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

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