Theodore Komnenos Doukas (died c. 1253) ruled Epirus and Thessaly from 1215 to 1230, and most of Macedonia and western Thrace as Emperor of Thessalonica from 1224 to 1230. He was also the power behind the rule of his two sons John and Demetrios over Thessalonica in 1237–46. The scion of a distinguished Byzantine aristocratic family, he was called to Epirus by his bastard half-brother Michael I Komnenos Doukas, who had founded an independent principality there after the Fourth Crusade. When Michael died in 1215, Theodore assumed governance and allied with Serbia, taking the Latin Kingdom of Thessalonica in 1224. He declared himself emperor, challenging the claims of the Nicaean emperor John III Vatatzes on the Byzantine imperial throne. In 1230 he amassed an army to besiege Constantinople, but diverted it to fight in Bulgaria, where he was defeated, blinded, and imprisoned for seven years. In 1237 he installed his older son John, and later Demetrios, as emperor in Thessalonica, remaining the de facto regent of the state. He was taken prisoner again in 1252 by Vatatzes and sent into exile in Nicaea, where he died the next year.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Komnenos_Doukas

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

628:

Khosrow II, the last great king of the Sasanian Empire, was overthrown by his son Kavadh II. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khosrow_II

1843:

Captain Lord George Paulet of the British Royal Navy began a five-month occupation of land in the Hawaiian islands. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulet_Affair_(1843)

1933:

USS Ranger, the first ship of the United States Navy designed as an aircraft carrier, was launched. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Ranger_(CV-4)

1948:

Fearful of civil war and Soviet intervention in recent unrest, Czechoslovakian president Edvard Beneš ceded control over the government to the Communist Party. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Czechoslovak_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat

2009:

Members of the Bangladesh Rifles mutinied at its headquarters in Pilkhana, Dhaka, Bangladesh, resulting in 74 deaths, in addition to eight mutineers killed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_Rifles_revolt

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

shovelware: 1. (computing, slang, derogatory) A haphazard collection of software assembled in terms of quantity rather than quality. 2. (media, slang) Traditional media content, such as printed news reports, republished hastily on the Internet without considering the needs and capabilities of that medium. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/shovelware

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

You can be standing right in front of the truth and not necessarily see it, and people only get it when they’re ready to get it.   --George Harrison https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Harrison