Athina Roussel Onassis - Phantis phantis.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from phantis.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Wed Mar 27 2002 at 11:26:58
Aristotle Socrates Onassis was born on January 20, 1900, in Karatass, a suburb of Smyrna. He was the son of a wealthy Greek trader and Turkish citizen named Socrates Onassis. He inherited his business ability from his father, and from his uncle Alexander came the Greekness of his ideas of passion, love, loyalty and revenge.
Onassis survived the sacking of Smyrna by the Turkish army in 1922 by pretending to be sixteen, thus not eligible to fight. He escaped and, after living on his wits in Constantinople, Athens and Naples, emigrated to South America. In Buenos Aires he made a fortune in tobacco, and simultaneously moved into shipping, traveling between London and Athens, Buenos Aires and Paris.