Colombia Marks a Deadly Date

A little late with this one, but I just noticed it linked from the BBC's Americas page.

Colombians remember 9 April 1948, the day on which populist leader Jorge Eliecer Gaitan was assassinated, as one of the key events which led to the country's long civil conflict, known as La Violencia. Here is the full article.

I'm always interested by the iconic events which a nation identifies as changing the course of history, and these special dates which are chosen to be commemorated. They are often presented as self-evident, but, as Malcolm Deas of Oxford University comments in the article, there is always another side: "You can't eternally remember one assassination, especially in a country where there has been so many", he points out (although, it seems to me that you CAN in fact lay disproportionate emphasis on particular deaths, and that this happens often... perhaps it would be better to say that you SHOULDN'T?).