Today's the Day

[Dave2002]

A good day to make the most of still being European.

I had thought that the title of another thread "Screwed" might have been a reference to that. You can interpret that how you like.

[Richard Tarleton]

Also on this date: Edward of York defeats the lancastrian forces at the Battle of Towton, becoming Edward IV (1461).......


on the same day as the Battle of Kambala in the Anglo-Zulu War, in which 20,000 Zulus are killed)

Towton a grim battle - estimates of dead varied from 28,000 to 36,000, no mercy shown by the Yorkists (well, just about anybody)... Wasn't it the bloodiest battle ever fought on British soil?

Comma in the wrong place for Kambala - around 2,000 Zulus killed.....

[Dave2002]

Wonder what the Usk is like for bathing? Could one imitate Gladys on a warm evening?

Is that a reference to anything well known? I can't decode that.

[vinteuil]

Is that a reference to anything well known? I can't decode that.

... see opening para of ferney's #433


.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Comma in the wrong place for Kambala - around 2,000 Zulus killed.....

Yes - should be Kambula, too. The total Zulu force was estimated to be 20,000 - and the number of their casualties varies: "758 confirmed deaths" according to WIKI; "the strength of the enemy was thought to be 20,000 of whom 1000 are supposed to have been killed", according to a study from 1880; "785 [bodies] were collected from close by the camp. Many more lay out on the line of retreat where the slaughter had been heaviest... Perhaps as many as 2,000 died", according to a study from 1990.

[MrGongGong]

Isn't today national Gammon day?
Break out the pinapple rings

[Richard Tarleton]

Kambula followed hard upon the disaster (from the British point of view) of Hlobane Mountain, at which among others Captain Ronald Campbell, a son of the Cawdor family at Stackpole in Pembrokeshire, was killed. Just 20 and not long there, he tried to rush into a cave from which Zulus were firing, was shot in the forehead and was killed instantly.

[CGR]

Wonder what the Usk is like for bathing? Could one imitate Gladys on a warm evening?

Bathing in the Usk at Abergavenny was quite popular back in my youth.

[Dave2002]

... see opening para of ferney's #433
.

Ah - otherwise a bit obscure!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

March 30th

The Feast Day of St Tola, the early 8th Century Irish saint who founded a monastry in County Clare, and who later became the Bishop of Clonnard in County Meath. A crozier said to have been his is now an exhibit in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin. He is the patron saint of toothaches.
Land Day in Palestine, commemorating the events on this day in 1976 when Israeli army and police forces shot dead six unarmed Palestinian demonstrators on a protest march against the announced expropriation of thousands of acres of land. The event has been commemorated every year since - at last year's event, 19 Palestinians were killed.
And, in Spanish schools today it is the Day of Peace and Non-Violence - one of those awkward titles that suggest that for the rest of the year ...

Also on this date: the start of the Sicilian Vespers - a successful rebellion by the people of Sicily against their French-born ruler, Charles I; the date coincided with Easter Monday, and the insurrection started when the church bells for Vespers began to toll (1282); the First War of Scottish Independence begins when Edward I captures the then Scottish town of Berwick-Upon-Tweed (1296); Thomas Cramner is consecrated as a Bishop, "fast tracked" by the Pope, as Henry VIII had appointed him Archbishop of Canterbury the previous October (1533); Joachim Murat, Napoleon's appointed King of Naples, issues the Rimini Proclamation, calling on Italians to unite and overthrow their Austrian rulers (1815); the first surgical operation using anaesthetic is performed by Dr Crawford Long in Georgia, USA - he pours Sulphuric Ether onto a towel and tells the patient [a Mr James M Venables, who has a tumour on his neck] to breathe in the vapours (1842); the Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Crimean War (1856); a patent for a design of a pencil with attached rubber is granted to Hyman L Lipman of Pencilvania (1858 - he's from Philadelphia, actually); the United States buys Alaska from Russia for "2 cents an acre", $7.2 million [about £90million in today's money] (1867); Dvorak's Third Symphony is premiered in Prague, conducted by the composer (1874); Shaw's Candida, one of his "Plays Pleasant" is premiered at the Theatre Royal in South Shields (1894); Allied Bombers drop more than 3000 high explosive bombs and 30000 incendiary bombs on the Bulgarian capital Sofia, targetting cultural and historical buildings, and killing 139 people (1944); Soviet troops enter Austria and capture Vienna (1945 - on the same day, Soviet and Polish forces captured Gdansk/Danzig); a riot breaks out in Reykjavik following the Icelandic parliament's decision to break neutrality and join NATO (1949); the Dalai Lama, assisted by the CIA, flees Tibet and crosses into India (1959); Penderecki's St Luke Passion is premiered in Zurich (1966); Michael Cooper photographs Peter Blake's collage for the cover of the Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts' Club Band (1967); Miles Davis' Bitches Brew is released (1970); a car bomb planted by the INLA kills MP Airey Neave in the Car Park of the House of Commons (1979); John Hinkley jr shoots President Ronald Reagan in an attempt to attract the attention of actress Jodie Foster, and the film Chariots of Fire is premiered at a Royal Command Film Performance (both 1981); unable to give waitress Phyllis Penzo a tip, off-duty policeman offers her a half-share in the $1 Lottery Ticket he has - they win $6million (1984); a hundred years after it was painted, and on the Artist's 134th birthday, van Gogh's Still Life: Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers is sold at auction at Christie's London to Japanese Insurance magnate, Yasuo Goto for £22.5million (about £600million today - 1987); and the Terrorism Act 2006 receives Royal Assent.

Birthdays today include: John Proctor (1632); Francesco Goya (1746); John Stafford Smith (1750); Robert Bunsen (1811); Anna Sewell (1820); Paul Verlaine (1844); Vincent van Gogh (1853); Sean O'Casey (1880); Melanie Klein (1882); Erwin Panofsky (1892); Albert Pierrepoint (1905); Frankie Laine (1913); Gordon Mumma (1935); Warren Beatty (1937); Eric Clapton (1945); Robbie Coltrane (1950).

Final Days for: Kazimierz Lszczynski (1689); Pietro Locatelli (1764); Georgina Cavendish (1806); Beau Brummell (1840); Elisabeth Louise Vigée le Brun (1842); Rudolf Steiner (1925); Conchita Supervia (1936); Joseph Haas (1960); Aleksandr Gauk (1963); Erwin Piscator (1966); James Cagney (1986); Alistair Cooke (2004); Kate O'Mara (2014); and Bill Maynard (2018).


And the Radio 3 schedules for the morning of Thursday, 30th March, 1989 were:

Morning Concert: Schubert Marches militaires; de Beriot Violin Concerto No 1 ("Military"); Liszt Ungarischer Sturmmarsch; Haydn Symphony #53 in D; Mozart Piano Concerto No 18 in B flat (K 456)
Composer of the Week: Elgar Symphony #2 (LSO/the Composer - the Beeb genome doesn't mention this, but I remember that the programme also included recordings of Elgar improvising at the piano).
Beethoven: S4tet in A minor, Op 132
Fine Arts Brass Ensemble: Pezel Three Sonatinas; Dodgson Sonata; Stephen Roberts Stuart Masque
Piano Recital by Peter Bradley-Fulgoni: Brahms Four Pieces, Op 119; Tchaikovsky "June" from The Seasons, Op 37b; Prokofiev Sonata #3 in A minor.
Concert from Wolverhampton: Walton Symphony No 2; Sibelius Violin Concerto; Elgar In the South - BBCPhilO/John Hopkin (with Karin Adam, violin)

[Richard Tarleton]

.



Goya painting The Pilgrimage of St Isidro, from Carlos Saura's film Goya en Burdeos. This painting was referenced by Tom McKinney in his BAL on the Concierto de Aranjuez, albeit somewhat spuriously.

[Dave2002]

And, in Spanish schools today it is the Day of Peace and Non-Violence - one of those awkward titles that suggest that for the rest of the year ...

Ouch!

Are Spanish schools open today (Saturday) or is this just a day of the month thing?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Are Spanish schools open today (Saturday) or is this just a day of the month thing?

Oh! That hadn't occurred to me - I don't know. Perhaps on days when they're not in school, they save their peaceful activities until the day they get back?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

March 31st

World Backup Day - to emphasise the importance of online security; and International Transgender Day of Visibility - to raise awareness of discrimination against transgender people across the world: this will be its tenth annivesary. And what's the betting the President will be sending greetings on Cesar Chavez Day in the United States, celebrating the life and work of the Latino - and Hispanic-American Civil Rights Labor Leader, who was born on this date in 1927?

Also on this date: Isabella I and Ferdinand II issue the Alhambra Decree, expelling all Jews from Aragon and Castille (1492); Immanuel Kant is appointed Professor of Logic and Metaphysics at the University of Königsberg (1770); the British parliament enact the Boston Port Act, blocading entry to Boston until reparations for the Boston Tea Party had been paid (1774); Mozart's 16th Piano Concerto [in D, K451] is premiered in Vienna (1784); Haydn's Military Symphony is premiered in London (1794); soldiers from the Ottomon Empire murder tens of thousands of Greek citizens on the Island of Chios, following an attemtped uprising during the Greek War of Independence (1824); Schumann's Spring Symphony is premiered in Leipzig, conducted by Mendelssohn (1841); Cesar Franck's Le Chasseur Maudit is premiered in Paris (1883 - at the same concert, Chausson's Viviane also receives its world premiere); the Eiffel Tower is officially opened to the public (1889); Dvorak's Russalka i premiered in Prague (1901); Gustav Mahler conducts the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra [which has been specially re-formed for him] for their first concert together (1909); the Skandalkonzert in Vienna, where the audience riots at a concert conducted by Schönberg which includes the premieres of Webern's Op 6 Orchestral pieces and two of Berg's Altenberg-lieder - the police empty the hall before the planned performance of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder can start (1913); Coal Miners in Britain who refuse to accept reductions in pay are locked out of work, preticipating strike action (1921); the Motion Picture Production Code [more popularly known as the "Hays Code" after its leader, Will H Hays] comes into force, establishing strict laws on what sort of violence and erotic content would be allowed to be shown in films - laws that would be followed for the next 38 years (1930); Britain and France sign a military treaty with Poland promising support if attacked by Germany (1939 - and on the same day, the Basil rathbone/Higel Bruce film version of The Hound of the Baskervilles is released in the United States); Rogers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma premieres on Broadway (1943); ten members of the Netherlands Resistance are murdered by the SS in the city of Zutphen [actually nine; one, called van Bentham, survives by pretending to be dead and swimming to safety when the bodies are dumped in the IJessel] - and a defecting German pilot delivers a Messerschmitt fighter plane to the American Air Force (1945); Newfoundland becomes part of the Canadian Confederation (1949); the USSR offers to join NATO (1954); Luna 10, the first unmanned space probe to orbit the moon is launched by the Soviet Union (1966); Lyndon B Johnson informs the American public on television that he "shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President" (1968); Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five is publihed (1969); Explorer 1, the very first US space satelite returns to Earth after twelve years in space (1970); Toni Morrison's Beloved is awarded the Pulitzer Prize (1988); the largest of the anti-Poll Tax demonstrations takes place in London (1990); 99.5% of Voters [on a 90.5% turnout] in a referendum choose independence from the Soviet Union (1991); the Treaty of Federation is signed by 18 of the 20 autonomous republics of Russia - agreeing to remain part of Russia in exchange for greater autonomy and a larger share of natural resources. Chechenya and Tartarstan refuse to sign (1992).

Birthdays today include: Rene Descartes (1596); Andrew Marvell (1621); Josef Haydn (1732); Edward Fitzgerald and Nicolai Gogol (both 1809); Sergei Diaghilev (1872); Clemens Krauss (1893); Elisabeth Grummer (1911); Octavio Paz (1914); Patrick Magee (1922); John Fowles (1926); Richard Chamberlain and Shirley Jones (both 1934); Herb Alpert (1935); Marge Piercy (1936); Myfanwy Talog (1944); Al Gore (1948); Ewan McGregor (1971); Christopher hampson (1973) ... and, sort-of, Johann Sebastian Bach under the Gregorian Calendar. Well, if the Queen can have two birthdays - and neat to have Bach and Haydn sharing festivities!

Final Days for: John Donne (1631); Johann Christoph Bach (1732); John Constable (1837); Charlotte Bronte (1855); Henryk Wieniawski (1880); John Stainer (1901); Emil von Behring (1917); Jesse Owens (1980); Enid Bagnold (1981); Barry Took (2002); and, three years ago, Ronnie Corbett (2016).


And the Radio 3 schedules for the morning of Monday, 31st March, 1969 were:

Overture: gramophone records
Morning Concert: BBCConcertO/Marcus Dodds
This Week's Composer : Telemann (Overture in F sharp minor [with the Amsterdam CO conducted by - I kid thee not - André Rieu]; Magnificat in C major )
Talking About Music with Antony Hopkins
The Master Pianists: last of 14 weekly programmes, this week featuring [the then-64-year-old] Vladimir Horowitz.
Music Making with the Wissema String Trio, and Owen Wynne (Counter-tenor) and Alan Cuckston (harpsichord).

[Richard Tarleton]

Andrew Marvell (1621);

My English master read us To His Coy Mistress in A level year - said it was one of the loveliest poems in the English language. I still know it by heart