April 4

Events

1770: Greek forces under Skyloyiannis Mavromichalis are overwhelmed, after a heroic resistance, by the Turks at Melipyrgos, Messinia, during the "Orlov Events".
1911: A major earthquake (7.1 on the Richter scale) strikes Thera and the surrounding area.
1919: The Battleship Georgios Averof enters Smyrna harbour with 50,000 Greeks wildly cheering on the quay.
1944: The village of Drosopigi in Florina prefecture, Macedonia, Greece, is totally destroyed by German occupation troops.
1946: Panagiotis Poulitsas forms a government.
1968: In the Panathenaic Stadium, before 80,000 fans, AEK defeat Slavia Prague 89-82 and win the European Cup-winners Cup of Basketball.
1995: Greek Minister of Defence, Gerasimos Arsenis, declares that further Turkish intervention in Cyprus would constitute "Causus belli" for Greece.