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January
11th |
King Constantine I of Greece died at the age of 65. |
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February
12th |
Italian director, Franco Zeffirelli, was born in Florence. He is most known for his 1977 television mini-series, Jesus of Nazareth, which is still popular today (2006) during the Easter season in many countries. |
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March
3rd |
The first edition of TIME magazine was published. |
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March
22nd |
The worlds most famous mime, Marcel Marceau, was born in Southern California. |
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May
23th |
Belgium's Sabena airlines was launched. It remained in operation for 68 years, up until 2001 when it declared bankruptcy. |
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May
27th |
American statesman, Henry Kissinger, was born in Furth, Germany. He played a dominant role in United States foreign policy between 1969 and 1977. |
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May
28th |
Hungarian composer, Gyorgy Ligeti, was born in the town of Dicsoszentmarton, Transylvania. He is considered as one of the great composers of instrumental music of the later part of the 20th century. His music has been featured on numerous films by the late film director Stanley Kubrick. |
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May
31st |
Prince Rainier III of Monaco was born Monaco. He ascended to the throne of Monaco at 1949 and remained at his post till his death in 2005. He managed to shift the economy of Monaco, from being almost 95% dependant on gambling to less than 3%. |
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July
6th |
President of Poland, Wojciech Jaruzelski, was born in Kurow. He was the most prominent communist politician of post-war Poland. He served as prime minister from 1981 to 1985, head of the Polish Council of State from 1985 to 1989 and President from 1989 to 1990. |
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July
24th |
The Treaty of Lausanne, was signed in Switzerland by Greece, Bulgaria and other countries that fought in the First World War. The treaty effectively set the borders of modern day Turkey as compared to what they were during the Ottoman Empire. |
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August
29th |
British film director and actor, Richard Attenborough, was born in Cambridge. He is one of the most highly regarded actors of his generation, who is as much active in theatre as he is in major Hollywood productions. He is also an award wining director who is highly acclaimed for movies such as Gandhi and A Bridge Too Far. |
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September
1st |
A massive earthquake hit Japan, devastating the cities of Tokyo and Yokohama. The earthquake which is known as 'The Great Kanto earthquake, is estimated to have had a magnitude of between 7.9 and 8.5 in the Richter scale. The magnitude along with the fact that it lasted for a fairly long time (reports place its duration between 4 and 10 minutes) resulted in tremendous destruction and the death of approximately 140,000 people. |
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September
1st |
American boxer, Rocky Marciano, was born in Brockton, Massachusetts. He is considered one of the greatest heavyweights of all time and the only boxing champion of any weight class to retire undefeated and without any draws. |
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September
6th |
King Peter II of Yugoslavia was born. He was the last king of Yugoslavia. He died on the 3rd of November 1970, in Denver, Colorado, after a failed liver transplant and is the only European monarch buried on American soil. |
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September
8th |
Nine US Navy destroyer ships run aground off the California coast during an exercise. Seven of the ships were lost in the biggest peacetime naval disaster of America. |
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September
13th |
A military coup took place in Spain after which a dictatorship was set up under the rule of Miguel Primo de Rivera. |
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October
13th |
Following in line with Kemal Ataturk's Turkish national reforms, Ankara replaced Constantinople as the capital of Turkey. |
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October
16th |
The Walt Disney Company was founded by Walt Disney and his brother, Roy Disney. |
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October
29th |
Turkey was proclaimed as a republic after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. |
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December
2nd |
American soprano, Maria Callas, was born in New York City. She is possibly the best known female opera singer of all time. |
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December
27th |
French engineer, Gustave Eiffel, died at the age 93. He is most famous for designing the Eiffel Tower. |
