Birth of Margaretha Geertruida Zelle (later known as Mata Hari) in Leeuwarden, Netherlands.
Mata Hari, born Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, entered the world on August 7, 1876, in the historic city of Leeuwarden, Netherlands. Her early years were spent in a family surrounded by the wealth of her father’s successful hat business. However, a series of personal and financial reversals would later compel her to forge her destiny far from her homeland, eventually becoming the enigmatic cultural figure known as Mata Hari.