On this day, 63 years ago, Adolph Hitler committed suicide

It is nearly sixty-three years since Adolph Hitler resigned as Der Fuhrer by putting a gun in his mouth. Unfortunately, he resigned just about six years too late.

Before he began his assault on Europe, Hitler promised his followers the Third Reich would last 1,000 years. Twelve years later, in January 1945, as Montgomery and Patton's forces closed in on Berlin, Hitler retreated into a bunker beneath the Chancellery to live out his final days. Located 55 feet down, the shelter contained 18 rooms and was self-sufficient, with its own water and electrical supply. As he grew increasingly deranged, Hitler continued to meet with close subordinates like Hermann Goering, Heinrich Himmler and Josef Goebbels (who would join him, along with his entire family, in suicide).

One day after marrying his mistress, Eva Braun, Hitler and his new bride killed themselves by swallowing cyanide (Hitler also shot himself). The invading Russian soldiers found their charred remains in a bomb crater a couple of days later.
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