Category: Practice

1204 The Fourth Crusade to defend Christendom and wrest the Holy Land from the Muslim infidel instead sacked Christian Constantinople. Such are the ways of the Christian. It is so much easier to murder, rape, and rob fellow Christians than go all the way to the hostile territory of Asian Minor and encounter infidels on their home turf. Then as now organised religion prefers soft targets. This episode figures in the books about Venice discussed elsewhere on this blog. We saw some of the walls on our visit to Istanbul.

1932 Culver City (CA), Entertainment: ‘I want to be alone,’ she said in ‘Grand Hotel.’ The group of mismatched stagers thrown together became standard fare in cinema. This line became totemic for at least a generation. For those who do not know who said it, well, so be it.

1954 New York City, Music: Bill Haley and Comets recorded ‘Rock Around the Clock’ as the B-side of a record. Since it was Side B they let rip. By a quirk of fate one bored DJ flipped the record and played the B-side as filler, and the switchboard lit-up. It went on to sell a million in one month and made it to those shores. It became the emblem of Rock and Roll music.

1961 Star City (USSR), Space: Yuri Gagarin became the first person in an Earth orbit. We ate at a restaurant in Moscow with his picture plastered on the walls. Below is the ignition of Vostock 1. Imagine sitting on top of that much firepower.

1981 Cape Canaveral (FL), Space: The first flight of a space shuttle, the Columbia with a crew of two, occurred. After Apollo 13 NASA concentrated on near Earth space with the shuttle program because neither Congress nor the Presidency wanted to risk a disaster en route to the moon. Ah huh.

1888 Amsterdam, Music: The Koninklijk Concertgebouw was inaugurated. Been there, heard that. It is one of the most user friendly concert halls there is. Easy to get in, get around with plenty of plumbing, and get out. Plus the ticket doubles as a public transport pass for the evening and one free drink.

1890 New Jersey, History: The Ellis Island immigration station was established where as many as 12 million entered. By the way, though it lies in New York Harbour it is within the border of the state of New Jersey. Kate has seen it with her own eyes, while I have relied on ‘Brother from Another Planet,’ discussed elsewhere on this blog for my slim knowledge.

1919 Geneva, History: The International Labour Organisation was founded to promote social justice and decent working conditions, partly by setting international labour standards. It has been an agent for collective bargaining, the end of child labour, employment of women, a living wage, free labour, and the like. During World War II its executive decamped Switzerland and worked in exile at McGill University until 1948. The fear of many international organisations in Switzerland was that it would be the next victim of Naziism, or at least forced to compromise in detail with it. Indeed there was a Swiss fascist party the National Front with its partner the New Front that have now been expunged from that country’s history along with much else.

1970 Houston, Space: “Okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem here,” said Jack Swigert, later repeated by Jim Lovell, on board Apollo 13. The mapping and sample collecting mission changed to survival and re-entry. It led to a re-orientation of the space program to near Earth space with the shuttles. Below is the Apollo 13 Command Module on display at the Smithsonian, which I have seen. Some ride.

1976 The Apple 1 computer went on sale. Yes, they called is the ‘1’ because they already working on the next iteration. So like all computers, it was out of date when it went on sale. The instance below is at the PowerHouse Museum (somewhere) in Sydney. (The parentheses are because the future location of this museum remains vexed.)

1710 London, Intellectual Property: The British parliament passed the Queen Anne Statute for the encouragement of learning by investing the creators with ownership of the work. It was one major step forward in recognising and securing intellectual property for artists, writers, and composers.

1866 New York City, Humanitarianism: The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was founded by Henry Bergh, a retired diplomat, who plead for the ‘mute servants of mankind.’

1872 Nebraska City, Ecology: The first Arbor Day which was inspired by J. Sterling Morton who, earlier as governor of the Nebraska Territory, had aspired to plant a million trees. The day was dedicated to achieving that goal. In time the day became a national celebration on the last Friday of April. If only more trees had been planted sooner perhaps the Dust Bowl would have been less disastrous. The primary school where I had a brief career in finger-painting was named for him.

1947 Brooklyn, Sports: Jackie Robinson started at second base. At least two members of the opposing team refused to take the field with him. So began the trials. Branch Rickey had spent years looking for right man and in Mr Robinson he had found him and knew it. Today Robinson’s number 42 has been retired by all MLB teams never to be worn by another player; the only individual to be so honoured. Off the field he was a leader, as well as on.

1972 Charlie Chaplin received a lifetime achievement Oscar for his incalculable contribution to cinema. He had been hounded out of the United States in 1952 by HUAC, the beast that roamed Hollywood looking for easy headlines. Below is a still from that famous scene in ‘The Gold Rush.’

1770 Kurnell (NSW), History: Captain James Cook charted Botany Bay and landed for water near where the marker shown below.

1808 Amsterdam, Politics: Napoleon made his brother Louis king of Les Pays Bas, Belgium and the Netherland, and this king took as his palace the Town Hall on the Damn Square. We have been there and seen Atlas shrug. He figures in the video postcard we made in Mokum.

1860 Paris, Technology: Édouard-Léon de Martinville made the earliest documented sound recording, singing the folk song ‘Au clair de la lune.’ In 1857 he had patented the phonautograph. The vibration spoken into a horn moved a quill bristle over a soft wax drum making a visual representation of the voice. N.B. it did not allow the sound to be played back.

1895 Allegheny (PA), Science: Astronomer James Keeler proved by a spectrographic analysis that the rings of Saturn are made up of particles and are not solid, as many had previously believed. Earlier theorists had reached this conclusion and Keeler provided the empirical evidence for confirmation.

1939 DC, Racism: Arturo Toscanini said Marian Anderson’s was the voice of the century. She had been contracted to sing at Constitution Hall, but the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), which managed the hall, voided the contract when it was realised that Anderson was black. In reaction Eleanor Roosevelt arranged for Anderson give a free, open air concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial which attracted an Easter Sunday audience of 75,000. In the lower left quadrant in front of the piano is Anderson. One of the songs was ‘Let Freedom Ring.’ Her two sons earned combat badges in World War II. In 1955 President Dwight Eisenhower asked her to sing at the White House for the diplomatic corps. (PS My mother was long a stalwart of the local DAR branch but I doubt she knew of this shameful act. A stalwart is by definition is someone who does all the work, gets none of the credit, and makes no complaint.)

563 Lumbini (Nepal), Religion: The legendary place and date of the birth of Gautama Buddha. Below is the memorial.

1820 Melos, Art: A farmer plowing land discovered the statue now known as the Venus de Milo. We have seen the statue in Paris and the site on Melos or Milos. The work is attributed to Alexandros of Antioch (Syria) in the 2nd century BC.

1935 DC, Politics: Congress approved the Works Progress Administration (WPA) which went on to employ 8.5 million people on 1.5 million projects, including several in Hastings NE. Nestled within the WPA was the Federal Writers Project that employed James Agee, Nelson Algren, Saul Bellow, Ralph Ellison, Zora Hurston, Walker Percy, and Richard Wright among others to write state guide books like that pictured below. These texts are available on line like that on Nebraska pictured below.

1974 Atlanta, Sports: Henry Aaron hit home run number 715 surpassing Babe Ruth’s record, eliciting a tsunami of racist hate which he bore with a calm dignity that riled the racists ever more. It was against the Dodgers and so Mr Baseball, Vin Scully, called it. If only all sportscasters had his judgement and enthusiasm. I saw the Hammer drill a line drive homer in the Expos’ Montréal bandbox Parc Jarry.

1990 ‘Twin Peaks’ went to air with the first episode ‘Who Killed Laura Palmer?’ We loved it though the convolutions were, well, convoluted. But the Log Lady, the Colonel, the Donut King, Fire Bob, the dancing dwarf, and more made quite an impression, albeit confused and confusing.

1348 Prague, Education: Charles University was found by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV. I gave a talk there once.

1795 Paris, Technology. France adopted the metre as the basic unit of length. The next year sixteen steel bars were placed around Paris to make it known. One is pictured below in the Place Vendôme which I saw once with my own eyes.

1805 Vienna, Music: Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony Number 3 in E minor (‘Eroica’) premiered with the composer conducing. Below is Beethoven’s autography copy of the score which he defaced in removing the original dedication to Napoleon.

1953 New York City, UN: Dag Hammarskjöld was selected as the second Secretary General of the United Nations. A biography of Hammarskjöld is discussed elsewhere on this blog.

1961 DC, Politics: Because they were part of the heritage of mankind, the Kennedy Administration committed the United States to fund the preservation of artefacts from the ancient historic sites in the Valley of Nile when the Aswan Dam was to be built. In the end American funds came to 16% of the total cost, covering the preservation of the temples at Abu Simbel and more. Kate has seen some of this stuff with her own eyes.

1857 St Martin’s, Literature: Charles Dickens read ‘A Christmas Carol’ for his first public reading.

1906 DC, Politics: Congress passed the Meat Inspection Act and also the Pure Food and Drug Act partly in response to Upton Sinclair’s grotesque exposés in the novel ‘The Jungle’ and in his journalism. The cover below is from the copy I read in college. Enough to make one a vegetarian.

1908 Tunguska (Russia), Science: A giant fireball caused by a gigantic meteoroid flattened an estimated 80 million trees over 2000 square kilometres in Yeniseysk, the largest extraterrestrial impact ever. It struck an area with virtually no human inhabitants., certainly none there survived the impact.

1997 London, Literature: J.K. Rowling published the first Harry Potter novel, ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.’ It has since sold 120 million copies and counting. One of my students wrote an amusing pastiche of this book for an assignment, titled Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Phone. The real magic here was Rowling’s achievement in getting kids to read books.

2016 Älmhult (Sweden), Commerce: The Ikea Museum opened on the site of the very first of its stores. The last piece remains missing. Visitors are channeled through every exhibit with no short-cuts or escape.

0512 Ireland, science: A solar eclipse was recorded by a monastic chronicler.

1859 Queenston (Ontario), History: French acrobat Charles Blondin was the first to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope 1100 feet long, 160 feet above water, on a three inch rope. He did it several times, each time more elaborate than the last, carrying another person, blindfolded, pushing a wheel barrow, and -la pièce de résistance – stopping halfway across to light a spirit stove and make an omelette, while staring at an iPhone.

1958 Stockholm, Sports: Seventeen year-old Edison Arondes do Nascimento exploded on the soccer world when Brazil beat a highly rated Swedish team 5-2 in the World Cup final. Known as Pelé, he had played only a little in earlier matches but injuries to starters gave him a chance and in the final Pelé dazzled defenders and scored three of the goals and set-up the other two. As one Swede said, there seemed to be ‘five of him at once. Everywhere.’

1990 Dunedin (NZ), Religion: Dr Penny Jamieson became the world’s first diocesan Anglican bishop. Contrary to predictions, the sky did not fall. Although the Pox News blamed the Christchurch earthquake on her.

1995 Space, Technology: The US space shuttle Atlantis docked with the Russian space station Mir, marking the first space cooperation between the two nations.

1635 Guadeloupe (West Indies) , History: France established a permanent settlement at Port-Louis. It remains French and is one of the few places in the Western Hemisphere where the Euro is legal tender.* It is mentioned on TF2 news now and again as the poorest, most backward, most deprived department of France. Think Louisiana and there it is.

1762 St Petersburg, History: Catherine II became sovereign Tsarina and stayed that until her death in 1796. She displaced her estranged husband Peter III in a coup d’état. We saw some of locales of these events in our visit to Russia and some of her gear.

1790 Sydney, History: Lieutenant James MacArthur of the NSW Corps arrived in Sydney. Together with his wife Elizabeth he imported a flock of merino sheep bought in South Africa. By 1803 they had 4000 which they bred carefully. They began exporting wool in 1807 and so the sheep’s back entered Australian history.

1838 Queen Victoria was crowned in Westminster Abbey, a year after acceding to the throne, in an elaboration coronation ceremony.

1888 Apia (Samoa) Robert Louis Stevenson settled in Samoa which inspired his novel of adventure ‘Treasure Island.’ ‘X’ marks the spot, Long John!

*Smart alecks may wish to name others. Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Martinique, and Saint Martin, French Guyana. The Dutch holdings, like Aruba, use a unique currency.

1652 Table Bay (SA), History: The first permanent European settlement in South Africa was established by the Dutch East India company under Jan van Riebeeck. We saw a photograph of a wall built by these settlers in an exhibition recently.

1841 DC, Politics: The first Vice President to succeed a president who died in office took was sworn in. That was John Tyler. Elected President General William Harrison died one month after his inauguration. A biography of Tyler, the accidental president, is discussed elsewhere on the blog. Wits referred to him as ‘His Accidency.’ Suffice it to say here he was a president whose party had disowned him when he accepted the place as Vice President on the ticket with no personal following or profile, and he was, and knew he was, on a one-way ticket. Here’s one for the books, twenty years later he served as a congressman in the Confederate House of Representatives where he tired to promote negotiations, and failed.

1896 Athens, Sports: The Olympic Games were reborn when 60,000 spectators gathered to watch 280 athletes from thirteen nations. Baron Pierre de Coubertin had started promoting the idea in 1892. Thereafter the Olympics were overshadowed by world’s fairs and then lost to World War I. The first successful Olympics (participation, income, and publicity) were held in 1924 in Paris, which included 400 women athletes.

1903 Paris, Politics: The tissue of lies fabricated by the Pox News of the day against Captain Alfred Dreyfus collapsed when secret documents were published that revealed his innocence. Robert Harris’s novel ‘An Officer and a Spy’ about this case is discussed in a post elsewhere on this blog. On the blogosphere there are many who are sure either Dreyfus or Hillary did it.

1968 Surrey (England), Entertainment: ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ screened. Pauline Kael, the New Yorker’s pontificator on movies said it was ‘monumentally unimaginative.’ Yes she did, HAL. The child bride has sung to it in a chorus.