Aristotle Onassis
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Aristotelis Sokratis Onassis (in Greek, Αριστοτέλης Ωνάσης) (January 15, 1906 – March 15, 1975) was the most famous Greek shipping magnate of the 20th century.
Life
Onassis was born in Smyrna, Ottoman Empire (now Izmir, Turkey) to a middle-class Greek family. At the time of his birth, Smyrna had a very significant and prosperous Greek population. After being briefly occupied by Greece (1919 – 1922) in the aftermath of the allied victory in World War I, the city was re-captured by Turkey; the Onassis family holdings were lost, causing them to move to Greece as refugees. Aristotle Onassis revived the family's tobacco business in Argentina in the early 1920s. In 1925 he received Argentinian and Greek citizenships. Onassis purchased his first ships in the early 1930s. By 1932, he had become a world-class businessman, owning commercial ships, tankers and whalers. In 1954, the FBI investigated Onassis for fraud against the U.S. government. He was charged with violating the citizenship provision of the shipping laws which require that all ships displaying the US flag be owned by US citizens. Onassis entered a guilty plea and paid $7 million. He founded Olympic Airways (today Olympic Airlines), the Greek national carrier, in 1957.
Onassis married Athina Livanos, daughter of shipping magnate Stavros Livanos, on December 28, 1946; their son, Alexander (April 30, 1948 – January 23, 1973), and daughter Christina (December 11, 1950 – November 19, 1988), were both born in New York City. After their divorce, Athina married her late sister's widower (and Onassis's arch shipping rival) Stavros Niarchos.
Despite the fact they were both married, Onassis and opera diva Maria Callas embarked on a notorious affair. According to Greek Fire: The Story of Maria Callas and Aristotle Onassis by Nicholas Gage, Callas gave birth to their child, a boy, who died hours later on March 30, 1960. Onassis ended his relationship with Callas to marry Jacqueline Kennedy, the widow of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, on October 20, 1968.
Onassis died at age 69, on March 15, 1975 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, of bronchial pneumonia, a complication of the myasthenia gravis he had been suffering from during the last years of his life. His son Alexander had died earlier in an airplane crash. Christina inherited his fortune, which has since passed to her only child, Athina Roussel.
See also
- Christina O - Onassis's yachtde:Aristoteles Onassis
es:Aristóteles Onassis fr:Aristote Onassis hr:Aristoteles Onassis it:Aristotele Onassis he:אריסטוטלס אונאסיס nl:Aristoteles Onassis ja:アリストテレス・オナシス pt:Aristóteles Onassis sr:Аристотел Оназис fi:Aristoteles Onassis sv:Aristoteles Onassis zh:亚里士多德·奥纳西斯