US military parade has global counterparts in democracies, monarchies and totalitarian regimes

The military parade to mark the Army's 250th anniversary and its convergence with President Donald Trump's 79th birthday are combining to create a peacetime outlier in U.S. history. Yet it still reflects global traditions that serve a range of political and cultural purposes.

Variations on the theme have surfaced among longtime NATO allies in Europe, one-party and authoritarian states and history's darkest regimes.

The oldest democratic ally of the U.S. holds a military parade each July 14 to commemorate one of the seminal moments of the French Revolution. It inspired — or at least stoked — Trump's idea for a Washington version.

On July 14, 1789, French insurgents stormed the Bastille, which housed prisoners of Louis XVI’s government. Revolutionaries commenced a Fête de la Fédération as a day of national unity and pride the following year, even with the First French Republic still more than two years from being established.

The Bastille Day parade has rolled annually since 1880. Now, it proceeds down an iconic Parisian route, the Avenue des Champs-Élysées. It passes the Arc de Triomphe — a memorial with tributes to the French Revolution, Napoleonic Wars and World War I — and eventually in front of the French president, government ministers and invited foreign guests.

Trump attended in 2017, early in his first presidency, as U.S. troops marched as guests. The spectacle left him openly envious.

“It was one of the greatest parades I’ve ever seen,” Trump told French President Emanuel Macron. “It was military might, and I think a tremendous thing for France and for the spirit of France. We’re going to have to try and top it.”

In the United Kingdom, King Charles III serves as ceremonial (though not practical) head of U.K. armed forces. Unlike in France and the U.S., where elected presidents wear civilian dress even at military events, Charles dons elaborate dress uniforms — medals, sash, sword, sometimes even a bearskin hat and chin strap.

He does it most famously at Trooping the Colour, a parade and troop inspection to mark the British monarch’s official birthday, regardless of their actual birthdate. (The U.S. Army has said it has no specific plans to recognize Trump’s birthday on Saturday.)

In 2023, Charles’ first full year as king, he rode on horseback to inspect 1,400 representatives of the most prestigious U.K. regiments. His mother, Queen Elizabeth II, used a carriage over the last three decades of her 70-year reign.

The British trace Trooping the Colour back to King Charles II, who reigned from 1660-1685. It became an annual event under King George III, described in the American colonists’ Declaration of Independence as a figure of “absolute Despotism (and) Tyranny.”

Grandiose military pomp is common under modern authoritarians, especially those who have seized power via coups. It sometimes serves as a show of force meant to ward off would-be challengers — and to seek legitimacy and respect from other countries.

Cuba’s Fidel Castro, who wore military garb routinely, held parades to commemorate the revolution he led on Dec. 2, 1959. In 2017, then-President Raúl Castro refashioned the event into a Fidel tribute shortly after his brother’s death. Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, known as “Comandante Chávez,” presided over frequent parades until his 2013 death. His successor, Nicolás Maduro, has worn military dress at similar events.

North Korean dictator Kim Jung Un, who famously bonded with Trump in a 2018 summit, used a 2023 military parade to show off his daughter and potential successor, along with pieces of his isolated country's nuclear arsenal. The event in Pyongyang's Kim Il Sung Square — named for Kim's grandfather — marked the North Korean Army's 75th birthday. Kim watched from a viewing stand as missiles other weaponry moved by and goose-stepping soldiers marched past him chanting, “Defend with your life, Paektu Bloodline” — referring to the Kim family's biological ancestry.

In China, Beijing's one-party government stages its National Day Parade every 10 years to project civic unity and military might. The most recent events, held in 2009 and 2019, involved trucks carrying nuclear missiles designed to evade U.S. defenses, as well as other weaponry.

Legions of troops, along with those hard assets, streamed past President Xi Jinping and other leaders gathered in Tiananmen Square in 2019 as spectators waved Chinese flags and fighter jets flew above.

Earlier this spring, Xi joined Russian President Vladimir Putin — another strongman leader Trump has occasionally praised — in Moscow's Red Square for the annual “Victory Day” parade. The May 9 event commemorates the Soviet Union's role in defeating Nazi Germany in World War II — a global conflict in which China and the Soviet Union, despite not being democracies, joined the Allied Powers in fighting the Axis Powers led by Germany and Japan.

Large civic-military displays were, of course, a feature in Nazi Germany and fascist Italy before and during World War II. Chilling footage of such events lives on as a reminder of the dangers of authoritarian extremism.

Among those frequent occasions: a parade capping Germany’s multiday observance of Adolf Hitler’s 50th birthday in 1939. (Some far-right extremists in Europe still mark the anniversary of Hitler's birth.) The four-hour march through Berlin on April 20, 1939, included more than 40,000 personnel across the Army, Navy, Luftwaffe (Air Force) and Schutzstaffel (commonly known as the “SS.”) Hundreds of thousands of spectators lined the streets. The Führer’s invited guests numbered 20,000.

On a street-level platform, Hitler was front and center. Alone.

FILE - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez salutes as he arrives to preside over a civilian-military parade part of Venezuela's 200th independence anniversary celebrations in Caracas, April 19, 2010.(AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)

FILE - Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, from left, Operational Strategic Commander Gen. Vladimir Padrino Lopez, Bolivia's President Evo Morales and Cuba's President Raul Castro applaud during a military parade commemorating the one year anniversary of the death of Venezuela's former President Hugo Chavez in Caracas, Venezuela, March 5, 2014. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano, File)

FILE - French President Emmanuel Macron, right, and U.S. President Donald Trump attend the traditional Bastille Day military parade July 14, 2017, on the Champs Elysees, in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)

FILE - U.S troops march down the Champs Elysees during the Bastille Day parade in Paris, July 14, 2017. (AP/Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

FILE - Cuban soldiers march during a military parade along the Revolution Square in Havana, Cuba, Dec. 2, 2006. (AP Photo/ Javier Galeano, File)

BOSTON (AP) — Alex Bregman’s first game back with the Red Sox since late May had a dramatic flair to it.

Bregman went 1 for 4 with a double off the Green Monster as the Red Sox rallied for their eighth straight win when Ceddanne Rafaela's ninth inning homer lifted them over the Tampa Bay Rays 5-4 on Friday night.

Boston manager Alex Cora said after the game that there are ground rules in place to make sure the All-Star third baseman doesn’t suffer a setback after missing 43 games with a quad strain.

Bregman won’t play on Saturday as the team is taking a long-range view with a player who was sidelined since May 24 when he sustained an injury that occurred when he rounded first base and felt his quad tighten up to the point where leaving the game was the best option.

A clear indication of the restrictions placed on Bregman came in the fifth inning Friday night when he hit a sharp grounder to third base but didn’t hustle down the line.

“When he hits a groundball, he’s not going to go all-out to first,” Cora said. “It might look bad, but we need him healthy and we’re going to keep him healthy.”

It’s a new reality that figures to take some getting used to, since Bregman is known for being a foot-on-the-gas-pedal-at-all-times ballplayer.

“Yeah, it sucks,” Bregman said. “But the first few weeks especially, just got to be smart out of the box. When I first got out there, my legs weighed like five pounds. Later in the game, it felt like they weighed a little more than that."

Bregman returned to his customary spot in the field and was slotted in the No. 2 spot of Boston’s lineup for the second of a four-game series against the Rays. A two-time World Series winner who spent the first nine seasons of his big league career with the Houston Astros, Bregman signed a $120 million, three-year contract in February.

At the time of the injury, he was hitting .299 with 11 homers and 35 RBIs. Those numbers led to Bregman being named an American League All-Star for the third time.

Earlier this week, Bregman said he was trending in a direction where he didn’t believe he would require a minor league rehab assignment. With three games left before the All-Star break, the Red Sox clearly agreed that the time was right to reinstate a player to a team that entered Friday in possession of one of the AL’s three wild-card berths.

“My body feels good. Super thankful to the training staff and strength and conditioning staff for allowing me to get back this quick,” said Bregman. “Initially, we thought it would be more like 12 weeks. To get back in seven weeks is awesome, but we’ve got to take it slow. On the days we’re not playing, we’re going to make sure my full hip complex is staying strong and my hamstrings and quads are good.”

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Boston Red Sox third baseman Alex Bregman dives for the ball on a left field single hit by Tampa Bay Rays' Junior Caminero during the first inning of a baseball game Friday, July 11, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Mark Stockwell)

Boston Red Sox's Alex Bregman runs to second base on an infield double during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Friday, July 11, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Mark Stockwell)

Boston Red Sox's Alex Bregman gestures after hitting an infield double during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Friday, July 11, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Mark Stockwell)

FILE - Boston Red Sox's Alex Bregman heads for the dugout after injuring himself on a single against the Baltimore Orioles during the fifth inning in the first baseball game of a doubleheader on May 23, 2025, at Fenway Park in Boston. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson, File)