politician who served at various times as Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Denmark. Between 1972 and 1982 he led five cabinets as Prime Minister. Jørgensen was President of the Nordic Council in 1986 and 1991.
He led or represented the Social Democratic Party for well over 30 years. His legacy is ambivalent. Politically, he is considered by many right wing followers to have been largely unsuccessful, having failed to mitigate the impact of the economic crisis of the 1970s and 1980s. Nonetheless, he is generally respected and even loved throughout Denmark for his personal integrity and down-to-earth personality, often exemplified by his refusal to move into the official Prime Minister residence Marienborg, preferring to stay with his wife in their small apartment in a working class area of Copenhagen.He has been described as not having the image of a strong or visionary leader, but through his down-to-earth and earnest demeanor, he managed to maintain wide support for the Danish welfare state. In 1990, he was chosen to travel to Iraq to negotiate the release of a group of Danish hostages with Saddam Hussein.
1922Jul, 13
Anker Jørgensen
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Events on 1922
- 11Jan
Diabetes mellitus
First use of insulin to treat diabetes in a human patient. - 2Feb
James Joyce
Ulysses by James Joyce is published. - 13Sep
Great Fire of Smyrna
The final act of the Greco-Turkish War, the Great Fire of Smyrna, commences. - 4Nov
Tutankhamun
In Egypt, British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men find the entrance to Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings. - 24Nov
Executions during the Irish Civil War
Nine Irish Republican Army members are executed by an Irish Free State firing squad. Among them is author Robert Erskine Childers, who had been arrested for illegally carrying a revolver.