Alexander (1893–1920) was King of Greece from 11 June 1917 until his
death at the age of 27. He succeeded his father, King Constantine I, in
1917, after the Entente Powers of World War I and followers of
Eleftherios Venizelos pushed the king and his eldest son Crown Prince
George into exile. Venizelos, as prime minister, became the effective
ruler with the support of the Entente. Though reduced to the status of a
puppet king, Alexander supported Greek troops during their war against
the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria. Under his reign, Greece expanded,
following the victory of the Entente and the early stages of the Greco-
Turkish War of 1919–1922. Alexander married the commoner Aspasia Manos
in 1919, provoking a major scandal that forced the couple to leave
Greece for several months. Soon after returning to Greece with his wife,
Alexander was bitten by a domestic Barbary macaque and died of
septicemia. The sudden death of the sovereign contributed to the fall of
the Venizelist regime. After a general election and a referendum,
Constantine I was restored.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_of_Greece>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1345:
Inspecting a new prison without being escorted by his
bodyguard, Alexios Apokaukos, megas doux of the Byzantine Navy, was
lynched by the prisoners.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexios_Apokaukos>
1837:
Tensions between Yankees and Irish Americans in Boston,
Massachusetts, erupted in the Broad Street Riot.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broad_Street_Riot>
1920:
During their national convention in Chicago, U.S. Republican
Party leaders gathered in The Blackstone Hotel to decide their
presidential candidate, leading to the phrase "smoke-filled room".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blackstone_Hotel>
1963:
Vietnamese monk Thích Quảng Đức burned himself to death
in Saigon to protest the persecution of Buddhists by South Vietnamese
President Ngo Dinh Diem's administration.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%ADch_Qu%E1%BA%A3ng_%C4%90%E1%BB%A9c>
2007:
Mudslides caused by heavy monsoon rainfall killed around 130
people in Chittagong, Bangladesh.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Chittagong_mudslides>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
shoefie:
(photography, slang, neologism) A photograph of one's own shoes taken
while one is wearing them.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/shoefie>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Of all wild beasts preserve me from a tyrant; and of all tame, a
flatterer.
--Ben Jonson
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ben_Jonson>