Rebel military aircraft strafed and bombed the presidential palace and a crowded plaza in a failed attempt to overthrow Perón, killing more than 300 people, mostly civilians. The attack failed to unseat him immediately but presaged the successful coup that would depose Perón three months later, sending him into exile for nearly two decades.
Warplanes screamed low over Buenos Aires's central square on a weekday afternoon, dropping bombs and firing on crowds who had gathered near the Casa Rosada, Argentina's pink presidential palace. The rebels, drawn from the navy and air force, hoped the strike would trigger a broader uprising against Perón's increasingly authoritarian and economically troubled government.
The coup attempt collapsed within hours as army units remained loyal to Perón, but the human cost was severe: estimates range from 300 to over 500 dead, many of them ordinary Argentines caught in the open plaza with nowhere to run. Perón's government used the massacre to rally support and crack down further on dissent, but the writing was on the wall.
Three months later, in September 1955, a successful military uprising known as the Revolución Libertadora finally forced Perón from power. He fled first to Paraguay and eventually to Spain, beginning eighteen years of exile before returning to the presidency in 1973. The June bombing remains one of the bloodiest single episodes of political violence in Argentina's turbulent 20th-century history.
Key people: Juan Perón