On this day 169 years ago, on April 24, 1856 (March 20, 1856 lunar calendar), French army general and politician Pétain was born. Henri Philippe Pétain (April 24, 1856 - July 23, 1951) French army general, politician, and head of the French Vichy government, Prime Minister. He served as the commander-in-chief of the French army during World War I, leading France against Germany, and was considered a national hero. He was promoted to field marshal in 1918. He served as the director of the army, minister of defense, etc. When he became the French prime minister in 1940, he was sentenced to death for surrendering to Germany and negotiating peace, which was later commuted to life imprisonment. Pétain became a French hero during World War I and was called "the savior of Verdun". At the start of the war in 1914, Pétain was a retired colonel. When the war began, he was promoted to brigade commander and division commander. He was promoted to commander of the Second Army in October and commander of the Second Army in July 1915. He commanded the local French army to repel the German attack at the Battle of Verdun in 1916. Pétain was promoted to commander-in-chief of the French army in 1917 and to field marshal in November 1918. In 1934, he entered the cabinet and held the post of defense minister. In June 1940, Pétain became prime minister of France as the German army advanced inland. On June 22, 1940, a ceasefire agreement was signed with the Germans. According to the agreement, most of France was occupied by the Germans, with the exception of the south and southeast. Then the French Parliament passed a bill granting Pétain constitutional, legislative, executive, and judicial powers, and suspending the constitution, making Pétain a dictator. The headquarters of the Pétain government was Vichy in the non-occupied areas of central France, so it was called the "Vichy government". The Vichy government provided a large amount of supplies to the Axis powers, and ordered the French army in the overseas territories to oppose the Allied forces, and allowed the Axis army to transit through the overseas territories. On November 11, 1942, German troops suddenly occupied the remaining non-occupied areas of France. After the Allied invasion of France in 1944, the Vichy government moved to Germany in September. In April 1945, Pétain returned to France to be tried for treason, and was later convicted and sentenced to death. Pétain was sentenced to life in prison by de Gaulle in August on the grounds of old age, and died in 1951.