Histortweet Week in Review - W/E January 9, 2010

[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 January 9, 2010:

[SFX: SOUND827]World: DATELINE England, January 9 1806 - Brits bury naval hero, national savior http://bit.ly/783dB8
The Back-Story: [SFX:Heroes; Wind Beneath My Wings; Jerusalem]With Napoleon’s army raging unchecked through Europe, the one obstacle before his empire was the sea. In October, 1805, Britain’s Vice Admiral Nelson repelled Napoleon’s naval forces, saving the island nation, but was mortally wounded in the process. Nelson was taken to the cockpit, below deck, where he held on for 3 agonizing hours, succumbing to his wounds shortly after receiving word of his fleet’s victory. Although the tradition was burial at sea for those who persished at sea, his captain and officers, wanting to give his country a chance to honor their hero, preserved his body in a barrel of brandy and carried it back to England. There, his body lay in state before being transported by one of the king’s barges, accompanied by a grand funeral procession on the water. Following a simple ceremony, his body was laid to rest in St. Paul’s Cathedra,. [SFX:God Save the Queen; ]

[SFX: SOUND827]Sports: DATELINE Detroit, January 6, 1994 - Figure-skating goes full-contactHarding seeks leg up on Kerrigan http://bit.ly/AINSD (video)

The Back-Story: [SFX: Beat it; Burn Rubber; It Hurts] As Nancy Kerrigan left the ice rink after apractice skate for an Olympic-qualifying Figure Skating Championship match, she was jolted out of her routine by a 6-foot, 220 pound assailant wielding a police baton. The assailant attacked her knees, causing swelling and internal bleeding, before bursting through a glass door on his getaway. While Kerrigan suffered no broken bones, she was unable to participate in match, where the top two skaters, Tonya Harding and Michelle Kwon, won spots on the team. However, the US Olympic Committee, in an extraordinary move, because Kerrigan’s injury was not skating-related, promoted her to the team, making Kwon an alternate. At the Olympic games, Kerrigan won a silver, losing the gold to Ukrainian Oksan Baiul by the narrowest of margins, and Harding, who, by then, had been implicated in the attacks, went home empty handed, after an embarrassing performance.[SFX: Back in Black]

[SFX: SOUND827]: ENTR: DATELINE London, January 4, 1986 - Lizzy's Lynott succumbs after collapse from Christmas-day binge http://bit.ly/6SAkPl

The Back-Story: [SFX:I Have Got to Give It Up; Opium Trail] Philip Lynott, bassist and frontman of the rock group Thin Lizzy, was deeply influenced by his Irish heritage, and sang songs of war, deprivation, and fraternity, although widely known for the smash hit, “The Boys Are Back in Town.” Another familiar theme in Lizzy’s music was, tellingly, drug and alcohol addiction. Lynott’s bandmates watched him slip deeper and deeper into his addictions, until, after a Christmas day binge in his mansion in London, Lynott collapsed and was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with a kidney and liver infection. Ten days later, he was dead at age 36 of heart failure and pneumonia. [SFX: Dear Heart]

[SFX: SOUND827] This week’s birthdays:[SFX: In the Club]

January 3: Comedian Victor Borge
January 4: Inventor Louis Braille
January 5: Spanish King Juan Carlos I
January 6: French Saint Joan of Arc
January 7: American President Millard Fillmore
January 8: Cosmologist Stephen Hawking
And January 9: American President Richard Nixon

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