King and Minister Assassinated in Marseille
King Alexander I of Yugoslavia arrived in Marseille on October 9, 1934, for a state visit and was assassinated within minutes of stepping ashore. Vlado Chernozemski, a Bulgarian revolutionary working for the Croatian fascist Ustashe movement, jumped onto the running board of the royal car and fired a semiautomatic pistol. Alexander died almost instantly. French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou was hit by a stray bullet and bled to death because police rushed him to a hospital without applying a tourniquet. Barthou had been building a network of alliances to contain Nazi Germany; his death removed one of the few French politicians actively resisting Hitler's rise. The assassination was captured on newsreel film, making it the first political assassination recorded on motion picture camera.
October 9, 1934
92 years ago
Key Figures & Places
Alexander I of Yugoslavia
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Marseille
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Regicide
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Louis Barthou
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Ustaše
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Alexander I of Yugoslavia
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Louis Barthou
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Prime Minister of France
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Kingdom of Yugoslavia
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Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization
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Assassination
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Geschichte Jugoslawiens
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Marseille
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Vlado Chernozemski
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1888
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1862
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