Francisco Javier Arana

Francisco Javier Arana Castro was a Guatemalan military leader and one of the three members of the revolutionary junta that ruled Guatemala from 20 October 1944 to 15 March 1945 during the early part of the Guatemalan Revolution. A major in the Guatemalan army under the dictator Jorge Ubico, he allied with a progressive faction of the army to topple Ubico's successor Federico Ponce Vaides. He led the three-man junta that oversaw the transition to a democratic government, although he was personally reluctant to allow the elected President Juan José Arévalo to take office in 1945. He served as the Chief of the Armed Forces in the new government until 1949. On 18 July 1949 he was killed in a shootout with supporters of the Arévalo government after he threatened to launch a coup.

5 December 1905

Born on the same birth date (5 December 1905): Otto Preminger

Born on the same birth day (5 December): Alun Gwynne Jones, Baron Chalfont • Amy Acker • Anthony Martial • Argo Arbeiter • Bhumibol Adulyadej • Cam Fowler • Elbert Frank Cox • Ellis Parker Butler • Francesco Scarlatti • Harry Holgate • Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière • Jim Plunkett • John Altman (composer) • Kali Rocha • Klaus Allofs • Michel'le • Morgan J. Freeman • Osvaldo Golijov • Rose Wilder Lane • Strom Thurmond • Zhu Wen

Born in the same month (December 1905): Anthony Powell • Dalton Trumbo • Erico Verissimo • Helen Dodson Prince • Howard Hughes • Irving Kahn • Käte Fenchel • Otto Preminger • Robert Henriques