Histortweet Week in Review - W/E August 15, 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 15, 2009:

[SFX: SOUND827]World: DATELINE Egypt [SFX: Walk like an Egyptian], August 12, 30 BC – Cleopatra has the world’s most beautiful face, but her asp is to die for: http://bit.ly/3zX43l
The Back-Story:
[SFX: Fire] Long before Romeo and Juliet, there were star-crossed lovers, Antony and Cleopatra. Cleopatra the queen, known for her facial beauty[SFX: Ride the Beauty], had a penchant for marrying kings, the last of these being the famed Marc Antony. One story has Antony, his army deserting him, proclaiming that Cleopatra betrayed him. Cleopatra, fearing for her life, has messengers sent to tell him that she is dead. On hearing the news, he stabs himself, and so distraught is Cleopatra at his death that she has an asp brought to her chamber and induces it to bite her, posioning her to death.

[SFX: SOUND827]Sports: DATELINE England, August 2, 1971 – Harvey Smith’s victory reversed for making a reversed victory sign to judges: http://bit.ly/3iPGhZ
The Back-Story:
[SFX: Atliens].Harvey Smith was a controversial figure in the upper-class sport of show jumping. In 1971, he returned to compete in the Derby that he had won the year before, but forgot to bring back the trophy. The judges said he arrogantly assume he’d win again, and assured he would not. He did. When he passed the reviewing stand, he gestured toward the judges; they deemed it obscene and stripped him of the title. [SFX: Bad Boys]Harvey insisted that he was merely giving Churchill’s “V for Victory” salute, but, after the judges restored his title, admitted that he had, in fact, given an obscene salute which, thenceforward, was known as the Harvey Smith.

[SFX: SOUND827]: http://bit.ly/vZyQ0:
The Back-Story:
[SFX: Pistol Packin’ Mama] In 1918, women were not allowed to vote in America, and they were fighting mad. Some 305 of them enlisted in that most prototypical bastion of testosterone, the United States Marine Corps. The first of these, Opha mae Johnson, goes down as the first woman to enlist in the Marines. Although women were only permitted to enlist in the reserves and did not see combat, their contribution was vital to the eventual victory in World War I. [SFX: Anything you can do]

[SFX: SOUND827]This week’s birthdays:[SFX: In the Club]
This weeks birthdays:
August 9: Chemist Amedeo Avogadro
August 10: US President Herbert Hoover
August 11 Genealogist Author Alex Haley
August 12: Director Cecil B. DeMille
August 13: Presidente Fidel Castro
August 14: Comedian Steve Martin
And August 15: Chef of Julia and Julia fame, Julia Childs

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