1884 Baraboo (Wisconsin), Entertainment: The five Ringling Brothers’ Circus premiered. Later they moved headquarters to Connecticut to be closer to the larger East Coast markets. It folded in 2017. Saw a few performances in the Civic Auditorium in Hastings.
1900 Simplon (Switzerland), Transportation: The world’s longest railway tunnel at the time opened between Switzerland and Italy. It took three thousand men more than two years to build. Sixty-seven workers died in accidents during the work. during World War II both the Swiss and the Italians prepared to block it or attack it. It is still in use.
1948 Canberra, Technology: The Curtin Labor Government proposed to make uniform all Australian railway gauges. Before 1901 Federation created Australia, the railways had started in the separate colonies in the middle of Nineteenth Century and differed. During World War II the incompatible gauges had delayed and hampered the transportation of war material and personnel. Yet even today, believe it or not, Ripley, differences remain.
1965 Luxembourg, Politics: President Lyndon Johnson named Patrica Harris, a black woman, US ambassador to Luxembourg. She was the first black woman to hold that title. Given the Luxembourg played a pivotal role in the European Community as an honest broker, this was a crucial post, not a backwater. She went on to be Dean of the Harvard Law School, and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Carter Administration. These latter two appointments were also firsts for a black woman.
1986 Cannes, Film: ‘Le Déclin de l’empire américain’ directed by Denys Arcand was awarded the International Critics Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. With good humour it examines social change in an ensemble of Quebecois. Two sequels followed, each darker than the one before. My pick is ‘L’âge des ténèbres’ (2007). I have discussed it in a post elsewhere on the blog.
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