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The Crazy Plan to Stop Earth’s Rotation and Other Bonkers Schemes

Khalid Elhassan April 29, 2021 36 min

Fear of Soviet ballistic missiles, such as these on parade in Moscow's Red Square, fueled a crazy plan to pause Earth's rotation. Russia Beyond

King Alexander of Greece. Bridgeman Art Gallery

3. A King Killed by a Monkey

King Alexander of Greece came to an undignified end, when he was taken out by a monkey. No, not that Alexander, the great conqueror of the ancient world, but a more recent one. This Alexander (1893 – 1920) reigned over the Kingdom of Greece from 1917 until he met an unfortunate end three years later. Less imposing than Alexander the Great, this Alexander is perhaps better known to history for the undignified manner of his death than for anything he accomplished in life.

Alexander became king in 1917 during World War I. He ascended the throne after the Allies forced his father to abdicate because he was pro-German. Once Alexander took the throne, the pro-Entente politician Eleutherios Venizelos became Greek premier. He dominated the king and government, and joined the war on the Allies’ side. After the Entente won, Venizelos and his puppet king were committed to an ambitious political platform called Great Greece. As seen below, that platform collapsed when His Majesty had an unfortunate run-in with a monkey.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.