More than four out of five of Swiss voters backed the creation of canton Jura on September 24, 1978. The ballot came after decades of controversy and militant activity in northwestern Switzerland. Jura split from Bern and became the youngest of the 26 Swiss cantons.
Jura Difficult birth of a canton
A group of anti-separatists in Tramelan, 1967 (RDB)
Separatists disrupt the 1964 celebrations in Les Rangiers commemorating the mobilisation of the Swiss army for the First World War (Keystone)
Militants destroy the statue of the Unknown Swiss Soldier in Les Rangiers in 1984. It was never restored (Keystone)
Demonstrators in the town of Delémont protesting against the rule of Bern in 1965 (Keystone)
The militant Bélier group enter Bern's Wankdorf football stadium to spray "Free Jura" on the pitch (Keystone)
Separatists storm the Swiss parliament building and interrupt a session of the House of Representatives in December 1968 (Keystone)
Young Jura militants burning an official booklet on civil defence in 1969. The manual was supposed to help citizens stand firm against a potential Communist invasion (Keystone)
Anti-separatists in the town of Moutier during an initial ballot in 1974 that paved the way for secession from canton Bern (Keystone)
Militants take to the streets of Bern in March 1972, disrupting public transport in the capital (Keystone)
Roland Béguelin (right), the charismatic leader of the separatist movement, casting his vote in the final ballot of 1978 (Keystone)
The president of the Jura constitutional assembly, François Lachat, announces the official vote result to a crowd in the town of Delémont in 1978 (Keystone)
The legendary Unspunnen stone was stolen by separatists from a local museum in 1984. Seventeen years later it was returned, ornamented with the symbols of the European Union. Shawne Fielding, former Miss Texas and wife of a Swiss ambassador, poses with the object during the 2002 national exhibition (Keystone/Roger Meier)
In 2005, the Unspunnen stone was stolen for a second time. The thieves replaced it with a paving stone displaying the Jura flag (Keystone/Peter Michel)
The commune of Vellerat in 1982 unilaterally announced its independence from canton Bern. Following a protracted procedure, it was allowed to join canton Jura in 1996 (Keystone)
A Jura supporter on his way home after the 30th anniversary celebrations for the first Jura ballot of 1974 (Keystone)