Tito Becomes President of Yugoslavia

Date: January 14, 1953 • Location: Rome, Italy

Josip Broz Tito is elected the first President of Yugoslavia.

Josip Broz, commonly known as Tito, was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and politician who led Yugoslavia as prime minister from 1943 to 1963 and as president from 1953 until his death in 1980. He was the longtime leader of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, supreme commander of the Yugoslav Partisans during World War II, and one of the founders of the Non-Aligned Movement. The political ideology and policies associated with his rule are known as Titoism.