JUNE 2ND:
On this day in 1984, Georgios Kasassoglou, the distinguished Greek classical musician and composer, passed away. Born in Athens, he began violin lessons at a young age and continued his musical education alongside his studies in political science. Kasassoglou’s career included composing for orchestras, ballets, films, and theater, with notable works like the music for Aristophanes’ comedy ‘The Clouds’ performed at the Comédie Française in Paris. He was a passionate advocate for integrating instrumental music into the Greek Orthodox Church liturgy and significantly contributed to the cultural scene in Greece through his compositions and public engagements.
JUNE 3RD:
On this day in 2001, Greek-American writer and actress Tina Fey married Saturday Night Live composer Jeff Richmond in a Greek Orthodox ceremony at the Merion Tribute House in Pennsylvania. The couple met in the early 1990s after Jeff had finished studying music theory and composition at Kent State University and moved to Chicago with aspirations to open a theater. He eventually found a job as an in-house pianist at an improv theater – which happened to be where many SNL comedians get their start. Tina happened to be taking some improv classes at the same theater. And the rest is…history.
JUNE 4TH:
On this day in 1929, Karolos Papoulias, the 6th President of Greece (2005-15), was born in Ioannina, Greece. He attended the Pogonian (Epirus) Elementary School and the High Schools of Pogoniani and Athens. During the Nazi occupation of Greece, he was among the first to join the armed resistance against the invading forces. He studied law at the Universities of Athens, Milan, and Cologne, where he submitted his PhD thesis on Private International Law. The 1967 military coup in Greece found him in West Germany and he was among the founders of the Socialist Democratic Union, which organized and mobilized Greeks working and studying in Western Europe against the colonels’ junta. Papoulias was also a founding member of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) and was continually elected to the party’s Central Committee and held several other high offices during the PASOK cabinets. In December of 2004, then-Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis, leader of the governing New Democracy Party, and George Papandreou, leader of the PASOK opposition, nominated Papoulias for the Hellenic presidency, which is chosen by the Parliament. On February 8, 2005, Papoulias was elected with 279 of 300 votes to his first of two five-year terms as President of the Hellenic Republic. Karolos Papoulias passed away in December of 2021 at the age of 92.
JUNE 5TH:
On this day in 1825, Odysseas Androutsos, a (controversial) hero in the Greek War of Independence, was executed in Athens. Born in Ithaca in 1788 to an Arvaniti klepht father and a mother from Preveza, Androutsos actually first joined the army of Ali Pasha after the death of his father. However, in 1818, he joined the ‘Filiki Etairia’, which was planning the liberation of Greece from the Ottoman Empire. Androutsos is best known for his defeat of Omer Vryonis (a commander of the Ottoman army) at the Battle of Gravia Inn. Androutsos, with a band of 100 or so men, managed to force Vryonis’ retreat after his army of 8,000 men suffered heavy casualties of over 400. Despite his victories for Greece, in early 1825, Androutsos was placed under arrest after being accused of collaboration with the Ottomans. The new commander of the Greek forces, who was once Androutsos’ second in command, ordered his execution on June 5, 1825.
