Brazil had become one big celebration. The largest audience ever present at a soccer game, 250,000 fans, was eager to celebrate the victory of its team in the World Cup against Uruguay. There were no signs then of the outcome only 90 minutes later.

On the eve of the match, the Brazilian squad received gold watches with the inscription: To the World Champions. The newspapers had already printed their front pages and even Jules Rimet had prepared a victory speech. He never got a chance to deliver it.

Brazil's Friaça scored the first goal, Schiaffino replied with one of his own and Ghiaggia fired from crosscourt to cause the most painful silence ever felt at Maracaná. Uruguay, against all odds, was the world champion. The conclusion of the match also marked other endings. Ary Barbosa, whose rise to fame was having composed Aquarela do Brasil, and who was commentating the match nationwide, vowed to never again work as a soccer commentator, recalled Eduardo Galeano in his book: Football in Sun and Shadow.

Years later, in 1993, the goalkeeper of that fallen Brazilian team, Moacyr Barbosa, wanted to show his support to the Brazilian squad playing in the World Cup qualifiers. He tried to access the premises, but was removed. Sad, Barbosa said: "The longest criminal sentence in this country is thirty years; I have been serving 43 years for a crime I did not commit."

In Venezuela, on the 14th of November, news of Carlos Delgado Chalbaud's death spread; he was murdered near his home in the Caracas' neighborhood of Chapellín. The car of the president of the military junta was intercepted by an armed group who unloaded their weapons killing Chalbaud and his assistant, Naval Lieutenant Carlos Bacalao.

Miguel Moreno, secretary of the military junta, announced the capture of the head of the group, General Rafael Simón Urbina, who died two days later after, allegedly, fighting his keepers. Marcos Pérez Jiménez and Luis Felipe Llovera Páez, both members of the Government Board, ordered suspension of constitutional rights.

Pérez Jiménez delivered a speech in honor of Chalbaud. "His death marks a painful period (...) His untimely death will not stop the material and institutional growth of the country."

The Provisional Government Regulations were amended, and a new government junta was created, headed by Germán Suárez Flamerich, and ratifying the positions held by Pérez Jiménez and Llovera Páez.

Other events caused commotion throughout the country that year, including the crash of a DC-3 plane owned by Avensa in the Los Torres mountains. All passengers, 28 students and three crewmembers, died. An earthquake destroyed 80 percent of the town of El Tocuyo, Lara State, with a death toll of two.