877 The tradition of the Twelve Days of Christmas started when King Alfred the Great decreed that no servant had to work during the twelve days of celebration which followed Midwinter which merged with the twelve days of Christmas instigated by Christians to replace the pagan festival of Saturnalia.
1808 Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67—the “Fifth Symphony” premiered half way through a long program with an unrehearsed orchestra in a vast, freezing hall. It was ignored by critics at the time but is now regarded as one of the greatest work of one of the greatest composer. The four-note opening motif is familiar to many people who have never heard of Ludi. Its opening four-note motif was the signal for D-Day on 6 June 1944.
1849 Fyodor Dostoyevsky was to be executed for antigovernment activities. In fact, he was led out to face a firing squad, where he was then told he had been reprieved. He was sent into exile for a decade. At the time of his arrest he had written two juvenile novels now seldom read. The great works followed his return to Russia in 1859. We saw much about this tortured soul on our Russian tour.
1894 Captain Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason by a military court-martial and sentenced to life in prison for passing military secrets to the Germans. He was convicted on flimsy evidence in a highly irregular trial. Being Jewish he was a scapegoat for the far reaching corruption and incompetence in the French Army. The meat-eaters of the day, i.e., journalists, had him convicted long before the sham of a trial. Somethings never change.
1956 A baby gorilla named Colo was born at the Columbus (Ohio) Zoo becoming the first-ever gorilla born in captivity. After a long and comfortable life with many progeny she died in January 2017.
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