Histortweet Week in Review - W/E August 1, 2009

[SFX: CHURCHBELL] 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 August 1, 2009:

[SFX: SOUND827]World: DATELINE Italy, July 29, 1900: Anarchist Bresci sails home to shoot the king
The Back-Story:
[SFX: Kill the King] In the eyes of anarchist Gaetano Bresci, Italy’s king, Umberto I, had become a tyrant. When Bresci, who had fled his native Italy for America, heard the news of cannons being fired at laborers protesting the high price of bread, he sailed to France, bought a revolver, and started practicing. Eventually, he made his way to Milan, where he shot the king four times during a medal ceremony. Bresci was sentenced to life,[SFX: You are guilty] but died in suspicious circumstances after a year in prison.[SFX: Kill the King]

[SFX: SOUND827]Things that make you go Huh?:[SFX: Things that make you go hmm] DATELINE Prague, July 30, 1419. Hussites, dissatisfied with city council, throw the bums out. Of the windows. Not the last Czech defenestration
The Back-Story:
[SFX: Close the door! They’re coming in the windows!] In another story involving an angry mob, after Hussite protestors in Prague were attacked with stones from inside the town hall, they stormed the hall and threw the several members of the town council out of the windows to their death. In1618, History repeated itself [SFX: Do It Again]at the second defenestration of Prague.

[SFX: SOUND827]In other news: DATELINE New York, July 28, 1945: Préjà-vu as Airplane slams into skyscraper into NYC
The Back-Story:
[SFX: New York, New York] Flying in fog is never easy. Doing so in the middle of Manhattan can be fatal. On a foggy July morning, Lt. Col. William Smith gave it a try in his B-25 Bomber, despite the warnings of the control tower[SFX: Space Oddity]. He quickly became disoriented and dropped illeegally low, to 1,000 feet, weaving his way through about a dozen skyscrapers before his fateful – and fatal – encounter with the Empire State Building. Fourteen people died in the accident, but the building stood tall.[SFX: I’m Still Standing]

[SFX: SOUND827]This week’s birthdays:[SFX: In the Club]
July 26: Psychiatrist Carl Jung
July 27: Ballplayer and Madonna’s Squeeze, A-Rod
July 28: Children’s Author Beatrix Potter
July 29: Dictator Benito Mussolini
July 30: Governator Arnold Schwarzenneger
July 31: “Harry Potter” Author JK Rowling
And August 1: National Anthem Lyricist Francis Scott Key

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