Aristotle Socrates Onassis
Aristotle Socrates Onassis, (1906-75). Greek shipping tycoon, who became one of the world’s richest men. Onassis was born in Smyrna (now Izmir in Turkey), the son of a Greek merchant. When he was 16 Turkish hostility to Greeks caused the family to flee to Athens. A year later he set off to make his fortune in South America with only $60. Working from Buenos Aires, he built up a successful tobacco importing business before diversifying into other commodities; he was a dollar millionaire by his mid twenties. During the Depression, Onassis had the foresight to buy six freighters at a bargain price; these were to form the basis of the vast merchant fleet that he built up in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1956 Onassis sold his whaling ships to Japan and was awarded a contract to run the Greek national airline. With his fabulous wealth, glamorous lifestyle, and friendships with celebrities from all walks of life, Onassis became an internationally famous figure. In 1968 he married Jacqueline Bouvier Kqnnedy (1929-94), the widow of the assassinated US president.
