policemen in Athens. 1944, 4 December: George Papandreou attempts to resign. 1944, 12 December: ELAS controls most of Athens and its environs. 1945 12 February: EAM and the Greek Government sign a peace agreement to end fighting. 1945, 16 June: Former ELAS leader Aris Velouchiotis is killed or commits suicide. 1945, 17 October: Archbishop Damaskinos assumes as regent in an attempt to stabilize the country. 1945, 24 October: Greece is one of the founding members of the United Nations. Civil War (1946–1949) 1946, March: Fighting resumes between the Government and the Communists. 1946, 28 September: A national referendum favours constitutional monarchy. 1946: King George II returns to Greece. 1947, 20 January: The deadliest shipwreck of modern Greek history occurs when Himara sinks in the South Evian Gulf, resulting in 391 deaths. It remains unknown if the cause was the bad weather, a mine or sabotage. 1947, 1 April: King George II dies of sudden heart failure in the Palace in Athens. Some Greeks do not believe the announcement, considering it a joke. He is succeeded by his younger brother Paul. 1947, December: Approximately 1,200 Communist militants are killed in a battle near Konitsa 1948: The Communists reach the maximum of their power. 1949, August: General Alexander Papagos begins a major counter-offensive against Communist forces in northern Greece, pushing them into Albania. 1949, 16 October: Nikolaos Zachariadis, commander of the Communist guerillas, announces a ceasefire that ends the Greek Civil War. Postwar Greece (1950–1967) 1950, 10 January: The eruption of the Thera volcano for the fourth time in the century, causes the evacuation of the island. 1950, 9 December: Greece participates with the Korean War in favor of South Korea. By the end of the war during 1953, 194 Greek soldiers will be killed. 1952, 18 February: Greece and Turkey become members of NATO. 1953, August: The 7.2 Ionian earthquake shakes the southern Ionian Islands with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). Between 445 and 800 people were killed. 1954, 30 April: Sofades is struck by an . 25 people die. 1955, 6–7 September: The Istanbul Pogrom, directed primarily against the city's 100,000-strong Greek minority, occurs. A total of 16 Greeks are killed, while many others are severely wounded, raped and circumcised by mobs. Thousands of Greek-owned buildings are badly damaged or destroyed, accelerating emigration of ethnic Greeks from the city. 1956: Failed coup against King Paul I by a