Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia (1882–1960) was the youngest
child of Emperor Alexander III of Russia and younger sister of Emperor
Nicholas II. Her father died when she was 12, and her brother Nicholas
became emperor. At 19 she married Duke Peter Alexandrovich of Oldenburg;
their marriage was unconsummated and was annulled by the Emperor in
October 1916. The following month Olga married cavalry officer Nikolai
Kulikovsky, with whom she had fallen in love several years before.
During the First World War, the Grand Duchess served as an army nurse at
the front and was awarded a medal for personal gallantry. At the
downfall of the Romanovs in the Russian Revolution of 1917, she fled to
the Crimea with her husband and children, where they lived under the
threat of assassination. After her brother and his family were shot by
revolutionaries, she and her family escaped to Denmark in February 1920.
In exile, she was often sought out by Romanov impostors who claimed to
be her dead relatives. In 1948, feeling threatened by Joseph Stalin's
regime, she emigrated with her immediate family to Ontario, Canada.
Read more:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duchess_Olga_Alexandrovna_of_Russia>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1778:
France and the United States signed the Treaty of Alliance and
the Treaty of Amity and Commerce, establishing military and commercial
ties respectively between the two nations.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Amity_and_Commerce_(United_States%E2%80%93France)>
1819:
British official Stamford Raffles signed a treaty with Sultan
Hussein Shah of Johor, establishing Singapore as a trading post for the
British East India Company.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founding_of_modern_Singapore>
1840:
The British and the Māori signed the Treaty of Waitangi,
considered as the founding document of New Zealand.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Waitangi>
1958:
The aircraft carrying the Manchester United football team
crashed while attempting to take off from Munich-Riem Airport in West
Germany, killing 8 players and 15 others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_air_disaster>
1987:
Mary Gaudron was appointed as the first female Justice of the
High Court of Australia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Gaudron>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
haka:
A group dance of New Zealand's Maori people featuring rhythmic chanting,
vigorous facial and arm movements, and foot stamping. Traditionally a
war dance, today it is also performed to welcome guests, as a mark of
respect at occasions such as commemorations and funerals, as a challenge
to opposing teams at sports events, and for artistic purposes.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/haka>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have
come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.
--Ronald Reagan
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan>
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