The Superga air disaster occurred on 4 May 1949, when a Fiat G.212 of Avio Linee Italiane (Italian Airlines), carrying the entire Torino football team (popularly known as the Grande Torino), crashed into the retaining wall at the back of the Basilica of Superga, which stands on a hill on the outskirts of Turin. All thirty-one people on the flight died.
Torino Football Club (Italian pronunciation: [toˈriːno]), commonly referred to as Torino or simply Toro, is an Italian professional football club based in Turin, Piedmont. They currently play in Serie A.
Founded as Foot-Ball Club Torino in 1906, Torino are among the most successful clubs in Italy with seven league titles, including five consecutive league titles during the 1940s. The Grande Torino, as the team was known, was widely recognised as one of the strongest footballing sides of the period, until the entire team was killed in the 1949 Superga air disaster. They have also won the Coppa Italia five times, the last of which was in the 1992–93 season. Internationally, Torino won the Mitropa Cup in 1991 and were finalists in the UEFA Cup in 1991–92.
Torino plays all of its home games at the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino (also known as the Stadio Comunale "Vittorio Pozzo" until 2006). The club's traditional colour is maroon, and its symbol is a rampant bull, the traditional symbol of the city of Turin, from which the club's nickname is derived, "Il Toro" (The Bull). Torino have a local rivalry with Juventus F.C. and the two sides contest the Derby della Mole.
1949May, 4
The entire Torino football team (except for two players who did not take the trip: Sauro Tomà, due to an injury and Renato Gandolfi, because of coach request) is killed in a plane crash.
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Events on 1949
- 1Apr
Communist Party of China
Chinese Civil War: The Chinese Communist Party holds unsuccessful peace talks with the Nationalist Party in Beijing, after three years of fighting. - 20Jul
1948 Arab-Israeli War
Israel and Syria sign a truce to end their nineteen-month war. - 1Oct
Mao Zedong
The People's Republic of China is established and declared by Mao Zedong. - 2Oct
Mao Zedong
The Soviet Union recognises the People's Republic of China, proclaimed the previous day by Mao Zedong. - 14Oct
People's Liberation Army
Chinese Civil War: Chinese Communist forces occupy Guangzhou.