Timeline Greece
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Greece is about the same size as Alabama.
(SSFC, 10/9/05, Par p.27)
Pieria: a district in northern Thessaly (a
region
in eastern Greece), the reputed home of the muses.
(NH, 9/97, p.24)
32000BC-21000BC In 2004 Some 70 clay
hearths of this age were identified in a single cave in the
northwestern Peloponnese.
(Arch, 1/05, p.13)
3200BC-2000BC The Cycladic culture, a network of small, sometimes
fortified farming and fishing settlements that traded with mainland
Greece, Crete and Asia Minor, flourished during this period. It is best
known for the elegant figurines: mostly naked, elongated figures with
arms folded under their chests. It was eclipsed by Crete and Mycenaean
Greece.
(AP, 12/31/06)
6000BC-5500BC In 2005 archaeologists in northern Greece uncovered
traces of two prehistoric farming settlements dating back to this
period.
(AP, 11/28/05)
2500BC Cycladic figurines on the islet of Keros were
deliberately smashed around this time. In 2006 new research led
scientists to believe that Keros was a hugely important religious site
where the smashed artwork was ceremoniously deposited. The sea-faring
Cycladic culture consisted of a network of small, sometimes fortified,
farming and fishing settlements that traded with mainland Greece, Crete
and Asia Minor. It became renowned for its elegant flat-faced marble
figurines.
(SFC, 1/10/06, p.D7)(AP, 12/31/06)
2200BC In Greece Indo-European invaders, speaking the
earliest form of Greek, entered the mainland.
(eawc, p.2)
2000-1500 The Minoan civilization, named after the
Cretan ruler Minos, reached its height with central power in Knossos on
the isle of Crete. The culture was apparently more female-oriented and
peaceful than others of the time.
(eawc, p.2)
1700BC Knossos was first destroyed by an earthquake.
Mycenae, the great city of the Peloponnesus, was another earthquake
victim about this time.
(SFC,12/9/97, p.A8)
1600-1300BC Messenia, the home of King Nestor,
mentioned in Homer's Iliad, is the site of a well excavated palace that
dates to this period.
(LSA., Fall 1995, p.6)
1600-1200 The Mycenaean civilization on the Greek
peninsula emerged. It was named after the leading Greek city of this
period.
(eawc, p.2)
1500BC Chersonesos on the Crimean peninsula on the
edge of Sevastopol was the Greek world’s most northern colony.
(SFC,12/190/97, p.F6)
1500BC The explosion of Thira (Santorini) released
energy equal to 200,000 H-bombs.
(NH, 5/96, p.3)
1500BC-400AD This period of Greek history was covered
by Charles Freeman in his 1999 book "The Greek Achievement."
(WSJ, 8/31/99, p.A20)
1400BC Around Greece after the destruction of Knossos
the Mycenaean civilization replaced the Minoan. Bronze weapons, war
scenes on art, Cyclopean defense walls and the burial of male warriors
with their weapons indicates that the Mycenaeans were militaristic. The
horse drawn chariot emerged about this time. The Mycenaeans dominated
the Aegean world for about 200 years.
(eawc, p.4)
1295-1272BC The Hittite king Muwatalli II signed a
treaty with Alaksandu, ruler of the Arzawa land known as Wilusa
(northwest Turkey), which became Wilios in Bronze Age Greece and then
slurred to Ilios for Homer’s Iliad.
(Arch, 5/04, p.40)
1275-1240BC The Trojan War is usually dated to this
period.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.49)
1267-1237 King Hattusili III ruled the Hittites. He
wrote a letter to the king of Ahhiyawa (thought to be Mycenaean Greeks)
and mentioned that Wilusa was once a bone of contention.
(Arch, 5/04, p.40)
1250BC Some scholars believe that the Mycenaeans
waged a successful war with the Trojans of western Asia Minor.
(eawc, p.5)
1250-1000BC Troy VIIa, another discernible era on the
site of the Trojan War. Evidence shows that Troy V was destroyed by
fire and that Troy VI saw the establishment of an entirely new
principality. An earthquake hit the thriving city of 5-6 thousand
people, but after the crisis, the same people returned and repaired the
city. The renovated Troy VIIa lasted some seventy years and was then
destroyed by a conflagration.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.49-50)
1200BC The end of Mycenaean civilization.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.73)
1184BC Jun 11, Greeks finally captured Troy. This
corresponds to excavation levels VIi or VIIa at the site of Hisarlik,
Turkey. [see 1150BC]
(SC, 6/11/02)(Arch, 5/04, p.37)
1178BC Apr 16, In 2008 researchers suggested that
this was the date that Odysseus struck with arrows, swords and spears,
killing those who sought to replace him, as he returned from the Trojan
War.
(AP, 6/23/08)
1150BC Troy fell about this time. Estimated date for
the beginning of the Aeneid. [see 1275-1240BC] After King Agamemnon,
leader of the Greeks, returned home to Mycenae he was killed by his
wife Clytemnestra and her lover. In 2006 Cathy Gere authored “The Tomb
of Agamemnon.”
(V.D.-H.K.p.60)(Econ, 3/11/06, p.78)
1100BC By this time the Mycenaeans were overtaken by
Dorian invaders who used iron weapons. Greek culture then entered unto
a "Dark Age" period characterized by the disappearance of writing and a
decline in architecture that lasted to about 800BC.
(eawc, p.5)
1100-1000BC The first Greek tribes settled on Crete
around the 11th century BC.
(WSJ, 3/20/97, p.A17)
c800BC In Greece increased trade and governmental
defense fortifications allowed for the emergence of city-states to
emerge from tribal communities. These grew up among market places and
included Athens, Thebes and Megara on the mainland.
(eawc, p.6)
800-750 The Iliad epic was set down by Homer in about
the first half of the 8th century, some five centuries after the war it
purportedly reports.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.44)
c800-700 The period of Homer, reputed author of "The
Iliad" and "The Odyssey."
(WUD, 1994, p.679)
c800-700 The Greeks and the Etruscans occupied
different regions of the peninsula during the 8th century.
(eawc, p.2)
800-500BC The Archaic period of Greece. It was marked
by developments in literature, the arts, politics, philosophy and
science. The Peloponnesian city of Corinth, Sparta and cities along the
coast of the Aegean flourished. Most of the cities were similar in
their political evolution except for the elite dictatorship in Sparta.
Most of the cities began as monarchies, evolved to oligarchies, were
overthrown during the age of tyrants and eventually established
democracies.
(eawc, p.6)
776BC In Olympia Greece the
Olympic Games were born after Iphitos, king of Elis, asked the Delphic
Oracle how to save Greece from civil war and plagues. The answer was to
revive the Olympics from their mythological roots. Together with
Lycourgos of Sparta and Kleosthenes of Pisa a sacred truce was
concluded and the games declared at Olympia. The historian Pausanias
(c150CE) wrote: "The Olympic victor must not win with money but the
fleetness of foot and the strength of body." In the Pankration, a
combination of wrestling and boxing, biting and eye-gouging were
forbidden. Adult women were discouraged from attending the games under
the penalty of being hurled from the cliffs of Mount Typaion, opposite
the stadium
(SFC, 7/14/96, p.T1)(WSJ, 7/19/96, p.R16)
750BC Greeks invent symbols for
vowels.
(V.D.-H.K.-p.25)
750BC The era of the Greek poet
Homer.
(MT, 10/95, p.10-11)
c750-700 The long-running Lelantine War between
Chalkis and Eretria, the 2 largest cities on the island of Euboia, was
named after the name of the plain that both cities claimed. The two
cities had jointly founded Cumae in Italy (c750). When they fell out,
the war between them split the Greek world in two.
(Arch, 1/05,
p.34)(www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9047711)
c750-700BC Greeks adopted hoplite gear and the
phalanx for warfare over this period.
(Arch, 1/05, p.33)
750-600BC Greek colonies exert strong influence over
newly urbanized Etruscans.
(NG, 6/1988, p.710)
730BC In Greece the cremated
remains of some 120 men were placed in urns in the cemetery of Paroika,
the chief city of Paros Island.
(Arch, 1/05, p.)
729BC Greek colonists settled in
Catania, Sicily.
(SFC, 6/2/03, p.A11)
708BC Lampis of Sparta won the
pentathlon becoming the 1st Olympic winner in the long jump.
(NH, 6/03, p.12)
c680BC Inhabitants of Paros island (Greece) colonized
the northern Aegean island of Thasos, seizing its abundant timber and
gold mines. Soldier-poet Archilochus of Paros took part in the
colonization of Thasos as well as in conflicts with Naxos.
(Arch, 1/05, p.30,34)
c650BC The time of Archilochus, poet.
(WUD, 1994, p.78)
c650BC Greece began using the drachma for currency.
(SSFC, 11/11/01, p.F4)
650-500BC The age of the tyrants.
(eawc, p.6)
642BC The first horse race on
record was in the Olympic Games of Greece and the first prize was a
"woman of well-rounded domestic skills."
(SFEC, 8/2/98, Z1 p.8)
640BC In Greece the Spartan form
of government, adapted from the Dorians, was heavily influenced by
militarism. The Messenian wars initiated Sparta’s fear of change. They
remained isolated by banning trade and discouraging travel outside
their territory. Alcaeus, Greek lyric poet, was born in Mytilene on the
island of Lesbos. His lyrics expounded on contemporary politics, love,
hymns to Apollo and Hermes, and some drinking songs.
(eawc, p.8)
631BC The city of Cyrene, in what
later became Libya, was first developed by the Greeks. It was later
settled by the Romans and destroyed in the earthquake of 365.
(SFC, 9/11/07, p.A16)
625BC The first Greek coins were
stamped with the likeness of a wheat head to show that wheat had been
used for money before the use of coins.
(SFC, 7/6/96, p.E4)
612BC Sappho, Greek lyric poet of
Lesbos, was born. She is the most famous female poet of the ancient
world and is inscribed in the "Palatine Anthology" among the Muses,
rather than among the great lyric poets, in the 2nd century BC. Her
poetry explored female sexuality and love in a male dominated society.
(eawc, p.8)
c600 BC Aesop said: "We hang the petty thieves, but
appoint the great ones to public office."
(SFEC, 3/15/98, Z1 p.8)
c600BC The Greeks established city-states along the
southern coast of Italy and the island of Sicily. They contributed
letters to the Roman alphabet, religious concepts and artistic talent
as well as mythology.
(eawc, p.8)
c600BC The Greeks established the trading colony of
Massalia, later Marseilles, and imported wine to the Celts in exchange
for iron, copper, tin, salt and slaves.
(NGM, 5/77)
595-339BC In Greece 4 Sacred Wars were fought for the
control of Delphi over this period.
(SSFC, 8/8/04, p.D7)
594BC Solon, the great elegiac
poet, was appointed chief magistrate of Athens. His reforms included
political and economic adjustments which led to dissatisfaction in the
upper and lower classes.
(eawc, p.8)
585BC In Miletus, Greece, the
founding city of philosophy, Thales predicted a total eclipse of the
sun. He was the founder of the Milesian school, and taught that all
things are composed of moisture. He was the first to propose a rational
explanation of the cosmos. By the end of the 6th century, philosophers
began to inquire into the nature of being, the metaphysical nature of
the cosmos, the meaning of truth, and the relationship between the
divine and the physical world.
(eawc, p.8)
580BC-500BC Pythagoras was born on
Samos. He journeyed to S. Italy, and was driven out of Croton to the
Bay of Taranto where he starved himself to death. He believed in the
transmigration of souls, and is said to have discovered the
mathematical ratios in musical harmonics.
(V.D.-H.K.p.34)
573BC Nemea, 70 miles from Athens,
became the site for the Olympic games.
(SFC, 9/25/00, p.A6)
c566BC-c468BC Simonides, a Greek poet, was also
called Simonides of Ceos. He created one of the first information
spaces with his "memory palaces."
(WUD, 1994, p.1328)(Wired, 2/98, p.101)
548BC The Greek Temple of Apollo
was destroyed. Amasis, ruler of Egypt, is said to have financed its
rebuilding.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty26.html)
546BC In Greece the first of the
Athenian tyrants, Peisistratus, replaced Solon as the ruler.
(eawc, p.9)
546BC The Persians destroyed
Egypt’s alliance with the Chaldeans, Lydia and Sparta by first
capturing Lydia then the Chaldaeans.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty26.html)
c540-470BC The Greek philosopher Heraclitus, "the
obscure," of Ephesus (486BC) lived about this time. For him reality is
flux which originated out of fire (as opposed to the "stable reality"
of Parmenides). Plato credits him with saying "One cannot step into the
same river twice."
(WUD, 1994, p.662)(eawc, p.10)
530BC In Greece Pythagoras,
mathematician and philosopher, and his followers founded the city of
Croton and combined philosophy and literature with political activity
as the foundation of their community. He is credited with the
Pythagorean theorem and the Pythagorean table of opposites, the
"dualism" that underlies Greek thought. In 2008 Kitty Ferguson authored
“The Music of Pythagoras,” which surveyed the ideas that have been
thought of as Pythagorean.
(eawc, p.9)(WSJ, 5/17/08, p.W8)
525BC On the island of Samos,
Greece, castles were built. Samos was the site of the Temple of Hera,
one of the 7 ancient Wonders of the World.
(SFEC, 7/20/97, p.T10)
c525BC Greek drama grew out of the Dionysian
festivals.
(eawc, p.9)
525-465BC Aeschylus is credited with being the
inventor of drama and for introducing a second actor into the plays
held every year in Athens in honor of Dionysus. His plays are
considered to be the beginning of tragic drama. His stories were drawn
from conflicts between the individual and the cosmos. Late in his
career he wrote his plays in groups of three. These included the
"Oresteia," "Prometheus Bound" and the "Danaides." In the Danaides only
the first play, "The Suppliant Women," has survived. It was about 50
sisters who fled 50 cousins they were supposed to marry.
(V.D.-H.K.p.51)(WSJ, 7/10/97, p.A13)(eawc, p.9)(WSJ,
12/5/01, p.A18)
c522BC Sep 4, Pindar (d.~443), Greek poet, was born.
(WUD, 1994 p.1094)(MC, 9/4/01)
522BC The Temple of Apollo was
begun on the island of Naxos on the orders of the tyrant Lygdamis. It
was never completed.
(SFEC,12/21/97, p.T6)
518BC Pindar (d.438BC), considered
by some as the greatest Greek lyric poet, was born in Cynoscephalae,
Boeotia. His odes celebrated the games held at religious festivals.
Athletic victory served as the ground for his poetic fancy and
religious, moral and aesthetic insights.
(eawc, p.10)
515BC Parmenides of Elea was born.
He founded the Eleatic school in the Phocaean colony in southern Italy.
He was the first to focus attention on the central problem of Greek
metaphysics: the nature of being. For Parmenides the laws governing the
universe are stable and change is merely an illusion.
(eawc, p.10)
510BC Hippias, the son of
Peisistratus, succeeded his father and was overthrown by a group of
nobles with the help of Sparta.
(eawc, p.10)
508BC Cleisthenes, the father of
Athenian democracy, ruled Athens. His reforms granted full rights to
all free men of Athens.
(eawc, p.10)
c500BC The use of characters for writing spread to
Greece where vowels were added and the basis for all Western alphabets
was established. The Greeks invented a reed pen.
(I&I, Penzias, p.45)(SFC, 7/26/04, p.F4)
c500BC The height of Greek sculpture began with the
work of Phideas. His masterpieces include the statue of Athena in the
Parthenon, the Parthenon reliefs, and the statue of Zeus in the Temple
of Olympian Zeus. The 2nd most important sculptor, Myron, is renowned
for his statue of the discus thrower.
(eawc, p.10)
499BC Athens and Eretria supported
an Ionian revolt against Persian rule.
(AP, 7/9/05)
496BC Sophocles (d.406BC), the 2nd
Greek dramatist after Aeschylus, was born about this time. He is
considered by some as the greatest of the Greek dramatists. His works
include: "Oedipus Rex" and "Antigone."
(eawc, p.11)(SFC, 1/10/04, p.D6)
490BC Sep 2, Phidippides of Athens
set out on his 26-mile run that inspired the Marathon. Phidippides was
sent to seek troops from Sparta to help against the invading Persian
army. The Spartans were unwilling to help, until the next full moon,
due to religious laws. On Sept. 4th, Phidippides returned the 26 miles
Marathon without Spartan troops.
(MC, 9/2/01)
490BC Sep 9, First Persian attack
on Greece. Greeks led by Miltiades defeated the Persians at the Battle
of Marathon. Pheidipiddes, a hemerodromi or long-distance foot
messenger, was dispatched to run 26 miles from marathon to Athens to
announce the victory. He reached Athens and proclaimed: "Rejoice! We
conquer!" The he dropped dead. In the Battle of Marathon Darius the
Great of Persia was defeated by the Greeks. The Greeks initiated the
war when Persia, the strongest power in western Asia, established rule
over Greek-speaking cities in Asia Minor. [see Sep 12]
(HFA, '96, p.38)(V.D.-H.K.p.49)(SFC, 7/14/96,
p.T7)(eawc, p.10)
490BC Sep 12, Athenian and
Plataean Hoplites commanded by General Miltiades drove back a Persian
invasion force under General Datis at Marathon. [see 490 Sep 9]
(HN, 9/12/98)
490BC Empedocles (d.430BC), Greek
philosopher, was born. He is best known for being the origin of the
cosmogenic theory of the four classical elements.
(Econ, 2/7/09,
p.72)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empedocles)
490BC A Persian force under Datis, a Mede, destroyed
Eretria and enslaved its inhabitants but was defeated by the Athenians
at Marathon.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty27.html)
490-479BC The Greco-Persian War is commonly regarded
as one of the most significant wars in all of history. The Greeks
emerged victorious and put an end to the possibility of Persian
despotism.
(eawc, p.10)
c490-430BC The Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea
proposed a number of paradoxes to support the claim of Parmenides that
the world was a motionless, unchanging unity. The race between Achilles
and the tortoise is one example.
(WUD, 1994, p.1660)(SFC, 7/14/97, p.E5)
487BC Sep 23, Greek dramatist
Euripides, was born. He wrote "Medea" and "The Trojan Women." His plays
used a device called "Deus ex Machina," literally "God from a machine."
Today the term refers to sudden events that come from nowhere to
advance the plot. [see 484-406, 480-406]
(MC, 9/23/01)
c485BC Athenian democracy was accompanied by an
intellectual revolution with beginnings in Sophism. Sophists situated
ethics and politics within philosophical discourse, which before was
limited to physics and metaphysics alone. Protagoras, the leading
Sophist, stated: "Man is the measure of all things." For him all truth,
goodness, and beauty are relative to man’s necessities and inquiries.
In opposition to the Sophists emerged Socrates, Plato and Aristotle,
each of whom offered alternatives to the Sophist’s relativism.
(eawc, p.11)
484-420BC Herodotus was the first historian to lay
out a coherent story. He authored the 9-book history of the
Graeco-Persian War: "Researches into the Causes and Events of the
Persian Wars," and the "The Histories of Herodotus." He also wrote a
book dedicated to his travels through Egypt.
(V.D.-H.K.p.53)(SFC, 3/26/97, p.A12)(eawc, p.11)
484-406BC Euripides was an Athenian tragedian who
brought the gods and heroes down to earth. He presented pictures of
human life that were sometimes tragic, sometimes comic, but always and
undeniably real. [see 487, 480-406]
(V.D.-H.K.p.52)
480BC Aug 9, The Persian army
defeated Leonidas and his Spartan army at the battle Thermopylae,
Persia. In 1998 Steven Pressfield authored: "Gates of Fire, An Epic
Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae." In 2006 Paul Cartledge authored
“Thermopylae: The Battle That Changed the World.”
(HN, 8/9/98)(SFEC, 11/29/98, BR p.3)(WSJ, 11/11/06,
p.P11)
480 BC Sep 20, Themistocles and his Greek fleet won
one of history's first decisive naval victories over Xerxes' Persian
force off Salamis. Persia under Xerxes attacked Greece. Athens got
burned but the Athenian fleet under Themistocles trapped and destroyed
the Persian navy at Salamis. Phoenician squadrons were at the heart of
Xerxes’ fleet; the king of Sidon was among his admirals. 31 states of
the Hellenic League fought Xerxes.
(V.D.-H.K.p.49), (NG, Aug., 1974, S.W. Matthews,
p.174)(HN, 9/20/98)(WSJ, 4/26/99, p.A18)
480BC Oct 20, Greeks defeated the
Persians in a naval battle at Salamis. [see Sep 20]
(HN, 10/20/98)
480BC The Acropolis temples were
destroyed during the Persian invasion. The ruins lay untouched for 30
years until 447, when Pericles initiated a reconstruction program.
(WSJ, 12/14/00, p.A24)(WSJ, 2/19/02, p.A22)
c480BC Herodotus said marijuana was cultivated in
Scythia and Thrace, where inhabitants intoxicated themselves by
breathing the vapors given off when the plant was roasted on white-hot
stones.
(WSJ, 2/8/05, p.D7)
480-c406BC Euripides, Greek tragic dramatist. He
authored "Medea," "Alcestis," "The Cyclops" and "The Trojan
Woman." His drama dealt with situations that were analogous to human
life. In 1997 Greek archeologists claimed to have discovered the island
cave where he worked. [see 484-406]
(WSJ, 1/10/97, p.A9)(WUD, 1994, p.492)(USAT,
1/15/97, p.9A)(LSA, Spg/97, p.14)(EEE, p.12)
479BC Aug 27, A combined Greek
army stopped the Persians at the battle at Plataea.
(V.D.-H.K.p.49)(NG, Aug., 1974, p.174)
478BC Athens led other Greek
states in the formation of the Delian League to provide money for a
common defense against Persia. Athens used much of the money for
building projects that included the Parthenon. The League continued
even after the end of the Greco-Persian War and transformed into a
naval empire with Athens as its leader.
(eawc, p.11)(Econ, 7/11/09, p.19)
474BC The Etruscans were routed by
the Greeks of Syracuse in a sea battle off Cumae near Naples.
(NG, 6/1988, p.739)
c470/469BC Jun 5, Socrates (d.399BC) was born in
Athens. He served as an infantryman during the Peloponnesian War
between Athens and Sparta. A sophist (teacher of philosophy), he
claimed not to know anything for certain and used the interrogatory
method for teaching. He left no written works. He was a major critic of
popular belief in Athens and was the protagonist of Plato’s dialogues.
"Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel."
[3rd source has him born in 469]
(V.D.-H.K.p.43)(CFA, '96, p.48)(WU, p.1350)(Hem.,
1/97, p.96)(eawc, p.11)
467BC A meteorite crashed to earth
and convinced Greek philosopher Anaxagoras that heavenly bodies were
not divine beings. He became the world's earliest figure to be indicted
for atheism.
(WSJ, 11/21/03, p.W4)
461-429BC In Athens this was the "Age of Pericles."
Athenian democracy reached perfection and the court systems were
completed. A jury system was put in place with the jury serving as the
absolute authority in judicial matters. Pericles commissioned the
master sculptor Phidias to build the Parthenon.
(eawc, p.11)(SFEC, 6/6/99, p.A26)
460BC-400BC Thucydides lived about
this time. As author of the History of the Peloponnesian Wars, he
inserted into his history speeches by important war figures that he
made up. He also wrote on the Athenian slaughter of the Melians. He is
associated with the historical view that cycles of growth, expansion
and decline are a natural part of international life. In 2005 Perez
Zagorin authored “Thucydides: An Introduction for the Common Reader.”
(WSJ, 5/13/98, p.A20)(WSJ, 1/19/06,
p.D8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thucydides)
450BC Epicharmus, Sicilian Greek
comic poet, died: "The wise man must be wise before, not after."
(AP, 12/29/97)
448-380BC In Greece Aristophanes, considered by some
as the greatest Greek comedy writer, lived. His work includes "The
Clouds" and "Lysistrata." Greek comedy like Greek tragedy originated in
the Dionysian festivals. In Lysistrata he described how Greek women
abstained from sex until their men stopped fighting in the
Peloponnesian war.
(EEE, p.12)(SFC,11/8/97, p.A10)
447BC Athens under Pericles
initiated a reconstruction program that included the construction of
the Parthenon on the Acropolis.
(WSJ, 2/19/02, p.A22)
447-432 The marble friezes of the Parthenon were
carved.
(AM, 5/01, p.14)
444BC Ikos of Tarentum won the
Olympic Pentathlon. He gave up sex as part of his training regimen.
(WSJ, 2/8/06, p.A1)
c444BC-360BC Agesilaus II, King of Sparta: "If I have
done any deed worthy of remembrance, that deed will be my monument. If
not, no monument can preserve my memory."
(AP, 10/29/97)
440BC-420BC Sophocles composed his
tragedy "The Trachinian Women." It described what happened when he put
on the robe woven by his wife Deianeira. In 1680 Pierre Puget made his
bronze sculpture of Herakles (Hercules) struggling in the burning tunic.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.55)
438BC The Parthenon was built atop
the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. Iktinos was one of the architects of
the Parthenon. The hellish slave labor silver mines at Laurium
supported Athens.
(SFC, 7/14/96, p.T7)(AM, Jul-Aug/99, p.12)(SFEM,
1/30/00, p.10)
434BC The Greek philosopher
Anaxagoras suggested that the sun is just a ball of fire about as large
as the Peloponnesus, floating in the air about 4,000 miles above the
Earth. He believed that the Earth was flat and thereby estimated
the diameter of the sun to be about 35 miles.
(SCTS, p.3-4)
432BC An Athenian devised a
19-year "Metatonic cycle" to reconcile the lunar and solar years.
(SFC, 11/29/03, p.D2)
431BC Euripides wrote his tragedy
"Medea," based on the legend of the sorceress Medea, daughter of
Aeëtes, King of Colchis, and wife of Jason, whom she assisted in
obtaining the Golden Fleece. It describes how Jason abandoned the
sorceress Medea to marry Glauke, a Corinthian princess.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.55)(WUD, 1994, p.890)
431-404BC The Peloponnesian war between Athens and
Sparta. It was finally won by Sparta. Athenian trade was destroyed and
democracy was overthrown as Athens surrendered to Sparta as a subject
state. Sparta assumed dominance over the Greek world and replaced many
democracies with oligarchies. In 1972 Geoffrey de Ste. Croix
(1910-2000), British Marxist historian, authored "The Origins of the
Peloponnesian War." He pinned the cause of the conflict on the Spartans.
(V.D.-H.K.p.50)(EEE, p.12)(SFC, 2/15/00, p.A21)
430BC Legend has it that the Greek
philosopher Empedocles (b.430) climbed Mount Etna only to leap into its
crater in despair. It is said that he jumped in out of frustration
because he couldn’t figure out how the volcano worked. Empedocles was
the author of a work called "On Nature."
(PacDisc. Spring/’96, p.26)(WSJ, 8/21/01, p.A17)
430BC Thucydides in his History of
the Peloponnesian War tells how the Spartans attempted to destroy the
city of Plataia with a flaming mixture of pitch and sulfur.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.57)
430-410BC A mysterious disease killed one-third of
the Athenian population. Thucydides, who was stricken but recovered,
described the plague in Athens (likely an outbreak of typhus fever) in
Book 2 of his History of the Peloponnesian War.
(NH, 6/97, p.11)(WSJ, 9/9/06, p.P8)
429BC Pericles (b.490BC), Athenian
statesman, died of the plague.
(WUD, 1994, p.1071)(NH, 6/97, p.10)
427BC May 21, Plato (d.347BC),
Greek philosopher, was born. His work included the "Republic," and the
dialogues "Critias" and "Timaeus" in which he mentioned the island
empire of Atlantis. He claimed that an Egyptian priest confided
information about Atlantis to Solon, the Athenian legislator, whose
memoirs Plato claimed to have read. In 1998 2 books on Atlantis were
published: "Atlantis Destroyed" by Rodney Castleden and "Imagining
Atlantis" by Richard Ellis.
(HN, 5/21/98)(WSJ, 6/26/98, p.W9)
424BC Thucydides in his history of
the Peloponnesian War tells how the Spartans used pitch and sulfur
against the Athenians at Delium. In this 7th year of the war unexpected
Boeotian horsemen charged on the right flank of Athens's hoplite column
causing many Athenians to flee. Socrates and Alcibiades retreated into
the woods and survived.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.57)(SSFC, 9/21/03, p.M6)
415BC Greece undertook its
Sicilian Expedition. The overseas adventure destroyed Athenian power
and freedom.
(WSJ, 1/19/06, p.D8)
407BC Euripides wrote "The
Bacchae" while residing at the court of the king of Macedon. He had
left Athens in the last years of its war against Sparta. The play dealt
with the violent introduction of the cult of Dionysos into the city of
Thebes.
(WSJ, 12/31/97, p.A8)
406BC Euripides (b.480/484), Greek
tragic dramatist, died. His plays included Phedre, which tells the
story of a queen’s incestuous love for her stepson.
(EEE, p.12)(Econ, 6/20/09, p.89)
406BC Sophocles (b.496/97BC), the
2nd Greek dramatist after Aeschylus, died. He is considered by some as
the greatest of the Greek dramatists. His works include: "Oedipus Rex"
and "Antigone."
(eawc, p.11)(SFC, 1/10/04, p.D6)
405BC Aristophanes wrote his play
“The Frogs.” It tells how Dionysus, the god of theater, travels to
Hades with his slave Xanthias to bring back the shade of a great
playwright who will revive the declining art of drama and make the
world a better place.
(WSJ, 7/23/04, p.W1)
404-338BC Sparta is not able to persist in the rule
of Greece. Power over Greece shifts from Sparta to Thebes and then to
numerous other city-states, none able to maintain rule over such a
large empire.
(http://eawc.evansville.edu)
401BC In the Battle of Cunaxa
Cyrus attempted to oust his brother Artaxerxes from rule over Babylon.
Greek forces, hired to help Cyrus, were left stranded when Cyrus died.
The Greek army elected Xenophon to lead them back home. Xenophon later
authored his “Anabasis” (expedition up country), which told the story
of return home. In 2005 Tim Rood authored “The Sea, The Sea,” an
analysis of Xenophon’s life story following his death.
(WSJ, 5/4/05, p.D10)
c400BC In southern Greece the Phigaleians built a
temple in tribute to Apollo for restoring their homeland taken by
invading Spartans. The temple of Apollo Epikourios near Bassai was said
to have been designed by Iktinos.
(Arch, 9/00, p.16)
c400BC The first temple known to be dedicated to the
"supreme" Zeus was constructed about this time. In 2003 a
2,400-year-old headless marble statue was found along with 14 columns
depicting eagles, one of the symbols of Hypsistos Zeus, the chief deity
of ancient Greece.
(AP, 8/2/03)
c400-300BC The Greeks founded Neopolis (Naples),
their "New City" in the 4th century B.C. They carved blocks of tufa
stone to build the city structures and left behind cavernous quarries.
Centuries later the Romans turned the quarries into cisterns and
connected them with tunnels. Water was brought in from the Serino River
in the hills of Avellino, 96 miles to the north. This provided the
water supply until 1883.
(SFEC, 1/26/97 , p.T9)
c400-300 Archestratus was a 4th century Greek
Sicilian. His writings included recipes of the time.
(SFC, 3/31/99, p.A8)
c400-300 Praxiteles sculpted Aphrodite, the 1st known
sculpture of a nude woman.
(SFC, 6/3/00, p.D4)
c400BC-200BC The "creative" phase of classical Greek
geometry. The subject was studied by Prof. Wilbur Richard Knorr (d.1997
at 51) of Stanford who wrote: "The Evolution of Euclidean Elements,"
"Ancient Sources of the Medieval Tradition of Mechanics," "The Ancient
Tradition of Geometric Problems," and "Textual Studies in Ancient and
Medieval Geometry."
(SFC, 3/20/97, p.A24)(SFEC, 3/30/97, p.D5)
399BC Feb 15, Socrates was
condemned to death on charges of corrupting the youth and introducing
new gods into Greek thought. A tribunal of 501 citizens found Socrates
guilty of the charge of impiety and corruption of youth. Socrates
b.(469BC) had been the teacher of two leaders who were held responsible
for the Greek‘s loss to Sparta in the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC).
Plato‘s Apology, Crito, and Phaedo describe Socrates‘ trial,
imprisonment and death.
(eawc, p.11)(HNQ, 3/21/00)
399BC May 7, Socrates (b.469BC),
Greek philosopher, committed suicide. He had been indicted for
rejecting the Gods acknowledged by the State, of bringing in strange
deities, and of corrupting the youth. In 2007 Emily Wilson
authored “The Death of Socrates.”
(www.crystalinks.com/socrates.html)(WSJ, 11/24/07,
p.W8)
399BC-393BC Nepherites served as
the 1st ruler of Egypt’s 29th Dynasty. During his rule he entered into
an alliance with Sparta against the Persians. A gift ship to Sparta was
lost at Rhodes, which had defected to the Persians.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty29.html)
395BC Agesilaos of Sparta ravaged
northwestern Turkey.
(Arch, 7/02, p.8)
384BC Aristotle (d.322 BC) was
born in Stagira, Macedonia. He entered Plato’s Academy at age 17. After
several years as tutor to Alexander the Great he returned to Athens and
founded the Lyceum. [see Mar 7, 322 BC]
(V.D.-H.K.p.44,45)(WSJ, 9/30/98, p.A16)(NH, 12/98,
p.10)(SFC, 8/13/02, p.A13)
394BC Athens, Greece, declared an
embargo on Megara about this time. The ensuing 27-year struggle left
the Athenians humiliated and Magara’s ally, Corinth, triumphant.
(Econ, 10/21/06, p.70)
384-322BC Demosthenes, Greek statesman: "He who
confers a favor should at once forget it, if he is not to show a
sordid, ungenerous spirit."
(AP, 10/4/00)
373BC The Greek city of Helike was
destroyed by an earthquake. Historians recorded that rats, snakes and
weasels had abandoned Helice just days before the quake struck.
(NH, 10/02, p.78)(WSJ, 5/16/08, p.A6)
371BC Jul, Sparta, led by King
Agesilaus II, was decisively defeated in the Battle of Leuctra by the
Thebans under Epaminondas (47), commander of the Boeotian League, which
was an alliance of 11 city states in central Greece.
(HNQ, 10/24/00)(ON, 9/06, p.1)
370BC Epaminondas, commander of
the Boeotian League, led an army into the Peloponnese and captured the
prefecture of Messenia, which had been ruled and enslaved by Sparta for
3 centuries.
(ON, 9/06, p.3)
367-348BC Aristotle studied under Plato at the
Academy in Athens. He left Athens to travel for 12 years and returned
to Macedonia where he tutored Alexander, son of Philip for 3 years. It
was Plato who said that "A woman is only a lesser man."
(V.D.-H.K.p.44,45)(SFEC, 10/20/96, Z1 p.2)
362BC Epaminondas, commander of
the Boeotian League, confronted an army of Spartan and Athenian troops
near Mantinea. The Boeotians won the battle but Epaminondas died from a
javelin wound.
(ON, 9/06, p.3)
356BC Alexander the Great (d.323)
was born in Pella, Greece. Alexander also married the daughter of
Darius, whom he defeated in 333, and a Sogdian princess while staying
firmly attached to his comrade, Hephaistion. Alexander later
married a barbarian princess, Roxana, the daughter of the Bactrian
chief Oxyartes.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great)(WSJ, 5/15/98,
p.W11)(SFC, 7/29/09, p.A4)
354BC Demosthenes wrote a series
of speeches, later called the Philippics, which urged Athenians to
defend the city against Philip of Macedon.
(ON, 9/00, p.12)
352BC The Greek Mausoleum of
Helicarnassus was built. It was destroyed by an earthquake in the 1300s.
(WSJ, 10/10/01, p.B1)
c350BC Temples in Greece began to be used by ill
worshippers hoping for a cure from the gods. These were later
considered as the first hospitals.
(SFEC,6/11/00, Z1 p.2)
c350BC The new philosophy of the Cynics emerged led
by Greek philosopher Diogenes (404-323). He argued against conventional
life and that people should live naturally and strive for
self-sufficiency.
(eawc, p.13)(SFC, 10/29/08, p.G2)
347BC Plato (b.427BC), the most
distinguished student of Socrates, died. His real name was Aristocles.
Plato meant broad and he was known to have broad shoulders. He was a
prolific writer and considered by some as the most important of all
Greek philosophers. His works were all in dialogue form and include:
the "Apology," the "Symposium," the "Phaedo," the "Phaedrus," and the
"Republic."
(EEE, p.12)(SFEC, 9/28/97, Z1 p.2)
342BC Menander (c.~291), Greek
playwright, was born about this time in Athens. He wrote more than 100
plays, but many of his works have been lost. A 9th century manuscript
from a Syrian monastery contains 200 verses from Menander's play
"Dyskolos" ("The Grouch"). In 2003 a scholar reported another 200
verses in the document appear to be by Menander.
(AP, 12/6/03)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menander)
341BC-270BC Epicurus, Greek
philosopher born [342BC] in Samos, held that happiness is the supreme
good. He had studied under Democritus and was a confirmed atomist. His
happiness is interpreted to mean the avoidance of pain.
(V.D.-H.K.p.71)(eawc, p.14)
340BC Aristotle argued for the
spherical shape of the Earth in his "On The Heavens."
(BHT, Hawking, p.2)
340BC In 1962 a papyrus scroll was
found in a grave, about five miles northwest of Thessaloniki. It was
part of a rich cemetery belonging to the ancient city of Lete. The
original several yards of papyrus, rolled around two wooden runners,
was found half burnt. It dates to around 340 BC, during the reign of
Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great.
(AP, 6/1/06)
340-265 Zeno of Citium, aka Zeno the Stoic, was born
in Cyprus.
(WUD, 1994, p.1660)
338BC In Greece Philip of Macedon
conquered the country and was succeeded by his son 2 years later.
Athens ceased to be a major power from this point on. Philip’s League
of Corinth was composed of impotent Hellenic states that had lost their
collective freedom at the battle of Chaeronea.
(eawc, p.13)(WSJ, 12/26/97, p.A7)(WSJ, 4/26/99,
p.A18)
338BC Philip II erected Olympia’s
Philippeion in Athens following his victory at Chaeronea. The round
marble building was completed by his son, Alexander.
(AM, 7/04, p.24)
336BC Alexander inherited the
throne of Macedonia and all of Greece. He went to see the Oracle of
Delphi but was initially refused entry. He forced his way and dragged
the seeress into the temple. Plutarch wrote: "As if conquered by his
violence, she said, ‘My son, thou art invincible.’" "That is all the
answer I desire," replied Alexander. He began his campaign to acquire
new territory in Asia at age 22. Within 4 years he conquered the entire
Persian Empire.
(V.D.-H.K.p.50)(NG, Jan,1968, p.1,4)(eawc, p.13)
335BC Aristotle opened the Lyceum
in Athens which was devoted to scientific work. He invented the science
of logic, and divided the sciences into different fields distinguished
by subject matter and methodology. He believed in the innate
inferiority of slaves and females. He wrote the "Nicomachean Ethics," a
book about virtue and its reward, happiness. He identified circularity
in reasoning as the "fallacy of the consequent" i.e. A good man
is one who makes the right choices. Greek archeologists claimed to have
found the Lyceum site in 1997.
(V.D.-H.K.p.44,45)(USAT, 1/15/97, p.9A)
c335-c263BC Zeno the Stoic set up a school in Athens
at the Stoa Poikile (Painted Colonnade), and taught that happiness
consists in conforming the will to the divine reason, which governs the
universe. Thus a man is happy if he fully accepts what is and does not
desire what cannot be. Zeno was a Phoenician from Kition on Cyprus. He
taught that "events were destined to repeat themselves" in endless
cycles. [see 340-265]
(V.D.-H.K.p.71)(NG, Aug., 1974, p.189)(SFC, 7/14/97,
p.E5)
334BC Alexander at 22 left Pella,
Greece with 30,000 foot soldiers and 5,000 cavalry and proceeded to
conquer western Asia including Miletus and Samos. His favorite horse
was named Bucephalus. At Gordium, where King Midas is fabled to have
held court, Alexander solved the puzzle of the Gordian knot by severing
it with his sword.
(V.D.-H.K.p.50)(NG, Jan, 1968 p.1,4,6)
333BC Alexander’s forces overcame
the Pisidians of Sagalassos.
(AM, 11/04, p.38)
333BC Alexander first confronted
Darius, king of Persia, and defeated him at the battlefield of Issus.
(NG, Jan, 1968, p.18)
332BC Alexander stormed the island
of Tyre in July. and moved on to conquer Egypt. Alexander besieged the
city of Gaza. He was able to take Tyre by building a causeway to the
island. In Egypt Alexander founded Alexandria.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.71), (NG, Aug., 1974, p.162)(Enc. of
Africa, 1976, p.167)
331BC Oct 1, Alexander the Great decisively shattered
King Darius III's Persian army at Gaugamela (Arbela), in a tactical
masterstroke that left him master of the Persian Empire.
(HN, 10/1/98)
331BC Alexander conquered the
Persian Empire and made his way to India and conquered part of it.
(eawc, p.13)
c330BC Euclid showed that an infinite number of Prime
numbers exists, but occur in no logical pattern.
(SFC, 11/23/98, p.A3)
330BC Alexander reached Persopolis
and burned it.
(V.D.-H.K.p.50)
330BC-320BC A Temple of Zeus was
built at Nemea, Greece, on the foundations of an earlier temple.
(SSFC, 8/21/05, p.B2)
327-326BC Alexander the Great passed through the
Indus Valley and installed Greek officials in the area.
(eawc, p.13)
326BC Alexander crossed the Indus
river and then the Jhelum river and defeated King Porus at the edge of
India. This was his last great battle.
(NG, Jan, 1968, p.56)
325BC Pytheas (c380BC-310BC),
Greek merchant, geographer and explorer, made a voyage of exploration
to northwestern Europe around this time. He traveled around Great
Britain, circumnavigating it between 330 and 320 BCE. He claimed to
have sailed past Scotland and mentioned a land called Thule, where the
surrounding ocean froze and the sun disappeared in winter.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pytheas)
323BC Jun 10, Alexander died in
Persia at Babylon at the age of 32. His general, Ptolemy, took
possession of Egypt. Apelles was a painter in Alexander's court. He had
been commissioned by Alexander to paint a portrait of Campaspe,
Alexander's concubine. Apelles fell in love with Campaspe and Alexander
granted her to him in marriage. In 1984 Curtius Quintas Rufus authored
"the History of Alexander." In 1991 Peter Green authored "Alexander of
Macedon, A Historical Biography." “Alexander the Great” by Norman F.
Cantor (d.2004) was published in 2005.
(BS, 5/3/98, p.12E)(WSJ, 2/11/00, p.W6) (ON, 1/01,
p.11)(SSFC, 12/25/05, p.M3)
323-30BC This period is called the Hellenistic Age,
the time from Alexander’s death to Roman rule. The principle work on
this period is "Hellenistic Athens" by Prof. William Scott Ferguson
(1875-1954). In 1995 Prof. Christian Habicht published "Athens from
Alexander to Antony" in Germany. An English edition was translated by
Deborah Lucas Schneider in 1997. In 2007 Peter Green authored “The
Hellenistic Age.”
(WSJ, 12/26/97, p.A7)(WSJ, 5/1/07, p.D7)
322BC Mar 7, Aristotle (d.322 BC)
died. His writings included treatises on logic, metaphysics, ethics,
politics, rhetoric and natural sciences. He first described language in
terms of subject and predicate as well as parts of speech. Aristotelian
logic is based on a small number of unambiguous constructs, such as,
"if A, then B": the truth of one implies the truth of another. This
celebrated rule gives Aristotelian reasoning the power to establish
facts through inference. The constructs also included A=A, representing
that every entity is equal to itself. He defined politics as the
science of the sciences that looks after well-being. His writings
included "De Generatione Animalum." His "Historia Animalium" was later
translated by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson." "Hope is a waking dream." The
opening of his "Metaphysics" began: "All men by nature desire to know."
(V.D.-H.K.p.44,45)(I&I, Penzias, p.73)(Hem.,
1/96, p.11)(LSA, Spg/97, p.6)(EEE, p.12)(AP, 8/9/98)(WSJ, 9/30/98,
p.A16)(NH, 12/98, p.10)(SFC, 8/13/02, p.A13)
322BC Athens was brought under the
control of the Macedonian empire. Demosthenes was sentenced to death,
but he escaped and sought refuge on the island of Calauria, where he
committed suicide after troops followed him. In 1927 Charles Darwin
Adams authored "Demosthenes and His Influence."
(ON, 9/00, p.12)
315BC Thessaloniki, Greece, was
founded about this time and flourished during the Roman and Byzantine
eras. In 2008 Greek workers discovered around 1,000 graves, some filled
with ancient treasures, while excavating for a subway system. Some of
the graves, dated from the first century B.C. to the 5th century A.D.,
contained jewelry, coins and various pieces of art.
(AP, 3/11/08)
312 B.C. King Glauk of Illyria expelled the Greeks
from Durrës.
(www, Albania, 1998)
310BC Aristarchus of Samos founded
Hellenistic astronomy. Contrary to Aristotle he said that the earth and
all the other planets revolve around the sun. [see 300-200BC]
(eawc, p.14)
310BC Pytheas (b.c380BC), Greek
merchant, geographer and explorer, died about this time. He made a
voyage of exploration to northwestern Europe around 325 BCE. He
traveled around a considerable part of Great Britain, circumnavigating
it between 330 and 320 BCE.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pytheas)
301 BC The generals of Alexander the Great fought the
Battle of Ipsus in Phrygia that resulted in the division of the Greek
Empire into 4 divisions ruled by Seleucus, Lysimachus, Cassander and
Ptolemy. Greek cities revolted against Macedonian rule but to no avail.
(eawc, p.13)
300BC Euclid compiled his Elements
of Geometry. Included was his demonstration for "regular partitioning."
(V.D.-H.K.p.37)(WSJ, 12/9/96, p.B1)
c300BC In Greece Epicureanism and Stoicism originated
in Athens. Both Epicurus and Zeno, the Stoic, believed in an
individualistic and materialistic philosophy. Neither believed in
spiritual substances. The soul was thought to be material. The
Epicureans believed that pleasure is the highest good, and that only by
abandoning the fear of the supernatural can one achieve tranquility of
mind. The Stoics believed that tranquility of mind was only achieved by
surrendering the self to the order of the cosmos.
(eawc, p.14)
300BC Dura-Europos, a Greek colony
was built on the Euphrates in eastern Syria.
(SFC, 6/27/09, p.A8)
300BC Seleucia was founded about
this time in southeastern Turkey as a Greek settlement by Seleucus I
Nicator one of Alexander’s generals. Seleucia was on the west bank and
Apamea on the east bank of the Euphrates River. In 64 BC it was
conquered and ruled by the Roman Empire and with this shift the name of
the city was changed into Zeugma, meaning "bridge-passage" or "bridge
of boats."
(Arch, 9/02,
p.62)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeugma_(city))
c300-200 Aristarchus, Greek philosopher of the late
3rd cent., proposed the Sun as the center of the universe. [see 310BC]
(NH, 9/96, p.70)
c300-200 Apollonius, poet emigrant from Alexandria to
Rhodes, and author of the "Argonautica."
(HH, 1932, p.498)
290BC The 110-foot Colossus of Rhodes, one of the
ancient seven wonders of the world, was built to the sun god Helios.
(AM, 7/00, p.16)
287BC Theophrastus (b.c371BC),
Greek philosopher, died. He produced the 1st known work on plant
reproduction “De historia plantarum. He was a contemporary of Aristotle
and succeeded him as head of the Lyceum.
(www.biologie.uni-hamburg.de/b-online/e01/01a.htm)(Econ, 11/12/05, p.88)
287BC-212BC Archimedes, Greek mathematician,
physicist and inventor. He discovered the principles of specific
gravity and of the lever. His works included "Method of Mechanical
Theorems" and "On Floating Bodies." He named the number, later known as
pi, as the Archimedes Constant. Scientists in 2000 began translating
the Floating Bodies treatisse from a single known parchment copy,
dating to about 1000CE, that was scraped and reused for a prayer book.
(SFC, 10/30/98, p.A7)(SFEC, 3/14/99, p.C5)(SFC,
10/14/00, p.C1)(SFC, 5/23/05, p.A4)
280BC The Achaean League was
reformed along political lines. It had been a confederation of Achaean
cities formed for religious observances and was broken up by the
Macedonians.
(AHD, 1971, p.10)
~250BC Eratosthenes ascribed the difference between
the positions of the noon sun at Alexandria and at Styrene at the
summer solstice as due to the curvature of the Earth and not due to the
proximity of the sun. He thereby calculated the radius of the Earth to
be about 4,000 miles. The modern value is 3963 miles.
(SCTS, p.6)
236BC Archimedes, according to the
Roman architect Vitruvius, built his first elevator about this time.
(SFC, 8/23/08, p.F4)
224BC An earthquake reportedly
broke the Colossus of Rhodes at his knees.
(AM, 7/00, p.16)
212BC Archimedes (b.287BC), Greek
mathematician, died. Legend holds that he was killed by a Roman soldier
during an invasion of Syracuse, because he was too busy doing
calculations to obey the soldier’s orders.
(SFC, 5/23/05, p.A4)
204BC Greece and most of Asia
Minor came under the control of the Romans after the Roman victory over
Carthage in the 2nd Punic War.
(WSJ, 12/26/97, p.A7)
c200BC The Greek Venus de Milo statue of marble was
sculpted about this time. It was found in 1820 on Melos and is now in
the Louvre. [2nd source says 2,500 years old]
(WUD, 1994, p.1586)(SFEC, 3/9/96, Z1 p.5)
200BC In Greece Skepticism arose
under the influence of the Carneades. It had close ties to Sophism and
taught that because all knowledge is achieved through sense perception,
nothing can be known for sure. [see Heisenberg 1901-1976]
(eawc, p.15)
199-150BC Greco-Bactrian kingdom. Now Afghanistan, it
was then a major stop on the silk route between Rome and China.
(NG, March 1990, Geographica)
199-150BC Early in the 2nd century BC the Romans made
Macedonia into a province and obliterated the city of Corinth.
(WSJ, 12/26/97, p.A7)
190BC Hipparchus was born in what
is now Turkey. He calculated the length of a year to within 6 1/2
minutes and was the first to explain the Earth's rotation on its axis.
He also compiled the first comprehensive catalog of the stars. [see
160-125BC]
(LAT, 3/30/05)
167BC Rome presented to Athens the
island of Delos, whose prosperous slave and commodities market brought
large profits.
(WSJ, 12/26/97, p.A7)
160BC-125BC Hipparchus, Greek mathematician and
astronomer, often called the father of modern astronomy. He attempted
to calculate the distance to the moon and the sun. His estimate for the
distance to the moon was 67r vs. the modern value of 60.267r. He
estimated the sun to be 37 times farther than the moon and at least 12
times greater in diameter than the Earth. His figures were accepted for
17 centuries until the invention of the telescope and precise
astronomical instruments. Together with Ptolemy he graded the visible
stars into six magnitudes. The first magnitude was comprised of about
20 of the brightest stars. He compiled a stellar catalogue in
Alexandria which shows the position of 1080 stars. [see 190BC]
(SCTS, p.7-8,137,142)
c150BC Agora's Stoa of Attalos, a massive colonnaded
monument at the foot of the Acropolis, was dedicated by King Attalos of
Pergamon.
(AP, 4/16/03)
146-30BC All Hellenistic territory became subject to
Rome over this period.
(eawc, p.15)
140BC The first Jews arrived at
Salonika from Alexandria.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, BR p.3)
100BC The Greek poet Meleager
gathered a collection of poems in his “anthologia” (The Greek
Anthology).
(WSJ, 11/15/08, p.W10)
c100-1BC Diodorus Siculus, Greek historian of the
late 1st century.
(WUD, 1994 p.405)(AM, 7/01, p.31)
84BC Apellicon of Teos, a wealthy
Greek, died. He saved the only copies of Aristotle’s work for posterity.
(SFCM, 12/10/00, p.)
80sBC Mithridates, ruler of Pontus
in the north of Asia Minor, made war on Rome and overran much of Asia
Minor and parts of Greece. The Athenians joined Mithridates and was
consequently besieged by the Roman Gen’l. Sulla.
(WSJ, 12/26/97, p.A7)
42BC Octavian and Mark Antony
defeated Brutus and Cassius at Philippi in Macedonia. Athens was kindly
treated by Mark Antony, who enjoyed living there.
(WUD, 1994, p.1081)
c31BC Augustus founded the city of
Nikopolis in Epirus (northwestern Greece) to commemorate his victory
over Antony and Cleopatra at Actium.
(AM, Jul-Aug/99, p.10)
2BC Heratosthene of Greece drew a
map that showed 3 continents about equal in size labeled: Europe, Asia
and Libya.
(SFEC, 2/15/98, Z1 p.8)
1-100CE The first century Greek physician,
Dioscorides, recommended the use of orchid tubers as an aphrodisiac.
(NH, 4/97, p.77)
23-24 Strabo (b.~63-64BC), Greek
geographer and historian, died about this time. He had traveled to
Egypt and Kush, met members of the Noba tribe, and decided to call
their country Nubia. Strabo is mostly famous for his 17-volume work
Geographica, which presented a descriptive history of people and places
from different regions of the world known to his era.
(Arch, 9/02,
p.55)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strabo)
90-168CE Claudius Ptolemy, geographer and mapmaker,
collected information from travelers and constructed maps of the then
known world. His maps were forgotten as the Roman Empire declined and
were not rediscovered until the early 1400s. Robert Newton in his book
"The Crime of Claudius Ptolemy" (1977), called him "the most successful
fraud in the history of science."
(ATC, p.15)(NH, 6/97, p.43)(LAT, 3/30/05)
95CE St. John the Divine
established a Christian colony on the Greek island of Patmos after
being exiled from Ephesus by Emperor Domitian. It is said that he wrote
here the Book of Revelations in a grotto overlooking the main town.
Greek Orthodox tradition says that he is the apostle John but that is
not confirmed.
(SFEC, 1/18/98, p.T6)(WSJ, 6/28/02, p.W8)
180BC The Great Altar of Pergamon
was built at Pergamos in Asia Minor (later Turkey). It depicted the
battle of the gods of Olympus against the giants.
(WSJ, 10/27/07, p.W14)
c180 Pausanius, traveler and
geographer, wrote a description of Greece which we have and it is, so
to speak, the first guide book known.
(WUD, 1994 p.1058)(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.58)(SSFC,
12/1/02, p.C3)
c200-300 Diophantus, a 3rd century Hellenistic
mathematician, wrote a series of classical texts on Algebra called
Arithmetica.
(SFEC, 4/5/98, Z1
p.8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diophantus)
205-270AD Plotinus was an Alexandrian philosopher in
Rome and founder of Neo-Platonism, which strongly influenced the later
Augustine, who taught of a mystical union with the Good through the
exercise of pure intelligence. He founded Neo-Platonism, a religion
that for a time rivaled Christianity. Neo-Platonism developed out of
the philosophical doctrines of Plato in the fourth century B.C.
Plotinus developed the spiritual side of Plato's thought into a
mystical philosophy teaching reunion with the One and that material
things are unworthy. Saint Augustus, formerly a Neo-Platonist, brought
some of his ideas into Christian theism.
(V.D.-H.K.p.93)(HNQ, 5/11/98)
393AD The ancient Olympic Games were held at
intervals beginning in 776 BC until about 393 AD when they were
abolished by Roman emperor Theodosius I after Greece lost its
independence. The modern Olympic Games were started in 1896. [see 396AD]
(HNQ, 11/23/98)
411 Proclus (d.485), Greek
mathematician and theologian, was born. [see 412]
(WUD, 1994 p.1147)(MC, 4/17/02)
412 Feb 8, St. Proclus, Patriarch
of Constantinople, was born. [see 411]
(HN, 2/8/98)
413 Oct 10, Nicias, Athens
politician (Peace of Nicias), killed at about age 57.
(MC, 10/10/01)
418 Dec 27, Zosimus, Greek Pope
(417-418), died.
(MC, 12/27/01)
485 Apr 17, Proclus (b.411), Greek
mathematician, died in Athens.
(WUD, 1994 p.1147)(MC, 4/17/02)
662 Aug 13, Maximus Confessor
(b.c580), Greek theologian, died.
(MC, 8/13/02)
686 Aug 2, John V, 1st
Greek-Syrian Pope (685-86), died.
(MC, 8/2/02)
700-800 Invading Slavs assimilated the Thracians in
the area of modern Bulgaria and parts of Greece, Romania, Macedonia and
Turkey.
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.A2)
869 Feb 14, Cyrillus, Greek
apostle of Slavs, died.
(MC, 2/14/02)
885 Apr 6, Methodius, Greek
apostle to the Slavs, archbishop of Sirmium, died.
(MC, 4/6/02)
972 John I Tzimiskes, the
Byzantine Emperor at Constantinople (969-976), granted a charter for
the Monastic Republic of Holy Mount Athos in Greece.
(SSFC, 10/8/06,
p.H1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_I_Tzimisces)
1088 Cristodoulos persuaded the
Byzantine emperor to let him develop the Greek island of Patmos as an
independent monastic state.
(WSJ, 6/28/02, p.AW8)
1204 Frankish knights established
the principality of Achaia in southern Greece.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.54)
1300-1400 The "Chronicle of the Morea" is a 14th
century history of southern Greece.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.58)
1346 Apr 16, King Stefanus IX of
Serbia proclaimed himself czar of Greece.
(MC, 4/16/02)
1365 A tax document lists the
feudal property of Niccolo Acciaiuoli, head of a Florentine banking
family. It included the castle of Agios Vasilios overlooking the road
from Corinth to Argos in southern Greece. The territory had reverted to
the Florentine family when the Franks defaulted on loans.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.55)
1416 Jun 15, Joannes Argyropoulos,
Greek scholar, was born.
(HT, 6/15/00)
1460 The Ottomans conquered
southern Greece.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.56)
1463 The Venetians regained
southern Greece for a short period.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.56)
1500 Apr 11, Michael T. Marullus,
Greeks poet, drowned.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1511 There were Jews in
Thessaloniki involved in the printing.
(WSJ, 4/29/97, p.A20)
1522 Suleiman I captured Rhodes
from the Knights Hospitallers of St. John. The knights surrendered
after a 6-month siege. In 1530 the knights were resettled on Malta by
Charles V.
(WSJ, 7/21/08, p.A11)
1571 Oct 7, Spanish, Genoese and
Venetian ships of the Christian League defeated an Ottoman fleet in the
naval Battle of Lepanto, Greece. In the last great clash of galleys,
the Ottoman navy lost 117 ships to a Christian naval coalition under
the overall command of Spain's Don Juan de Austria.
(AP,
10/7/07)(www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1760264/posts)
1592 Juan de Fuca, a Greek sailing
for Spain, sailed into a strait that later became the border between
Canada’s Vancouver Island, BC, and the Olympic Peninsula of Washington
state. The waterway was later named the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
(NG, 7/04, p.66)
1601 Ottoman Sultan Mehmed III
issued an order for the seizure of able youths aged 10-20 to be trained
as janissaries, his special forces.
(WSJ, 9/17/01, p.A20)
1685 The Venetians returned to the
Peloponnesus.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.56)
1687 Sep 26, The Venetian army
attacked the Acropolis in Athens while trying to eject Turks. Marauding
Venetians sent a mortar through a gable window of the Parthenon and
ignited a Turkish store of gunpowder. This damaged the northern
colonnade of the Parthenon. The Parthenon was destroyed in the war
between Turks and Venetians.
(SFEC, 6/6/99, p.A26)(MC, 9/26/01)
1687 Sep 28, Venetians took Athens
from the Turks.
(MC, 9/28/01)
1715 The Ottomans recaptured the
Peloponnesus from the Venetians.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.56)
1821 Mar 25, Greece gained
independence from Turkey (National Day). [see Mar 28]
(MC, 3/25/02)
1821 Mar 28, Greek Independence
Day celebrates the liberation of Southern Greece from Turkish
domination. In 1844 Thomas Gordon authored a study of the Greek
revolution. In 2001 David Brewer authored "The Greek War of
Independence."
(SFC, 3/28/98, p.A15)(WSJ, 9/17/01, p.A20)
1821 Jun 19, The Ottomans defeated
the Greeks at the Battle of Dragasani.
(HN, 6/19/98)
1821 Oct 5, Greek rebels captured
Tripolitza, the main Turkish fort in the Peloponnesian area of Greece.
(HN, 10/5/98)
1821 The Greek hero Athanasios
Diakos was run through with a spit and roasted alive over an open fire.
He had abandoned a future as a monk to fight for Greek independence.
(SFEM, 3/14/99, p.28)
1822 Dec 14, The Congress of
Verona ended, ignoring the Greek war of independence.
(AP, 12/14/02)
1822 There was a massacre of
Greeks on the island of Chios. The event was later depicted in a
painting by Delacroix.
(WSJ, 9/17/01, p.A20)
1823 Lord Byron returned to Greece
to provide moral support to insurgents and draw attention to Ottoman
massacres of Greek civilians.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Byron)(SFC,
9/7/08, Books p.5)
1823 English poet Lord Byron spent
a summer on the Ionian island of Cephalonia.
(SFEC, 1/18/98, p.T3)
1824 Apr 19, George Gordon, (6th
Baron Byron, b.1788) aka Lord Byron, English poet, died of malaria in
Greece at Missolonghi on the gulf of Patras preparing to fight for
Greek independence. In 1999 Benita Eisler published the biography
"Byron: Child of Passion, Fool of Fame." In 2002 Fiona MacCarthy
authored "Byron : Life and Legend." In 2009 Edna O’Brien authored
“Byron in Love.”
(SFC, 6/9/97, p.D3)(WSJ, 4/26/99, p.A16)(HN,
4/1901)(SSFC, 12/29/02, p.M2)(SSFC, 6/21/09, Books p.J5)
1827 Jun 5, Athens fell to the
Ottomans.
(HN, 6/5/98)
1748-1813 Alexander Fraser Tytler. He wrote "The
Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic." He stated that democracy
collapses when voters begin selecting candidates who promise the most
financial benefits.
(SFEC, 10/25/98, p.D6)
1800 Jul 6, The Sultan of
Constantinople at the behest of Lord Elgin issued written orders to his
officers in Athens for cooperation with Giovanni Lusieri and the
removal of sculptures from the Parthenon.
(ON, 11/99, p.2)
1801 Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of
Elgin, took the 2,500 year-old bas-reliefs from the Parthenon while he
served as the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. 17 figures and
56 panels were put on display at the British Museum in 1816. Around
1939 the marbles were subjected to a botched scouring operation that
damaged 40% of the collection. Elgin had hired Giovanni Lusieri, an
Italian artist from the court of the King of Naples, to oversee the
Parthenon project.
(SFC, 12/2/99, p.D6)(ON, 11/99, p.2)
1802 Apr, Lord Elgin visited
Athens for the first time and observed the large crates filled with
sculptures ready for shipment to Britain.
(ON, 11/99, p.2)
1803-1812 Lord Elgin organized the removal of
sculptures from the Parthenon.
(AM, 5/01, p.14)
1809 Lord Byron (1788-1824)
traveled to Spain, Albania and Greece with John Cam Hobhouse and soon
met with Ali Pasha.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Byron)
1810 May 3, Lord Byron swam the
Hellespont.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1810 Peter Oluf Bronsted (d.1841),
Danish scholar, traveled to Greece to observe and document the
topography, history, arts, and customs. His party included Haller von
Hallerstein, a German architect; Jacob Linckh, a German landscape
painter; and Baron Otto Magnus von Stackelberg of Estonia, an artist.
Bronsted published his results in 2 volumes in 1826 and 1830: "Voyages
dans la Grece accompagnees de recherches archeologiques."
(AM, Jul-Aug/99, p.12)
1812 Peter Oluf Bronsted, a Danish
scholar, interviewed Ali Pasha. An English version, "Interviews With
Ali Pacha," was published in 1999.
(AM, Jul-Aug/99, p.10)
1816 Lord Elgin sold his Parthenon
sculptures to the British government for 35,000 pounds. A request in
1811 for 62,400 pounds had been rejected.
(ON, 11/99, p.4)
1820 Ali Pasha was stripped of his
titles by the Ottoman sultan and declared an enemy of the state.
(AM, Jul-Aug/99, p.15)
1822 Ali Pasha was murdered in the
monastery of St. Panteleimon at Ionnina under orders from the Ottoman
sultan. In 1999 Katherine Elizabeth Fleming published "The Muslim
Bonaparte: Diplomacy and Orientalism in Ali Pasha's Greece.
(AM, Jul-Aug/99, p.11,15)
1823 Lord Byron returned to Greece
to provide moral support to insurgents and draw attention to Ottoman
massacres of Greek civilians.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Byron)(SFC,
9/7/08, Books p.5)
1824 Apr 19, George Gordon, (6th
Baron Byron) aka Lord Byron, English poet, died of malaria in Greece at
Missolonghi on the gulf of Patras preparing to fight for Greek
independence. In 1999 Benita Eisler published the biography "Byron:
Child of Passion, Fool of Fame."
(WUD, 1994, p.204,917)(SFC, 6/9/97, p.D3)(WSJ,
4/26/99, p.A16)(HN, 4/1901)
1826 Apr 22, Ibrahim, son of
Mohammed Ali of Egypt, took Missolonghi (in West Greece) after a long
siege. [see Apr 23]
(CMW, 1968, p.154)
1826 Apr 23, Missolonghi fell to
Egyptian-Turkish forces. [see Apr 22]
(HN, 4/23/99)(MC, 4/23/02)
1827 Jun 5, Athens fell to the
Ottomans during Greek War of Independence.
(HN, 6/5/98)(MC, 6/5/02)
1827 Oct 20, British, French and
Russian squadrons entered the harbor at Navarino, Greece, and destroyed
most of the Egyptian fleet there. The Ottomans demanded reparations.
(EWH, 4th ed,
p.770)(www.ipta.demokritos.gr/erl/navarino.html)
1828 Jan 31, Alexandros Ypsilanti
(35), Greek resistance fighter, died.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1828 Apr 26, Russia declared war
on Turkey to support Greece's independence.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1831 Sep 27, Joannis Capodistrias
(55), Greek governor of Troezen, was murdered.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1832 May 7, The Treaty of London
protocol was signed between Bavaria and the protecting Powers. It
basically dealt with the way in which the Regency of Bavaria was to be
managed until Otto of Bavaria reached his majority. Greece was defined
as an independent kingdom, with the Arta-Volos line as its northern
frontier and Otto as king.
(http://wiki.phantis.com/index.php/Treaty_of_London,_1832)
1850 Jun 27, Lafcadio Hearn
(d.1904), Irish-American journalist, author, was born in Greece.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lafcadio_Hearn)
1850 A mob in Athens burned down
the home of a British citizen. In response Viscount Palmerston,
Britain’s foreign secretary, called for a blockade of Greece.
(Econ, 7/15/06, p.56)
1856 Apr 3, Gunpowder in church
exploded killing 4,000 in Rhodes.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1865 A Latin Monetary Union was
established amongst France, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland and Greece, but
quickly weakened as members pursued their own economic policies.
(WSJ, 1/13/98, p.A1)
1884 In Italy Sotirio Boulgaris, a
Greek immigrant, founded Bulgari, a silver-jewelry shop, on Rome’s Via
Sistina. He had descended from a family of Greek silversmiths. By 1996
there were 54 stores worldwide.
(SFEM,7/28/96, p.32)(Econ, 4/14/07, p.81)
1885 Dec 2, Nikos Kazantzakis
(d.1957), Greek writer and lawyer, was born. His work included "Zorba
the Greek." [see Feb 18, 1887]
(HN, 12/2/00)
1887 Feb 18, Nikos Kazantzakis,
Greek writer, was born. [see Dec 2, 1885]
(MC, 2/18/02)
1888 Feb 13, Georgios Papandreou,
Greek prefect of Lesbos, minister, premier, was born.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1891 Apr 11, A Jewish tailor's
daughter (8) disappeared in Greece. A rumor spread that she was a
Christian girl ritually killed by Jews.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1894 Mar 3, The first Greek
newspaper in America was published on this day. It was known as the
"New York Atlantis".
(HC, Internet, 3/3/98)(SC, 3/3/02)
1895 Feb, Georgios Averoff, a
Greek philanthropist, agreed to pay for the rebuilding of the
Panathenaic stadium in Athens for the upcoming revival of the Olympics.
(ON, 8/07, p.5)
1896 Mar 25, The 1st modern
Olympic Games officially opened in Athens. Greece was on the old Julian
calendar at this time. The revival was masterminded by Baron Pierre de
Coubertin of France. [see Apr 6]
(Econ, 5/29/04, p.81)(www.forthnet.gr/olympics)
1896 Apr 6, The first modern
Olympic Games formally opened in Athens, Greece after a lapse of 1,500
years. 8 nations participated. [see Mar 25]
(SFC, 7/14/96, p.T1)(AP, 4/6/97)
1896 Apr 6, James Connolly, a
self-educated 27-year-old American, won the first gold medal at the
1896 Olympic games in Athens. Connolly‘s event, the triple jump, which
was then called the hop, step, and jump, was the first final of the
games. The U.S. Olympic team hadn’t realized that the Greeks followed
the Hellenic calendar, so they arrived not days in advance but just a
few hours before the opening ceremonies. Despite being hastily
prepared, Connolly competed last and beat his opponents‘ distances by
more than three feet. He went on to become a successful author of 25
novels. [see Mar 25]
(HNQ, 4/8/00)
1896 Apr 15, The first modern
Olympic Games closed in Athens. 164 of the 241 competitors were from
Greece. The remaining represented 13 countries, the largest
international participation of any sporting event up to that time.
(ON, 8/07, p.5)
1897 The Greeks were defeated by
Turkey at Velestino in their war over the independence of Crete.
(WSJ, 8/6/98, p.A13)
1898 Mar 23, Georgios Grivas,
Greek General, opposition leader on Cyprus, was born.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1899 Sir Arthur Evans discovered
the center of Minoan civilization on the island of Crete. He erected a
house overlooking the excavations and named it Villa Ariadne after the
daughter of King Minos. As he unearthed a mound at Knossos he rebuilt
parts of a 3,500 year-old palace in modernist style. In 2009 Cathy Gere
authored “Knossos and the Prophets of Modernism.”
(WSJ, 6/26/98, p.W9)(WSJ, 2/8/02, p.AW9)(Econ,
5/16/09, p.91)
1900 Mar 13, George Seferis
(d.1991), Greek poet, was born.
(HN, 3/13/01)
1900 Greeks from the island of
Kefalonia began to migrate to Manchuria after 1900 and flourished in
the liquor and property business. Their world collapsed in 12949 when
the Communists took power.
(Econ, 8/23/08, p.52)
1901 Pieces of an ancient Greek
calculating machine, called the Antikythera Mechanism, were discovered
by sponge divers exploring the remains of a shipwreck off the tiny
island of Antikythera. Radiocarbon dating suggested it was built around
65 BC, but in 2006 newly revealed lettering on the machine indicate a
slightly older construction date of 150 to 100 BC. In 2008 researchers
said the device, which originally contained 37 gears, included the
cycle of the Greek Olympics.
(http://tinyurl.com/y255xr)(SFC, 7/31/08, p.A15)
1903 Jan 6, Maurice Abravanel,
conductor and composer, was born in Saloniki, Greece.
(MC, 1/6/02)
1903 Britain’s Princess Alice (18)
married the son of a Greek king
(SSFC, 4/7/02, p.M3)
1905 Nov 22, British, Italian,
Russian, French and Austrian-Hungarian fleet attacked the Grecian Isle
of Lesbos.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1906 Jan 15, Aristotle Onassis,
Greek tycoon, who married Jackie Kennedy, was born.
(HN, 1/15/99)
1906 Apr 9, The third modern
Olympic games opened in Athens and marked the 10th anniversary of the
modern Olympics.
(HN, 4/9/98)
1909 Jul 3, Stavros Niachos, Greek
shipping magnate, was born.
(MC, 7/3/02)
1912 Oct 17, Bulgaria, Greece and
Serbia declared war on Turkey. [see Oct 18]
(MC, 10/17/01)
1912 Oct 18, The First Balkan War
broke out between the members of the Balkan League-- Serbia, Bulgaria,
Greece and Montenegro--and the Ottoman Empire. A small Balkan War broke
out and was quelled by the major powers. Albanian nationalism spurred
repeated revolts against Turkish dominion and resulted in the First
Balkan War in which the Turks were driven out of much of the Balkan
Peninsula. Austria-Hungary’s 1908 annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
spurred Serbian efforts to form the Balkan alliance with its
neighbors. As a result of the war on Turkey, Serbia doubled its
territory with the award of Northern Macedonia. Albanian leaders
affirmed Albania as an independent state. [see Oct 8]
(V.D.-H.K.p.290)(CO, Grolier’s/ Albania)(HN,
10/18/98)(HNQ, 3/27/99)(www, Albania, 1998)
1912 Dec 3, Turkey, Serbia,
Montenegro, Greece & Bulgaria signed a weapons pact.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1912 Dec 4, An armistice was
signed to end the First Balkan War. Following several victories over
the Ottoman army, coalition forces occupied Macedonia and forced the
Ottoman Empire to seek an armistice.
(www.maknews.com/html/articles/stefov/stefov61.html)
1912 Greece acquired Crete. [see
1913]
(WSJ, 3/20/97, p.A17)
1912-1913 During the Balkan Wars the Kingdom of
Greece acquired Macedonia from the Turkish Ottoman Empire.
(SFC, 4/23/98, p.B4)
1913 Mar 18, Greek King George I
was killed by an assassin. Constantine I was to succeed.
(HN, 3/18/98)
1913 Jun 1, Serbia and Greece
concluded a secret treaty for joint action against Bulgaria; joined by
Romania. Dissatisfied with their share of the spoils, Serbia, denied
its proposed outlet to the Adriatic Sea, sought compensation in
Macedonia along the Vardar River which the Bulgarians rejected while
Greece asked for control of Thessaloniki and "a certain part" of the
eastern Macedonian territories, which Bulgaria rejected as well.
(www.maknews.com/html/articles/stefov/stefov61.html)
1913 Jun 24, Greece and Serbia
annulled their alliance with Bulgaria following border disputes over
Macedonia and Thrace.
(HN, 6/24/98)
1913 Jun 29, Anticipating
assistance from Austro-Hungary the Bulgarian army attacked its former
allies. This Second Balkan War was at first waged entirely on
Macedonian soil. The 2nd Balkan War began. Bulgaria defeated Greek and
Serbian troops.
(www.maknews.com/html/articles/stefov/stefov61.html)
1913 Jul 1, Serbia and Greece
declared war on Bulgaria.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1913 Jul 10, Rumania entered the
Second Balkan War and four days later the Ottoman Empire joined the
general assault on Bulgaria. Faced with four fronts, Bulgarian armies
were defeated piecemeal and the government at Sofia was forced to seek
peace. Atrocities were widespread. For example, in pursuing the
Bulgarian army Greek forces systematically burnt to the ground all
Macedonian villages they encountered, mass-murdering their entire
populations. Likewise, when the Greek army entered Kukush (Kilkis) and
occupied surrounding villages, about 400 old people and children were
imprisoned and killed. Nor did the Serbian "liberators" lag behind in
destruction and wanton slaughter throughout Macedonia. In Bitola,
Skopje, Shtip and Gevgelija, the Serbian army, police and chetniks
(guerrillas) committed their own atrocities.
(www.maknews.com/html/articles/stefov/stefov61.html)
1913 Aug 10, The Treaty of
Bucharest ended the Second Balkan War. It was concluded by the
delegates of Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece. The
entire "disputed zone" was taken by Serbia, Greece secured its position
in Thessaloniki and southeastern Macedonia, the Ottomans regained all
the territories lost in the First Balkan War to Bulgaria with the
exception of eastern (Pirin) Macedonia, and the Romanians seized
Southern Dobruja.
(www.maknews.com/html/articles/stefov/stefov61.html)
1913 Aug 10, The Great Powers
recognized an independent Albanian state. Demographics were ignored,
however, and half of the territories inhabited by Albanians (such as
Kosova and Chameria) were divided among Montenegro, Serbia and Greece.
(www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/boshtml/bos149.htm)
1913 Dec 14, Greece formally
annexed Crete.
(AP, 12/14/02)
1913 The 9,538-foot Mount Olympus
in Greece was scaled for the 1st time. For years its slopes had
provided a hideout for revolutionaries and bandits.
(SSFC, 8/8/04, p.D3)
1916 Sep 27, Constance of Greece
declared war on Bulgaria.
(HN, 9/27/98)
1916 Nov 21, The HMHS Britannic,
the sister ship of the Titanic, sank in the Kea Channel off Greece
after being hit by a mine or a torpedo. 30 people in lifeboats died
from the suction of the sinking ship. The Britannic, launched in 1914
from the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland, included an
additional expansion joint due to design update following the sinking
of the Titanic in 1912.
(www.titanic-titanic.com/britannic.shtml)(AH, 10/07,
p.14)
1916 Dec 1, King Constantine
Greece refused to surrender to the Allies.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1919 In Greece the hotel Capsis
Bristol was built in Thessaloniki.
(WSJ, 9/26/08, p.A20)
1920 Mar 4, Last day of Julian
civil calendar in Greece.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1920 Mar 25, Greek Independence
Day.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1920 Jun 25, The Greeks took 8,000
Turkish prisoners in Smyrna.
(HN, 6/25/98)
1920 Oct 25, Alexander
(27), king of Greece (1917-20), died following a pet monkey bite.
(www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0803222.html)
1921 Jun 10, Philip Mountbatten,
Duke of Edinburgh, Prince, Consort of Elizabeth II, was born in Greece.
(MC, 6/10/02)
1921 Aug 23, In the great battle
of Sakarya, which continued without interruption from the 23rd of
August to the 13th of September, Turkey defeated the Greek Army.
(www.allaboutturkey.com/ata_life.htm)
1922 May 29, Iannis Xenakis, Greek
mathematician, architect and composer, was born in Romania. In 2004
James Harley authored “Xenakis: His Life in Music.”
(SSFC, 7/25/04, p.M4)
1922 Sep 9, Turkish troops under
Mustafa Kemal conquered Smyrna, Greece. This effectively ended in the
field the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922) more than three years after the
Greek army had landed on Smyrna on 15 May, 1919. In 2008 Giles Milton
authored “Paradise Lost: Smyrna, 1922: The Destruction of Islam’s City
of Tolerance.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_Smyrna)(Econ, 5/3/08, p.90)
1922 Sep 13, A major fire began to
ravage Smyrna, Greece, shortly following occupation by Turkish troops
under Mustafa Kemal. The fire lasted 4 days.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_Smyrna)
1923 Jul 24, The Treaty of
Lausanne, which settled the boundaries of modern Greece and Turkey, was
concluded in Switzerland. It replaced the Treaty of Sevres and divided
the lands inhabited by the Kurds between Turkey, Iraq and Syria.
Article 39 allowed Turkish nationals to use any language they wished in
commerce, public and private meetings, and publications. The treaty
specifically protected the rights of the Armenian, Greek and Jewish
communities. The former provinces of Baghdad, Basra and Mosul were
lumped together to form Iraq. Both countries agreed to a massive
exchange of religious minorities. Christians were deported from Turkey
to Greece and Muslims from Greece to Turkey. In 2006 Bruce Clark
authored “Twice a Stranger: The Mass Expulsions that Forged Modern
Greece and Turkey.”
(WSJ, 3/20/97, p.A17)(AP, 7/24/97)(SSFC, 12/22/02,
p.A14)(Econ, 3/19/05, Survey p.9)(Econ, 10/14/06, p.50)(Econ, 12/9/06,
p.92)
1924 Mar 24, Greece became a
republic.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1924 Mar 25, Greece was made a
republic and King George II (1890-1947) was deposed in favor of a
non-royal government. King George was king from 1922-1923 and from
1935-1947.
(HN, 3/24/98)(WUD, 1994, p.593)
1924 Jul 25, Greece announced the
deportation of 50,000 Armenians.
(HN, 7/25/98)
1925 Jul 29, Mikos Michael George
Theodorakis, composer (Raven), was born in Chios, Greece.
(MC, 7/29/02)
1925 Oct 23, Manos Hadjidakis,
Greek composer and conductor (Never on Sunday), was born.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1926 Aug 25, Pavlos
Kountouriotis became president of Greece.
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWpavlos.htm)
1932 In Greece Aristotle Onassis
bought his first 6 freight ships. He became a shipping magnate worth
$500 million when he died in 1975.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)
1933 Apr 29, Constantine Cavafy
(b.1863), Greek poet, died in Alexandria, Egypt. The 1996 Greek film
"Cavafy" was a profile of the Greek homosexual poet, and a winner of
Greece’s National Film Award for best feature of the year. Cavafy spent
30 years working as a clerk in the Ministry of Irrigation. In 2006 “The
Collected Poems of C.P. Cavafy,” translated by Aliki Barstone, was
published.
(SFC, 6/18/98, p.E4)(SSFC, 6/24/01, DB
p.64)(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/kafavis.htm)
1934 Oct 13, Nana Mouskouri, Greek
singer (Try to Remember), was born in Crete.
(MC, 10/13/01)
1934 Greece’s PM Elevtherios
Venizelos nominated Kemal Ataturk for a Nobel Prize. Ataturk had
proposed that the Turkish mainland should be Turk (Muslim) and that the
islands should be Greek (Christian).
(WSJ, 7/24/98, p.W11)
1936 A military government took
power.
(SFC, 4/23/98, p.B4)
1838 Gustav Schwab, German
historian, authored his compendium "Die Sagen des Klassischen
Altertums" (Stories from Classical Antiquity). The 1st English version
was published in 1946. It was republished in 2001 as "Gods and Heroes
of Ancient Greece."
(WSJ, 11/7/01, p.A20)
1938 A right-wing dictatorship
ruled.
(SFC, 6/23/96, p.B6)
1940 Jun 2, Constantine II, the
deposed king of Greece (-1967), was born.
(SC, 6/2/02)
1940 Oct 25, The Greek Army beat
back an invasion by Mussolini’s forces.
(SFC,10/29/97, p.A23)
1940 Oct 28, Italy invaded Greece,
launching six divisions on four fronts from occupied Albania. Greece
successfully resisted Italy's attack.
(AP, 10/28/97)(HN, 10/28/98)(MC, 10/28/01)
1940 Dec 13, Hitler issued
preparations for Operation Martita, the German invasion of Greece.
(HN, 12/13/98)
1940 The occupying Germans started
transporting the 50,000 Jews of Thessaloniki to Auschwitz. Up to 1943
there were 36 synagogues in the city. In 1997 there was one. The Jewish
population at Salonika was wiped out.
(WSJ, 4/29/97, p.A20)(SFEC, 3/21/99, BR p.3)
1941 Jan 4, On the Greek-Albanian
front, the Greeks launched an attack towards Valona from Berat to
Klisura against the Italians.
(HN, 1/4/00)
1941 Mar 7, 50,000 British
soldiers landed in Greece.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1941 Apr 6, German troops invaded
Yugoslavia and Greece. Italian and Albanian forces attacked and jointly
occupied Yugoslavia. Germany, with support of Italy and other allies
defeated Greece and Yugoslavia.
(WUD, 1944, p.1683)(SFC, 4/5/97, p.A20)(www,
Albania, 1998)
1941 Apr 6-7, The Luftwaffe
delivered a heavy blow to the British expedition when German bombers
seriously damaged Piraeus, the port of Athens sinking seven merchant
ships, sixty lighters and 25 caiques.
(www.diggerhistory.info/pages-battles/ww2/greece.htm)
1941 Apr 21, Greece surrendered to
Nazi Germany.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1941 Apr 23, Greece Army
surrendered to Nazis; RAF flew Greek king George II to Egypt.
(MC, 4/23/02)
1941 Apr 24, British army began
the evacuation of Greece.
(MC, 4/24/02)
1941 Apr 27, The Greek army
capitulated to the Germans. Greece and the Greek islands were secured
by Hitler.
(SFC,10/29/97, p.A23)(HN, 4/27/98)
1941 Apr 28, Last British troops
in Greece surrendered.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1941-1949 In 1976 Christopher Woodhouse (d.2001 at
83) authored "The Struggle for Greece: 1941-1949."
(SFC, 2/17/01, p.A23)
1942 Christopher Woodhouse helped
the Greek resistance plan and carry out the destruction of the
Gorgopotamos viaduct, which carried the railway from Thessaloniki to
Athens.
(SFC, 2/17/01, p.A23)
1943 Mar 9, Greek Jews of Salonika
were transported to Nazi extermination camps.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1943 Aug 18, Final convoy of Jews
from Salonika, Greece, arrived at Auschwitz.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1943 Oct 9, A Luftwaffe squadron
operating from Rhodes lost several Stukas to allied ships and aircraft.
In 2006 Greek divers raised the wreckage of a Stuka bomber, believed to
be one of the lost planes.
(AP, 10/6/06)
1944 Apr 14, 1st Jews transported
from Athens arrived at Auschwitz.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1944 Oct 3, German troops
evacuated Athens, Greece.
(HN, 10/3/98)
1944 Oct 12, German army retreated
from Athens.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1944 Oct 13, British and Greek
advance units landed at Piraeus during World War II.
(AP, 10/13/97)
1944 Oct 14, Allied troops landed
in Corfu, Greece.
(MC, 10/14/01)
1944 Dec 3, A British order to
disarm caused a general strike in Greece.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1944 Dec 25, Prime Minister
Winston Churchill went to Athens to seek an end to the Greek civil war.
(HN, 12/25/98)
1944 Dec 30, King George II of
Greece proclaimed a regency to rule his country, virtually renouncing
the throne.
(AP, 12/30/97)
1946 Aristotle Onassis married
Tina Livanos, the younger daughter of Stavros Livanos, patriarch of the
Greek shipping world.
(WSJ, 10/13/00, p.W8)
1946-1949 The Greek Civil War uprooted some 700,000
refugees. The Cham were ethnic Albanians drive from Greece after WW II.
Their expropriated property was worth about $3.25 million.
(SFC, 4/23/98, p.B4)(SFC, 3/22/00, p.A10)
1947 Mar 12, Pres. Truman outlined
the Truman Doctrine of economic and military aid to nations threatened
by Communism. He specifically requested aid for Greece and Turkey to
resist Communism.
(EWH, 1968, p.1207)(AP, 3/12/98)
1947 Apr 1, Greece's King George
II died.
(AP, 4/1/98)
1947 May 22, The Truman Doctrine
was enacted as Congress appropriated military and economic aid for
Greece and Turkey.
(EWH, 1968, p.1207)(AP, 5/22/97)
1947 Dec 24, An estimated 20,000
communists, led by guerrilla General Markos Vafthiades proclaimed the
Free Greek Government in northern Greece. They issue a call to arms to
establish the regime throughout the nation.
(HN, 12/24/98)
1947 $400 million in military aid
to Greece was approved by the US Congress in the first substantial
action under the Truman Doctrine, which was intended to curb Soviet
expansion. By 1947, two years of escalating violence between Communist
and anti-Communist forces in Greece had erupted in all-out civil war.
(HNQ, 3/10/99)
1948 May 1, Christos Ladas, Greek
minister of Justice, was murdered.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1948 May 6, 43 communist rebels
were executed in Athens.
(MC, 5/6/02)
1948 May 16, The body of CBS News
correspondent George Polk was found in Salonika Harbor in Greece,
several days after he'd left his hotel for an interview with the leader
of a Communist militia.
(AP, 5/16/99)
1949 Jun 30, Prime Minister
Sophoulis died and was succeeded by Alexander Diomedes.
(EWH, 1968, p.1192)
1949 Oct 16, The Greek civil war
ended after 3 years with the defeat of the rebel forces. This was made
possible by both American aid and the closing of the Yugoslav frontier
due to Tito’s quarrel with the Cominform.
(EWH, 1968, p.1192)
1950 Mar 23, Sophocles Venizelos
formed liberal Greeks government.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1953 Feb 28, Greece, Turkey and
Yugoslavia signed a 5-year defense pact in Ankara.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1953 Oct 12, US and Greece signed
a peace treaty that included US bases.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1953 On the Isle of Alonissos,
Greece, diseased grape vines imported from California wiped out the
local wine industry.
(SSFC, 2/14/04, p.D6)
1955 Mar 21, Archbishop Makarios
of Cyprus desired Cyprus joining Greece.
(MC, 3/21/02)
1955-1963 Constantine Karamanlis was appointed prime
minister by King Paul. He built a solid center-right party and won
absolute parliamentary majorities in 5 elections. Clashes with King
Paul ended in his resignation.
(SFC, 4/23/98, p.B4)
1957 Mar 20, Britain accepted a
NATO offer to mediate in Cyprus, but Greece rejected it.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1957 Oct 26, Nicos Kazantzakis
(b.1885), writer (The Last Temptation of Christ), died.
(MC, 10/26/01)
1958 Jun 15, Greece severed
military ties to Turkey because of the Cyprus issue.
(HN, 6/15/98)
1959 Feb 19, An agreement was
signed by Britain, Turkey and Greece granting Cyprus its independence.
(AP, 2/19/98)
1959 Jul, Aristotle Onassis took
on board his ship, Christina, Maria Callas and her husband, Battista
Meneghini, as well as Sir Winston and Lady Churchill. The cruise was
later referred to as the "voyage of the damned." In 2000 the
Onassis-Callas relationship was described in "Greek Fire" by Nicholas
Gage.
(WSJ, 10/13/00, p.W8)
1962 Apr 3, Manolis Kalomiris
(78), Greek opera composer, died.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1962 May 14, Princess Sophia of
Greece wed Don Juan Carlos of Spain.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1962 Nov 1, Greece entered the
European Common Market.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1962/index_en.htm)
1962 Dido Sotiriou authored
“Farewell Anatolia,” a novel of 2 shepherd boys, one Christian and one
Muslim, who go off to fight on opposite sides during the Greek-Turkish
war of 1919-22.
(Econ, 7/17/04, p.79)
1962 In Greece the Derveni
Papyrus, originally several yards of papyrus rolled around two wooden
runners, was found half burnt. It dates to around 340 BC, during the
reign of Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great. The
Derveni grave, about five miles northwest of Thessaloniki, was part of
a rich cemetery belonging to the ancient city of Lete.
(AP, 6/1/06)
1963 Jun 11, Greek Premier
Constantine Caramanlis resigned in protest of King Paul's state visit
to Britain.
(AP, 6/11/03)
1963 Nov 14, Greece freed hundreds
who were jailed in the Communist uprising of 1944- 1950.
(HN, 11/14/98)
1963 Dec 24, Greeks and Turks
rioted in Cyprus.
(MC, 12/24/01)
1963 Andreas Papandreou became a
government minister under his father George, a centrist premier.
(SFC, 6/23/96, p.B6)
1964 Aug 7, Turkey began an air
attack on Greek-Cypriots.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1965 An earthquake on Alonissos,
Greece, leveled Alonissos Town.
(SSFC, 2/14/04, p.D6)
1966 Sotiria Bellou (d.1997), a
folksinger who sang in the "rembetiko" style, released a series of
records featuring old songs in this style.
(SFC, 8/28/97, p.C6)
1966 Melina Mercouri, Greek film
actress, married American film director Jules Dassin. They settled in
Greece.
(SFC, 4/1/08, p.B7)
1967 Apr 21, "The Colonels" led by
Colonel George Papadopoulos took power in a bloodless military coup.
(SFC, 4/23/98, p.B4)(SFC, 6/28/99, p.A19)
1967 Jul 12, Greek regime deprived
480 Greeks of their citizenship.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1967 Sep 23, The regime of Greek
Colonels freed ex-premier Georgios Papandreou. [see Dec 24]
(MC, 9/23/01)
1967 Dec 24, Greek Junta freed
ex-Premier Papandreou. [see Sep 23]
(HN, 12/24/98)
1967 Dec, The military junta
crushed an attempted counter rebellion led by King Constantine. The
Royal family fled the country and Colonel George Papadopoulos emerged
as the junta leader.
(SFC, 6/28/99, p.A19)
1967-1974 A military junta ruled Greece and was
supported by the US government.
(SFC, 4/23/98, p.B4)(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.A19)
1968 Mar 3, The embassies of
Greece, Portugal and Spain were bombed in the Hague.
(http://1968ineurope.sneakpeek.de/index.php/chronologies/index/42)
1968 Aug 13, In Greece there was
an assassination attempt against Col. George Papadopoulos (1919-1999),
the right-wing military leader, organized by Alexandros Panagoulis
(1939-1976), Greek politician and poet.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandros_Panagoulis)
1968 Sep 29, A Greek plebiscite
was held by the then ruling dictatorial regime to endorse, by public
vote, the junta's new Constitution. Participation was made obligatory
and abstention punishable by imprisonment.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_plebiscite,_1968)
1968 Oct 20, Former first lady
Jacqueline Kennedy married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis on
the island of Scorpios.
(AP, 10/20/97)(HN, 10/20/98)
1968 Nov 1, Georgios Papandreou
(b.1888), Greek minister and 3-time premier, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Papandreou,_senior)
1968 Nov 3, In Greece thousands of
people demonstrated against the fascist junta as ex-premier Georgios
Papandreou is buried.
(http://1968ineurope.sneakpeek.de/index.php/chronologies/index/6)
1968 Dec 26, A Palestinian
terrorist attack in Athens on an Israeli civilian airliner killed one
person. Mahmoud Mohammad (25) and Maher Suleiman (19) were later
captured by Greek officials, In 1970, a Greek court convicted Mahmoud
Mohammad for his role in the attack. In 1987 Mahmoud Mohammed Issa
Mohammed entered Canada, where he was ordered to be deported in 1988.
In 2007 he was still in Canada after some 30 appeals and reviews.
(http://tinyurl.com/35olct)(Econ, 9/15/07,
p.48)(www.skyjack.co.il/chronology.htm)
1969 John Latsis (1910-2003),
Greek shipping magnate, established Petrola, the 1st export-oriented
oil refinery in Greece.
(SFC, 4/18/03, p.A24)
1970 Apr 13, Greek composer Mikis
Theodorakis (b.1925) was allowed to go into exile. His music included
the film score for Zorba the Greek (1964).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikis_Theodorakis)
1971 Feb 20, Young people
protested having to cut their long hair in Athens, Greece.
(HN, 2/20/98)
1971 Sep 20, George Seferis
(b.1900), Nobel Prize-winning (1963) Greek poet, died. In 2003 Roderick
Beaton authored "George Seferis - Waiting for the Angel: A Biography."
(HN, 3/13/01)(Econ, 11/22/03,
p.83)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgos_Seferis)
1971 Oct, Spiro Agnew (1918-1996),
US Vice-President, visited Greece and called the ruling junta the
country's best leaders since Pericles.
(www.ahistoryofgreece.com/junta.htm)(SFEC, 11/21/99,
p.A20)
1971 Periklis Panagopoulos, Greek
ferry operator, founded Royal Cruise Line.
(AP, 1/20/09)
1972 Mar 5, Greek composer Mikis
Theodorakis (b.1925) left the communist party.
(http://wiki.phantis.com/index.php/1972)
1973 May 22, In Greece a coup was
planned, but it was put off due to fears and hesitation. The Junta got
wind of the conspiracy, many arrests were made and people were
tortured. The destroyer HNS Velos followed the original alternative
plan in case of failure and sailed to Italy.
(SFC, 6/28/99,
p.A19)(www.greeceindex.com/history-mythology/Greek-Junta.html)
1973 Jul 29, A Greek plebiscite
was held by the ruling dictatorial regime under Georgios Papadopoulos
and resulted in the abolition of monarchy and the establishment of a
Republic.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_plebiscite,_1973)
1973 Nov 17, Greek regime attacked
students with tanks and 100s were killed. The left-wing November 17
terror group took this date for their name and engaged in over 23
killings through 2002.
(SFC, 7/5/02,
p.A9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athens_Polytechnic_Uprising)
1973 Nov 18, The Greek regime
called an emergency crisis due to mass protests.
(www.athensinfoguide.com/history/t9-97-7polytechnic.htm)
1973 Nov 25, Greek President
George Papadopoulos was ousted in a bloodless military coup led by
police chief Brigadier Dimitris Ioannides. Gen'l. Faidon Gizikis was
named president. Adamantios Androutsopoulis (d.2000 at 81) was named
premier. The dictatorship ended in 1974.
(AP, 11/25/97)(SFC, 6/28/99, p.A19)(SFC, 11/15/00,
p.B6)
1974 Jul 15, Greek troops and the
Greek Cypriot National Guard staged a military coup on Cyprus and
archbishop-president Makarios fled. Nikos Giorgiades Sampson (d.2001 at
66) served as president for 8 days following the military coup that
overthrew Archbishop Makarios. PM Bulent Ecevit ordered Turkish troops
to invade Cyprus following the Greek Cypriot coup.
(www.cyprus-conflict.net/Greek%20v%20Turk%20narr%20-%201974.htm)
1974 Jul 20, Turkey invaded Cyprus.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_invasion_of_Cyprus)
1974 Jul 23, Greece's military
rulers announced they would turn the nation back to civilian rule.
Constantine Karamanlis returned from 11 years of self-imposed exile and
was sworn in as premier. Karamanlis later won a landslide election and
served as prime minister until 1980. The Ioannides regime collapsed
after plotting an aborted military takeover of Cyprus.
(AP, 7/23/97)(SFC, 4/23/98, p.B4)(SFC, 6/28/99,
p.A19)
1974 Jul 30, The prime ministers
of Greece and Turkey and the British Foreign Secretary signed a peace
agreement to settle the Cyprus crisis.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/low/dates/stories/july/30/newsid_2492000/2492515.stm)
1974 Oct 4, In Greece the New
Democracy party (ND), was founded. It became the main center-right
political party.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Democracy_(Greece))
1974 Dec 8, The Greek monarchy was
rejected by referendum. Constantine Karamanlis organized a referendum
that abolished the monarchy.
(SFC, 4/23/98,
p.B4)(www.traveldocs.com/gr/history.htm)
1974 Dec 18, In Greece Michalis
Stasinopoulos (d.2002), legal scholar, was elected president 10 days
following the referendum that abolished the monarchy.
(AP, 11/1/02)(SFC, 11/2/02, p.A22)
1974 Dec 23, Faidon (Phaedon)
Gizikis (1917-1999), Greek Gen'l. and former president (1973-1974),
resigned and retired from the army.
(SFC, 7/29/99,
p.C4)(www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/archives.php?id=13481)
1974 The film “The Rehearsal” was
directed by Jules Dassin and based on the Greek student rebellions that
helped bring down the 1967-1974 military junta.
(SFC, 4/1/08, p.B7)
1974 In Greece Andreas Georgios
Papandreou founded the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (Pasok).
(SFC, 6/23/96, p.B6)(WSJ, 1/13/04, p.A15)
1974 Melina Mercouri, film actress
(Never On Sunday), gave up acting after she was elected to the Greek
Parliament as a socialist.
(SFC, 4/1/08, p.B7)
1975 Mar 15, Aristotle Onassis
(69) Greek shipping magnate died near Paris.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1975 Aug 23, In Greece Col.
Papadopoulos (d.1999 at 80) was sentenced to death for insurrection and
high treason. He had refused to testify: "let history judge my action."
The sentence was later commuted to life in prison.
(SFC, 6/28/99,
p.A19)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Papadopoulos)
1975 Dec 23, Richard S. Welch, the
Central Intelligence Agency station chief in Athens, was shot and
killed outside his home. The left-wing November 17 urban guerrilla
group was responsible. In 2002 Pavlos Serifis was arrested in
connection with the murder.
(AP, 12/23/00)(SFC, 7/5/02, p.A9)
1975 In Greece the November 17
terrorist group began a series of killings and bombings.
(SFC, 1/14/98, p.C3)(www.emergency.com/nov17rpt.htm)
1976 May 1, Alexandros Panagoulis
(b.1939), Greek politician and poet, died in a car crash possibly
rigged by his enemies. He became famous for his attempt to assassinate
dictator George Papadopoulos on 13 August 1968, and also for the
torture that he was subjected to during his detention.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandros_Panagoulis)
1977 Nov 24, Greeks announced the
discovery of the tomb of King Philip II, father of Alexander the Great.
(HN, 11/24/98)
1979 May 28, The acts relating to
Greece's accession to the European Communities were signed in Athens,
Greece.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1979/index_en.htm)
1979 Jun 28, The Greek Parliament
ratified the Treaty of Accession to the European Communities.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1979/index_en.htm)
1979 The Museum of Modern Art on
Andros Island was inaugurated by philanthropist Elise Goulandris
(d.2000 at 82).
(SFC, 7/27/00, p.C2)
1980 Feb 23, Oil tanker explosion
off Pilos, Greece, caused a 37-mil-gallon spill.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1980 May, In Greece Constantine
Karamanlis (1907-1998) stepped down as prime minister and moved to the
ceremonial position of president.
(SFC, 4/23/98,
p.B4)(www.btinternet.com/~argyros.argyrou/obit2.htm)
1981 Oct 18, Andreas Papandreou
(d.1996) was elected prime minister and Greece joined the European
Union.
(SFEC, 7/26/98, BR
p.3)(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1981/index_en.htm)
1981 Melina Mercouri, former film
actress and member of Greek Parliament, was named culture minister of
Greece.
(SFC, 4/1/08, p.B7)
1981-1989 Andreas Papandreou led headed the Greek
government.
(SFC, 6/23/96, p.B6)
1982 Greece launched a formal
campaign through UNESCO for the return of the Elgin Marbles from
England.
(WSJ, 12/3/99, p.A14)
1983 Nov 15, In Athens, Greece, US
Navy Captain George Tsantes and his driver were assassinated by the
November 17 terrorist group(http://arlingtoncemetery.net/gtsantes.htm).
(SFC, 6/9/00, p.A14)
1983 Nov 15, Turkish Cypriots
declared the northern third Cyprus a separate republic, the Turkish
Republic of Northern Cyprus. It was only recognized by Turkey.
(SFC, 3/13/02,
p.A26)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_Republic_of_Northern_Cyprus)
1985 Mar, In Greece a socialist
government forced Constantine Karamanlis (1907-1998) from the
presidency. He was succeeded by Christos Antoniou Sartzetakis (b.1929).
(SFC, 4/23/98,
p.B4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christos_Sartzetakis)
1985 Jun 14, The 17-day hijack
ordeal of TWA Flight 847 began as a pair of Lebanese Shiite Muslim
extremists seized the plane with 104 Americans shortly after takeoff
from Athens, Greece. The hijackers killed Petty Officer Robert Dean
Stethem and dumped his body on the tarmac in Beirut. In 2002 Stethem’s
family was awarded $21.4 million in compensatory damages from the US
Treasury. In 1987 Mohammed Ali Hamadi was arrested at the Frankfurt
airport, when customs officials discovered liquid explosives in his
luggage. The Lebanese man was convicted and served a life sentence in
Germany for the 1985 hijacking of a TWA jetliner and killing of a US
Navy diver. In 2005 he returned to Lebanon after being paroled in
Germany.
(AP, 6/14/97)(HN, 6/14/98)(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.A9)(AP,
12/20/05)
1985 Peter Greenhalgh and Edward
Eliopoulos published "Deep Into Mani," a description of the Byzantine
treasures of the Mani peninsula.
(SFEC, 6/11/00, p.T6)
1985 The Anti-State Struggle, a
left wing terrorist group, killed a public prosecutor. In another
attack 3 police officers and 2 security guards were killed. Avraam
Lesperoglou, a suspected member of the group, was arrested in 1999.
(SFC, 12/25/99, p.A14)
1986 Apr 7, Dimitris Angelopoulos
(79), a Greek industrialist, was killed by Nov. 17 militants. In 2003
Patroklos Tselentis testified that he drove the getaway motorcycle.
(AP, 3/26/03)(http://tinyurl.com/yzu4sj)
1987 Apr 24, In Greece 18 people,
including 12 US military personnel, were injured when a roadside bomb
exploded in the port of Piraeus; the guerrilla group November 17
claimed responsibility. In 2003 Dimitris Angelopoulos testified that he
drove a truck in the bus bombing.
(AP, 4/24/97)(AP, 3/26/03)
1987 The NATO sec.-gen’l.
negotiated a Turkish-Greek dispute.
(WSJ, 10/8/01, p.A14)
1988 Apr 23, Greek cycling
champion Kanellos Kanellopoulos pedaled a self-powered aircraft named
Daedalus 88 for 74 miles. The MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics
Department's Daedalus was a human-powered aircraft flew from Iraklion
Air Force Base on Crete, Greece, crashing in the sea just short of the
island of Santorini in 3 hours, 54 minutes. Daedalus 87 had crashed on
Rogers Dry Lakebed on 17 February 1988, and was rebuilt as a backup.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_Daedalus)
1988 Jul 11, Nine people were
killed when three Abu Nidal terrorists attacked hundreds of tourists
aboard a Greek cruise ship, the City of Poros, which was steaming
toward a marina in suburban Athens.
(AP, 7/11/98)(www.fas.org/irp/world/para/ano.htm)
1988 At Davos, Switzerland, during
the World Economic Forum, Prime Ministers Papandreou of Greece and Ozal
of Turkey embarked on a peace initiative, setting up a hot-line and
vowing to avoid war.
(WSJ, 1/23/08, p.A8)
1989 Jun 18, Greek Premier Andreas
Papandreou's Panhellenic Socialist Movement suffered a defeat as the
center-right New Democracy Party finished first in general elections.
Political scandals and a messy divorce forced Papandreou and his party
from office.
(SFC, 6/23/96, p.B6)(AP, 6/18/99)
1990 Apr 11, Constantine
Mitsotakis (b.1918) of the New Democracy party became prime minister of
Greece with one vote from an independently elected member of the
parliament. He held office to October 13, 1993.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_Mitsotakis)
1990 Jul 1, The first phase of the
Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) comes into force. Four Member States
(Spain, Portugal, Greece and Ireland) are granted an exceptional regime
given their insufficient progress towards financial integration.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1990/index_en.htm)
1990 Conservatives returned to
power and elected Constantine Karamanlis to the 5-year post of
president.
(SFC, 4/23/98, p.B4)
1991 Mar, US Air Force Sgt. Ronald
Stewart was killed in Greece. In 2002 November 17 member Iraklis
Kostaris was charged with participating in the killing.
(SFC, 7/22/02, p.A3)
1991 Dec 28, A 6x8 inch wooden
picture of Irene, the Icon of the Greek Orthodox church, was returned,
stripped of its jewels, to NYC after being stolen on Dec 23.
(www.skepticfiles.org/skep2/iconstol.htm)
1992 Jul 31, Greece ratifies the
Treaty on the European Union.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1992/index_en.htm)
1992 Dec 3, The Greek tanker
Aegean Sea spilled 21.5 million gallons of crude oil when it ran
aground at La Coruna, Spain.
(AP, 12/3/97)
1992 Athens began construction on
its Metro subway.
(NG, 8/04, Geographica)
1992 Thessaloniki was selected as
the cultural capital of Europe.
(WSJ, 4/29/97, p.A20)
1992 The National Marine Park of
Alonissos, Greece, was established to protect the endangered
Mediterranean monk seal.
(SSFC, 2/14/04, p.D6)
1993 May, The Greek government
demanded the return of Mycenaenean art objects up for sale in New York.
In 1978 Greek grave robbers at Aidonia had dug into ancient tombs
believed to be a 3,500-year-old palatial cemetery of the Mycenaeneans.
The looters plundered 18 graves but left one undisturbed. Objects from
the single grave matched those for sale in New York.
(SFC, 8/13/96, p.B2)
1993 Oct 10, In Greece, the
Panhellenic Socialist Movement, led by Andreas Papandreou, won a solid
majority of seats in parliamentary elections. A handful of dissidents
brought down a modernizing ND government in a row over privatization.
(SFC, 6/23/96, p.B6)(AP, 10/10/98)(Econ, 9/22/07,
p.64)
1993 The border with Albania broke
open and hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, mainly Albanian
Muslims, poured into Greece. A video tape was recorded that depicted
officers of a Greek anti-terrorist squad assaulting an apparent
Albanian immigrant.
(SFC,11/13/97, p.A12)
1993 Greece began a tax reform
program that included revised tax laws and spending on information
technology for a network of tax offices.
(WSJ, 6/20/00, p.A23)
1993-2004 In Greece the socialist Pasok political
party held power.
(Econ, 9/13/08, p.60)
1994 Jan 12, Ancient vases and
ikons, excavated during the construction of the Athens’ new subway,
were stolen. Australian police recovered some of the vases in 1995.
(AM, 11/00, p.25)
1994 Mar 6, Melina Mercouri
(b.1920), Greek born actress turned politician, died of lung cancer in
New York City.
(AP, 3/6/99)(www.imdb.com/name/nm0580479/)
1994 Greece put a 2-year embargo
on Macedonia for usurping the name of a northern province.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A22)
1995 Mar 9, President Konstantine
Karamanlis (88) of Greece, resigned.
(www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/NewPol/Politics2.htm)
1995 The Prime Minister was 76
year-old Andreas Papandreou of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement. His
young wife, Dimitra (Mimi) Liani, was thought to be in line for control
of the government from her ailing husband. The next general election
must take place by 1997.
(WSJ, 11/10/95, p. A-1)
1996 Jan, The prime minister quit.
(WSJ, 1/16/96, p. A-1)
1996 Jan, Greek Socialists
elected Costas Simitis to succeed Andreas Papandreou as prime minister.
(WSJ, 1/19/96, p.A-1)
1996 Mar 18, Odysseus Elytis,
Greek poet and Nobel Prize winner (1979), died in Athens at age 84.
(WSJ, 3/19/96,
p.A-1)(http://dpsinfo.com/dps/mnames.html)
1996 Mar 30, The Olympic torch was
lit in Greece and began its journey to the games in Atlanta, USA. The
games will run 17 days from 7/19-8/4.
(WSJ, 4/1/96, p.A-1)
1996 Apr 15, Stavros Spyros
Niarchos (86), Greek ship owner, died.
(www.msu.edu/~daggy/cop/bkofdead/obits-ni.htm)
1996 Jun 9, The latest
unemployment rate was 10%.
(SFC, 6/9/96, Parade, p.9)
1996 Jun 23, Andreas Papandreou,
Greek Socialist Party founder and statesmen, died. In 1998 his son
wrote his autobiographical novel "A Crowded Heart."
(USAT, 6/25/96, p.10A)(SFEC, 7/26/98, BR p.3)
1996 Aug 23, Costas Simitis called
for snap elections to get a mandate for bolstering defenses against
Turkey and reviving the economy.
(WSJ, 8/23/96, p.A1)
1996 Sep 22, In Greece the
governing socialists won the elections and gave Prime Minister Simitas
about 162 of 300 deputies in the Parliament.
(SFC, 9/23/96, A9)
1996 Nov 23, In India amidst
protests outside, Irene Skliva of Greece won the Miss World crown.
Police arrested some 1,650 over 2 days.
(SFEC, 11/24/96, p.A2)
1996 Nov 28, In Greece farmers
began a crippling blockade of roads and railways to back their demands
for better price supports, cheaper fuel, debt rescheduling, and lower
taxes on agricultural equipment.
(WSJ, 12/6/96, p.A12)
1996 The Greek film "Cavafy" was a
profile of the Greek poet, Constantine Cavafy, and a winner of Greece’s
National Film Award for best feature of the year. The music is by
Vangelis.
(SFEC, 6/14/98, DB p.38)(SFC, 6/18/98, p.E4)
1997 May 28, In Piraeus, Greece,
Constantine Peratikos (42), ship owner, was killed by armed men. His
family owned the Aran Shipping and Trading Co. and Pegasus Ocean
Services. The left-wing November 17 group were linked to the killing.
(SFC, 5/29/97, p.A12)(SFC, 7/5/02, p.A9)
1997 Sep 5, Athens, Greece, won
the competition to host the 2004 Summer Olympics.
(WSJ, 9/8/97, p.A16)
1997 Dec 17, A Ukrainian jetliner
from Odessa, a Yakoviev 42, was missing as it approached the Greek city
of Salonica with 70-71 people onboard. The wreckage was located near
Fotina, Greece, on Dec 20, as a Greek military plane, searching for the
wreckage, crashed north of Athens. All five people aboard the C-130
transport plane were killed.
(WSJ, 12/18/97,
p.A1)(www.cnn.com/WORLD/9712/20/greece.plane.pm/)
1998 Jan 24, From Turkey it was
reported that an estimated 50,000 illegal immigrants move from Turkey
to Greece each year across a sparsely populated 80 mile border.
(SFC, 1/24/98, p.A8)
1998 Mar 26, A 2-day storm closed
the Athens airport and left much of the capital without electricity. At
least one person was killed.
(SFC, 3/27/98, p.A14)
1998 Apr 22, Constantine
Karamanlis (Caramanlis), statesman, died at age 91.
(SFC, 4/23/98, p.B4)
1998 May 9, Archbishop
Christodoulos was enthroned in Athens as the new head of the Greek
Orthodox Church. A recent proposal to force the separation of church
and state in Greece was rejected the previous week.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, p.A19)
1998 Jul, Sorin Matei (27) escaped
from prison while serving a sentence for attempted murder and armed
robbery.
(SFC, 9/29/98, p.A12)
1998 Sep 6, Sorin Matei took a
police officer hostage and escaped with a hand grenade.
(SFC, 9/29/98, p.A12)
1998 Sep 23, Sorin Matei stormed a
building where Sorin Matei held 3 hostages with a grenade. The grenade
exploded and 12 people were injured.
(SFC, 9/29/98, p.A12)
1998 Sep 26, Sorin Matei choked to
death on his own vomit while under sedation in police custody.
(SFC, 9/29/98, p.A12)
1998 Oct 11, Populist Athens Mayor
Dimitris Avramopoulos was expected to win a 2nd four year term. The
Socialists were expected to maintain their grip on Parliament.
(SFC, 10/12/98, p.A10)
1998 Dec 24, In Tbilisi, Georgia,
gunmen killed Greek diplomat Anastasius Mizitrasos.
(SFC, 12/25/98, p.A19)
1999 Jan 8, George Skiadopoulos
(25), a Greek seaman, murdered and mutilated his American girlfriend,
former model Julie Scully (31) of Mansfield, N.J. Scully's body was
found burned and beheaded. A Greek appeals court in 2002 reduced his
life sentence to 23 years in prison.
(AP, 10/8/02)
1999 Jan 15, In Greece some 30,000
people protested new education reforms that would base university
entrance on course work rather than a single exam.
(SFC, 1/16/99, p.A11)
1999 Mar 26, In Bulgaria some
10,000 people protested NATO strikes; in Greece some 15,000 marched on
the US embassy in protest; in Bosnia some 3,000 Serb youths turned
violent in Banja Luka over the NATO strikes.
(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A11)
1999 Jun 27, Former Greek Col.
George Papadopoulos died of cancer in a guarded hospital in Athens at
age 80. He led the 1967-to-74 military dictatorship.
(SFC, 6/28/99, p.A19)(AP, 6/27/00)
1999 Jul 26, Faidon Gizikis,
former general and president, died at age 82.
(SFC, 7/29/99, p.C4)
1999 Aug 6, Rita Sakellariou,
singer, died at age 64. She recorded over 30 albums.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A23)
1999 Sep 7, In Greece a 5.9
earthquake hit Athens and 64 people were killed, 650 injured and 50
missing. The death toll later reached 143.
(SFC, 9/8/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/9/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/16/99,
p.A1)(AP, 9/7/00)
1999 Sep 14, Yiannos Kranidiotis,
a deputy foreign minister and top diplomat for Europe and Cyprus, and
his son were among 5 people killed when an executive jet hit turbulence
and dropped 19,000 feet before the pilot regained control and landed in
Bucharest.
(SFC, 9/15/99, p.C2)
1999 Nov 7, In Athens, Greece, a
bomb exploded outside a Levi's jeans store. This was the 5th recent
attack and was thought to be linked to an upcoming Nov 13 visit by
Pres. Clinton.
(SFC, 11/8/99, p.C14)
1999 Nov 13, In Athens, Greece,
thousands protested an upcoming visit by Pres. Clinton whose planned
visit was shortened to 1 day.
(SFEC, 11/14/99, p.A22)
1999 Nov 17, In Greece over 10,000
people protested against the pending arrival of Pres. Clinton.
(SFC, 11/18/99, p.A17)
1999 Nov 19, In Greece some 10,000
people demonstrated as Pres. Clinton rode through Athens under tight
security.
(SFC, 11/20/99, p.A1)
1999 Dec 23, In Greece Avraam
Lesperoglou, was arrested in Athens. He was the country's most wanted
terrorist and suspected to be a member of the Anti-State Struggle,
which killed a public prosecutor in 1985.
(SFC, 12/25/99, p.A14)
1999 John Onians authored
"Classical Art and the Cultures of Greece and Rome."
(WSJ, 9/7/99, p.A23)
2000 Jan 7, In Greece the
government promised tougher border security after a truck carrying 80
illegal immigrants from Turkey crashed and left 6 people dead.
(SFC, 1/8/00, p.A10)
2000 Jan 20, Greece and Turkey
signed a series of accords to regulate commerce, provide for
cooperation in fighting organized crime, preventing illegal
immigration, promoting tourism and protecting the Aegean Sea
environment.
(SFC, 1/21/00, p.D2)
2000 Mar, Greece signed a $2.1
billion contract to buy 50 Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter jets.
(WSJ, 3/13/00, p.A16)
2000 Apr 9, In Greece Premier
Costas Simitis declared a narrow victory over the New Democracy
opposition, 43.68-43.03%.
(SFC, 4/10/00, p.A14)
2000 cApr, A 2-line stretch of the
new Athens subway linking 14 stations was inaugurated.
(WSJ, 7/20/00, p.A24)
2000 May 15, In Greece the
government ordered the removal of religious affiliation from state
identity cards.
(SFC, 5/17/00, p.A18)
2000 Jun 8, In Greece Brigadier
Stephen Saunders (53), a British diplomat, was assassinated in Athens.
The November 17 terrorist group claimed responsibility, saying it
killed Saunders because of his role in NATO airstrikes against
Yugoslavia. In 2002 Iraklis Kostaris was charged with participating in
the murder and Vassilis Xiros confessed to the assassination.
(SFC, 6/9/00, p.A14)(AP, 6/8/01)(SFC, 7/22/02, p.A3)
2000 Jun 19, EU leaders in
Portugal approved Greece’s bid to join the euro beginning Jan 1, 2001.
(WSJ, 6/20/00, p.A23)
2000 Sep 25, In Greece a
nationwide truckers’ strike caused fuel shortages.
(SFC, 9/26/00, p.A14)
2000 Sep 26, A Greek ferry, the
Express Samina, with 510 passengers sank near the Aegean Sea island of
Paros. At least 75 people were killed. The captain and 4 crew members
were arrested following the collision of the ship with a well-known
rock marked by a visible light. Survivors said crew members were
watching a soccer match on TV. The ship was operated by Minoan Flying
Dolphins.
(SFC, 9/27/00, p.A18)(SFC, 9/28/00, p.A12)(SFC,
9/30/00, p.A12)
2000 Sep 28, The Express Artemis,
operated by Minoan Flying Dolphins, ran aground near Paros with 1,081
passengers, who were all evacuated safely.
(SFC, 9/30/00, p.A12)
2000 Nov 29, Pandelis Sfinias
(62), the general manager of Minoan Lines, jumped to his death.
(SFC, 11/30/00, p.C7)
2000 In Greece a government run
organization in a post-election collapse stopped propping up the market
by trading in state corporations and caused small investors to loose
some 2 billion euros. The general index ended the year with a loss of
38.77%.
(Econ, 4/7/07, p.51)(http://tinyurl.com/ywvnyk)
2001 May 4, Pope John Paul II
visited Athens and apologized for Roman Catholic sins of "action or
omission" against Orthodox Christians. A day earlier some 1,000
Orthodox conservatives took to the streets to denounce his visit.
(SFC, 5/4/01, p.D3)
2001 May 17, A nationwide mass
strike took place and some 10,000 demonstrated in Athens to protest a
pension overhaul.
(SFC, 5/18/01, p.D4)
2002 Apr 24, Greece closed all
schools as a mysterious virus spread with 3 deaths and 39 diagnosed
cases.
(WSJ, 4/25/02, p.A1)
2002 May 30, Civil servants staged
a 1-day national strike to protest government welfare and tax reforms.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.C11)
2002 Jun 29, A bomb exploded at
the port of Piraeus, Greece, and injured Savvas Xiros, a reputed member
of the November 17 terrorist group.
(SFC, 7/5/02, p.A9)(SFC, 7/19/02, p.A14)
2002 Jul 6, Greek police, assisted
by American and British agents, raided an apartment and found dozens of
anti-tank rockets they believe were stolen from the army in the late
1980s by the elusive November 17 terrorist group.
(AP, 7/6/02)
2002 Jul 18, Greek police reported
the capture of Alexandros Giotopoulos (58), the alleged head of the
November 17 terror group. Police also reported confessions from members
Christodoulos Xiros and brother Vassilis Xiros to bombings and
assassinations.
(SFC, 7/19/02, p.A14)
2002 Jul 20, In Greece police
arrested two more alleged November 17 terrorists, Iraklis Kostaris and
Costas Karatsolis, both 36-year-old real estate agents. One was
believed to be a hit man in four assassinations including those of a
U.S. Air Force sergeant and a British brigadier.
(AP, 7/21/02)
2002 Aug 2, In Greece a cache of
weapons, including automatic rifles, was stolen from a military armory
after thieves tunneled through a wall.
(AP, 8/3/02)
2002 Sep 5, In Greece Dimitris
Koufodinas (44), a main hit man for the November 17 terror group,
surrendered to police.
(SFC, 9/6/02, p.A13)
2002 Oct 8, A Greek appeals court
reduced to 23 years in prison the life sentence imposed on a Greek
seaman for the murder and mutilation of his American girlfriend, former
model Julie Scully (31) of Mansfield, N.J. on Jan. 8, 1999. Scully's
body was found burned and beheaded.
(AP, 10/8/02)
2002 Oct 13, In Greece opposition
conservatives claimed victory in local elections, but appeared to fall
short of gaining a powerful protest vote against the long-governing
Socialists.
(AP, 10/14/02)
2002 Oct 18, According to Greek
scientists, the length of a man's index finger can accurately predict
the length of his penis. The findings are published in the September
issue of the journal Urology.
(Reuters, 10/18/02)
2002 Oct 19, Greeks traveled to
their hometowns for the second time in two weeks, to participate in
runoff local elections seen as an important test for the long-governing
Socialists.
(AP, 10/19/02)
2002 Oct 31, In Greece Michalis
Stasinopoulos (99), a legal scholar who challenged Greece's 1967-74
military dictatorship and served as president after it collapsed, died.
(AP, 11/1/02)
2002 Dec 30, In Greece Dora
Bakoyianni (48) was sworn in as the mayor of Athens, the first woman
ever to hold the post.
(AP, 12/30/02)
2003 Feb 23, In northern
Greece a bus plunged off a highway bridge, killing at least 14 people.
(AP, 2/23/03)
2003 Apr 13, In northern Greece a
bus carrying high school students crashed on a mountain road, killing
21 people and injuring about 30 others.
(AP, 4/14/03)
2003 Apr 16, Leaders of 25
European nations gathered in Athens to sign treaties sweeping away the
20th century's Iron Curtain divide. The 10 new EU members will formally
join May 1, 2004 following ratification of treaties.
(AP, 4/16/03)
2003 Apr 17, John Latsis (b.1910),
the last of Greece's shipping billionaires from the post-war boom
years, died. His staggering wealth was used to aid the needy and gain
access to world leaders.
(AP, 4/17/03)(SFC, 4/18/03, p.A24)
2003 Jun 19, European leaders
gathered at a secluded Greek seaside resort for a three-day summit to
discuss Middle East peace, illegal immigration, and the contentious
draft of a first-ever European Union constitution.
(AP, 6/19/03)
2003 Jun 22, Greece seized a
Comoros-flagged cargo ship that wandered the Mediterranean Sea with 750
tons of explosives on board. The Baltic Sky set off from Gabes,
Tunisia, last month with the explosives and 8,000 detonators and fuses
destined for Sudan.
(AP, 6/23/03)
2003 Jul 8, Antonis Samarakis
(84), Greek writer and children's rights activist, died. His books
included the novel "Mistake" (1965).
(SFC, 8/11/03, p.A17)
2003 Nov 14, In Greece gay
protesters smooched in public to demonstrate against Greek TV
regulators who fined a station $116,000 for broadcasting a scene of two
men kissing.
(AP, 11/14/03)
2003 Nov 17, In Greece riot squads
fired tear gas to disperse groups protesters throwing gasoline bombs
and rocks at police guarding the US Embassy as thousands marched during
a rally held to mark the anniversary of a student-led uprising in 1973.
Demonstrations are held each year to protest the belief that Washington
gave vital support to the 1967-74 military dictatorship that crushed
the student rebellion.
(AP, 11/17/03)
2003 Dec 8, In Greece a special
tribunal convicted the mastermind, chief gunman and 13 other members of
the November 17 cell for killings and attacks spanning a generation.
(AP, 12/8/03)
2003 Dec 17, In Greece a court
handed multiple life sentences to the leader, chief assassin and three
other members of the November 17 terror organization.
(AP, 12/17/03)
2004 Feb 8, Socialist voters
across Greece cast symbolic ballots to hand the party's leadership to
Foreign Minister George Papandreou.
(AP, 2/8/04)
2004 Feb 13, Greek and Turkish
Cypriot leaders agreed to resume full negotiations next week to end the
30-year division of Cyprus before it joins the European Union on May 1.
(AP, 2/13/04)
2004 Mar 7, In Greece Costas
Karamanlis (47) led the New Democracy party over former Foreign
Minister George Papandreou's Socialists 45.4 percent to 40.6 percent.
The result gave New Democracy 165 seats in the 300-member parliament.
The Socialists (Pasok) received 117 seats, Greece's Communist Party got
12 and the Coalition of the Radical Left won six.
(AP, 3/8/04)(Econ, 3/13/04, p.51)
2004 Mar 25, The Olympic torch was
lit in Ilida, Greece, and began its journey to herald the summer
Olympiad, Aug 13-29. A 6-continent tour was planned using 2 747s named
Zeus and Hera with a bill of $50 million.
(AP, 3/26/04)(WSJ, 7/19/04, p.A1)
2004 May 4, In Greece 3 bombs
exploded outside a police station near Athens in a series of timed
blasts, causing serious damage just 100 days before the Olympic Games.
(AP, 5/5/04)
2004 Jul, In 2006 the Greek
government reported that mobile phones belonging to top Greek military
and government officials, including the prime minister and the US
embassy, were tapped for nearly a year beginning in the weeks before
the 2004 Olympic games. It was not known who was responsible for the
taps, which numbered about 100.
(AP, 2/2/06)(WSJ, 6/21/06, p.A1)
2004 Aug 12, Greece’s $930
million, 3km Rion-Antirion bridge across the western end of the Gulf of
Corinth was set to open.
(Econ, 7/31/04, p.55)
2004 Aug 13, The Olympics opened
In Athens. A sea of athletes under 202 flags parted to let a Greek
windsurfing champion jog across the stadium and climb to the Olympic
cauldron, which dipped on its slender 102-foot arm to receive the spark
from his torch. Women’s wrestling debuted as an Olympic sport.
(AP, 8/14/04)(NG, 8/04, Geographica)
2004 Aug 15, IOC officials,
worried by the television images being flashed around the world of
athletes competing in near empty stadiums, told the Athens Games
organizers to give tickets away for free if necessary.
(AP, 8/16/04)
2004 Aug 17, At the Athens games,
Romania won its second straight Olympic gold medal in women's
gymnastics; the United States took silver while Russia won the bronze.
(AP, 8/17/05)
2004 Aug 18, In Athens Paul Hamm
won the men's gymnastics all-around Olympic gold medal by the closest
margin ever in the event; controversy followed after it was discovered
a scoring error might have cost Yang Tae-young of South Korea the title.
(AP, 8/18/05)
2004 Aug 21, The International
Gymnastics Federation ruled that South Korean Yang Tae-young was
unfairly docked a tenth of a point in the all-around gymnastics final
at the Athens Olympics, costing him the gold medal that ended up going
to Paul Hamm of the United States; however, the ruling did not change
the final result.
(AP, 8/21/05)
2004 Aug 22, In the Olympics
Justin Gatlin of the US won the 10-meter dash in 9.85 sec.
(SFC, 8/23/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 25, Israel captured its
1st ever gold medal with a win by Gal Fridman in wind surfing.
(WSJ, 8/26/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 26, At the Athens
Olympics, the US women's soccer team won the gold medal by beating
Brazil, 2-1, in overtime; Shawn Crawford led a U.S. sweep of the 200
meters.
(AP, 8/26/05)
2004 Aug 27, Liu Xiang (b.1983),
Chinese hurdler, set a record and won Olympic gold in Athens in the 110
meter hurdles with a time of 12.91 seconds equaling the 1993 time of
Colin Jackson.
(www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-08/28/content_369582.htm)
2004 Aug 29, Closing ceremonies
were held in Athens, Greece, for the 28th Olympiad. During one of the
final events, lead marathon runner Vanderlie Lima of Brazil was pushed
into the crowd by an intruder, but managed to finish 3rd behind Stefano
Baldini of Italy.
(SFC, 8/30/04, p.D1)
2004 Sep, A bus enroute to the
closing ceremony for the Paralympics overturned and 7 children were
killed.
(Econ, 10/2/04, p.51)
2004 Nov 4, Greece sharply
protested a US decision to recognize the former Yugoslav state on its
northern border as "Macedonia."
(AP, 11/4/04)
2004 Nov 17, The EU will consider
giving Greece until the end of 2006 to cut its budget deficit below 3
percent of gross domestic product.
(AP, 11/17/04)
2004 Dec 15, In Athens, Greece, 2
armed men, believed to be Albanians, hijacked a bus carrying 26
passengers, threatening to blow it up with explosives unless they were
taken to the airport and put on a plane to Russia. All hostages were
released after an 18-hour standoff.
(AP, 12/15/04)(SFC, 12/16/04, p.A3)
2004 Elena Votsi designed the 2004
Olympic medal. It was the 1st re-design in 76 years.
(AM, 7/04, p.25)
2004 Greece had a 2004 deficit of
just over 6% of GDP.
(Econ, 3/26/05, p.55)
2005 Jan 1, Greece was forecast
for 3.4% annual GDP growth with a population at 10.7 million and GDP
per head at $20,210.
(Econ, 1/1/05, p.88)
2005 Feb 17, EU finance ministers
warned Greece to get its finances in order by the end of 2006 and bring
its annual budget deficit in line with EU spending rules or face hefty
fines.
(AP, 2/17/05)
2005 Mar 8, George Koronias, top
executive in Greece for Vodafone Group PLC, ordered a shutdown of an
illegal bugging program in Vodafone’s network in Greece. The program
took advantage of an interception feature in Ericsson hardware use by
Vodaphone.
(WSJ, 6/21/06, p.A1)
2005 Mar 9, George Koronias, top
executive in Greece for Vodafone Group PLC, informed the prime
minister’s office that Vodafone’s network in Greece had been
infiltrated with tapping software targeting government leaders. The
bugging had begun around July, 2004, in the weeks before the Olympics.
Hours before the Koronias call Costas Tsalikidis, a Vodaphone network
manager, was found dead in his Athens apartment.
(WSJ, 6/21/06, p.A1)
2005 Mar 12, In Greece Karolos
Papoulias (75), a former foreign minister, was sworn as the nation’s
6th president.
(AP, 3/12/05)
2005 May 9, In Athens, Greece,
Christian leaders, theologians and religious activists from around the
world gathered for a meeting to assess some of the most serious
challenges for the faith, such as growing rifts between churches and
African congregations ravaged by AIDS.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 Jun 14, In Athens, Greece,
Asafa Powell of Jamaica, broke the world 100-meter dash record with a
time of 9.77 seconds.
(WSJ, 6/15/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 14, A Cypriot airliner,
Helios Air 737, crashed into a hill north of Athens, killing all 121
people on board. An inquiry in 2006 ruled pilots erred in setting
pressurization controls.
(AP, 8/14/05)(WSJ, 10/11/06, p.A1)
2005 Aug 22, The Greek Orthodox
Church in the Holy Land elected a new patriarch to succeed their ousted
leader, who fell from grace over a controversial east Jerusalem land
deal.
(AP, 8/22/05)
2005 Sep 16, The Greek government
said it would give cash bonuses to Greek mothers who have more than two
babies, in an effort to boost the country's birth rate as the
population ages.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Oct 25, The EU's highest
court finally settled the fate of feta cheese, decreeing it a
traditional Greek product deserving protection throughout the 25-nation
bloc in a ruling that went against other European producers.
(AP, 10/25/05)
2005 Oct, Albania signed a
European Commission energy treaty in Athens meant to promote
co-operation by setting up a regional energy market.
(Econ, 1/7/06, p.43)
2005 Dec 1, In Salamina, Greece,
an 80-year-old woman was found strangled to death. Police the next day
arrested 3 children (7,8,14) for the robbery and strangling.
(AP, 12/01/05)
2005 Dec 29, A British opposition
legislator called for an investigation into claims that British
security officers were involved in abducting and mistreating terrorist
suspects in Greece. 28 Pakistanis claim they were abducted from their
homes in Athens and other parts of Greece in mid-July, shortly after
deadly transit bombings in London.
(AP, 12/30/05)
2006 Jan 10, The European
Commission ordered that Greece allow genetically modified corn seed
(GMO) to be planted there despite objections by Greek farmers.
(WSJ, 1/11/06, p.A13)
2006 Feb 2, The Greek government
reported that mobile phones belonging to top Greek military and
government officials, including the prime minister and the US embassy,
were tapped for nearly a year beginning in the weeks before the 2004
Olympic games. It was not known who was responsible for the taps, which
numbered about 100.
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Feb 10, Greece and Italy said
they had found swans with the H5N1 bird flu virus, the first known
cases in the European Union of wild birds with the deadly strain of the
disease.
(Reuters, 2/11/06)
2006 Feb 12, Greek archaeologists
said they had discovered the largest underground tomb in Greek
antiquity in the ancient northern city of Pella, birthplace of
Alexander the Great.
(AP, 2/12/06)
2006 Feb 20, Farmers clashed on
the island of Crete with striking seamen who kept Greece's ports closed
for a fifth day. The protest has caused food and gasoline supply
problems for some Greek islands, and forced farmers to dump perishable
goods.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 21, Greek seamen extended
until early Friday a rolling strike that has shut down ports since last
week, causing food and fuel supply problems and halting many exports.
(AP, 2/21/06)
2006 Feb 23, Greece's seamen's
union called off a crippling eight-day strike and said it would allow
ships to begin sailing.
(AP, 2/23/06)
2006 Mar 1, Greek lawmakers
approved new legislation to lift a standing ban on cremation of the
dead.
(AP, 3/1/06)
2006 Mar 12, The Cameroon
government announced its first case of bird flu, becoming the fourth
African country to be struck by the virus. New cases were also reported
in Poland and Greece.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Apr 3, The National Bank of
Greece bought Finansbank, Turkey’s 3rd largest bank.
(Econ, 4/8/06, p.74)
2006 Apr 16, In northern Greece a
passenger train crashed into a truck at a crossing and derailed,
killing four people and injuring at least 40.
(AP, 4/16/06)
2006 May 6, In Athens, Greece,
some 30,000 people marched in an anti-war and anti-globalization
demonstration that also saw anarchist attacks on banks, shops and
police vehicles. The march was organized by the European Social Forum,
which was holding a four-day meeting on the outskirts of Athens.
(AP, 5/6/06)
2006 May 20, Lordi, a Finnish
metal band with monster masks and apocalyptic lyrics, won the
Eurovision contest in Greece.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 23, Warplanes from Greece
and Turkey collided over the Aegean Sea island of Karpathos as they
shadowed each other. Officials said the Turkish pilot was rescued
unhurt, and a search was launched for the Greek pilot.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 Jun 4, Nikos Palaiokostas
(46), one of the most wanted men in Greece, pulled off a daring jail
break, landing a helicopter in the Korydallos prison yard to pick up
his brother and another inmate before fleeing in a fog of smoke.
(AP, 6/5/06)
2006 Jun, Students in Greece
protested against a government move to introduce private,
not-for-profit, universities. Such a move required a change in the
constitution.
(Econ, 7/8/06, p.46)
2006 Jul 25, Greek protesters
toppled a statue of President Truman and clashed with police during
demonstrations against the fighting in Lebanon.
(AP, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul 27, Greek authorities
said 5 schoolchildren have been charged with killing an 11-year-old boy
who disappeared five months ago. Alex Mechisvili dropped from sight in
the northern town of Veroia. His body has not been found.
(AP, 7/27/06)
2006 Aug 18, In Greece a
700-year-old icon, said to have the power to work miracles, was
discovered stolen from the cliff-side Elona Monastery. In September
police arrested a Romanian national in Crete and recovered the Madonna
and Child icon.
(SSFC, 10/8/06, p.A26)(http://tinyurl.com/grxc8)
2006 Sep 1, Greece beat the
Americans 101-95 in the semifinals of the world championships in
Saitama, Japan.
(AP, 9/1/06)
2006 Sep 25, In Athens, Greece, a
gang of robbers wielding machine guns stole an estimated $1.9 million
from a casino's security van after ramming the vehicle with a stolen
truck.
(AP, 9/25/06)
2006 Oct 18, In Greece some 5,000
protesting teachers and students blocked traffic in central Athens for
more than two hours as unions vowed to extend a monthlong elementary
school strike. Heavy storms lashed southeastern Greece, leaving three
people dead and forcing authorities to declare a state of emergency on
three islands.
(AP, 10/19/06)
2007 Jan 12, The US Embassy in
Athens came under fire from a rocket that exploded inside the modern
glass-front building but caused no casualties in an attack police
suspect was the work of Greek leftists.
(AP, 1/12/07)
2007 Jan 17, In Greece protesters
torched cars, broke bank windows and clashed with riot police during a
student demonstration against plans to allow private universities to
operate.
(AP, 1/17/07)
2007 Mar 8, In Greece rioters
protesting education reforms battled police for more than three hours,
hurling Molotov cocktails and vandalizing businesses in central Athens,
leaving more than 40 people injured.
(AP, 3/8/07)
2007 Mar 15, Bulgaria, Russia and
Greece signed a deal in Athens to build a 175-mile pipeline to
transport Russian oil to a port in northern Greece.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Apr 5, A Greek cruise ship,
the Sea Diamond, sank off the Aegean Sea island of Santorini, forcing
the evacuation of nearly 1,600 people.
(AP, 4/5/08)(SSFC, 12/14/08, p.E3)
2007 Apr 6, The Greek cruise ship
Sea Diamond, which had struck a volcanic reef and forced the evacuation
of hundreds of tourists sank, 15 hours after it began taking on water
off the coast of Santarini Island. Navy divers searched around the
sunken wreckage for a Frenchman and his daughter, the only two
passengers still missing.
(AP, 4/6/07)(SFC, 4/6/07, p.A2)
2007 Apr 10, In Greece cleanup
crews struggled to avert a major oil spill after a sunken cruise ship
leaked dozens of tons of oil off the resort island of Santorini at the
start of the summer tourist season.
(AP, 4/10/07)
2007 Apr 26, In Greece suspected
anarchists threw gasoline bombs at cars parked outside a central Athens
police station, destroying 12 vehicles in the latest in a series of
arson attacks, authorities said.
(AP, 4/26/07)
2007 May 23, Australian PM John
Howard and his Greek counterpart Kostas Karamanlis sealed a deal which
concluded a decades-long debate over pensions for one of the world's
largest expatriate Greek communities.
(AFP, 5/23/07)
2007 May 26, In southern Greece a
flash flood swept away a group of hikers alongside the Lousios River,
killing at least five people.
(AP, 5/27/07)
2007 Jun 5, Tony Mokbel (42), a
top Australian fugitive, was arrested in Greece. The next day he
accused Australia's authorities of saddling him with a bogus murder
charge to secure his extradition. Mokbel had fled overseas in 2006
while on bail for importing cocaine.
(AFP, 6/6/07)
2007 Jun 20, In Athens, Greece, 7
police officers were charged with torture and other offenses in the
alleged beating of two Albanian immigrants that was recorded on a cell
phone camera and posted on the Internet.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2007 Jun 22, In Greece immigrant
groups opened the first formal Islamic prayer site to operate in Athens
since rule by the Ottoman Empire ended more than 170 years ago.
(AP, 6/22/07)
2007 Jun 26, Sizzling temperatures
in Greece, Italy and Romania brought power cuts and brush fires in a
heat wave that has led to at least 38 deaths in southeast Europe in
recent days.
(AP, 6/26/07)
2007 Jun 27, Power blackouts hit
13 locations in Athens and 95 fires were reported across Greece amid a
heat wave that has killed dozens of people in southeast Europe over the
past week.
(AP, 6/28/07)
2007 Jun 28, In Greece a fire
broke out in the forest on Mount Parnitha, 12 miles northwest of
Athens, and burned for 5 days destroying some 11,000 acres.
(SSFC, 7/22/07,
p.G2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Parnitha)
2007 Jul 11, Three firefighters
died while battling a blaze in a forest on the Greek island of Crete.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, In Athens, Greece, a
suburban passenger train collided with a freight train, injuring at
least 53 people.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 23, A Greek firefighting
plane crashed, killing one of its two-member crew while trying to stop
a forest fire reaching homes on the island of Evia.
(Reuters, 7/23/07)
2007 Aug 16, In Greece a huge
forest fire burned two dozen homes, animals and cars in the northern
outskirts of Athens before firefighters extinguished most of it.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 24, Major wildfires broke
out in Greece, burning half a million acres and claiming 65 lives in 11
days.
(AP, 8/24/08)
2007 Aug 25, Massive forest fires
swept uncontrolled across Greece for a second day and killed at least
41 people in the south of the country, including several children.
(Reuters, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 26, Massive fires
consuming large areas of southern Greece for a third day raced toward
the site of the ancient Olympics, engulfing villages and forests as the
flames reached one of the most revered sites of antiquity.
(AP, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 27, In Greece the worst
wildfires in living memory have killed 63 people and tore through town
and forest alike. In the last 24 hours, 89 new fires broke out. Arson
is often suspected, mostly to clear land for development.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 28, Foreign firefighters
and aircraft joined in battling wildfires that have destroyed some of
Greece's lushest landscape. The death toll from 5 days of blazes rose
to at least 64.
(AP, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 31, Officials in Greece
said all major blazes were under control, and firefighters were working
to extinguish smaller fires in the southern part of the country. The
fires cost the country at least $1.6 billion and left 67 people dead.
The government provided 13,000 euros to those suffering losses.
(AP, 8/31/07)(AP, 9/8/07)(Econ, 9/1/07, p.47)
2007 Sep 5, The ship Oceanic II,
dubbed the Scholar Ship, became home to some 200 students from 35
countries and embarked from Piraeus, Greece, as a seaborne university
funded by Royal Caribbean Cruises. A 16-week semester included stops in
Lisbon, Panama City, Auckland, Shanghai and other places for just under
$20,000.
(SFC, 9/12/07, p.61)
2007 Sep 16, Greece's Conservative
PM Costas Karamanlis won re-election with a slim majority in parliament
as voters showed dissatisfaction with both major parties in the wake of
a financial scandal and devastating forest fires that killed more than
65 people last month. The governing conservatives won 41.8 percent of
the vote, giving them 152 of parliament's 300 seats, a loss of 13
seats. The Socialists took 38.1 percent, or 102 seats, a loss of 15 and
the party's lowest number of parliament seats in 30 years.
(AP, 9/16/07)(AP, 9/17/07)
2007 Oct 17,
A Greek-flagged cargo ship carrying coal sank in the northern
Greek port of Thessaloniki after colliding with Panama-flagged Dubai
Guardian. The captain of the Diamond 1 was killed.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Dec 2, Police in northern
Greece seized hundreds of ancient coins, some dating back 2,300 years,
allegedly stashed away by a 70-year-old barber.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 4, Greece and Turkey
agreed to joint military measures aimed at easing tensions and
improving ties.
(WSJ, 12/5/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 12, Tens of thousands of
demonstrators jammed central Athens and the northern city of
Thessaloniki as a general strike to protest government plans to reform
the country's debt-ridden pension system brought Greece to a standstill.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 30, Turkmenistan turned
off gas supplies to Iran, citing technical problems, after Iran balked
at a price increase to $140 per thousand cubic meters, almost double
the contracted rate. The move had a domino effect causing Iran to halt
gas shipments to Turkey, which in turn cut off gas to Greece.
(WSJ, 2/4/08, p.A2)(http://tinyurl.com/3xmzam)
2008 Jan 8, In northern Greece a
group of female protesters locked in a land dispute with the Greek
Orthodox Church defied a 1,000-year-old ban and entered the all-male
Mount Athos monastic sanctuary.
(AP, 1/9/08)
2008 Jan 23, PM Costas Karamanlis
became the first Greek premier to pay an official visit to Turkey in
nearly 50 years, reflecting warmer ties between two countries that have
come close to war several times.
(AP, 1/23/08)
2008 Jan 28, Archbishop
Christodoulos (69), the leader of Greece's powerful Orthodox Church,
died. He eased centuries of tension with the Vatican but was viewed as
reactionary by his liberal critics.
(AP, 1/28/08)
2008 Feb 7, In Greece senior
clergy elected Metropolitan Bishop Ieronymos of Thebes as the new
leader of the powerful Orthodox Church to succeed the late Archbishop
Christodoulos.
(AP, 2/7/08)
2008 Feb 13, In Greece thousands
of demonstrators marched through Athens and Thessaloniki to protest
government social security reforms as a Greek general strike shut down
schools, hospitals and all public services.
(AP, 2/13/08)
2008 Mar 6, Greece's main power
company extended rolling blackouts as a strike by the company's workers
entered its fourth day.
(AP, 3/6/08)
2008 Mar 24, In Greece 3 men from
a free-press group ran onto the field of the stadium in Ancient Olympia
during a flame-lighting ceremony for the Beijing Olympics, evading
massive security aimed at preventing such disruptions in the wake of
China's crackdown in Tibet.
(AP, 3/24/08)
2008 Mar 31, American director
Jules Dassin (96), whose Greek wife Melina Mercouri starred in his hit
movie "Never on Sunday" and six more of his films, died at an Athens
hospital.
(AP, 3/31/08)
2008 May 15, In Greece the 2
largest labor unions staged strikes to protest pension changes and
recent privatizations.
(WSJ, 5/16/08, p.A8)
2008 Jun 3, Greece's first gay
weddings were held when two couples, abetted by a sympathetic local
mayor, defied the threat of criminal charges and the wrath of the
Orthodox church to tie the knot on the tiny Aegean island of Tilos.
(Reuters, 6/3/08)
2008 Jun 4, An undetermined amount
of fuel oil was released after the Greece-registered Syros slammed
against the Malta-registered Sea Bird near Montevideo, Uruguay.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 8, In southwestern Greece
a strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.5 struck near the
port city of Patras, killing at least two people and injuring more than
200.
(AP, 6/8/08)(SFC, 6/10/08, p.A10)
2008 Jun 30, The Socialist
International (SI), meeting in Lagonissi, Greece, granted observer
status to the Polisario Front, a group fighting for full independence
in Western Sahara. The disputed Western Sahara region is largely
controlled by Morocco, but the Algerian-backed Polisario Front is
committed to securing independence.
(AFP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jun, Cosco, China’s biggest
state-owned shipping company, won a tender to build and operate a new
container terminal at the Greek port of Piraeus.
(Econ, 8/23/08, p.51)
2008 Jul 14, Greek police said 9
British women faced prostitution charges after being arrested at the
weekend for taking part in an oral sex competition in the Greek holiday
island of Zakynthos. Six British and six Greek men, including two bar
owners, were also charged in the incident, which took place at Laganas
beach.
(Reuters, 7/14/08)
2008 Aug 3, In Greece Athanassios
Arvanitis (31) beheaded his girlfriend and her dog on the island of
Santorini and then escaped in a patrol car. Police shot him 5 times as
he ran over 2 women on a motorcycle before being caught.
(SFC, 8/4/08, p.A3)
2008 Aug 21, Greek police
announced the arrest of Vassilis Paleokostas, the country's most wanted
man, while tracking down the alleged kidnappers of industrialist
Giorgos Mylonas, who was freed in June after his family paid a ransom.
(AP, 8/21/08)
2008 Sep 4, Some 20 Greek
anarchists stormed a supermarket in Thesaaloniki and handed out food
for free in the latest of a wave of raids provoked by soaring consumer
prices.
(Reuters, 9/4/08)
2008 Sep 6, In Greece the body of
Amphithea Tanida (36) was found wrapped in sheets in a bathroom in her
parents' villa at Amarynthos on Evia. Masami Tanida (77), a retired
Japanese diplomat, and his wife Maria (67) were arrested the next day
and charged with murdering their daughter.
(AP, 9/8/08)
2008 Oct 5, Germany joined Ireland
and Greece in guaranteeing all private bank accounts, putting Europe's
biggest economy at odds with calls for a unified European response to
the global financial meltdown.
(AP, 10/5/08)
2008 Oct 10, Armed pirates off
Somalia hijacked a Greek chemical tanker with a crew of 20 flying a
Panamanian flag.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 21, In Greece riot police
fired tear gas to disperse a group of rock-throwing youths during a
demonstration in support of a nationwide general strike that brought
air, rail and ferry traffic to a halt.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 23, A Greek minister
resigned after being accused of involvement in a burgeoning scandal
involving a state land swap with a powerful Orthodox monastery that has
undermined the government's popularity. Minister of State Theodoros
Roussopoulos, who is also the government spokesman, said he was
stepping down in order to defend himself against a "malicious and
totally groundless attack."
(AP, 10/23/08)
2008 Nov 24, China's President Hu
Jintao arrived in Greece for a three-day visit timed to coincide with
the signing of a 831.2 million euro ($1 billion) port deal.
(AP, 11/24/08)
2008 Dec 7, In Greece rioters
rampaged through Athens and the northern city of Thessaloniki, hurling
Molotov cocktails, burning stores and blocking city streets with
flaming barricades after protests against the fatal Dec 6 police
shooting of Alexandros Grigoropoulos (15) in Exarchia erupted into
chaos.
(AP, 12/7/08)(Econ, 12/13/08, p.59)
2008 Dec 10, Protesters attacked
Athens' main courthouse with firebombs during a hearing for police
officers whose shooting of a teenager set off rioting that appeared to
be tapering off even as a general strike paralyzed the country.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 11, As Greece suffered
through its sixth day of violence, there were troubling signs of unrest
spreading across Europe. Angry youths smashed shop windows, attacked
banks and hurled bottles at police in small but violent protests in
Spain and Denmark, while cars were set alight outside a consulate in
France.
(AP, 12/11/08)
2008 Dec 12, Greek youths hurled
rocks and Molotov cocktails at riot police in Athens, who responded
with stun grenades and tear gas. Despite seven straight days of unrest,
Greece's prime minister rebuffed calls to resign and hold early
elections.
(AP, 12/12/08)
2008 Dec 16, In Greece protesters
forced their way into Greece's state NET television news studio and
interrupted a news broadcast featuring the prime minister so they could
urge viewers to join mass anti-government demonstrations.
(AP, 12/16/08)
2008 Dec 18, Riot police clashed
with rock-throwing demonstrators in central Athens, sending Christmas
shoppers and people in cafes running for cover. Frightened parents
scooped up their children from a Christmas carousel in the city's main
square and fled.
(AP, 12/18/08)
2008 Dec 19, Masked youths
attacked the French Institute in Athens with firebombs Friday, while
Greek union members and university professors geared up for new
anti-government rallies outside Parliament.
(AP, 12/19/08)
2008 Dec 20, In Greece protesters
attacked a city-sponsored Christmas tree in central Athens Saturday,
tossing garbage and hanging trash bags from its branches before
clashing with riot police.
(AP, 12/20/08)
2009 Jan 5, In Greece gunmen
sprayed Athens riot police with automatic weapons fire, seriously
wounding a policeman in an escalation of violence that broke out after
the fatal police shooting of a teenager last month.
(AP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 6, A natural gas crisis
loomed over Europe, as a contract dispute between Russia and Ukraine
shut off Russian gas supplies to six countries and reduced gas
deliveries to several others. Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania,
Croatia and Turkey all reported a halt in gas shipments.
(AP, 1/6/09)
2009 Jan 12, In Greece 3 gunmen
had grabbed Periklis Panagopoulos (74), founder of one of Greece's
largest ferry operators, and his driver in the southern Athens suburb
of Vouliagmeni. Panagopoulos was released unharmed on Jan 20 following
a large ransom payment.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Feb 2, In Greece riot police
fired tear gas at farmers to prevent them from driving their tractors
to Athens as part of a protest demanding government financial help.
(AP, 2/2/09)
2009 Feb 3, In Greece a suspected
left-wing terror group attacked a police station in Athens, shooting at
the building and throwing a hand grenade.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 4, A Greek police officer
(38) shot and seriously wounded a Greek private security guard (31)
outside the US Embassy in central Athens.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 18, Greek police
destroyed a powerful car bomb left outside the offices of Citibank in a
northern Athens suburb in an escalation of left-wing militant attacks.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 22, In Greece Vassilis
Palaiokostas (44) and his Albanian accomplice Alket Rijai staged a 2nd
getaway by helicopter. Palaiokostas was serving a sentence for robbery
and kidnapping when he first escaped with Rijai in 2006 in a helicopter.
(AP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 25, A 24-hour strike by
Greek civil servants disrupted services across the country, forcing
public hospitals to accept only emergency cases and airlines to cancel
at least 68 flights.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Mar 13, In Greece dozens of
youths carrying sledgehammers and iron bars smashed cars, banks and
storefronts in an upscale district of central Athens. Leaflets
identified the attackers as members of local anarchist groups. A
similar attack also occurred in the northern city of Thessaloniki,
leaving three banks damaged.
(AP, 3/13/09)
2009 Mar 25, The MT Nipayia, a
Greek-owned and Panama registered ship with a crew of 19, was hijacked
450 miles east of Somalia’s south coast.
(AP, 3/27/09)(WSJ, 3/27/09, p.A8)
2009 Apr 2, Greek public services
closed down and transport was disrupted across the country as thousands
of workers went on strike to protest government spending cuts.
(AP, 4/2/09)
2009 Apr 10, In Greece a teenage
student (19) armed with two handguns, dozens of bullets and a knife
opened fire in a vocational training college in Athens, wounding three
people before shooting himself in the head. He left a note accusing his
fellow students of picking on him.
(AP, 4/10/09)
2009 May 1, May Day protesters
clashed with riot police in Germany, Turkey and Greece, while thousands
angry at the government's responses to the global financial crisis took
to the streets in France. Riot police battled 700 stone-throwing
left-wing militants in Berlin for more than five hours in May Day
clashes that stretched into early pre-dawn hours.
(Reuters, 5/1/09)(AP, 5/2/09)
2009 Jun 17, In Greece gunmen shot
dead an anti-terrorist police officer guarding a witness in central
Athens, in an escalation of domestic terrorist attacks in the country.
(AP, 6/17/09)
2009 Jun 20, Greece opened its
new, $180.5 million Acropolis Museum with a lavish party, bolstering
its long campaign for the return of 2,500-year-old sculptures stripped
from the citadel more than two centuries ago. It was designed by
Bernard Tschumi and Michael Photiadis.
(AP, 6/20/09)(Econ, 6/27/09, p.89)
2009 Jul 24, In Europe deadly
summer wild fires spread across Spain, France, Italy and Greece with
holidaymakers rescued from beaches and thousands of firefighters
brought into the battle.
(AFP, 7/24/09)
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