Histortweet Week in Review - W/E July 18, 2009

Greetings, History Lovers! Welcome to This Tweet in History, the Week In Review, podcasting to you on tape delay from our North American Studios.

Here are your top stories for the week ending July 18, 2009:

World: DATELINE Rome, July 18, 64: Rome sizzles, Nero fiddles, Christians belittled
The Back-Story:
Popular legend has Caesar Nero playing his fiddle while Rome burned, although the fiddle was invented 1000 years later. Some claim that Nero, who styled himself as the consummate artist, played his lute and sang the epic, “Sack of Ilium” as though providing the soundtrack to the cosmic opera unfolding before him. There were also rumors that Nero was behind the fire, as it opened the door for him to have Rome rebuilt in marbled grandeur, befitting his eminence. Whatever the truth was, Nero needed a scapegoat, and he found one in the relatively new Christian sect, whose members he persecuted mercilessly, nailing them to crosses, throwing them to the dogs, and even setting them ablaze for use as streetlights.

Sports: DATELINE Rio, July 16, 1950: It takes a village to help underdog Uruguay raise the Cup
The Back-Story:
It was the first World Cup after World War II and, when the heavily favored team from the host country, Brazil, played Uruguay in the final, a record 200,000 spectators, a village-worth of people, turned out to watch. Most left disappointed and stunned as underdog, Uruguay, pulled off a come-from-behind, upset victory, 2-1.

Technology: DATELINE North America, July 16,1957– He’s got the Right Stuff: Glenn goes coast to coast in under 3 ½ hours. Next stops, Outer Space, Congress:
The Back-Story:
On a crisp Tuesday morning, young Major John Glenn strapped himself into a jet in California. When he landed in Brooklyn, three hours, 23 minutes later, he had set a new transcontinental speed record of 725.55 miles per hour – even with three in-flight refuelings. This was the first transcontinental flight to average supersonic speed. Major Glenn made the flight not to chase a record, but, rather, to prove that the plane’s engines could tolerate an extended period of full-afterburner without damage. Following the historic flight, John Glenn was selected for the space program, and, in 1974, elected to the Senate. In 1998, Glenn, who, 36 years earlier was the first American to orbit the Earth, returned to space aboard the shuttle Discovery.

This week’s birthdays:
July 12: Architect Buckminster Fuller
July 13: Professor and puzzle designer Erno Rubik
July 14: Folk singer Woody Guthrie
July 15: Artist Rembrandt van Rijn
July 16: Polar explorer Roald Amundsen
July 17: Royal squeeze Camilla Parker Bowes
And July 18: Astronaut and Senator John Glenn

Thank you for joining us for This Tweet in History, the Week in review. Be sure to follow us on Twitter.com/histortweet, and check our archives at histortweet.blogspot.com.