29 January 2008
Nazis - 75th Anniversary
Tomorrow it will be 75 years since Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party took office in Germany. Nicholas Kulish writes today in the NYT about the continuing struggle of the German people to come to terms with the Holocaust in their country, including "the building of monuments to the Nazi disgrace" that " continues unabated," with new construction beginning in Berlin of two monuments, "one near the Reichstag, to the murdered Gypsies, ...; and another not far from the Brandenburg Gate, to gays and lesbians killed in the Holocaust." These are in addition to the recently opened "Topography of Terror center at the site of the former Gestapo and SS headquarters" and "a huge new exhibition ... at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp," as well as other building projects recently launched or in the works.
Two points that interest me in Kulish's short article (both mentioned briefly and warranting further investigation):
The younger generation of Germans, "who are required to study the Nazi era and the Holocaust intensively," view the Holocaust not as a source of guilt but as motivation for them to be responsible "on the world stage for social justice and pacifism, including opposition to the war in Iraq."
If this is true, it makes me curious about opposition to the Iraq war by those who are steeped in Holocaust history and likely aware of their own families' complicity in it or victimisation by it. Some people see Saddam Hussein as Hitler writ small, merrily exterminating his own people; I wonder what course these young people think would have been best in the case of Iraq, considering their own history: don't interefere, use diplomacy, use another strategy? Second, on the same point, because many people consider WWII a 'just war,' one that needed to be fought if any war ever did, I also wonder how the younger generation arrives at a position of pacifism generally.
The second comment that I noticed was Susan Neiman's, director of the Einstein Forum in Potsdam, an international public research group. She worries that the young will eventually "express their exhaustion with the topic. 'I can't help but feeling that some of the continued, "Let's build monuments; let's build Jewish museums," is a fairly ritualized behavior. ... I worry terribly that it's going to backfire.'"
This framing as 'ritual' of the construction of reminder after reminder of a terrible act reminds me of some of James Alison's thoughts about the sacred centre in his article after the events of 9/11/2001. The sacred centre offers those of us not actually involved in the crisis itself a sense of transcendent meaning, of good clean purpose, in lives that are often cluttered with the banal and with "little betrayals, acts of cowardice, uneasy consciences." The sacrificial centre is invoked to generate a feeling of unanimity, which can then harden to become militant goodness, and so on; and which can resemble, not in intent but perhaps in outcome, the technique well-understood and effectively and terribly used by the Nazis themselves, of bringing people together for a 'great purpose,' which often and seamlessly leads to opposing and scapegoating those who won't come together for the 'great purpose,' to creating the belief that this is thing that really matters, to instilling fear in those who refuse to believe it. Humans seem prone to being, as Alison puts it, "sucked into" the sacred centre. It makes us feel good.
Or, maybe, this younger generation won't so much become exhausted by participating in (or being expected to participate in) the sacred centre as they will come to see the buildings and the history as a reminder of something ... ordinary. Not transcendent, not filled with purpose and meaning, but very ordinary, and as some may already understand in their pacifism, very capable of being re-enacted any time, any where.
11:00 Posted in community , death , girardian anthropology , holidays and seasons , politics, government and law , theology, spirituality, philosophy , today in history | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
20 January 2008
Avoiding Violence of Spirit - Martin Luther King Jr. Tribute
In memory and honour of Martin Luther King, Jr., 1929 -1968 ...
MLK Birthday Commemoration Resources
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It's not only necessary to know how to go about loving your enemies, but also to go down into the question of why we should love our enemies. I think the first reason that we should love our enemies, and I think this was at the very center of Jesus' thinking, is this: that hate for hate only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. If I hit you and you hit me and I hit you back and you hit me back and go on, you see, that goes on ad infinitum. It just never ends. Somewhere somebody must have a little sense, and that's the strong person. The strong person is the person who can cut off the chain of hate, the chain of evil. -- 17 November 1957, "Loving Your Enemies," sermon delivered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, AL
There's another reason why you should love your enemies, and that is because hate distorts the personality of the hater. We usually think of what hate does for the individual hated or the individuals hated or the groups hated. But it is even more tragic, it is even more ruinous and injurious to the individual who hates. ... For the person who hates, the true becomes false and the false becomes true. That's what hate does. -- 17 November 1957, "Loving Your Enemies," sermon delivered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, AL
For nonviolence not only calls upon its adherents to avoid external physical violence, but it calls upon them to avoid internal violence of spirit. It calls on them to engage in that something called love. And I know it is difficult sometimes. When I say 'love' at this point, I'm not talking about an affectionate emotion. It's nonsense to urge people, oppressed people, to love their oppressors in an affectionate sense. I'm talking about something much deeper. I'm talking about a sort of understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill for all men. -- Speech at the Great March on Detroit, 23 June 1963, Detroit, MI
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. ... The chain reaction of evil -- hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars -- must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation. -- Strength To Love, 1963
I'm concerned about a better world. I'm concerned about justice; I'm concerned about brotherhood; I'm concerned about truth. And when one is concerned about that, he can never advocate violence. For through violence you may murder a murderer, but you can't murder murder. Through violence you may murder a liar, but you can't establish truth. Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can't murder hate through violence. -- "Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?," Annual Report Delivered at the 11th Convention of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 16 Aug. 1967, Atlanta, GA
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King was born on 15 January 1929 at the family home in Atlanta, Georgia. He entered Morehouse College at age 15, graduating in 1948 with a B.A. in Sociology. He was ordained in Feb. 1948 (at age 19) at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, soon becoming assistant pastor of that church. He received his Bachelor of Divinity degree from Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, PA, in 1951, after which he accepted the call of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, where he served as pastor from Sept. 1954 to Nov. 1959. In September 1951, King began doctoral studies in Systematic Theology at Boston University and studied at Harvard University as well. In June 1953, he married Coretta Scott of Marion, Alabama. He received his Ph.D. in June 1955. His dissertation was titled “A Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman.” In 1959, he and the family moved to Atlanta to direct the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (which he helped found in 1957), and from 1960 until his death, he co-pastored Ebenezer Baptist Church with his father.
The Kings had four children: Yolanda Denise, born 17 Nov. 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama; Martin Luther III, born 23 Oct. 1957 in Montgomery; Dexter Scott, born 30 Jan. 1961 in Atlanta, Georgia; and Bernice Albertine, born 28 March 1963 in Atlanta.
King authored six books: Stride Toward Freedom (1958), about the Montgomery bus boycott; The Measure of a Man (1959), sermons; Why We Can't Wait (1963), about the Birmingham campaign; Strength to Love (1963), more sermons; Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? (1967), "reflections on the problems of today's world, the nuclear arms race, etc.;" and, posthumously published, The Trumpet of Conscience (1968), lectures.
King was shot while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968. He was there to help lead sanitation workers in a protest against low wages and poor working conditions. Though James Earl Ray was arrested, convicted, and pled guilty to the crime, a jury in Memphis in 1999, deciding in a case brought by King's wife and children, concluded "that Loyd Jowers and governmental agencies including the City of Memphis, the State of Tennessee, and the federal government were party to the conspiracy to assassinate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr."
King's mother, Alberta Williams King, "was shot and killed as she sat at the organ in the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta" on Sunday, 30 June 1974 by Marcus Wayne Chenault, a 23-year-old black man from Ohio who said he shot her because "all Christians are my enemies."
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Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project (Stanford University) Biography, a very detailed MLK Jr. Chronology, eleven MLK Jr. speeches, eleven MLK Jr. sermons, and information on articles, papers, more. Includes pdf-formatted text of the Letter From Birmingham Jail (16 April 1963), the Address at March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (the "I Have a Dream" speech, 28 August 1963), his Acceptance Speech at Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony (10 December 1964), Beyond Vietnam (4 April 1967), and the "I've Been To The Mountaintop" speech (3 April 1968, his last speech). Very slow loading.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (Seattle Times), an extensive resource on King, with sections on The Man, The Movement, The Legacy, The Holiday, Electronic Classroom, and Talking About It.
The King Center, whose sections include Welcome, History, Philosophy (a collection of quotes from various King sources), Words, King Holiday, Community, Children, News, and Shop. Not as much information here as in other resources.
Time 100: Leaders & Revolutionaries: Martin Luther King, Jr. (Time magazine), a three-page profile of King, with accompanying timeline and a sidebar entitled "What if King had lived?"
"Loving Your Enemies" speech, delivered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, on 17 November 1957.
I Have A Dream" Speech (28 August 1963) text. Also available in audio mp3 format.
Robert Kennedy's Speech on MLK Jr.'s Death (4 April 1968) text (at History Place), and in RealAudio.
King's Legacy: PBS NewsHour Talk with Taylor Branch (PBS), the transcript of David Gergen interview with MLK Jr.-biographer Taylor Branch about King's most important legacies, from 2 Feb. 1998.
The Martin Luther King You Don't See on TV (FAIR: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting), an article on MLK's largely unnoted shift from civil rights issues to human rights issues during the last three years of his life, by Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon, in Jan. 1995 Media Beat.
Note: The source for most of the biographical sketch is The King Center Biographical Outline of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
18:25 Posted in girardian anthropology , holidays and seasons , other people said it , politics, government and law , pop culture , theology, spirituality, philosophy , today in history | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
11 January 2008
Atrocity of the Day Calendar
Strangely compelling, the Axis of Evel Knievel ("Another Day, Another Pointless Atrocity") posts details of an historical atrocity most days. Among 'evel' topics are crime, executions, nuclear radiation accidents, birthdays of tyrants and dictators, fires, declaratons of war, war battles, shipwrecks, genocides and other mass slaughters, governmental conspiracies, self-immolation, and so on.
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26 May 2007
Looking Back: 26 May 2007
26 MAY is ...
>>> 15 years since Chuck Geschke (1939-), the co-founder of Adobe Systems Inc., was kidnapped at gunpoint from the Adobe parking lot in Mountain View, California (1992) as he arrived at work around 9 a.m. He was held for four days before being rescued from a house in Hollister, California by the FBI. Geschke retired as president of Adobe in 2000.
Sources: Los Altos Town Crier: Part 1 of A dramatic kidnapping revisited, by Anne Chappell Belden, Oct. 1997: "An exhaustive overview of the five-day ordeal, what has transpired since and the ramifications on the Geschke family." Subsequent articles: Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 / Today in Technology History: May 30 / Geschke's bio at Adobe's website /
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25 May 2007
Looking Back: 25 May 2007
25 MAY is ...
>>> 72 years since George 'Babe' Ruth (1895-1948) hit his record-setting 714th home run (1935), playing with the Boston Braves at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. He went 4-for-4, drove in 6 runs and hit 3 home runs in an 11-7 loss to the Pirates. The last home run cleared the roof at the old Forbes Field. His record stood for 39 years, until Hank Aaron broke it in Atlanta in April 1974, amid death threats and racist hate mail "from people who did not want to see a black man break Ruth's home run record."
Sources: Yesterday's News (Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune): Bambino's Last Home Run / The Official Site of the NY Yankees: The Sultan of Swat / ESPN: Lovable Ruth was Everyone's Babe, by Larry Schwartz / Smithsonian: Breaking Records, Breaking Barriers / BabeRuth.com / The Nation: Bonding with the Babe, by Dave Zirin, May 2006
>>> 486 years since the Edict of Worms was issued by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (1521), "declaring [church reformer] Martin Luther an outlaw, banning his writings, and requiring his arrest: 'We want him to be apprehended and punished as a notorious heretic'." Anyone was permitted to kill Luther without legal consequence. The Diet of Worms (Reichstag zu Worms) was a general assembly that took place in Worms, in what is now Germany, from January to May 1521. Other issues were dealt with, but this is the one remembered. In April, Luther was brought before the Diet to renounce or reaffirm his views. He took a day to think about it and then came back to essentially reaffirm his views: 'Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason -- I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other -- my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe." On this date, Charles issued the Edict (antedated to 8 May) asking for Luther's arrest and punishment. Prince Frederick 'kidnapped' Luther on his way home from the Diet and hid him in Wartburg Castle to protect him from otherwise inevitable arrest and execution. When Luther finally emerged from hiding, the emperor was preoccupied and public support for him was growing, so the Edict was not enforced and Luther continued to call for reform until his death in 1546. (Photo of Statue of Luther at Worms, from Gutenberg)
Sources: Martin Luther: Excerpts from his account of the confrontation at the Diet of Worms / Wikipedia: Diet of Worms / BBC Radio 4: The Diet of Worms (audio programme) / Luther at the Imperial Diet of Worms, at Luther.de
(Special Note: If you do a Google search, you will learn that a 'diet of worms' is also good for bowel cancer, MS, and winning marathons.)
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24 May 2007
Looking Back: 24 May 2007
24 MAY is ...
>>> 151 years since American slavery abolitionist John Brown (1800 - 1859) staged his first anti-slavery raid, on Pottawatomie, Kansas (1856). "His perennial zeal for the underdog ... drove him to struggle on behalf of the economically vulnerable farmers of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and western Virginia a decade before his guerrilla activities in Kansas." In late winter of 1856, Brown came from his home in Pennsylvania to Kansas, which was hotly divided on the slavery issue. Slave state forces were using violence and terrorism to win the state for their side in an upcoming vote, which inflamed Brown, as did the lack of effective response by free state forces. Brown was also concerned that his family could be the next targets of the terrorists. During the night of 24 May, Brown and a group of others, including some of his sons, took five pro-slavery settlers -- James Doyle, James Doyle's sons William and Drury Doyle, Allen Wilkinson, and William Sherman -- from their cabins on Pottawatomie Creek and hacked them to death with broadswords. He evaded capture in the woods. "This was one of the many bloody episodes in Kansas preceding the American Civil War, which came to be known collectively as Bleeding Kansas." Brown's undoing came in 1859, with this raid on Harpers Ferry, WV (then Virginia). He hoped to start a liberation movement among enslaved blacks and to deplete Virginia of slaves, wreaking economic havoc, but no slaves answered his call. In October, with a group of anti-slavery advocates gathered, he went ahead with his raid on the Harper's Ferry Armory. Gunfire lasted all day, until by morning the Marines surrounded them. Brown's group killed 4 people, including a free black man, and his opponents killed 10 of Brown's men, including two of Brown's sons. He was tried, and hanged on 2 December in public, believing himself (and many others agreed) to be a martyr.
Sources: PBS: The American Experience: Pottawatomie Massacre / The Pottawatomie Killings -- It is Established Beyond Controversy That John Brown Was the Leader. Statement of James Townsley. In the Republican Citizen, Paola, Kansas, 20 Dec 1879 / The Trial of John Brown: A Commentary, by Douglas O. Linder, 2005 / Wikipedia: John Brown and Wikipedia: Pottawatomie Massacre / John Brown and the Pottawatomie Killings, sourced from To Purge This Land With Blood: A Biography of John Brown, by Stephen B. Oates, 1970 /
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23 May 2007
Looking Back: 23 May 2007
23 MAY is ...
>>> 509 years since Girolamo Savonarola (1452 - 1498), aka Jerome or Hieronymus Savonarola, an Italian Dominican priest and leader of Florence, was executed by the state (1498). He spent most of his career preaching against the corruption of the clergy and averred that Christian life involved being good, not accomplishing pompous displays. He hoped to correct the excesses of the church and purge it of immorality and depravity. One of his favourite topics was the Last Days, and he was very popular and influential with the people because of a confluence of current events that made it seem that the last days might really be at hand. He was "venerated by his followers as a prophet." When he replaced Lorenzo Medici as the leader of Florence in 1494, he established what he called a 'Christian and religious Republic,' one whose first acts was to make sodomy a capital offence. His 'Bonfire of the Vanities' in Feb. 1497 was a collection and subsequent burning of "items associated with moral laxity" such as mirrors, cosmetics, pagan books, playing cards, games and chess pieces, musical instruments, finery, and Renaissance artworks. Eventually the citizenry got tired of him, as the last days didn't manifest, and there was rioting and revolt against him, with taverns and gambling establishments re-opened. Savonarola was excommunicated in May 1497 by Pope Alexander VI (though Savonarola continued to celebrate Mass in defiance) and arrested by him in 1498, charged with "heresy, uttering prophecies, sedition, and religious error." He and two associates, brothers Domenico and Silvestro, were tortured on the rack and signed confessions ("the torturers spared only Savonarola’s right arm, in order that he might be able to sign his confession"). He and his associates were given over by the church to secular authorities to be hung on a gallows and then burned.
Sources: Catholic Encyclopedia / NNDB / Wikipedia / The History Guide (with brief bibliography) / Church History Institute / A Brief History of the Apocalypse / see also: The Burning of the Vanities: Savonarola and the Borgia Pope by Desmond Seward (2006, UK), and Scourge and Fire: Savonarola and Renaissance Italy by Lauro Martines (2007, UK) or Fire in the City: Savonarola and the Struggle for the Soul of Renaissance Florence by Lauro Martines (2006, U.S.)
>>> 359 years since the Netherlands gained independence from Spain (1648). The country, now a constitutional monarchy, was part of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands, under the rule of Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor and king of Spain, until 1579. The Eighty Years' War between the provinces and Spain began in 1568, and in 1579, the northern half of the Seventeen Provinces declared independence from Spain, forming the Union of Utrecht. Philip II, who followed Charles V, continued warring with them until 1648, when Spain finally recognized Dutch independence. After this, the Netherlands became a major seafaring and economic power in the so-called Dutch Golden Age.
Sources: Wikipedia / Modern History Sourcebook: The Dutch Declaration of Independence, 1581 / World History at KLMA (Korean Minjok Leadership Academy) : Dutch Revolt
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22 May 2007
Looking Back: 22 May 2007
22 MAY is ...
>>> 47 years since the Great Chilean Earthquake (1960), aka Valdivian Earthquake, aka Terremoto de Valdivia, the most powerful ever recorded on Earth, at 9.5 on the Moment magnitude scale. It affected southern Chile (particularly Concepcion, Valdivia, and Valparaiso), Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, and the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. The epicenter was near Valdivia, Chile; the main tsunami raced across the Pacific Ocean and devastated Hilo, Hawaii. The death toll isn't known but estimates of the fatalities from earthquake and tsunamis range from 490 to 6,000 killed. (Most likely, around 1,825)
Sources: The Tsunami Page of Dr. George Pararas-Carayannis: Chile Earthquake and Tsunami of 22 May 1960 / Great Tsunamis: 1960 Chilean Tsunami / USGS: Historic Earthquakes: The Largest Earthquake in the World / Wikipedia
>>> 15 years since Johnny Carson's last appearance as host of The Tonight Show (1992), after 30 years hosting it (since 1 Oct. 1962) and 4,531 episodes. He followed Jack Paar as host and and handed off to Jay Leno. Carson died in 2005 at age 79.
Sources: CNN: Final Show Monologue / The Man Who Retired by Bill Zehme, 2002 / CNN obituary 2005 / 'Tonight' and Forever, by Tom Shales, WaPo, 2005 / NPR obituary / surprise walk-on appearance (YouTube) on Letterman in 1994 / buy the last show on VHS or his favourite episodes, including the last one, on DVD
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21 May 2007
Looking Back: 21 May 2007
21 MAY is ...
>>> 16 years since former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a terrorist (1991) while he was campaigning for a member of Congress in Tamil Nadu. A female suicide bomber (Thenmuli Rajaratnam, aka Dhanu, aka Gayatri) detonated an RDX explosive-laden belt tucked below her dress as she was greeting Gandhi while he walked toward the dais to give a speech. "The assassination was caught on film through the lens of a local photographer, whose camera and film was found from the site." The cameraman and 13 others also died in the blast. The courts held that "the killing was carried out due to personal animosity of the LTTE chief ... towards Mr Rajiv Gandhi arising out of his sending the IPKF to Sri Lanka and the alleged IPKF atrocities against Tamils," and sentenced to death 26 people accused of the assassination; on appeal to the Supreme Court, 4 were given death sentences and the rest jail terms. (LTTE = Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, aka Tamil Tigers, a militant secessionist group in Sri Lanka; IPKF = Indian Peace Keeping Force, a governmental military force charged with peacekeeping in Sri Lanka)
Sources: Tamil Nation.org: Rajiv Gandhi Assassination: The Verdict / Wikipedia / BBC On This Day: Bomb Kills India's Former Leader Rajiv Gandhi / Asian Tribune: India Remembers Rajiv Gandhi assassination by Prabakaran - LTTE Leader, 2007
>>> 113 years since French anarchist (born in Spain) Emile Henry was executed by guillotining by the state (1894) following a terrorist act in February in which he detonated a bomb at the Café Terminus in the Parisian Gare Saint-Lazare, killing one person and wounding twenty. This was an act of retaliation against the state execution of another anarchist, who had destroyed a government building but hurt no people. "He saw the Cafe as a representation of the bourgeois itself and his intent was to kill as many people as possible in the bombing. When brought to trial for these acts, he was asked by the courts why he had needlessly harmed so many innocent people, to which he replied, '... there are no innocent bourgeois.'" He had previously placed a bomb in the offices of a mining company notorious for its strike-breaking activities; that bomb killed several policemen. He was seen as part of a growing movement of revolutionaries whose mantra was 'propaganda by deed' (as was American Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of President William McKinley in 1901).
Sources: Emile Henry Reference Archive at marxists.org / The Anarchists: Their Faith and Their Record: Chapter 8: The French Terror (Ernest Alfred Vizetelly, 1911) / Wikipedia / The Nation: 'There Are No Innocents', by Alexander Cockburn, Oct. 2004 / The Economist: For jihadist, read anarchist, Aug. 2005
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20 May 2007
Looking Back: 20 May 2007
20 MAY is ... Cuban Independence Day
>>> 105 years since Cuba gained its independence from the United States (1902). In the 1800s, there were some rebellions staged by pro-slavery forces in the U.S. (with help of political parties in Cuba) to annex Cuba to the U.S., and there were proposals in the U.S. to buy Cuba from Spain, but Spain wasn't selling. After the U.S. Civil War, an 1868 rebellion in Cuba to gain independence from Spain led to the Ten Years' War, during which the U.S. remained neutral. Pro-independence factions gained strength again in the 1890s, and around mid-decade oppressive Spanish forces herded the rural population into reconcentrados, the prototype for 20th century concentration camps, in which between 200,000 and 400,000 Cuban civilians died from starvation and disease. On 15 February 1898, the battleship USS Maine was blown up in Havana harbor, killing 266 people, and this event became the pretext for U.S. war with Spain. "Swept along on a wave of nationalist sentiment, the U.S. Congress passed a resolution calling for intervention and President William McKinley was quick to comply. The result was the Spanish-American War," which the U.S. won in a matter of months. The peace accord signed in August placed Cuba under a 20-year U.S. treaty, but when Theodore Roosevelt became U.S. president in 1901, he abandoned the treaty proposal and soon after, the Republic of Cuba gained formal independence.
Sources: LOC: The World of 1898: Cuba / Wikipedia / Free Cuba Foundation: Brief History of Cuba / Smithsonian National Postal Museum: The Republic of Cuba / 100 Years of Conflict, InterPress Third World News Agency, 1998
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19 May 2007
Looking Back: 19 May 2007
19 MAY is ...
>>> 110 years since Oscar Wilde was released from Reading Gaol (1897) after serving two years hard labour. The flamboyant Wilde (1854-1900), a popular guest at dinner parties because of his witty remarks, was a writer who published a fairytale collection for children (he had a wife and two children himself), several plays including The Importance of Being Earnest, Lady Windermere's Fan, and An Ideal Husband, and a novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. He was sent to jail for the crime of "gross indecency" after the Marquess of Queensbury denounced Wilde as a homosexual (Wilde was involved with the marquess' son). After his release, he went to Paris where he died of cerebral meningitis three years later.
Sources: Victorian Web: Oscar Wilde / History.com: This Day in History / Wikipedia / The Free Library (with lots of unreferenced quotes of Wilde's) / text of The Ballad of Reading Gaol (Bibliomania) /
>>> 227 years since New England's Dark Day (1780), during the American Revolution. The sky over New England, from northern New Jersey to Portland, ME, and west into the Hudson River Valley, darkened between noon and 2 p.m. and remained dark through normal dusk hours. It's still not known why this abnormal event occurred, although it's thought that a combination of smoke from forest fires and a thick fog may have been the cause. Others thought that "the day of judgment was at hand" (some still do) and churches were well-attended although travel was difficult.
Sources: Weather Almanac / excerpt from Legendary Connecticut by David E. Philips / Wikipedia / The Gallery of Natural Phenomena: Dark Days /
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18 May 2007
Looking Back: 18 May 2007
18 MAY is ...
>>> 33 years since India became a nuclear power (1974), the sixth in the world after the U.S., Soviet Union, Great Britain, China and France. The fission bomb was successfully detonated in Pokhran in the Thar Desert (aka Great Indian Desert) region, in the state of Rajasthan, on the "traditional anniversary of the Buddha's enlightenment, and Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi received the message 'Buddha has smiled' from the exuberant test-site scientists after the detonation."
Sources: Federation of American Scientists: WMD: India ; also, images of the test / Nuclear Weapon Archive.org (very detailed) / History.com: This Day in History / Google Earth Community /
>>> 111 years since rumours of scarcity led to the Khodynka Tragedy in Russia (1896). Possibly as many as 500,000 people were gathered on Khodynka Field on the evening of 17 May, ready to receive the coronation presents they'd heard that Nicholas II, who had just been crowned Tsar of Russia on the 13th, was going to distribute; at 5 a.m., a rumour spread that "there was not enough beer and presents for everybody. A police force of 1,800 men failed to maintain civil order, and in a catastrophic crush and resulting panic to flee the scene, 1,389 people were trampled to death and roughly 1,300 were otherwise injured." Nicholas and Alexandra were shocked and spent the day visiting hospitals. (The actual gifts were a bread roll, sausage, gingerbread and a mug.) (The date in the old system is 30 May.)
Sources: Royal Russia: Nicholas and Alexandra / Wikipedia / buy a Coronation mug at eBay! / facsimile of programme of the festivities on Khodynka Field / PBS.org: Faberge Eggs / book, Scenarios of Power: Myth and Ceremony in Russian Monarchy from Peter the Great to the Abdication of Nicholas II by Richard S. Wortman (2006)
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17 May 2007
Looking Back: 17 May
17 MAY is ... diving day, not dividing day ...
>>> 1 year since the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany was sunk in the Gulf of Mexico to become an artificial reef (2006). I don't remember hearing anything about this! This ship, built in the late 1940s and commissioned in Sept. 1950, was an Essex-class aircraft carrier of the United States Navy, named for the Revolutionary War Battle of Oriskany. Senator John McCain served on the ship during the Vietnam War. The ship was decommissioned in 1976, taken off the Naval Vessel Register in 1989, and sold for scrapping in 1994, but then repossessed by the Navy in 1997. In 2004, the Navy announced that the former aircraft carrier would become an artificial reef off the coast of Florida, the first former warship deliberately re-purposed as an artificial reef and sport diving attraction. The EPA, after testing, approved the sinking, and in March last year the ship was towed to Pensacola, FL; on 17 May, a Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal team detonated C-4 explosive charges of approximately 500 total pounds net explosive weight, spread strategically through the ship. Within 40 mins. of detonation, the ship settled in 210 feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico. Divers seem to love the ship-reef.
Sources: Naval Historical Center: US Navy Ships / USS Oriskany becomes the Largest Intentional Manmade Reef! (eyewitness account of sinking, with photos and video) / Dive Oriskany.com / Oriskany: One Year Below, at Pensacola News Journal, 13 May 2007 / Wikipedia /
>>> 53 years since the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown vs. Board of Education decision (1954), which unanimously declared that a system of separate public schools for black and white students was inherently unequal. The suit was originally filed in U.S. District Court in 1951 by thirteen Topeka, Kansas, parents on behalf of their twenty children against the Board of Education of the City of Topeka, Kansas. The parents wanted the school district to reverse its policy of racial segregation. The named plaintiff was Oliver L. Brown, a welder for the Santa Fe railroad who was studying for the ministry, whose daughter Linda, in 3rd grade, had to walk six blocks to her school bus stop to ride to Monroe Elementary, her segregated black school one mile away, while Sumner Elementary, a white school, was only seven blocks from her house. (All the other Topeka plaintiff parents were female.) By the time it became a Supreme Court case, there were about 200 plaintiffs from 4 states involved. The Brown decision did not result in the immediate desegregation of America's public schools or mandate desegregation of public accommodations that were privately owned (like restaurants); for that, we had to wait for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Sources: Brown v. Board.org / Smithsonian Institution: Separate is Not Equal / National Center for Public Policy Research: Brown v. Board of Education / Wikipedia /
>>> 105 years since the discovery of the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient mechanical analog computer, by Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais (1902). It was part of an ancient cargo ship wreck found in 1900 off Antikythera island, 138 ft down, and was at first thought to be a rock with a gear wheel embedded in it. Stais realised that the rock was actually a bronze mechanism, 13 in. high x 6.7 in. wide x 3.5 in. thick, inscribed with a text of over 2,000 characters and consisting of at least 30 precision, hand-cut bronze gears. It's thought to date from about 80 B.C. A 1959 Scientific American article notes: "Nothing like this instrument is preserved elsewhere. Nothing comparable to it is known. from any ancient scientific text or literary allusion. On the contrary, from all that we know of science and technology in the Hellenistic Age we should have felt that such a device could not exist." The Antikythera Mechanism Research Project website says: "It ... is the most sophisticated mechanism known from the ancient world. Nothing as complex is known for the next thousand years. The Antikythera Mechanism is now understood to be dedicated to astronomical phenomena and operates as a complex mechanical 'computer' which tracks the cycles of the Solar System.
Sources: World Mysteries: An Ancient Greek Computer? / The Antikythera Mechanism Research Project / The Antikythera Mechanism: Physical and Intellectual Salvage from the 1st Century B.C. / Wikipedia
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16 May 2007
Looking Back: 16 May 2007
16 MAY is ...
>>> 244 years since 23-year-old Scottish lawyer and essayist James Boswell met the subject of his major work, 54-year-old Samuel Johnson, in Tom Davies's London bookshop (1763), at 8 Russell Street, Covent Garden. Boswell's two-volume biography, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D., was published in 1791, seven years after Johnson died. It records in detail Johnson's words and activities through a relatively short period. Johnson was a witty essayist, lexicographer, and biographer, the author of the most important English dictionary until the OED.
Sources: Authors Calendar: James Boswell / Boswell's Life of Johnson, 1763 / Wikipedia: James Boswell / NNDB: James Boswell / Who Is This Johnson Guy? by Jack Lynch / The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page /
>>> approximately 439 years since Mary Stuart (1542 - 1587), Queen of Scotland, fled Scotland for England after her army was defeated on 13 May (1568). She reached England on 19 May seeking sanctuary with her cousin, Elizabeth I -- she didn't find it; Elizabeth has her imprisoned for 19 years in various English castles and finally Mary was sentenced to death for her supposed involvement in a plot to overthrow Elizabeth, and was executed by beheading at Fotheringhay Castle in February 1587.
Mary's life was tumultuous. Her first marriage, in 1558 at age 15, was to the French King Henri II's heir, the Dauphin Francis, and when he succeeded to his father's throne in 1559, Mary became Queen of France as well as of Scotland. Soon after his death the next year, of an ear infection, Mary returned to Scotland, a Catholic queen in a now-Protestant country, which posed its own problems. She married her second husband in 1565, her second cousin Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, with whom she fell in love while nursing him through measles. The next year, Darnley, whose character turned out to be less than sterling, and other conspirators, murdered Mary's Italian secretary, David Rizzio (also Riccio), at the Palace, by stabbing him 57 times, and threatened the 6-months-pregnant Queen Mary. Less than a year later, in Feb. 1567, Darnley was killed (strangled, along with a servant, and the house he was living in blown up) outside the walls of Edinburgh, by James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, principally, as well as others, with Mary implicated. (Bothwell was acquitted in a rigged trial. Mary wasn't tried.) Mary married her husband's murderer three months later, riling the other Scottish nobles, who instigated civil war. Mary abdicated in favour of her infant son, James, and fled. She never saw Scotland or her son again.
Sources: Undiscovered Scotland: Mary Queen of Scots / Kings and Queens of Scotland / TudorPlace: Mary Queen of Scotland / Wikipedia / Monty Python's 'Death of Mary, Queen of Scots' /
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15 May 2007
Looking Back: 15 May 2007
15 MAY is ... another Ides?
>>> 35 years since an assassination attempt on governor George C. Wallace of Alabama (1972) by Arthur Bremer, who was apparently motived by a desire for fame; he really wanted to assassinate Richard Nixon but that didn't work out. Bremer shot Wallace 4 times at close range while Wallace was campaigning for president in Laurel, Maryland, and the resulting paralysis of both legs put an end to Wallace's presidential bid. Bremer pleaded insanity but the jury didn't buy it; he was sentenced to 63 years in prison; he's currently at the Maryland Correctional Institution in Hagerstown, where he will be released in 18 years at the age of 75 if not paroled earlier. Wallace was easily re-elected as Ala. governor for a third term in 1974, and he won again in 1982. He had come to national fame as a segregationist in June 1963 when he tried to block federal authorities at the University of Alabama in Montgomery from enrolling two black students. He ran as a third-party presidential candidate in 1968, diverting enough votes from Dem. candidate Hubert Humphrey to pave the way for Richard Nixon to win.
Sources: Alabama Dept. of Archives and History / CNN: George Wallace Dies (1998) / NPR: Wallace in the Schoolhouse Door: Marking the 40th Anniversary of Alabama's Civil Rights Standoff / PBS, American Experience: George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire / Wikipedia: George Wallace /
>>> 207 years since an assassination attempt (the second one) on King George III (1738-1820) of England (1800) by James Hatfield (possibly Hadfield), who fired a pistol at both King George and Queen Charlotte in their box at Drury Lane Theatre, London, during the playing of the national anthem. He missed, then said, "God bless your royal highness; I like you very well; you are a good fellow." Hatfield pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity; the court found that he had "a comprehensive delusional system that had been caused by brain damage following a serious head injury." He spent the rest of his life at Bethlem Royal Hospital (aka Bedlam) except for a short period when he escaped. George III reigned for 60 years, including during the American Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, and was thought to have suffered from porphyria, triggered perhaps by arsenic poisoning. An historical medal was made to commemorate the king's preservation from the 1800 assassination attempt. (The first assassination attempt was by Margaret Nicholson in 1786, who tried to stab him outside St. James's Palace.)
Sources: Britannia: George III / Wikipedia: George III of the U.K. / Kings and Queens of the U.K. / BBC: King George III: Mad or Misunderstood? / Britain Express: George III and the Regency /
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14 May 2007
Looking Back: 14 May 2007
14 MAY is ... adventuring in America!
>>> 203 years since Captain Meriwether Lewis and 2nd Lt. William Clark, a Newfoundland dog named Seaman, and 30 or so more men left Camp Dubois, near present day Hartford, Illinois, to start their expedition to the Pacific Ocean (1804). They explored more than 8,000 total miles over 2 years, 4 months and 10 days, recording observations of 178 plants and 122 species and subspecies of animals.
Sources: Discovering Lewis and Clark / PBS: Lewis and Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery by Ken Burns / Lewis and Clark: Mapping the West / Lewis and Clark.net / Full text of the Lewis and Clark journals / Wikipedia /
>>> 400 years since the first permanent British settlement in North America was established at Jamestown, Virginia, by the Virginia Company Charter (1607), led by Captain John Smith. (Photo at The Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities)
Sources: History of Jamestown (Assoc. for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities / Pop Matters: Why Jamestown Matters / Jamestown 2007 / Virtual Jamestown
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13 May 2007
Looking Back: 13 May 2007
13 MAY is ... war-oriented
>>> 67 years since England's Prime Minister Winston Churchill uttered the words, "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat" (1940), three days after becoming prime minister. The words that followed those were these: "We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival."
Sources: Winston Churchill Centre / Phrase Finder / mp3 audio of Churchill's speech /
>>> 143 years since the first soldier was buried at what is now Arlington National Cemetery (1864). He was a Confederate prisoner of war, who had died at a local hospital. ANC, which is run by the National Park Service, is the final resting place for more than 320,000 people, including soldiers from every war in which the United States has participated. Arlington House was originally the home of the step-grandson (and adopted son) of George Washington, George Washington Parke Custis, and after George Curtis's daughter, Mary Anna, married Lieutenant Robert E. Lee, the Lees lived there until Lee became head of the Confederate Army. After he left to run the war, the Union Army took over the house and grounds as a military headquarters and camp, and in 1864, the government confiscated it because back taxes hadn't been paid -- they had to be paid in person, which was tres difficile during the war, with the Lees being hundreds of miles away. Robert Kennedy is buried there, and the eternal flame burns at John F. Kennedy's gravesite. There is also a monument commemorating the Challenger explosion (and buried there are the "unidentified, commingled, partial remains" of the seven astronauts who died aboard Challenger on 28 Jan 1986), the sinking of the U.S.S. Maine, and the downing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Other famous people buried there are Audie Murphy, Glenn Miller, Pierre Charles L'Enfant, Robert R. Scott, Robert Edwin Peary, Matthew Alexander Henson, and boxer Joe Louis. I visited ANC in January and was struck by the fact that there is someone ALWAYS keeping guard over the Tomb of the Unknown Solider, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Sources: LOC May 13 / Arlington National Cemetery History / Wikipedia
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12 May 2007
Looking Back: 12 May 2007
12 MAY is ...
>>> 81 years since Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1 in F Minor (Opus 10) premiered in Leningrad by the Leningrad Philharmonic under Nikolai Malko (1926). Shostakovich (Sept. 1906 - Aug. 1975) was 19. His first true love, Tatiana Glivenko, whom he had met at age 16 while recovering from illness in a sanitorium, attended the premiere, sitting beside his sister, with whom she had already struck up a friendship. (They were never married, thanks to his mother's interference and his own bumbling.) Shostakovich became the first Soviet artist to receive major world-wide recognition when this symphony was received enthusiastically in Europe and America.
Sources: RUVR: Dmitry Shostakovich and His Muses / The Voice of Russia: Dmitry Shostakovich in Petrograd-Leningrad / Dr. Dick's Blog: Shostakovich & the Soviet Avant-Garde / Wikipedia
>>> 95 years since the Beverly Hills Hotel opened on Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills, CA (1912). Nicknamed the Pink Palace and costing $500,000 to build (but $100 million to renovate in 1993-1995), it's been immortalised by the Eagle' song Hotel California. The city of Beverly Hills grew up around the hotel: When water (instead of oil) was found while drilling the land that was to become Beverly Hills, Burton Green formed the Rodeo Land and Water Company to build a city with large lots of curved, tree-lined streets. To make his city stand out from the housing developments popping up in Southern California at the turn of the century, he persuaded Margaret J. Anderson and her son, Stanley S. Anderson, of Hollywood Hotel fame, to build their dream hotel in the then-undeveloped area. (It didn't hurt Beverly Hills' rise to fame when screen stars Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks built their country home nearby in 1920.) Guests of the hotel have included John F. Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor, Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino, Spencer Tracy, Howard Hughes, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, Marilyn Monroe, John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Aristotle Onassis, and the Duke of Windsor. The hotel was the location for movies such as Neil Simon's "California Suite," "The Way We Were," "Shampoo," and "American Gigolo."
Sources: Five Star Alliance / City of Beverly Hills: History of Beverly Hills / Seeing Stars / Wikipedia
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11 May 2007
Looking Back: 11 May 2007
11 MAY is ...
>>> 505 years since the 4th and last voyage of Christopher Columbus from Cádiz, Spain (1502) with four ships -- Capitana, Gallega, Vizcaína and Santiago de Palos -- searching for the Strait of Malacca, a passage to the Spice Islands. The voyage was beset with problems, including a hurricane, attack by natives, mutiny, and sinking ships that resulted in the marooning of Columbus and his crew for a year. They visited, sailed along, and/or explored Martinique (15 June), Hispaniola (29 June, and again later), Cuba, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama (establishing a trading post/garrison at Santa María de Belén in the Veraguas region, to look for gold mines), and Jamaica (where they were marooned). Columbus sighted the Cayman Islands, which he called Las Tortugas for the sea turtles there. He and the crew finally returned to Sanlúcar, Spain, in November 1504 after a ship came to pick them up. A book about the voyage was written by Martin Dugard, titled The Last Voyage of Columbus: Being the Epic Tale of the Great Captain's Fourth Expedition, Including Accounts of Swordfight, Mutiny, Shipwreck, Gold, War, Hurricane and Discovery: "The final voyage of Christopher Columbus was by far his most dangerous, unexpected, exhilarating, and consequential." [Some sources say he left Cadiz on 9 May.]
Sources: Encyclopedia Britannica: Christopher Columbus: The fourth voyage and final years / The Fourth Voyage of Columbus / Wikipedia: Columbus's Fourth Voyage / Catholic Encyclopedia: Christopher Columbus / Powells Books
>>> 38 years since the comedy troupe Monty Python was formed (1969). John Cleese and Graham Chapman were introduced to Terry Gilliam (the only American in the group), Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin after a filming of Do Not Adjust Your Set. On 23 May, they were given the OK to begin creating a comedy series for BBC1, airing late on Sunday nights. The series was Monty Python's Flying Circus, which aired from 1969 to 1974. (It was shown for the first time in the U.S. in 1974, on a Dallas public broadcasting station.) Monty Python also made movies, including Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Life of Brian (1979), and Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life (1983).
Sources: Monty Python FAQ (in cache) / BBC: Monty Python's Flying Circus and 30th anniversary of Python features / Playhouse Square Center: Spamalot / Monty Python scripts
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10 May 2007
Looking Back: 10 May 2007
10 May is ...
>>> 740 years since the Synod of Vienna (the Catholic Church) ordered all Jews to wear a distinctive, peaked yellow hat (1267). Jews were forced to wear Pileum cornutum (a cone-shaped headdress) in addition to the yellow badge they were already made to wear. (In the same year, the Council of Wroclaw in Poland created segregated Jewish quarters in towns and ordered Jews to wear a special emblem.)
Sources: Wikipedia: Yellow Badge and Judenhut / Religious Tolerance: Overview of 2000 Years of Jewish Persecution / Jewish Encyclopedia: Judenhut /
>>> 233 years since Louis XVI ascended to the throne of France at age 20 (1774), four years after he married Marie Antoinette, daughter of the empress Maria Theresa. When he became king, after his grandfather King Louis XV died (his father had already died in 1765), France was already impoverished, in debt, and heavily taxed (in 1777, France declared bankruptcy); this taxation, coupled with the lavish spending of the court, led eventually to the French Revolution, beginning with the storming of the Bastille by the French people in 1789, and including the guillotining of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette (among others) in 1793.
Sources: Royal Genealogies / Wikipedia / NNDB
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09 May 2007
Looking Back: 9 May 2007
9 MAY is ...
"Europe Day" in the European Union. From 1964 to 1985, Europe Day was celebrated on 5 May, to commemorate the official founding of the Council of Europe in 1949, but at the Milan summit in 1985, it was decided to celebrate Europe Day on 9 May, to commemorate French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman's proposal (now called the Schuman Declaration) on the creation of an organised Europe on this date in 1950. The speech was mainly about the need to pool French and German coal and steel production.
Sources: EUROPA / Konsument Europa / Wikipedia /
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>>> 17 years since journalist Jimmy Breslin was suspended from his job for two weeks without pay for racial and sexist slurs (1990). After Breslin's May 3 Newsday column about how his home life had suffered since his wife became a city councilor, a Korean-American colleague, 25-year-old reporter Ji-Yeon Mary Yuh, wrote a letter criticising the column as sexist. Breslin responded with a verbal barrage (spoken in the newsroom) of racial and sexual epithets about Yuh, for which he apologized, but then soon afterwards on Howard Stern's call-in radio talk show he joked about the incident. Some of the slurs: yellow cur, slant-eyed c***, f***ing bitch, and so on (details at Wikipedia). In light of recent events involving radio talk show host Don Imus, it's important to note that this was not an isolated instance of racial and/or sexist slurs by journalists in 1990; the Indiana Univ. School of Journalism's Year in Review 1990 mentions, besides Breslin's suspension, that 60 Minutes essayist Andy Rooney was suspended for three months for "anti-black comments," and that conservative politician Patrick Buchanan was criticised for anti-Semitic comments.
Sources: NYT "Not for Publication" (May 13, 1990) / totse.com: Village Voice: "She Tackled Breslin: Mary Ji-Yeon Yuh versus the Real New Yorker," 22 May 1990 / CJR: "Fit Punishment," by Nat Hentoff / Wikipedia: Jimmy Breslin
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08 May 2007
Looking Back: 8 May 2007
8 MAY is ...
>>> 121 years since Dr. John S. Pemberton sold the first Coca-Cola drink (1886) at Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia. Until 1905, the drink, marketed as a tonic and sold for 5 cents per glass, contained extracts of cocaine as well as the caffeine-rich kola nut. Pemberton was a morphine addict who died at age 57.
Sources: Wired: May 8, 1886: Looking for Pain Relief, and Finding Coca-Cola Instead / LOC American Memory / About.com: Inventors: The History of Coca Cola
>>> 105 years since Mount Pelée erupted, killing between 26,000 - 36,000 people (1902). It's the worst volcanic disaster of the 20th century. The volcano destroyed the city of Saint-Pierre on Martinique, a French island in the Caribbean West Indies, as well as about 20 boats in the harbor and some of their passengers. Pelee is a stratovolcano with a lava dome, standing almost 4,600 feet high, made up of pyroclastic rock. Before the May 8 eruption, the volcano showed signs of activity (summit explosions, tremors, ash-showers) in April that sent biting red ants, foot-long centipedes, and poisonous snakes down the slopes; 'an estimated 50 humans, mostly children, died by the snake bites, along with some 200 animals.' Apparently, a committee of civic leaders (some of whom wanted residents to vote in the upcoming May 11 municipal elections) assessed the danger and on May 5 published their findings that 'the safety of St. Pierre is completely assured.'
Sources: USGS Mt Pelee page / Vic Camp's How Volcanoes Work: Mt. Pelee / Wikipedia / Volcano World: Mt Pelee (lots of images)
>>> 62 years since V-E (Victory in Europe) Day: Germany signs unconditional surrender, WW II ends in Europe (1945). The surrender papers were signed on 7 May; all active operations were to end at 23:01 Central European Time on 8 May (or 1 minute after midnight, 9 May, in Britain, which was then on British Double Summer Time). May 8 was also Harry Truman's 61st birthday.
Source: audio of Edward R. Murrow in Piccadilly Circus (London) with people celebrating the end of war in Europe / Canadian Broadcasting report of V-E Day, with links to photos / Winston Churchill's speech to V-E Day crowds, reminding them of the continuing war with the Japanese / Eyewitness to History: Recollections of VE Day 1945 / The Guardian's V-E Day Focus on the 60th anniversary
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07 May 2007
Looking Back: 7 May 2007
MAY 7 is ...
>>> 183 years since Beethoven's 9th (Choral) Symphony (Op. 125) premiered in Vienna (1824). In the last movement, a chorus sings music set to a text by Friedrich Schiller, his ode "To Joy." Beethoven was deaf and couldn't hear the thunderous applause of the packed Kärntnertortheater; he had to be turned around to face the audience.
Source: NPR Online / The Connection: Beethoven's 9th Symphony Rebroadcast / Classical Music Pages (with chorale words in German and English) / Wikipedia
>>> 92 years since the British ship Lusitania, traveling from New York to Liverpool, was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine off the coast of Ireland (1915). "The Lusitania carried a healthy complement of American passengers when she departed New York for Liverpool on May 1, 1915, despite a published warning from the German authorities that appeared in U.S. newspapers the morning of her departure." She was sunk 6 days later just south of Queenstown, Ireland, by a U-20 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Walther Schwieger. The ship, struck by a single torpedo, sank in 18 minutes, with 1195 of the 1959 on board killed.
Sources: PBS: Lost Liners / First World War.com: "RMS Lusitania: The Fateful Voyage" / EyeWitness to History: The Sinking of the Lusitania
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06 May 2007
Looking Back: 6 May 2007
6 MAY is ...
>>> 70 years since the dirigible Hindenburg explodes while landing in New Jersey after a transatlantic flight, killing 36 people and injuring many more (1937). The passengers and crew lon the ship originally numbered 99. The airship was already more than 12 hours late arriving due to headwinds over the Atlantic.
Sources: Google video: Silent footage about the disaster of the Zeppelin Hindenburg exploding while docking in Lakehurst, New Jersey, 5 mins, 26 secs. (first, a safe docking is shown) / YouTube video of explosion / Hindenburg.net: scroll down for