Josip Broz Tito (Cyrillic: Јосип Броз Тито, May 7, (originally May 25th on the official birth certificate) 1892 – May 4, 1980) was the leader of Yugoslavia between the end of World War II and his death in 1980.

In 1920, he became a member of the soon to be banned Communist Party of Yugoslavia. Their influence on the political life of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was minor at the time. In 1934, he became a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Party, then located in Vienna, Austria, and adopted the code name "Tito".

A popular explanation of the sobriquet claims that it is a conjunction of two Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian words, ti (meaning "you") and to (meaning "that"). As the story goes, during the frantic times of his command, he would issue commands with those two words, by pointing to the person, and then task. However, when Tito adopted the name, he was in no position to give orders because he wasn't the leader of the communist party, just a member.

Tito is also an old, though uncommon, Croatian name, corresponding to Titus. Tito's biographer, Vladimir Dedijer claimed that it came from the Croatian romantic writer, Tituš Brezovacki, but the name is very well known in Zagorje.

In 1948, Tito became the first Communist leader to defy Stalin's leadership of the Cominform- one of the few people to stand up to Stalin's demands for absolute loyalty. Stalin took it personally-for once, to no avail. 'Stop sending people to kill me,' Tito wrote. 'If you don't stop sending killers, I'll send one to Moscow, and I won't have to send a second.'-U.S. News & World Report Untold tales of the Great Conquerors January 3, 2006. , and the Yugoslav Communist Party was expelled from the association on June 28, 1948. This brought Tito much international recognition, but also caused a rift with the Soviet Union and triggered a period of instability often referred to as the Informbiro period. Tito's form of communism was labelled Titoism by Moscow, which encouraged purges against suspected "Titoites'" throughout the Communist bloc.

On June 26, 1950, the National Assembly supported a crucial bill written by Milovan Ðilas and Tito about "self-management" (samoupravljanje): a type of independent socialism that experimented with profit sharing with workers in state-run enterprises. On January 13, 1953, they established that the law on self-management was the basis of the entire social order in Yugoslavia. Tito also succeeded Ivan Ribar as the President of Yugoslavia on January 14, 1953. On April 7, 1963, the country changed its official name to Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

On May 16, 1974, a new Constitution was passed, and Josip Broz Tito was named President for life.

In January 1980, Tito was admitted to Klinicni Center Ljubljana (the clinical centre in Ljubljana) , Slovenia with circulation problems in his legs, and his left leg was amputated soon afterwards. He died there on May 4, 1980, three days before his 88th birthday. His funeral drew many world celebrities, mainly politicians. It was the largest funeral based on the number of attending politicians and state delegations in history.