December 22

Events

1522: Rhodes surrenders to the Ottoman Turks of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent.
1918: Aviation pioneer, Aristides Moraitinis, is killed during a Salonica to Athens flight.
1940: The Submarine Papanikolis, under the command of Lt.Cdr. Miltiades Iatridis, sinks the Italian sailing vessel Antonietta by ramming in the Adriatic.
1940: The Greek 3rd Division liberates Chimara during World War II.
1946: Exiled Metropolitan Makarios of Kyrenia - the future Archbishop Makarios II of Cyprus - returns to Cyprus to a tumulteous welcome.
1953: Prime Minister Alexandros Papagos brings up the Cyprus matter, for the first time, in a conversation with Anthony Eden. He is rebuffed by the British PM with the words "There is no Cyprus matter".
1966: The "apostate" government of Stephanos Stephanopoulos falls as the National Radical Union party withdraw their support.
1978: By law, the "sea flag" (nine stripes with a white cross on the upper-left quadrant) is established as the one and only flag of the Greek nation.
2015: The Hellenic Parliament passes by 194 to 55 (with 51 abstentions) legislation that grants gay couples full marriage rights.