Histortweet Week in Review - W/E January 16, 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 16, 2010:

[SFX: SOUND827]World: DATELINE Rome, January 15, 69 - In Otho news, Marcus unseats Galba for 3-month run as emperor of Rome http://bit.ly/7e8riE
The Back-Story: [SFX:Emperor Concerto; ] With the Roman Empire over-extended, divided, and reeling in the wake of Emperor Nero’s suicide, which marked the end of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, milatary leaders began asserting themselves. The first of these, Servius Sulpicius Galba, had been in power in Rome for just over two months when the remote armies declared their own commander, Aulus Vitellius. Galba, in a show of authority, named his own successor, angering Marcus Salvius Otho, who saw himself as Galba’s successor. Otho organized a consipiracy, through which he was declared emperor, and Galba was dragged from hiding in the temple and killed. Otho’s reign was short-lived, and, inless than 9 weeks, he committed suicide as Vitellius’ armiesclosed in on him. [SFX: Suicide is Painless; Don’t Try Suicide]

[SFX: SOUND827]Sports: DATELINE Miami, January 12, 1969 - Broadway Joe makes good on Super guarantee http://bit.ly/848JPt

The Back-Story: [SFX: Underdog; On Broadway; New York, New York] Following the merge r of the American Football League with the National Football League, the newly christened American Football Conference was definitely the weaker partner. And, in 1969, their champion Jets were 19-point underdogs to a Baltimore Colts team and its defense that had stifled opposing teams’ offense all season long. It was against this backdrop that Broadway Joe Namath, in an interview, guaranteed that his Jets would win. And he delivered. The Colts expected rattle the young quarterback with their confusing package of blitzes, but he had done his homework, and handled the Colts D, particularly their aging right side, with aplomb, jumping out to a 13-0 lead, and, by the start of the 4th quarter, essentially running out the clock. Broadway Joe was as good as his word, the only quarterback to win an MVP in a superbowl without throwing a touchdown pass.[SFX: I Guarantee It; Winning; ]

[SFX: SOUND827]: Things that make you go Huh?: DATELINE Boston, January 15, 1919 - Boston buried under Molasses tsunami http://bit.ly/4ahwLq

The Back-Story: [SFX:Please Come to Boston; Sweet Sticky Thing]On an unseasonably warm January afternoon in Boston, beer and trouble were brewing at the US Industrial Alcohol Company. Shortly after noon, a cast iron tank, 50 feet tall, that held 2 ½ million gallons of molasses, to be made into rum, ruptured, causing a sticky flash flood as its contents emptied out onto the streets ina matter of seconds. An 8-foot wall of molasses, moving at 35 miles per hour, uprooted buidings and vehicles, and drowned or buried men and animals. By the end, 21 people were dead, and more than 150 injured. After 6 years of lawsuits, the courts rejected the brewery’s claims of sabotage, finding that the tanks were overfilled and under-reinforced. The company paid out almost a million dollars to over 100 plaintiffs. [SFX: It’s Bubbling; Bubbly Brown Sugar; Here Comes the Flood]

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

January 10: Mystic Grigory Rasputin
January 11: Canadian prime minister Jean Chretien
January 12: Author Jack London
January 13: Comedian Charles Nelson Reilly
January 14: Humanitarian Albert Schweitzer
January 15: Civil Rights Activist Martin Luther King, Jr.
And January 16: Singer Sade

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