One of the famous female spies in the world

Born: 1876 ADDied: 1917 AD, at 41 years of age.
Nationality: Dutch
Categories: Dancers, Spies

1876 – She was Margaretha Geertruida born on the 7th day of August of this year in Leeuwarden, Friesland in the Netherlands, to Adam Zelle, owner of a hat store, and Antje van der Meulen, both born and raised in Friesland.

1891 - Her mother died and her father went bankrupt.

1894 - At 18, she married a Dutch naval officer named Rudolf MacLeod in Amsterdam. They moved to Java and had two children. Their son died in 1899 of poisoning, apparently by a disgruntled housekeeper.

1903 - After moving back to the Netherlands, the couple divorced in this year, with Rudolf retaining custody of her daughter. That year, Margaretha moved to Paris, where she performed as a circus horse rider and went by the name Lady MacLeod. Struggling to earn a living, she also worked as an artist's model.

1905 – She began to win fame as an exotic Oriental-style dancer. It was then that she adopted the stage name Mata Hari, a term referring to the Sun in Indonesian (literally meaning "Child of the Dawn"). Mata Hari, was an overnight success from the debut of her act at the Musée Guimet on March 13, 1905. She posed as a princess from Java of priestly Indian birth, pretending to have been initiated into the art of sacred Indian dance since childhood.

1917 - During World War I, the Netherlands remained neutral. As a Dutch subject, she was thus able to cross national borders freely. To avoid the battlefields, she traveled between France and the Netherlands via Spain and Britain, and her movements inevitably attracted attention. She was courtesan to many high-ranking allied military officers during this time. She was accused of being a spy, then put on a trial. She was convicted, and executed by firing squad on the 15th of October of this year in Vincennes, France.