December 29

Events

• 1823: Lord Byron arrives in Messolonghi.
• 1924: The Municipal Police Force is established in Athens.
• 1940: As the situation on the Albanian Front gets worse for the Italian forces, Mussolini replaces General Ubaldo Soddu with General Ugo Cavallero.
• 1953: Greece replaces the oka with the kilogram as the standard measure of weight.
• 1966: Emmanouil Emmanouilidis and Spyros Kotzamanis are found guilty of "grievous bodily injuries" in the Grigorios Lambrakis trial in Thessaloniki. All the other accused are unanimously acquitted.
• 1972: Cyprus proclaims presidential elections to be held on February 8, 1973. Makarios is the only expected candidate.
• 1998: The governments of Greece and Cyprus decide to proceed with the installation of Russian made antiballistic missiles S-300 in Crete, ignoring Turkey's strong objections and reactions.

Sports

• 1958: OPAP is founded.
• 1973: Dimitris Kokolakis makes his debut with the national team against Great Britain in Athens. The “center” of Panathinaikos, Aris and Ilisiakos, will score a total of 1271 points in 177 caps.
• 1974: Kostas Mourouzis coaches for the 40th, and last, time the National Basketball team (22 wins – 18 losses) in the game against Yugoslavia (58-71) in Salonica for the Balkan Championship. He will be succeeded by Vangelis Nikitopoulos.
• 1999: Vasilis Chatzipanagis receives a 1 million drachmas cheque from EPAE for his contribution to Greek football and announces the foundation of a football academy in the year 2000

Births

• 1897: Georgios Zacharopoulos, athlete (javelin throw)
• 1973: Elias Sapanis, footballer

Deaths

• 1935: Photius II, Patriarch of Constantinople
• 1940: Lt Cdr Michail Hadjikonstantis, naval officer, WW II hero
• 1966: Giorgos Moschos, basketball player