October 9, 1934 —
While the Boomtown Rats don’t like Mondays, King Alexander I of Yugoslavia didn’t like Tuesdays. (Alexander is one of the rare European royals not related to Queen Victoria in any measurable way.)
Because three members of his family had died on a Tuesday, Alexander refused to undertake any public functions on that day. On Tuesday, October 9, 1934, however, he had no choice – he was arriving in Marseille to begin a state visit to the Third French Republic, intended to strengthen the two countries’ alliance within the Little Entente. While being driven through the streets alongside French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou, a gunman, Vlado Chernozemski, stepped from the crowd and shot the King and his chauffeur. The Minister was accidentally shot by a French policeman and died later. (I hate when that happens.)
It was one of the first assassinations ever captured on film. The shooting took place directly in front of the cameraman, who was only a few feet away. He recorded not only the assassination itself but also the immediate aftermath: the chauffeur, killed instantly, slumped forward and jammed the brakes, stopping the car. This allowed the cameraman to continue filming from just inches away for several minutes afterward.
The assassin, Vlado Chernozemski – driver for the leader of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, Ivan Mihailov, and an experienced marksman – was cut down by the sword of a mounted French policeman, then beaten by the crowd. By the time he was removed from the scene, he was already a bloody pulp.
The film record of Alexander I’s assassination remains one of the most historic pieces of newsreel footage in existence, alongside the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, the funerals of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Emperor Franz Josef of Austria, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
The Haus of Dcaligari 