Saturday, April 24, 2010

++This Tweet in History: April 25, 2010++

  • WRLD: 1953 - Crick and Watson publish landmark paper unlocking secrets of DNA's double helix
  • SPRT: 1901 - Detroit's first game in AL features 10-run comeback in last half inning
  • OTHR: 1983 - Stern deception as German mag publishes faked Hitler diary
  • BDAY: Meadowlark Lemon; Albert King; Edward R. Murrow; Guglielmo Marconi

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  • HistorTweet Week in Review - W/E April 24, 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 April 24, 2010:

    [SFX: SOUND827]World: DATELINE Haiti, April 22 1971 - Papa Doc, Haiti's president for life, reaches the end of his term: http://bit.ly/cby3ct [SFX:] Haitian dictator, Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier, first came to fame as a beloved doctor. He came to power after opposing a military coup, elected president in 1956. Once he was in, he began consolidating power, immediately exiling his enemies, and, ultimately, through voodoo and his private militia, the TonTons Macoute, instilling fear in the populace, dissolving one house of legislature and going outside the country’s constitution by seeking a second term as president, in an election which he, the sole candidate, won with a tally of 1,320,748 to nil. A year later, he had himself declared, with 99.9% of the country’s vote, “President for life.” When that life ended, in 1971, Papa Doc’s son, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, succeeded him. [SFX:]

    [SFX: SOUND827]Sports: DATELINE Boston, April 21 1980 - Rosie Ruiz's ruse riles runners in Boston's renowned race: http://bit.ly/9vUiXB The Back-Story: [SFX:I Ran All The Way Home; Blues In The Night] To say that Rosie Ruiz came out of nowhere to win the Boston Marathon would be an unforgivably bad play on words. The largely unknown runner qualified for the Boston Marathon with what turned out to be falsified times from the New York Marathon. When she crossed the finish line in Boston, in record time, and three minutes ahead of the next female to cross, she didn’t seem fatigued. Further, no one saw her earlier in the race, nor did she appear on videotaped footage. Some even reported having seen Ruiz insert herself into the race at the last mile. Ultimately, Ruiz was stripped of her title, Canadian Jacqueline Gareau was named the winner, and The Boston and other marathons added video surveillance and electronic monitoring at checkpoints throughout the course. [SFX: I’m a Loser]

    [SFX: SOUND827]: In other news: DATELINE Atlanta, April 23 1985 - Some things never change. Coke should've been one of them.: http://bit.ly/b2zwXn
    The Back-Story: [SFX:That’s Just The Way It Is; Just the Way You Are;Changes;Don’t Change for You] In the era of the Pepsi challenge, Coke was losing market share. All of a sudden, they discovered a long-lost “original” formula for their soda, and began market-testing it. Sure enough, it was preferred, and, in short order, the new formula was pushed out to the world. The company, however, underestimated its consumer-base’s loyalty, who were outraged at the change. Eventually, Coke re-released the former formula, re-branded as Coca Cola Classic. When all was said and done, the result of the fiasco was what Coke had sought in the first place: A revitalization of the brand.[SFX:Get Right Back to Where We Started From; Do It Again]

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

    April 18: Conductor Leopold Stokowski
    April 19: Tennis star Maria Sharapova
    April 20: Jazz pioneer Lionel Hampton http://www.uiweb.uidaho.edu/hampton/
    April 21: Author Charlotte Bronte
    April 22: Soviet premier Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
    April 23: Conductor Sergei Prokofiev, and
    April 24: Designer Jean-Paul Gaultier

    [SFX:GENERIC1MOTION]Thank you for joining us for This Tweet in History, the Week in review. Be sure to follow us on Twitter.com/histortweet, and check our archives at histortweet.blogspot.com

    ++This Tweet in History: April 24, 2010++

  • WRLD: 1965 - Coup makes Urena provisional president of Dominican
  • SPRT: 1996 - Penguins emerge victorious after over 2 hours battling the Capitals
  • OTHR: 1184 - Troy learns to beware of Greeks bearing gifts
  • BDAY: Cedric the Entertainer; Jean-Paul Gaultier; Barbara Streisand; Anthony Trollope

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  • Saturday, April 17, 2010

    HistorTweet Week in Review - W/E April 17, 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 April 17, 2010:

    [SFX: SOUND827]World: DATELINE Space April 13, 1970 - Houston, we've had a problem: Apollo 13's oxygen tank explodes en route to the moon: http://bit.ly/aktBom The Back-Story: [SFX: Ashes to Ashes; Space Oddity; ] The drama that unfolded in space that fatedul day began on earth, some five years earlier. Apollo's designers realized the 28 volts weren't sufficient, and made the change to 65 volts. A thermostat supplier didn't get the change. The change had gone unnoticed through all previous Apollo missions, but lucky #13 was using a tank that had been dropped two years earlier. This combination of events led to the thermostat's failure and the gas leak that put the crew's lives in jeopardy[SFX: Jeopardy]. Through the efforts of the highly skilled ground suppport team and the astronaut crew, the accident wasn't fatal, but Apollo 13 never made it to the moon. [SFX: I'm Lucky; Everyone's Gone to the Moon; Dark Side of the Moon]

    [SFX: SOUND827]Sports: DATELINE Canada April 12, 1980 - Canadian athlete, amputee, Terry Fox begins trans-Canadian Marathon of Hope against cancer: http://bit.ly/chddXX
    The Back-Story: [SFX: One Step at a Time; Step by Step; Running on Empty] When Terry Fox, a college basketball player, learned that he would lose his leg to cancer, he came up with an audacious plan: He would run across Canada, a marathon a day, to raise both cancer awareness and funds to fight the disease. Two years after his operation, he began over 3000 miles of training, and lined up sponsors. He began his run by dipping his artificial leg into the Atlantic Ocean off Newfoundland and covered 6 provinces before, over 3,300 miles and 143 days into his Marathon of Hope, he collapsed, the cancer having spread to his lungs. He was taken home and was able to watch as his nation adopted his cause and pulled together to raise over $10 million for the cure. [SFX: It Keeps You Running]

    [SFX: SOUND827]: Things that make you go Huh?: DATELINE Europe April 17, 1986 - Finally! Treaty ends 335-year war between Netherlands and Scilly: http://bit.ly/aYP23D
    The Back-Story: [SFX:War; Lay Down My Sword and Shield; Zor and Zam] During the British Civil War, when Oliver Cromwell and his Parliamentarians were storming the nation, the Isles of Scilly was the last Royalist stronghold. Weighing in on the Parliamentarian side, the Netherlands dispatched their navy to the Isles, where they met such great resistance, with ships and goods seized by the Royalists. In 1651, after the Dutch demand for reparations was met with an unsatisfactory response, Admiral Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp they declared war on the Royalist Isles. Shortly thereafter, the Parliamentarians overtook the Isles, and, before a shot was fired, the war was forgotten - by the Dutch, that is. With no peace treaty in place, the state of war persisted in rumor and local jokes on the Isles until, in 1985, Council Chair Roy Duncan inquired of the Dutch embassy in London, who confirmed the rumor and agreed to send Ambassador Jonkheer Huydecoper to Scilly to sign the treaty that would put 335 years of war behind them. [SFX:It’s Been a Long Long Time; I Don't Really Want to Fight]

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

    April 11: Designer Oleg Cassini
    April 12: Jazz Musician Herbie Hancock
    April 13: Author Eudora Welty
    April 14: Baseball great Pete Rose
    April 15: Artist Leonardo da Vinci
    April 16: Pope Benedict XVI, and
    April 17: Soviet Premier Nikita Kruschev

    [SFX:GENERIC1MOTION]Thank you for joining us for This Tweet in History, the Week in review. Be sure to follow us on Twitter.com/histortweet, and check our archives at histortweet.blogspot.com

    ++This Tweet in History: April 17, 2010++

  • WRLD: 1961 - Invasion force of Cuban exiles lands at Bay of Pigs
  • SPRT: 1976 - Schmidt contributes 4 of the 9 homers in 36-run slugfest
  • HUH?: 1986 - Finally! Treaty ends 335-year war between Netherlands and Scilly
  • BDAY: Liz Phair; Harry Reasoner; William Holden; Nikita Khrushchev

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  • Saturday, April 10, 2010

    ++This Tweet in History: April 11, 2010++

  • WRLD: 1987 - Peres, Hussein sign secret London Agreement
  • TECH: 1976 - Handcrafted Apple 1 debuts for $666.66
  • OTHR: 1951 - Truman reins in loose cannon in Korea
  • BDAY: Meshach Taylor; Joel Grey; Ethel Kennedy; Oleg Cassini

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  • HistorTweet Week in Review - W/E April 10, 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 April 10, 2010:

    [SFX: SOUND827]World: DATELINE London, April 8, 1968 - Heroic Barbara Jane Harrison perishes after guiding her passengers to safety following crash: http://bit.ly/a2okLO
    The Back-Story: [SFX: Wind Beneath My Wings] Shortly after takeoff, BOAC’s flight 712 out of Heathrow ran into problems when an engine caught fire and dropped off of the wing. Although the pilots got the plane safely to the ground, fire from the wing spread to the fuselage. When one flight attendant had to leave the plane to untangle the evacuation slide, the task of getting passengers out of the rear exit fell to young Barbara Jane Harrison alone. As the fire spread, she encouraged, and sometimes pushed, passengers onto the slide, until the fire made the rear exit impassable. Harrison then led the remaining passengers to another exit, but refused to leave herself, perishing rather than abandoning an elderly, disabled passenger who had been seated in one of the last rows. For her valor, she was awarded the George Cross for heroism, one of only four female awardees, all of the rest of whom received it for service in World War II. [SFX:I’m Not Moving]

    [SFX: SOUND827]Sports: DATELINE Athens, April 6, 1896 - De Coubertin's dreams come true with revival of Olympic competition in Athens: http://bit.ly/SKQty
    The Back-Story: [SFX: Fanfare for the Common Man] Duke Pierre de Coubertin was a man on a mission. Convinced that his native France had lost the Franco-Prussian war because of poor physical education, he set about to add a physical component to the too-intellectual French education system. Failing at that, de Coubertin stumbled upon a grander dream: a modern revival of the ancient Olympic games. In 1896, his dreams materialized over 10 days in Athens, with the King of Greece handing olive laurels, certificates, and medals to the first and second place winners in a variety of sports. De Coubertin’s dream of a venue that instilled national pride, inter-national cooperation, and world peace,
    has been played out for more than a century, with breaks only for wold wars, in 1916, 1940, and 1944. [SFX:]

    [SFX: SOUND827]: Entertainment: DATELINE Brighton, April 6, 1974 - Twice-incumbent Luxembourg meets its Waterloo at Brighton as Swedish quartet grabs Eurovision laurels: http://bit.ly/baeAUD
    The Back-Story: [SFX:Waterloo; I Write the Songs] Luxembourg was on a roll, having won the Eurovision Song contest twice in a row when, in 1974, a new band from Sweden made its television debut with an upbeat, pop song, Waterloo, that captured the hearts of the world, and launched ABBA on the international stage. The song, which meets all of Bristol University physiologist Dr. Harry Witchel’s 7 crucial elements for sucecss at Eurovision:: pace and rhythm, an easily memorable song, a perfect chorus, key change, a clearly defined finish, dance routine and finish, was enshrined in 2007 as the best song in the 50-year history of the contest. [SFX:]

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

    April 4: Musician Muddy Waters
    April 5: Slave turned statesman Booker T. Washington
    April 6: Outlaw Butch Cassidy
    April 7: Sitarist Ravi Shankar
    April 8: UN General Secretary Kofi Annan
    April 9: Singer Paul Robeson, and
    April 10: Actor Omar Sharif

    [SFX:GENERIC1MOTION]Thank you for joining us for This Tweet in History, the Week in review. Be sure to follow us on Twitter.com/histortweet, and check our archives at histortweet.blogspot.com

    ++This Tweet in History: April 10, 2010++

  • WRLD: 1942 - Bataan Death March begins
  • SPRT: 1971 - US Table Tennis Team, first Americans on Chinese mainland since 1949, take part in Ping Pong Diplomacy
  • OTHR: 1866 - Bergh founds American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
  • BDAY: Steven Seagal; John Madden; Omar Sharif; Matthew Perry

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  • Saturday, April 3, 2010

    HistorTweet Week in Review - W/E April 3, 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 April 3, 2010:

    [SFX: SOUND827]World: DATELINE Reykjavic, March 30, 1949 - Iceland heats up over Cold War politics, as rioters in Reykjavik protest decision to join NATO: http://bit.ly/c501o9
    The Back-Story: [SFX:Taking It to the Streets; White Riot; Protest Song; It Can't Happen Here] In the years following the end of World War II, battle lines were formed in the Cold War between East and West. In 1949, Iceland's parliament came down on the West's side, voting to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The citizens of the capital city, Reykjavik, alarmed at the prospect of remilitarization, took to the streets in a protest that grew into a riot, with rocks hurled through the parliament building, and tear gas fired by riot police before order was restored. [SFX: Get Up, Stand Up]

    [SFX: SOUND827]Sports: DATELINE London, April 2, 1977 - Red Rum wins world's toughest steeplechase for record 3rd time: http://bit.ly/cIoCag
    The Back-Story: [SFX: Red Red Wine; You Did It in a Minute; Adventures in Babysitting; Born to Run] England's Grand National Steeplechase is a course so grueling that, often, only 20% of the horses in the field complete it. It is a course that Red Rum was born to run. Although the horse failed to distinguish himself early in his career, following a bout with debilitating bone disease and a tepid comeback attempt which caused most to write him off, he was purchased by a taxi driver and aspiring horse trainer who molded him into a champion. In the span of five years, he won the English Grand National 3 times and placed twice, becoming, along the way, the last horse to win back-to-back, the only horse to win 3 times, and the only horse totake the English and Scottish Grand Nationals in the same year. [SFX:Three Times a Lady; You're the Tops; It Keeps You Running; And I Ran]

    [SFX: SOUND827]: Things that make you go Huh?: DATELINE Great Britain, April 1, 1957 - BBC reports mild winter, dearth of spaghetti weevil in Switzerland, yield bumper spaghetti crop: http://bit.ly/1az2cH (video)
    The Back-Story: [SFX:Fool Me Once; Get Up, Stand Up; Come, Ye Thankful People, Come; You Can't Do That on Television] At a time when television was young and spaghetti was one of the more exotic foods in the British diet, the BBC aired a hoax documentary, in its Panorama program, showing Swiss women carefully harvesting pasta from trees, as reporter Richard Dimbleby explained the forces behind that year's bumper crop, how years of cultivating had produced uniformly long strands, and how the spaghetti was dried, some shared among the harvesters in celebration. Among those who got the joke, some wrote to the BBC, indignant that they would use a serious program for an April Fool's joke; among those who didn't, some wrote to ask for advice on growing their own spghetti. These latter received the reply, "Place a few strands in a tomato tin and hope for the best." [SFX: Lies, Lies, Lies; Some of my Lies Are True; The Girl Is Mine; Greatest American Hero]

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

    March 28: Author Maxim Gorky
    March 29: British Prime Minister Sir John Major
    March 30: Painter Vincent Van Gogh
    March 31: Mathematician Rene Descartes
    April 1: Composer Sergei Rachmaninoff
    April 2:Writer Hans Christian Andersen, and
    April 3: Author Washington Irving

    [SFX:GENERIC1MOTION]Thank you for joining us for This Tweet in History, the Week in review. Be sure to follow us on Twitter.com/histortweet, and check our archives at histortweet.blogspot.com

    ++This Tweet in History: April 3, 2010++

  • WRLD: 1974 - Super Outbreak of 134 tornatdoes descends on US midwest
  • SPRT: 1988 - Anyone for doubles? #99 may be great in '88, but Art Ross says #66 plays le mieux
  • HUH?: 1895 - In Wilde affair, trial for libel begins that ends, ultimately, in conviction for homosexuality
  • BDAY: Picabo Street; Tony Orlando; Jane Goodall; Washington Irving

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