Rigas Velestinlis is assassinated in Belgrade

Rigas Velestinlis from Thessaly (1757-1798) emerged as the most influential revolutionary of the Balkans at the end of the 18th century. Within him, burned the flame for freedom and justice. Influenced by the French Revolution, disappointed by Russia's antics, and enthusiastic about Napoleon's personality, he hoped to liberate the Greeks and the other Balkan people from the yoke of the Sultan.  After 1796, he based his operations in Vienna, where he published the Charter of Greece and the Constitution of the Hellenic Republic. He envisioned a multiethnic and tolerant Balkan political union, free from the Ottoman rule, in which the Greeks would play the central role. He was arrested by the Austrians, who handed him over to the Ottomans. They executed him in Belgrade in 1798.