HistorTweet Week in Review - W/E March 13, 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 March 13, 2010:

[SFX: SOUND827]World: DATELINE France, March 9, 1765 - Three years after his conviction, torture, and execution, Jean Calas' sentence is overturned: http://bit.ly/9cXv6G
The Back-Story: [SFX: Robbery, Assault and Battery;] In an era of predominant Catholicism in France, Protestant Jean Calas and his family were looked down upon and mistrusted. When one of Calas' sons was found dead after another had converted to Catholicism, the rumor swirled that Jean had killed the second son in order to prevent him, too, from converting. The following Spring, Calas was convicted of murder. A day after the conviction, the brutal sentence was carried out: Calas was tortured and kiled. France's famed writer, Voltaire, was apprised of the case and, after the furor had died down, secured a full exoneration for Calas on the one-year anniversary of his conviction. [SFX: Blame it on Cain; Mystery Dance]

[SFX: SOUND827]Sports: DATELINE Baltimore, March 11, SPRT: 1901 - Orioles sign Chief Tokohama, seeking to evade baselballs black-out: http://bit.ly/bfuOpe
The Back-Story: [SFX: Black or White; Celebrity Skin] Years before Jackie Robinson crossed baseball’s color line, there was Charles Grant. Grant was a second baseman in the Negro leagues, who came to the attention of John McGraw, owner of the Baltimore Orioles, when the team stayed at the Eastland Hotel in Hot Springs, Arkansas, during spring training. Grant, a bellhop at the hotel, was playing a pick-up game with fellow employees. McGraw recognized Grant’s major league talent, and signed the light-skinned player up under the pretense that he was a native American, “Chief” Charlie Tokohama. Grant was never to play in the bigs, though: On a siwng through Chicago, where Grant had plaed in the Negro Leagues, he was feted by his former teammates and recognized by Chicago White Sox president Charles Comiskey. [SFX:Centerfield; Renegade; Take Me Out to the Ballgame;]

[SFX: SOUND827]: Entertainment: DATELINE London, March 10, ENTR: 1988 - Drug-weakened heart gives out, and disco phenom dies just after 30th birthday: http://bit.ly/9NuSsg
The Back-Story: [SFX:] Andy Gibb was a shooting star in the music world, the first artist to have his first 3 releases reach number one, in the height of the disco craze. Like a shooting star, he burned out far too quickly, felled by disco’s meteoric fall from favor and his own cocaine addictions. His star appeared to be on the rise again, a decade after his fall, on a ride that included bankruptcy and rehab. Shortly after his 30th birthday, Gibb, who was about to start work on a new record, went into the hosptial with stomach pains. Three days later, he was dead of an inflammation of the heart. Although he was long over his cocaine addiction, the damage that the drug had done to his heart was irreversible. [SFX: ]

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

March 7: Composer Maurice Ravel
March 8: Monkee Micky Dolenz
March 9: Explorer Amerigo Vespucci
March 10: Jazz Musician Bix Beiderbecke
March 11: Author Douglas Adams
March 12: Author Jack Kerouac dharmabeat.com
March 13: Singer-Songwriter Neil Sedaka


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