Facts

1913 The king of the Greeks, George I, falls dead in Thessaloniki from the bullets of Alexander Schina, on the 50th anniversary of his ascension to the throne. “The cruel hands of lunatics murdered the King in Thessaloniki, the nation is plunged into deep mourning, in days of rejoicing for the fulfillment of pan-Hellenic desires” announces the government representative.

1922 The first Dracula-themed film opens in theaters. This is the impressive expressionist film “Nosferatu – The symphony of horror”, directed by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau.

1940 Maiden performance of the Athens Opera House, with Strauss’s operetta “Nychterida”. The inspiration and first director is Kostis Bastias, then General Director of State Theaters of the Metaxas Government.

1956 The film by Nikos Koundouros “The Dragon”, starring Dino Iliopoulos, is premiering in cinemas. It is considered one of the top films of Greek cinema.

1992 The philosopher Kostas Axelos is awarded an honorary doctorate of Panteion University. His standard speech was entitled “From the Workshop of Thought”.

1994 The first spam program in the history of the Internet is activated to send unsolicited e-mails. An American lawyer named Lawrence Kanter uses it to advertise his services. The name spam for this type of email comes from the Monty Python TV sketch of the same name and was established by the online community.

Births

1857 Sotirios Voulgaris, Greek jeweler, founder of the international luxury goods house Bulgari based in Rome. (d. 1932)

1922 Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italian director, poet, prose writer and essayist, was one of the most important personalities of modern Italy. (D. 2/11/1975)

1942 Felipe Gonzalez, Spanish socialist politician, who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 1982 to 1996.

Deaths

1827 Pierre Simon Laplace, French mathematician, astronomer and physicist. His studies on the mechanics of the astronomical system gave a huge boost to space exploration. (Born 23/3/1749)

1827 Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist and inventor of the battery. His name was given to the unit of measurement of the voltage of the electric current. (Born 2/18/1745)

2016 Ray Tomlinson, American programmer. He is considered the man who invented email. (Born 23/4/1941)