AUGUST 18TH:

On this day in 1917, the Great Fire in Thessaloniki started which destroyed more than 30% of the city. Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece, was left with more than 70,000 homeless people (52,000 Jews, 11,000 Muslims and 10,000 Christians). The fire burned for 32 hours and destroyed 9,500 houses. Half of the Jewish population emigrated from the city as their livelihoods were gone. It is said that it was a spark from a homemade stove falling on a pile of straw at a refugees’ hovel that started the fire. As the center of operations for Allied forces in the Balkans during World War I, Thessaloniki had no fire service and its water supply was requisitioned by foreign soldiers.

AUGUST 19TH:

On this day in 1963, John Stamos, the Greek-American actor, was born in Cypress, California. His mother was a model and his father, William ‘Bill’ Stamos, was a Greek immigrant restaurateur. Before shortening it, his original surname was Stamatopoulos. Stamos has two younger sisters, both of them school teachers. His first professional role was on the daytime soap opera General Hospital. In 1987, he began his role as Uncle Jesse on Full House, which is his best-known role to date, spanning eight years. At his request, the writers of Full House gave his character the last name of Katsopolis, instead of the original character’s name, Cochran, in order to highlight Stamos’ Greek heritage. Stamos later served as an executive producer on the Netflix Full House spinoff – Fuller House. Along with his contributions to popular programs like ER, Stamos has starred on Broadway and toured and recorded with The Beach Boys. On February 3, 2018, Stamos married actress Caitlin McHugh. A little over a year after that, the couple welcomed their first child, William ‘Billy’ Christopher Stamos.

Also on this day in 1974, Rodger Davies, the United States Ambassador to Cyprus, was murdered by Greek-Cypriot gunmen during an anti-American demonstration outside the U.S. Embassy in Nicosia. An estimated 300- 600 Greek-Cypriots were demonstrating against the U.S.’s failure to stop the Turkish invasion of Cyprus – which they believed occurred because of the United States’ perceived siding with Turkey. Only six weeks after arriving at his post as U.S. Ambassador to Cyprus, Davies, along with Antoinette Varnavas (an embassy secretary and a Greek-Cypriot national), were killed by sniper fire from a nearby building.

AUGUST 22ND:

On this day in 1932, Theoni Vachliotis Aldredge, the Greek-American stage and screen costume designer, was born in Thessaloniki. According to her obituary in the New York Times, as a child Aldredge fixated on dolls and their clothes and maintained a large doll collection throughout her life. After graduating from the American School in Athens, she decided to go to the United States to study theater. She attended the Goodman Theatre School in Chicago where she extended her studies after receiving a scholarship. Aldredge designed hundreds of costumes for Broadway and Off Broadway productions including Annie, A Chorus Line, Dreamgirls, 42nd Street, and La Cage aux Folles – as well as many films including Moonstruck, Ghostbusters, and Addams Family Values. Throughout her career, Aldredge won three Tony Awards (and received 11 other Tony nominations) and an Academy Award for her work on The Great Gatsby. She also received the Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award. Aldredge passed away at the age of 88 in 2011 from cardiac arrest.