Anna Anderson (1896–1984) was the best known of several impostors who
claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia. The real Anastasia,
the youngest daughter of the last Tsar and Tsarina of Russia, Nicholas
II and Alexandra, was murdered with her parents and siblings on 17 July
1918 by Bolsheviks in Ekaterinburg, Russia, but the location of her
body was unknown. In 1920, Anderson was institutionalized in a mental
hospital after a suicide attempt in Berlin. At first, she went by the
name Fräulein Unbekannt (German for Miss Unknown) as she refused to
reveal her identity. Later she used the name Tschaikovsky and then
Anderson. In March 1922, claims that Anderson was a Russian grand
duchess first received public attention. Most members of Grand Duchess
Anastasia's family and those who had known her, including court tutor
Pierre Gilliard, said Anderson was an impostor, but others were
convinced she was Anastasia. In 1927, a private investigation funded by
the Tsarina's brother, Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse, identified
Anderson as Franziska Schanzkowska, a Polish factory worker with a
history of mental illness. Upon her death in 1984, Anderson's body was
cremated, and her ashes were buried in the churchyard at Castle Seeon,
Germany. After the collapse of Communism, the locations of the bodies
of the Tsar, Tsarina and all five of their children were revealed and
multiple laboratories in different countries confirmed their identity
through DNA testing. DNA tests on a lock of Anderson's hair and
surviving medical samples of her tissue showed that Anderson's DNA did
not match the Romanov remains or living relatives of the Romanovs.
Instead, Anderson's mitochondrial DNA matched that of Karl Maucher, a
great-nephew of Franziska Schanzkowska. Scientists, historians, and
major news agencies accept that Anderson was Schanzkowska.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Anderson>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1513:
Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León set foot on Florida, becoming
the first European known to do so, purportedly while searching for the
Fountain of Youth in the New World.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Ponce_de_Le%C3%B3n>
1801:
War of the Second Coalition: British forces led by Vice Admiral Horatio
Nelson defeated the Dano-Norwegian fleet at the Battle of Copenhagen
off the coast of Copenhagen.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Copenhagen_%281801%29>
1956:
As the World Turns premiered on American television as the first
half-hour soap opera .
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_the_World_Turns>
1982:
Argentine special forces invaded the Falkland Islands, sparking the
Falklands War.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_invasion_of_the_Falkland_Islands>
2002:
Operation Defensive Shield: Approximately 200 Palestinians fled
advancing Israeli forces into the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem,
starting a month-long standoff.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_the_Church_of_the_Nativity_in_Bethlehem>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
antsy (adj):
Restless, apprehensive and fidgety
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/antsy>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Truth is on the march, and nothing will stop it.
--Émile Zola
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/%C3%89mile_Zola>