April 27, 1938

On April 27, 1938, Geraldine Apponyi married King Zog of Albania. She was the first American to ever become an actual Queen of another country. To be fair, she never lived in America, nor was she born in America. She was born in Budapest, Hungary and was a countess in her own right, being the daughter of Count Gyula Apponyi of the Empire of Austria-Hungary. Her American citizenship came from her mother, Gladys Steuart, who was a daughter of an American diplomat. So while it was true that she had American citizenship, she wasn’t Americanized, and didn’t think of herself as American and never claimed to be an American. Instead, she thought of herself as Hungarian or Austrian. But it is believed that throughout her twenty-year marriage to the King of Albania, she must have heard this phrase at least once. “KNEEL BEFORE ZOG!”

About Joel Byers

Born in North Georgia and educated at some very fine public institutions. Real education started after graduating from college and then getting married and raising two boys. Has the ability to see the funny and absurd in most things and will always remark on it, even if it means getting the stink-eye from his victims.
This entry was posted in 20th Century, Historical Facts and tagged , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *