1453 The Ottoman Turks conquered Christian Byzantium, ending its remnant of the Roman Empire. The name is a corruption of Osman, a leader who formed a coalition of peoples into an empire. Not all Ottomans were Muslims and not all Ottoman Muslims were Turks. So much for generalisations. The part of Turkey that is in Europe on the west side of the Bosphorus is called Rumi, a vestigial reference to Roman. We have been there.
1913 Paris, Arts: Igor Stravinsky’s ‘Le Sacre du printemps’ premiered with Vaslav Nijinsky in the lead. It was panned by critics and booed by the audience in a riot that prevented completion. The Marx Brothers ‘A Night at the Opera’ was partly inspired by this event.
1942 Bing Crosby recorded ‘White Christmas.’ An estimated 100 million copies have been sold, including one in Minden. (It’s an in-joke.)
1953 New Zealander Edmund Hillary with Nepali Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Mount Everest. Efforts had been made to reach this peak since 1921. After service in World War II, the restless Hillary took up climbing.
2005 Danica Patrick took the lead in the Indianapolis 500 for three laps. She was the first woman to do so. She finished fourth from thirty-three starters. Janet Guthrie had been the first woman to drive in the Indy in 1977. The PGA was still trying to keep women off the greens at the time. Patrick is at the wheel in the picture below.
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