Sidónio Pais

Portuguese politician, military officer, and diplomat, who served as the fourth President of the First Portuguese Republic in 1918. One of the most divisive figures in modern Portuguese history, he was referred to by the writer Fernando Pessoa as the "President-King", a description that stuck in later years and symbolizes his regime.

Pais escaped a first assassination attempt on 5 December 1918, during the award ceremony for survivors of the navy trawler Augusto de Castilho. Nine days later, however, he fell victim to the second. Pais was shot and fatally wounded at the Lisboa-Rossio Railway Station in Lisbon on 14 December 1918. The act was carried out by the left-wing political activist José Júlio da Costa. Pais was rushed to St. Joseph hospital, but he died of his wounds en route to the hospital shortly before midnight.