JUly 19, 2023 July 19th, 2023 |
Quiz: What part of a medieval castle was called the keep?
Yesterday’s Question Answered below: Which was NOT a movie directed by Federico Fellini? Amarcord, City of Women, Cinema Paradiso, Satyricon, La Strada.
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History for 7/19/2023
Birthdays: Edgar Degas, Samuel Colt, Charles Mayo of the Mayo Clinic, Bert Kwouk, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Vicki Carr, Max Fleischer, Lizzie Borden, Ille Nastase, George McGovern, Brian Harold May of Queen, Atom Egoyan, Anthony Edwards, Campbell Scott, Dal McKennon- the voice of Gumby, Ben Franklin in Ben and Me, and Archie in the Archies, Benedict Cumberbatch is 47
64 A.D. THE BURNING OF ROME- As the city burned, mad emperor Nero was inspired to run up to an observation platform and sing an elegy on the destruction of Troy accompanying himself on the lyre. Romans later became suspicious when the areas most affected by the fire on the Palatine Hill were expropriated by the Emperor to build his new palace, the Golden House.
The fire started to die out after six days, but then flared up again on the grounds of the estate of Tigellinus, a top aide to Nero. The fire burned for nine days and destroyed two thirds of the city, including a temple built by Romulus, and the shrine of the Vestal Virgins. The Romans were the first civilization to form a city fire brigade.
When Nero heard the Roman people were blaming him for the disaster, he shifted the blame to a despised foreign minority, the Christians.
711 A.D. Battle of Medina-Sidonia- The Moors conquered most of Spain. When he first landed, the Moorish commander Tarik Bin Ziyad ordered his landing ships burned. He addressed his warriors: " ...The enemy is in front of you and the sea behind you... You have no choice but victory!” They pushed the Christian Spaniards north up against the Pyrenees Mountains. The Moors weren’t driven back until 1492. Until then the Emirs of Granada and Cordoba set up lavish courts where great sums were spent on poets, artists, mathematicians and scientists.
1500-In the Vatican, Lucretzia Borgia’s second husband Duke Alfonso of Naples was stabbed to death by assassins sent by her brother Caesar Borgia. Enemies of the Borgias said Caesar was jealous and had an unnatural passion for his sister, but his real reasons were political. Alfonso was against Caesar’s alliance with France, the enemy of Naples. Caesar had previously sent men to assault Alfonso as he was leaving Saint Peters Basilica in Rome, but he fought them off and recovered. While convalescing he spotted Caesar from his sickbed window, grabbed a bow and arrow and tried to shoot him. Then Caesar had him whacked. Cardinal Sforza, who arranged the marriage, was soon poisoned.
1553-Lady Jane Grey was deposed after being Queen of England for nine days. When Henry VIII's sickly son died at 15 the Protestant grandees panicked that the next in line to the throne was his Catholic daughter Mary Tudor. So they attempted a bit of dynastic sleight of hand with this distant protestant cousin. (Remember Elizabeth then was considered illegitimate). It didn't wash and Mary soon earned the sobriquet "Bloody Mary" by having all their heads.
1629- Communications between Europe and America in the colonial period were always spotty and confused. The fastest news could travel across the Atlantic was two months. On this day an Anglo-American expedition attacked the French settlement of Quebec and captured Governor Samuel Champlain. Shortly afterwards a message came from London saying the war had been over for two months and they should let him go and apologize.
1799- THE ROSETTA STONE DISCOVERED. During Napoleons campaign in Egypt several soldiers digging a latrine, uncover a black basalt slab with several forms of writing all over it.
In 1821 Francois Champollion figured it out. The stone was the key to translating Egyptian hieroglyphics, sort of an ancient Babelfish. The document in honor of Cleopatra and her brother Ptolemy is written three times. Once in Hieroglyphs (sacred letters of Ancient Egypt), then in Hieratic (governmental cursive type, a simpler form of Hieroglyphs used for texts unrelated to the Temple and Religion) and in Coptic, the same Egyptian language written in Greek letters. Since Champollion knew Greek, and had contacts with Egyptian Christian priests who spoke Coptic. The rest was easy.
Before the Rosetta Stone people thought Egyptian hieroglyphics were just magical symbols, but after the stone’s discovery the long mute voice of Ancient Egyptian civilization was heard again. Prayers, Literature and Poetry could now be understood.
It was like the discovery of a long dead world.
1848- THE SENECA FALLS DECLARATION- The Birth of the American Woman's Rights Movement. In a Wesleyan Chapel 200 delegates heard Lucretzia Mott and Elizabeth Cady-Stanton make the case for women to be treated as equal citizens under the law including the right to vote. Frederick Douglas attended, and admitted that at first he was a skeptic, but he left convinced.
1878- In New Mexico Territory the climax of the Lincoln County Wars, a feud between cattle barons and smaller independent ranchers. John Tunstall's attorney Big Jim McSween and his men including outlaw Billy the Kid were surrounded by a large force of rancher Murphy’s men backed up by militia with a Gatling gun and a small cannon. The Murphy men set the house on fire and shot the defenders as they rushed out. Billy the Kid blasted his way out to freedom. Big Jim McSween tried to surrender but was shot down.
1879- Doc Holiday had opened a saloon with a partner in Las Vegas, New Mexico. A drunken army scout named Mike Gordon got mad at one of his dance hall girls, went out into the street and started bellowing threats and firing his pistol wildly at the windows of the saloon. Doc Holiday came out of the swinging doors, drilled Gordon dead with one bullet, then walked back in and calmly resumed his poker game.
1899- “The Newsies Strike” Hundreds of poor children in NYC who survived by selling penny newspapers, banded together and went on strike against William Randolph Hearst and Josef Pulitzers newspaper empires. Despite lots of drama and threatened violence, Hearst and Pulitzer eventually both gave in to their demands.
1900- The first line of the Paris Metro underground dedicated. Ligne 1 Porte Vincennes.
1913 - Billboard Magazine publishes earliest known "Last Week's 10 Best Sellers among
Popular Songs" Malinda's Wedding Day is #1
1932- writer Daphne du Maurier married General Frederick Browning.
1934- In an affidavit dated this day an old blacksmith from Pittsburgh named Louis Davarich claimed in 1899 he flew in a flying machine before the Wright Brothers. The inventor was a German immigrant named Gustav Whitehead. He designed a monoplane powered by a small steam engine. If true this would predate the Wright Brothers by 5 years, but Whitehead never documented nor published his discoveries, and did not apply for a patent. He died poor and forgotten in 1927. Is it true? Believe it or not!
1939 – Dr. Roy P Scholz is 1st surgeon to use fiberglass sutures, replacing cat’s intestines and wool thread.
1941 - British PM Winston Churchill launched his "V for Victory" campaign. By coincidence the letter "V" in morse code corresponded with the opening notes of Beethoven ‘s 5th symphony "Dit-Dit-Dit Daaah." making it the musical theme of the BBC overseas radio service war news. If you ever lived in England you would know that reversing the two fingers sign is an insult akin to flashing someone the middle finger.
1942- Operation Drumroll cancelled. Germans withdrew U-Boats stationed off the US coastline because of effective US counter-submarine measures.
1942- Actor Stirling Holloway, who did Disney character voices like Winnie the Pooh, enlisted in the army. He was 37. They didn’t send him to fight, but used him in Special Services raising money and public relations.
1952- Several UFOs appeared on the radar of Washington DC’s National Airport (Today its Reagan Airport). So many alarming reports and phone calls came in, that the Air Force was obliged to hold a news conference to calm public fears. They explained the lights were temperature inversions. Uh, huh…
1957 - 1st rocket with nuclear warhead fired, Yucca Flat, Nevada
1957- The film “I Was a Teenage Werewolf” starring Michael Landon premiered.
1966- Frank Sinatra (50) married Mia Farrow (21). Frankie’s ex Ava Gardner commented:” Hah! I always knew Frank would one day wind up in bed with a little boy.” Two years later when Mia Farrow was offered the lead role in Roman Polanski’s film “Rosemary’s Baby” Frank gave her an ultimatum "Baby, it's either me or your career”. She took the part and he served her with a divorce papers on the set. Mia got an Oscar nomination and Frank recorded “Strangers in the Night”.
1990- The Richard Nixon Library dedicated in Yorba Linda California. Nixon's Western White House of San Clemente first refused the honor of being the site as well as his actual birthplace town of Whittier. The little wood frame house where Nixon was born was moved to the Yorba Linda site. At the dedication the five living Presidents were present.
Senator Bob Dole pointed at former Presidents Ford, Reagan and Nixon and joked: "Look. There’s Hear no Evil, See No Evil, and Evil.”
1991- Heavyweight boxing champ Mike Tyson raped a contestant for the Miss Black America Pageant named Desiree Washington. He got 3 years in jail.
1993- President Clinton launched his gays in the military initiative called "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell." It caused a storm of controversy, and probably uprooted more gay men and women out of their military careers than if nothing was done. The initiative was outlawed in 2010, after hundreds of careers were ruined.
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Yesterday’s Quiz: Which was NOT a movie directed by Federico Fellini? Amarcord, City of Women, Cinema Paradiso, Satyricon, La Strada.
Answer: Cinema Paradiso. Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore.