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Princess Alexia of Greece and Denmark

b. 1965

Born
10 Jul 1965, Kingdom of Greece
Country of birth
Greece

Living person. The family sees only the name, dates and photo; everything else stays private unless they choose to share it.

facts
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sources
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images and files
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Facts and their sources

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A life in time

  1. Born · Kingdom of Greece

    Birth, Kingdom of Greece

What was it like?

The world around Kingdom of Greece, 1965: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

Princess was born around the same time as Jim Carrey, Tom Cruise, and Jodie Foster.

Born around the same time

  • Jim Carrey

    1962 · Canadian-American actor and comedian (born 1962)

  • Tom Cruise

    1962 · American actor and film producer (born 1962)

  • Jodie Foster

    1962 · American actress and filmmaker (born 1962)

  • Ruud Gullit

    1962 · Dutch association football player and manager

  • Keir Starmer

    1962 · Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2024 to 2026

  • Demi Moore

    1962 · American actress and producer (born 1962)

Fashion

Everyday versus festive attire

Everyday clothing was practical, featuring dark colors and a lack of decorative embroidery, while festive garments were notably rich in color and ornamentation.

Children's summer clothing habits

Working-class boys on summer vacations in the 1950s and 1960s often dressed in simple T-shirts and shorts, frequently going barefoot.

Music

Popular traditional dances and accompanying instruments

The Kalamatianos, often associated with the city of Kalamata, was one of the most popular dances, along with the Syrtos and Tsamiko. While domestic dancing sometimes occurred without instruments, public festivals relied on ensembles that featured percussion like the defi tambourine and the davouli drum.

Vocal church music and instrumental festival music

Greek Orthodox church services relied exclusively on vocal Byzantine music, as the tradition never incorporated instrumental accompaniment. In contrast, village festivals and feasts prominently featured instrumental music, often played by bands using the clarinet, violin, and laouto.

Getting around

Hydra's ban on wheeled transport

Since the 1950s, the island of Hydra has banned all motorized vehicles, including bicycles, and relies primarily on mules and donkeys to transport everything from suitcases to building materials.

Long journeys on foot in Crete

In Crete, traveling across the width of the island between north and south (roughly 60 km) took 24 hours on foot, often requiring a brief overnight stop at a wayside inn.

Daily life

Cooking and Modest Meals

Families living in poverty often cooked on a foufou, a round metal drum lined with bricks that used charcoal as fuel. To conserve food, they sometimes shared a single salted herring among four people for dinner.

Education and Child Labor

Many children in villages had limited access to schooling and were expected to work in agriculture from a very young age. Some rural children did not even know how to read a watch until they moved to a town.

Food

Cost of coffee in the 1960s

In the early 1960s, a coffee at a local kafeneion cost between 0.5 and 1 drachma, later rising to 2 to 2.5 drachmas.

Popularization of Quaker Oats porridge

In the 1960s, Quaker Oats became popular in Greece, with the term kouaker becoming the standard word for porridge, often served with cinnamon, sugar, or honey.

Prices and wages

Daily wages for unskilled labor

During the early 1960s, an unskilled laborer typically earned about 50 drachmas per day. By 1965, the daily wage was set by ministerial decree at 65 drachmas for men and 50 drachmas for women.

Around 1959–1959

Prices for coffee and oil in 1959

In 1959, the cost of a coffee at a local kafeneion was between 0.5 and 1 drachma, rising to 2–2.5 drachmas later in the decade. Olive oil was priced at 24 drachmas per oka, which is approximately 18 drachmas per kilo.

Work
Around 1962–1962

Long nightclub shifts for performers

Working in a nightclub as a backup singer in 1962, a young performer would earn 100 drachmas for a shift lasting from 9:00 PM until 4:30 AM. During these long hours, performers were expected to remain on stage the entire time, sitting in a row to provide backup vocals and applause for the stars.

Around 1950–1960

Factory life: brutal work and social breaks

Stoking furnaces was considered the most brutal factory job, often compared to a concentration camp, where workers developed respiratory and eye conditions from shoveling coal. Conversely, factory breaks offered a social respite where workers could play football, volleyball, or tend to gardens and vegetable patches on the premises.

News and letters

Public phone use in daily life

During the 1950s and 1960s, private home telephones were rare, so many people made calls from local corner stores, kiosks, or public phone booths where long lines frequently formed.

Around 1950–1959

Long waits for long-distance calls

In the 1950s, making a long-distance call from a rural town like Preveza to Athens often required waiting two to three hours at an OTE office, followed by an additional four to five hours of waiting at the Athens call center.

During their lifetime

  1. 1967

    Military junta coup of 1967

    A military junta seized power in 1967, dissolving democratic institutions and ruling until the restoration of democracy in 1974.

  2. 1981

    Greece joins European Economic Community

    Greece joined the European Economic Community in 1981, marking a significant step in the country's economic and political integration.

Family

Parents

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.