Brazil, 1963 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
On 12 September 1963 non-commissioned officers of the Brazilian Navy and Air Force launched an armed revolt in Brasilia, the Revolt of the Sergeants, after the Supreme Federal Court reaffirmed a ruling that barred enlisted men from holding elective office. The sergeants, who had won seats in the 1962 elections only to be declared ineligible, seized key points in the capital in protest, but the army garrison quickly defeated them after some fighting. The rising came amid the turbulent reformist presidency of Joao Goulart, whose apparent sympathy for the enlisted men's cause alarmed the officer corps, which saw the breakdown of military hierarchy as a threat to the institution itself.
Goulart survived the revolt, but the episode deepened officers' distrust of him and fed the conspiracy that would overthrow him in the military coup of 31 March to 1 April 1964, ushering in a two decade dictatorship.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Datasets agree. At least two of the three reference datasets we check against carry this event, and none of them disagrees about its date or its result.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
14009121963- Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-140-1963-09-12
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Joao Goulart survived the Sergeants' Revolt but was overthrown in the military coup of 1964.
Baseline coding: Coup attempt failed to remove the incumbent. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
Powell and Thyne
Detroit Free Press
Philadelphia Inquirer
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →