This Day in History: 2023-05-12

Nr. 456

FOOTBALL MATCH SPARKS WAR (1969)

It all began innocuously enough with Honduran fans throwing stones at the hotel windows of the El Salvadoran national team on the night before their countries met in Tegucigalpa. The El Salvadorans slept badly and lost 1-0 on 8 June, causing distraught fan Amelia Bolanios to shoot herself. In their quest to reach the 1970 World Cup finals the teams met again in San Salvador, and this time the Hondurans were harassed and lost 3-0. Honduran fans raced for the border, but several died. The ensuing war lasted only 100 hours, but left over 6000 dead, 15,000 injured and thousands homeless. A peace treaty was finally signed 11 years later.

Soldiers point their machine guns towards Honduras from a frontier post near El Poy, El Salvador during the conflict.