NICHOLAS II ~ May 18, 1868 ~ July 17, 1918

Nicholas II (Nikolay Alexandrovich Romanov; Russian: Никола й II, Никола й Алекса ндрович Рома нов) (18 May [ O.S. 6 May] 1868 – 17 July 1918) was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Duke of Finland, and claimed the title of King of Poland. His official title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias, and he is currently regarded as Saint Nicholas the Passion Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until his abdication on 15 March 1917. His reign saw Imperial Russia go from being one of the foremost great powers of the world to an economic and military disaster. Critics nicknamed him Bloody Nicholas because of the Khodynka Tragedy, Bloody Sunday, and those anti-Semitic pogroms that occurred during his reign. As head of state, he approved the Russian mobilization of August 1914 which marked the first fatal step into World War I and thus into the demise of the Romanov dynasty.

Nicholas II abdicated following the February Revolution of 1917 during which he and his family were imprisoned first in the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoe Selo, then later in the Governor’s Mansion in Tobolsk, and finally at the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg. Nicholas II, his wife, his son, his four daughters, the family's medical doctor, the Tsar's Valet, the Empress' Lady in Waiting and the family's cook were all killed in the same room by the Bolsheviks on the night of 17 July 1918. This led to the canonization of Nicholas II, his wife the Empress and their children as martyrs by various groups tied to the Russian Orthodox Church within Russia and, prominently, by the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia.

Image & Text:wikipedia.com

Today is also the 32nd anniversary of the tragic death of my dear friend Gary Evans Mamoru Murakami. He took his own life as I was flying to England to join Chanticleer on our first European Concert Tour. I still keep in touch with his mother, Toki, and sisters Annie & Mako. I was even asked to speak at his father's funeral. I visited Toki and Mako tonight. For the first time in many years, Toki told me that she missed Gary -- three times. She's in her ninety's and is bed ridden after a stroke. Of course, I did not mention the significance of today's date -- but I think she somehow knew.