1.
Prime Minister of Sweden
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The Prime Minister is the head of government in Sweden. Before the creation of the office of a Prime Minister in 1876, Sweden did not have a head of government separate from its head of state, namely the King, in whom the executive authority was vested. Louis Gerhard De Geer, the architect behind the new bicameral Riksdag of 1866 that replaced the centuries-old Riksdag of the Estates, the current Prime Minister of Sweden is Stefan Löfven, leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party. Before 1876, when the office of a prime minister was created. Historically though, the most senior member of the Privy Council had certain similarities to the office of a head of government. When the office of the Prime Minister was created in 1876, unlike the Minister for Justice, the Minister for Foreign Affairs did however continue to be styled as Excellency, an honour shared only with the Prime Minister. From that time onward, the Prime Minister depended on the support of a majority in the Riksdag, over time, the Prime Minister came to de facto exercise the Royal prerogatives. However, the Swedish term used for the Government during this period, maj, t, an abbreviation of Kunglig Majestät. Until 1974, the authority in Sweden had been exercised through the King in Council. The Speaker then holds consultations with the party leaders and appoints a Prime Minister-designate, if the Prime Minister-designate is approved he or she chooses which and how many members are to be included in his or her government. With the exception of the Prime Minister, cabinet ministers do not need the approval of the Riksdag, if the Prime Minister is forced by a vote of no confidence to resign, the entire cabinet falls, and the process of electing a Prime minister starts over. The Prime Minister can dissolve the Riksdag, even receiving a vote of no confidence. The Instrument of Government requires that the Prime Minister appoint a member of the cabinet as Deputy Prime Minister, however, if a Deputy Prime Minister is absent or has not been appointed, the senior minister in the cabinet becomes acting head of government. If more than one minister has equal tenure, the eldest assumes the position, on paper, the Prime Ministers position is stronger than that of his counterparts in Denmark and Norway. This is because the Swedish prime minister is an office with duties specifically enumerated in the Instrument of Government. In the two neighboring Scandinavian monarchies, the monarch is the chief executive, but is bound by convention to act on the advice of the ministers. The government offices, including the Prime Ministers office, is located at Rosenbad in central Stockholm, in 1991 Sager House was acquired, and since 1995 it has served as the private residence of the Prime Minister. Harpsund, a house in Flen Municipality, Södermanland County, has served as a country residence for the Prime Minister since 1953
2.
Gustaf V of Sweden
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Gustaf V was King of Sweden from 1907 until his death in 1950. He was the eldest son of King Oscar II of Sweden and Sophia of Nassau, a half-sister of Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxembourg. Reigning from the death of his father Oscar II in 1907 until his own death 43 years later, he holds the record of being the oldest monarch of Sweden and the second-longest reigning after Magnus IV. He was also the last Swedish monarch to exercise his royal prerogatives and he was the first Swedish king since the High Middle Ages not to have a coronation and hence never wore a crown, a tradition continuing to date. Following his death at age 92, he was implicated as a homosexual in the Haijby affair and his supposed lover – career criminal and accused pedophile Kurt Haijby – was imprisoned in 1952 for blackmail of the court in the 1930s. An avid hunter and sportsman, he presided over the 1912 Olympic Games, most notably, he represented Sweden as a competitive tennis player, keeping up competitive tennis until his 80s, when his eyesight deteriorated rapidly. He died from flu complications and was succeed by his son, Gustaf V was born in Drottningholm Palace in Ekerö, Stockholm County, the son of Prince Oscar and Princess Sofia. At birth Gustaf was created Duke of Värmland, upon his fathers accession to the throne in 1872, Gustaf became crown prince of both Sweden and Norway. On 8 December 1907, he succeeded his father on the Swedish throne, on 20 September 1881 he married Princess Victoria of Baden in Karlsruhe, Germany. She was the granddaughter of Princess Sophie of Sweden, and her marriage to Gustaf V united, by a blood link. When he ascended the throne, Gustaf V was, at least on paper, the 1809 Instrument of Government made the king both head of state and head of government, and ministers were solely responsible to him. However, his father had forced to accept a government chosen by the majority in Parliament in 1905. Since then, prime ministers had been according to parliamentary support. At first, Gustaf V seemed to be willing to accept parliamentary rule, after the Liberals won a massive landslide in 1911, Gustaf appointed Liberal leader Karl Staaff as Prime Minister. However, during the runup to World War I, the elites objected to Staaffs defence policy, in February 1914, a large crowd of farmers gathered at the royal palace and demanded that the countrys defences be strengthened. In his reply, the so-called Courtyard Speech—which was actually written by explorer Sven Hedin, Staaff was outraged, telling the king parliamentary rule called for the Crown to stay out of partisan politics. He was also angered that he had not been consulted in advance of the speech, however, Gustaf retorted that he still had the right to communicate freely with the Swedish people. The Staaff government resigned in protest, and Gustaf appointed a government of civil servants headed by Hjalmar Hammarskjöld in its place, to date, it is the last time that a Swedish king directly intervened in the governing of the country
3.
Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden
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Gustaf VI Adolf was King of Sweden from 29 October 1950 until his death. He was the eldest son of King Gustaf V and his wife, Victoria of Baden, Gustaf VI Adolf was a lifelong amateur archeologist particularly interested in Ancient Italian cultures. He was born at the Royal Palace in Stockholm and at birth created Duke of Skåne, a patrilineal member of the Bernadotte family, he was also a descendant of the House of Vasa through maternal lines. Through his mother, Victoria, he was a descendant of Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden of the deposed House of Holstein-Gottorp, Gustaf Adolf became Crown Prince of Sweden on 8 December 1907, at the death of his grandfather, King Oscar II. In 1938 he was elected a member of the Virginia Society of the Cincinnati. On 29 October 1950, Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf became king at age 67 upon the death of his father and he was at the time the worlds oldest heir apparent to a monarchy. His personal motto was Plikten framför allt, Duty before all, during Gustaf VI Adolfs reign, work was underway on a new Instrument of Government to replace the 1809 constitution and produce reforms consistent with the times. Among the reforms sought by some Swedes was the replacement of the monarchy or at least some moderation of the old constitutions provision that The King alone shall govern the realm. Gustaf VI Adolfs personal qualities made him popular among the Swedish people and, in turn, Gustaf VI Adolfs expertise and interest in a wide range of fields made him respected, as did his informal and modest nature and his purposeful avoidance of pomp. While the monarchy had been de facto subordinate to the Riksdag and ministers since 1917, even these nominal powers were removed when Swedens constitutional reform became complete in 1975, thus making Gustaf Adolf the last monarch to wield even nominal political power. He was succeeded on the throne by his 27-year-old grandson Carl XVI Gustaf and he died the day before the election of 1973, which is suggested to have swayed it in support of the incumbent Social Democratic government. In a break with tradition, he was not buried in Riddarholmskyrkan in Stockholm and he was the last surviving son of Gustaf V. The Kings reputation as a professional amateur professor was widely known, nationally and internationally, Gustaf VI Adolf was a devoted archaeologist, and was admitted to the British Academy for his work in botany in 1958. Gustaf VI Adolf participated in expeditions in China, Greece, Korea and Italy. Gustaf VI Adolf had a private library consisting of 80000 volumes. He had an interest in specialist literature on Chinese art and East Asian history, throughout his life, King Gustaf VI Adolf was particularly interested in the history of civilization, and he participated in several archaeological expeditions. His other great area of interest was botany, concentrating in flowers and he was considered an expert on the Rhododendron flower. At Sofiero Castle he created one of the very finest Rhododendron collections, like his son, Prince Bertil, Gustaf VI Adolf maintained wide, lifelong interests in sports
4.
Per Albin Hansson
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During World War II, in which Sweden maintained a policy of neutrality, he presided over a government of unity that included all major parties in the Riksdag. Following the war, Hansson formed a Social Democratic cabinet enjoying absolute majority in the Riksdag before succumbing to an attack on his way home from work late at night on 6 October 1946. Per Albin Hansson was born in Kulladal, a neighborhood in Malmö, per Albin Hansson held this office in all of Brantings three cabinets between 1920 and 1925, performing numerous cut-backs on the military budget. Upon Brantings death in 1925, Per Albin Hansson rose to be embraced as chairman of the party and his legitimacy remained under dispute, however, and only in 1927 did he become the head of the Riksdag faction, before confirmed undisputedly as Brantings successor in a 1928 congress. The Social Democratic Party was not to run along with the Communists until the 2010 election, following the fall of Ekman in 1932 due to a corruption scandal involving late industrialist Ivar Kreuger, the Social Democrats made gains to possess 104 seats and 41, 7% of the electorate. Following further negotiations, Hansson formed a coalition government with Pehrsson-Brahmstorp as Minister of Agriculture that enjoyed a robust majority. In 1939–1940 the Allies tried various ways to stop the shipments of Swedish ore, also, payments from the Allies reached in an agreement to stop the sale of steel to Nazi Germany, which was broken, and the Germans were charged extortionate smugglers rates for the steel. A downed stray V2 rocket was also sold to the Allies in 1942, in effect, the main political priority was to avoid direct war engagement of Sweden during World War II. Following Germanys setbacks around 1942–43, Sweden was no longer threatened by invasion from the Third Reich. Per Albin Hansson, seen often as the most successful Prime Minister in Swedish history, is interred in Norra Begravningsplatsen in Stockholm. In the Swedish television movie, Four Days that shook Sweden – The Midsummer Crisis 1941, from 1988, Sweden during World War II Skåne Line Gustafsson, Agne. Media related to Per Albin Hansson at Wikimedia Commons
5.
Olof Palme
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Sven Olof Joachim Palme was a Swedish Social Democratic politician, statesman and prime minister. Electoral defeats in 1976 and 1979 marked the end of Social Democratic hegemony in Swedish politics and he returned as Prime Minister after electoral victories in 1982 and 1985. Palme was a pivotal, renowned, and polarizing figure domestically as well as in politics since the 1960s. Most famously, he was the first Western head of government to visit Cuba after its revolution and his 1972 condemnation of the Hanoi bombings, notably comparing the tactic to the Treblinka extermination camp, resulted in a temporary freeze in Sweden–United States relations. It had an impact across Scandinavia. Local convict and addict Christer Pettersson was convicted of the murder in the first instance court tingsrätten, Palme was born into an middle class, conservative Lutheran family in Östermalm, Stockholm, Sweden. Palme family was originally of Dutch ancestry, the family is related to several other prominent Swedish families such as the von Sydow family and the Wallenberg family. His father Gunnar Palme, was a businessman, son of Sven Theodore Palme, through her Olof Palme can claim ancestry from King Frederik I of Denmark. His mother, Elisabeth von Knieriem, was of a Baltic German tradesmen descent and she had arrived in Sweden from Russia as a refugee in 1915. Elisabeths great-great-great grandfather Johann Melchior von Knieriem had been ennobled by the Emperor Alexander I of Russia in 1814 and her great-grandfather Alexander von Knieriem was an attorney general of the Senate of Russian Empire, senator and member of the State Council of Imperial Russia. The von Knieriem do not count as members of the Baltische Ridderschaft. Palmes father died when he was six years old, despite his background, his political orientation came to be influenced by Social Democratic attitudes. His travels in the Third World, as well as the United States, a sickly child, Olof Palme received his education from private tutors. Even as a child he gained knowledge of two foreign languages – German and English and he studied at the Sigtuna School of Liberal Arts, one of Swedens few residential high schools, and passed the university entrance examination with high marks at the age of 17. He was called up into the Army in January 1945 and did his military service at A1 between 1945 and 1947, became in 1956 a reserve officer with the rank of Captain in the Artillery. After he was discharged from service in March 1947, he enrolled at the University of Stockholm. On a scholarship, he studied at Kenyon College, a liberal arts school in central Ohio from 1947–1948. Inspired by radical debate in the student community, he wrote an essay on Friedrich Hayeks The Road to Serfdom. Palme wrote his senior thesis on the United Auto Workers union
6.
Sweden
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Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, at 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre. Approximately 85% of the lives in urban areas. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats/Götar and Swedes/Svear, Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is heavily forested. Sweden is part of the area of Fennoscandia. The climate is in very mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence. Today, Sweden is a monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state. The capital city is Stockholm, which is also the most populous city in the country, legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister, Sweden is a unitary state, currently divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, it expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire, which became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, the last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, maintaining a policy of neutrality in foreign affairs. The union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905, leading to Swedens current borders, though Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars, Sweden engaged in humanitarian efforts, such as taking in refugees from German-occupied Europe. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 and it is also a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. The modern name Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod and this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige literally means Realm of the Swedes, excluding the Geats in Götaland, the etymology of Swedes, and thus Sweden, is generally not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning ones own, referring to ones own Germanic tribe
7.
Lund University
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Lund University is one of northern Europes oldest, largest and most prestigious universities, consistently ranking among the worlds top 100 universities. After Sweden won Scania from Denmark in the 1658 Treaty of Roskilde, the studium generale had not survived the Lutheran Reformation of 1536. The university founded in 1666 was thus a new institution. Lund University has eight faculties, with campuses in the cities of Malmö and Helsingborg. The University has some 600 partner universities in over 70 countries, the city of Lund has a long history as a center for learning and was the ecclesiastical centre and seat of the archbishop of Denmark. A cathedral school for the training of clergy was established in 1085 and is today Scandinavias oldest school, a studium generale was founded in 1425, and in 1438 education was started by the Franciscan order for a baccalaureus degree. The university was named Academia Carolina after Charles X Gustav of Sweden until the late 19th century and it was the fifth university under the Swedish king, after Uppsala University, the University of Tartu, the Academy of Åbo, and the University of Greifswald. The university was at its founding granted four faculties, law, theological, medicine and they were the cornerstones, and for more than 200 years this system was in effect. Towards the end of the 17th century, the number of students hovered around 100, some notable professors in the early days were Samuel Pufendorf, a juridical historian, and Canutus Hahn and Kristian Papke in philosophy. The Scanian War in 1676 led to a shut-down, which lasted until 1682, the university was re-opened largely due to regional patriots, but the university was not to enjoy a high status until well into the 19th century. Lecturing rooms were few, and lectures were held in the Lund Cathedral, in 1713, Charles XII of Sweden entered Lund. He stayed in Lund for three years, in between his warlike expeditions, Lund and the university attracted a temporary attention boost. The most notable lecturer during this time was Andreas Rydelius, peace was finally restored with the death of Charles XII in 1718, and during the first half of the 18th century the university was granted added funds. The number of students was now well around 500, despite not being on par with Uppsala University, it had still built a solid reputation and managed to attract prominent professors. Around 1760 the university reputation dropped as the number of students fell below 200, however, by 1780 its reputation was largely restored, and continued to rise through the 1820s. This was largely owing to popular and well-educated lecturers particularly in philology and he, in turn, attracted others towards Lund. One of these was the young theological student C. G. Brunius, with time he was to devote himself to architectures and he redesigned several of Lunds buildings, as well as churches of the province. In 1845 and 1862 Lund co-hosted Nordic student meetings together with the University of Copenhagen, a student called Elsa Collin was the first woman in the whole of Sweden to take part in a spex
8.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
9.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
10.
Israel
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Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in the Middle East, on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea. The country contains geographically diverse features within its small area. Israels economy and technology center is Tel Aviv, while its seat of government and proclaimed capital is Jerusalem, in 1947, the United Nations adopted a Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine recommending the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states and an internationalized Jerusalem. The plan was accepted by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, next year, the Jewish Agency declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied territories including the West Bank, Golan Heights and it extended its laws to the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, but not the West Bank. Israels occupation of the Palestinian territories is the worlds longest military occupation in modern times, efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have not resulted in peace. However, peace treaties between Israel and both Egypt and Jordan have successfully been signed, the population of Israel, as defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, was estimated in 2017 to be 8,671,100 people. It is the worlds only Jewish-majority state, with 74. 8% being designated as Jewish, the countrys second largest group of citizens are Arabs, at 20. 8%. The great majority of Israeli Arabs are Sunni Muslims, including significant numbers of semi-settled Negev Bedouins, other minorities include Arameans, Armenians, Assyrians, Black Hebrew Israelites, Circassians, Maronites and Samaritans. Israel also hosts a significant population of foreign workers and asylum seekers from Africa and Asia, including illegal migrants from Sudan, Eritrea. In its Basic Laws, Israel defines itself as a Jewish, Israel is a representative democracy with a parliamentary system, proportional representation and universal suffrage. The prime minister is head of government and the Knesset is the legislature, Israel is a developed country and an OECD member, with the 35th-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product as of 2016. The country benefits from a skilled workforce and is among the most educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentage of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree. The country has the highest standard of living in the Middle East and the third highest in Asia, in the early weeks of independence, the government chose the term Israeli to denote a citizen of Israel, with the formal announcement made by Minister of Foreign Affairs Moshe Sharett. The names Land of Israel and Children of Israel have historically used to refer to the biblical Kingdom of Israel. The name Israel in these phrases refers to the patriarch Jacob who, jacobs twelve sons became the ancestors of the Israelites, also known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel or Children of Israel. The earliest known artifact to mention the word Israel as a collective is the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt. The area is known as the Holy Land, being holy for all Abrahamic religions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam
11.
Swedish Air Force
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The Swedish Air Force is the air force branch of the Swedish Armed Forces. The Swedish Air Force was created on July 1,1926 when the units of the Army. Because of the international tension during the 1930s the Air Force was reorganized and expanded from four to seven squadrons. When World War II broke out in 1939 further expansion was initiated, although Sweden never entered the war, a large air force was considered necessary to ward off the threat of invasion and to resist pressure through military threats from the great powers. By 1945 the Swedish Air Force had over 800 combat-ready aircraft, a major problem for the Swedish Air Force during World War II was the lack of fuel. Sweden was surrounded by countries at war and could not rely on imported oil, instead domestic oil shales were heated to produce the needed petrol. The Swedish Air Force underwent a rapid modernization from 1945 and it was no longer politically acceptable to equip it with second-rate models. When the Saab 29 Tunnan fighter was introduced around 1950, Sweden suddenly had planes that were equal to the best of the Royal Air Force, the Soviet Unions VVS, during the 1950s the air force started to build road bases after an idea taken from Germany. Built under the BASE60 distributed airfield scheme, the bases were ordinary highways constructed in such a way that they could serve as landing strips. In the early eighties road number 44 was rebuilt to four short runways. Along the road a number of turn-around-sites for rearming and refueling were built. These short runways are used today for training, landing and taking off with Gripen. During the Cold War large amounts of money were spent on the Swedish Air Force, in 1957 Sweden had the worlds fourth most powerful air force, with about 1000 modern planes in front-line service. During the 1950s, it introduced fighters such as the Saab J29 Tunnan, Saab A32 Lansen, in June 1952 the Swedish Air Force lost two aircraft on Cold War operations, in what became known as the Catalina affair. A signals intelligence Douglas DC-3 was intercepted by Soviet MiG-15s over the Baltic, a PBY Catalina rescue seaplane was then also downed, the five-man crew being rescued from the sea by a freighter. When the Soviet Union attacked Finland in November 1939, Sweden came to its neighbours assistance in most ways short of joining the war outright, a Swedish volunteer infantry brigade and a volunteer air squadron fought in northern Finland in January till March 1940. The squadron was designated F19 and consisted of 12 Gloster Gladiator fighters, the Swedish Air Force saw combat as part of the United Nations peace-keeping mission ONUC during the Congo Crisis in 1961 to 1964. It established an air wing, F22, equipped with a dozen semi-obsolete Saab 29 Tunnans
listen); 13 June 1901 – 21 June 1985) was a Swedish politician who served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 1946 to 1969. He was the leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party and led the government for an uninterrupted tenure of 23 years, one of the longest in any democracy. This led to Erlander being known as "Sweden's longest Prime Minister" referring to both his physical stature – 192 cm, or six feet and four inches – and tenure (the Swedish word lång meaning both long and tall).[1]
Media related to Tage Erlander at Wikimedia Commons
