Portrait of Draža Mihailović

Birthday profile

Draža Mihailović

Draža Mihailović, Serbian general (died 1946)

Born
April 27, 1893
Died
July 17, 1946
Zodiac sign
Taurus
Birth year
1893

About Draža Mihailović

Dragoljub "Draža" Mihailović (Serbian Cyrillic: Драгољуб "Дража" Михаиловић; 27 April 1893 – 17 July 1946) was a Yugoslav Serb general during World War II. He was the leader of the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army (Chetniks), a royalist and nationalist movement and guerrilla force established following the German invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941. Born in Ivanjica and raised in Belgrade, Mihailović fought in the Balkan Wars and the First World War with distinction. After the fall of Yugoslavia in April 1941, Mihailović organized the Chetniks at Ravna Gora and engaged in guerrilla warfare alongside Josip Broz Tito's Partisans against occupying German forces. Opposing strategies, ideological differences and general distrust drove them apart, and by late 1941 the two groups were in open conflict. Many Chetnik groups collaborated or established modus vivendi with the Axis powers, which along with British frustration over Mihailović's inaction led to the Allies shifting their support to Tito in 1944. Mihailović collaborated with fascist collaborators Milan Nedić and Dimitrije Ljotić at the end of the war. Mihailović went into hiding after the war but was captured in March 1946. He was tried and convicted of high treason and war crimes by the communist authorities of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, and executed by firing squad in Belgrade in July. The nature and extent of his responsibility for collaboration and ethnic massacres remain controversial. In May 2015, Mihailović's verdict was overturned on appeal by the Supreme Court of Cassation of Serbia, citing his trial and conviction as politically and ideologically motivated. He fought as a cadet in the Serbian Army during the Balkan Wars of 1912–13 and was awarded the Silver Medal of Valor at the end of the First Balkan War, in May 1913. Afterwards, Mihailović became a professor at Belgrade's staff college.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when Draža Mihailović was born

Draža Mihailović was born in 1893. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Headlines and milestones

  • Top headlineWorld's Columbian Exposition in Chicago
  • Technology milestoneFirst Ferris wheel debuts at Chicago World's Fair
  • Notable inventionFerris wheel (264 feet tall)
  • World population~1.53B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderGrover Cleveland
  • U.S. population66.0M

1893 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Draža Mihailović's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure18932026
Population66.0M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.