By, Cassidy Flowers and Emily Armstrong.(:

• Born August 7,1876

• Born in Leeuwarden, Netherlands.

• Full name: Margaretha Geertruida Zelle.

• First born out of four children.

• Age 6, she was spoiled rotten then they went bankrupt in 1889.

• Her mother died 2 years later.

• After moms death the family split up.

• Age 15 she was sent to live with her God Father Mr. Visser.

• Visser sent her to school to be trained as a Kinder-garden teacher.

• At the school, Headmaster Wybrandus Haanstra, he became enchanted, and pursued her. She bedded him so she was asked to leave the school.

• In March 1885, 18 year old Margaretha go engaged to Rudolph (“John”) Macleod after answering a personal ad in the paper.

• Mac was a 38 year old officer on home leave from the Dutch East Indies, where he had been stationed for 16 years.

• They were married on July 11th 1895, they had 2 kids, Jeanne-Louise (“Non”) and Norman-John, but their son died at age 2 ½ from poison. They moved to Holland and separated.

• After the separation between Magararetha and her husband, she decided to go to Paris for a new start. No husband, career, or money she used her experiences in Indonesia to create a new persona, one that donned jewels, smelled of perfume, spoke occasionally in Malay, danced seductively, and often wore little clothes.

• The only dependable source of income available to her was pleasing men for money- prostitution. But then a circus gave her a job, and the owner advised her where her talents lay - dancing.

• She made her dancing unique and instantaneously became a success. To sound more exotic she took the stage name “Mata Hari”, Malayan for “eye of the day” (the sun)

• Her erotic dancing made her an instant sensation, and traveled all over Europe. She also made several unsuccessful attempts to regain custody of her daughter Non, even plotting with a servant to kidnap the girl from her school in Velp.

• While trying to visit her lover, a Russian officer named Vadim Maslov, Mata was approached by Georges Ladoux, a French army captain, who asked her to spy on the Germans. She agreed and planned to seduce a Nazi General and get him to spill military secrets.

• During World War I, her frequent traveling across international borders and her varied companions caused several countries to wonder if she was a spy or even a double-agent.

• Many people who met her say that she was sociable, but just not smart enough to pull off such a feat. However, the French were confident that she was a spy and arrested her on February 13, 1917.

• She was arrested by British intelligence and interrogated by Scotland Yard, who were convinced she was actually a spy for the Germans. She had a short trial in front of a military court. Finally she was released, and as 1916 drew to a close Mata made her way to Spain where she romanced a Nazi Major called Kalle.

• He caught onto her and sent false messages claiming that she was in fact a German spy. The French arrested Mata on February 13 1917 and imprisoned her. She was convicted that summer of spying for an enemy nation and sentenced to death. The French arrested Mata on February 13 1917 and imprisoned her.

• She was convicted that summer of spying for an enemy nation and sentenced to death by the firing squad. The French arrested Mata on February 13 1917 and imprisoned her.

• On October 15 1917, Mata faced the firing squad. She refused a blindfold and blew one last kiss to her killers.

• Mata Hari was killed by a bullet to the heart, at 41 years old, and her body was donated to medical science.

Sites Used

• http://history1900s.about.com/od/1910s/p/matahari.htm

• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-474631/Mata-Hari-interested-thing--wasnt-espionage.html

• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-474631/Mata-Hari-interested-thing--wasnt-espionage.html