CICERO


Meaning of CICERO in English

born 1904, Albania? died Dec. 21, 1970, Munich, Ger. pseudonym of Elyesa Bazna one of the most famous spies of World War II, who worked for Nazi Germany in 194344 while he was employed as valet to Sir Hughe Montgomery Knatchbull-Hugessen, British ambassador to neutral Turkey from 1939. He photographed secret documents from the embassy safe and turned the films over to the former German chancellor Franz von Papen, at that time German ambassador in Ankara. For this service the Hitler government paid Cicero large sums in British money, most of it counterfeited in Germany. Despite the evident authenticity of the films, the Nazi officials in Berlin mistrusted Cicero and are said to have disregarded his information (some of which dealt with plans for the Allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944). He spent his last years as a night watchman in Munich. Der Fall Cicero (1950; Operation Cicero) was written by L.C. Moyzisch, who transmitted all communications between Cicero and Papen. A motion picture, Five Fingers (1952), was based on this book. Ich war Cicero (1962; I Was Cicero) was written by Bazna himself (under his real name) in collaboration with Hans Nogly. city, western suburb of Chicago, Cook county, northeastern Illinois, U.S. First settled in the 1830s, it was named for Cicero, N.Y. Its development was stimulated when the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was built through the site (1864) and by the arrival of land speculators and farmers after the American Civil War. Economic growth continued, but Cicero lost territory to Chicago and to the formation (1901) of Berwyn and Oak Park. The city developed as a manufacturing centre. Morton (junior) College was founded there in 1924. In the 1920s Al Capone, the gangster, made Cicero the headquarters of his speakeasies and gambling enterprises. Inc. town, 1867; city, 1869. Pop. (1990) 67,436.

Britannica English vocabulary.      Английский словарь Британика.