On this day, 26 July 1937, Gerda Taro, 26-year-old pioneering photojournalist and committed anti-fascist, was killed in a tragic accident while covering the Republican retreat after the Battle of Brunete during the Spanish civil war. Born in Germany of Polish Jewish descent as Gerda Pohorylle, she later changed her name to disguise her origins to have more commercial success, choosing a name which sounded similar to popular actor "Greta Garbo". Taro was forced to leave Germany after being arrested and imprisoned for subversive and anti-Nazi activism. In exile in Paris she met fellow Jewish exile, Endre Ernő Friedmann, and for a time they published work under the name Robert Capa. While the male half of Capa went on to global fame and acclaim, Taro remained until recently much less well-known. Although she was a hero at the time to many anti-fascists and left-wingers, and on August 1, thousands of people gathered in the streets of Paris to mourn her death.