The Corfu incident. Mussolini's forces bombard and briefly occupy the Greek island of Corfu. 1923, October: Failed anti-Venizelist military coup, begun out of fear for the upcoming elections' result. 1923, 16 December: Venizelos's Liberal Party wins the elections. 1923, 19 December: King George II is "asked" to leave the country. Admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis is named Regent. Second Hellenic Republic (1924–1935) 1924, 25 March: Greece is proclaimed a republic, deposing King George II. Pavlos Kountouriotis becomes the first President of Greece. 1924, 13 April: A plebiscite condones the change of constitution. 1924, 7 October: Failed military coup. 1925, 15 March: Successful coup directed by General Theodoros Pangalos. President Pavlos Kountouriotis resigns. 1925, 22 October: The brief War of the Stray Dog with Bulgaria. Greece is imposed a fine, but is able to stop the attacks by the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) komitadjis into Greek Macedonia. 1926, 23 August: General Pangalos is overthrown after a coup. Caretaker government of Georgios Kondylis. 1928: Venizelos returns from exile and his Liberals win power again. 1932, 26 September: The village of Ierissos in Chalcidice is destroyed by a powerful earthquake. 161 people are reported dead. 1933, March: Failed pro-Venezelist coup. 1933, 23 April: Kos is struck by an earthquake. 200 people die. 1933, 6 June: Second assassination attempt against Venizelos in Athens. 1935, March: Failed coup directed by Venizelos and Nikolaos Plastiras. Venizelos flees in France and dies in Paris the next year, the armed forces are purged of Venizelist and Republican officers. 1935, 10 October: Coup directed by Georgios Kondylis abolishes the Republic, confirmed by a rigged plebiscite later the same year. Kingdom of Greece restored (1935–1967) 1935, 3 November: George II is restored to the throne. 4 August Regime (1936–1940) 1936, 4 August: Coup by General Ioannis Metaxas, who declares a state of emergency, decrees martial law, annuls various articles of the Constitution and establishes a crisis cabinet to end the increasing riots and to restore social order. 1937, 15 December: Mass NKVD operation against Greeks in the USSR begins, based on Joseph Stalin's Directive 50125 of Dec. 1937, resulting in the loss of 38,000 Soviet citizens of Hellenic descent at the Gulags of Siberia. 1939: Hatay is annexed by Turkey. The immigration of the Antiochian Greeks reaches its maximum. 1940, 15 August: Torpedoing and sinking of the Greek light cruiser Elli in Tinos harbor on 15 August 1940 (a national religious