Tancredo de Almeida Neves-He was a Brazilian politician. He was born in São João del Rey, in the state of Minas Gerais, of mostly Portuguese, but also Austrian descent and graduated in law. The Neves family name comes from an Azorean great great grandfather. Tancredo Neves was a descendant of Amador Bueno, a noted paulista from the colonial Brazilian era. He began his political career as a member of the legislative chamber of his hometown in 1934, and was elected in 1947 to the Minas Gerais state legislature. Three years later he became a representative of his state in the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies. In 1953 he was appointed by President Getúlio Dornelles Vargas to be the Minister of Justice. Neves served in that post until Vargas committed suicide in 1954. In 1960, Neves ran unsuccessfully for governor of Minas Gerais. During the political crisis that began with the resignation of President Jânio da Silva Quadros on August 25, 1961, a parliamentary system was installed in Brazil by a constitutional amendment passed on September 2, 1961. Neves was appointed as Prime Minister by President João Goulart and served from September 1961 until July 1962. The parliamentary system was abolished by plebiscite in January 1963. Goulart was overthrown by a coup in 1964 and Neves, who had up to that point been considered a moderate politician, became an opponent to the military regime in the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB). He was elected Senator in 1978 and governor of Minas Gerais in 1982. In 1984, he was one of the leaders of the Diretas Já movement that demanded direct elections for President of Brazil. Neves was the opposition candidate to succeed President João Baptista de Oliveira Figueiredo. The campaign for direct elections failed. There was no popular public vote. Neves was elected President by a majority of the Electoral College on January 15, 1985, where he received 480 votes. However, on March 14, on the last day of his predecessor's term and on the eve of his own inauguration, Neves became severely ill, requiring immediate surgery. He thus was not able to attend his own inauguration on March 15. The Constitution required the President and Vice-President elect to take oaths of office before the assembled National Congress. The inauguration was accordingly held for the Vice-President only, the Vice-President immediately assumed the powers of the presidency as Acting President. At that time, there was still hope that Neves would recover and appear before Congress to take the oath of office. However, Neves suffered from abdominal complications and developed generalized infections. After seven operations, Neves died on April 21, more than one month after the beginning of his term of office, without ever having taken the oath of office as President. He was succeeded by José Sarney. Neves's ordeal was intensively covered by the Brazilian media and followed with anxiety by the whole nation, who had seen in him the way out of the authoritarian regime into what he had called a "New Republic" (Nova República). His death caused an outpouring of national grief. Tancredo Neves is counted among the official list of presidents of Brazil as a matter of homage and honour, since, not having taken the oath of office, he technically never became President. An Act of Congress was thus necessary to make this homage official. Accordingly on the first anniversary of his death, a statute was signed into law declaring that he should be counted among the Presidents of Brazil. The Tancredo Neves International Airport in Belo Horizonte is named after him.