Živan Knežević, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Živan Knežević

Yugoslav Royal Guards officer

Date of Birth: 28-Jul-1906

Place of Birth: Vranje, Pčinja District, Serbia

Date of Death: 01-Dec-1984

Profession: military personnel

Zodiac Sign: Leo

Živan Kneževic (Serbian Cyrillic: ????? ????????; Vranje, Ottoman Empire, now Serbia, 28 July 1906 –Seattle, Washington, United States of America, 1 December 1984) was a major in the Yugoslav Royal Guards who was a key conspirator in the Yugoslav coup d'état of 27 March 1941 that deposed the regency of Prince Paul, Dr.
Radenko Stankovic and Dr.
Ivo Perovic, as well as the government of Prime Minister Dragiša Cvetkovic.
Kneževic and his fellow plotters declared the 17-year-old Prince Peter to be of age and brought to power a government of national unity led by Air Force General Dušan Simovic.
The coup resulted in the German-led Axis invasion of Yugoslavia during which the armed forces of Yugoslavia were defeated within 11 days.
Fleeing the country by air, Kneževic was based in Alexandria for a period, where he briefly commanded a battalion of Yugoslav Royal Guards formed with British assistance.
He subsequently served as a military liaison officer between the Chetniks of Draža Mihailovic and the Yugoslav government-in-exile then after promotion to lieutenant colonel he served as a military attaché in the United States until the end of the war, by which time he had achieved the rank of colonel.
He remained in the US after the war and died in 1984.