On the night of February 28, 1986, Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme left the Grand Cinema after having seen a movie with his wife Lisbet. He was walking down Sveavägen, a prominent street in Stockholm, when he was shot and killed while crossing the street. He had no bodyguards, and was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.

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The Stadsbiblioteket (Stockholm Public Library)

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A popular prime minister, Palme’s death shocked the peaceful Swedish society. As Palme was a vocal critic of the Vietnam War, apartheid, and totalitarian regimes, conspiracy theories surrounded his unexplained assassination. His murder remains unsolved to this day, and the case was reopened in February, 2017. 

The location of the prime minister’s death is memorialized on Sveavägen, near the Grand Cinema with a golden plaque embedded in the sidewalk. The prime minister was buried in the cemetery gardens of Adolf Fredriks kyrka (Adolf Fredriks church). At the gravesite is a stone memorial inscribed with Palme’s signature.