Regent to the Empress Zauditu from 1916, Ras (Prince) Tafari Makonnen succeeded to the throne of Ethiopia in 1930, proclaiming himself Haile Selassie ("Might of the Trinity"). An autocratic ruler, Haile Selassie, who claimed to be a direct descendant of King Solomon & the Queen of Sheba. Selassie was also known as "The Lion King of Judah", "King of Kings". Selassie modernized Ethiopia but; by the 1970s the region's droughts and famines had taken their toll. Selassie was deposed in a military coup in 1974 and died while under arrest. All references to his reign and name were removed from view & generations since have no memory of The Lion King of Judah.