On This Day In History

[tonyh29]

1 hour ago, bickster said:

No, it wasn't. It wasn't a cover

Opinion is divided on the matter you say it isn't , everyone else  says it is  

 

[mjmooney]

1 hour ago, bickster said:

No, it wasn't. It wasn't a cover

Are you querying the definition of 'cover'? Or the date? I can't find a release date for the Lynch version, but The Beatles recording (on the debut album) was indeed March 22nd, 1963. 

[VILLAMARV]

Although historians disagree about who to actually credit with inventing the laser, the first patent was issued on this day in 1960 to Bell Laboratories. The catalyst for a 28 year legal battle in the US courts.

[bickster]

1 hour ago, mjmooney said:

Are you querying the definition of 'cover'? Or the date? I can't find a release date for the Lynch version, but The Beatles recording (on the debut album) was indeed March 22nd, 1963. 

Lynch recorded and released it first. The Beatles wrote it hoping Helen Shapiro would take it up(they were on tour together), she declined but Lynch took it.

Can't be a cover if you are the first to record it

It's the definition of cover I think is wrong

[mjmooney]

4 hours ago, bickster said:

Lynch recorded and released it first. The Beatles wrote it hoping Helen Shapiro would take it up(they were on tour together), she declined but Lynch took it.

Can't be a cover if you are the first to record it

It's the definition of cover I think is wrong

So do you have a release date for the Lynch version? I couldn't find one. 

[tonyh29]

23 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

So do you have a release date for the Lynch version? I couldn't find one. 

Lynch version was released on the 15th March ( though most sources have it as the 22nd hence my post )

the Beatles recorded it in a studio on 11th Feb , Lynch recorded his version 26th Jan 

But the Beatles performed it on tour and recorded a demo of  the amended version that Lynch used  at McCartneys home prior to the recordings 

I guess as Bicks says it’s ambiguous but Lynch was in effect covering the song that he heard the Beatles play 

 

[maqroll]

 

[bickster]

Great Britain abolished the Slave Trade throughout the Empire on this day in 1807

[bickster]

 

[VILLAMARV]

Queen Victoria opened The Royal Albert Hall (1871)

[VILLAMARV]

The Eiffel Tower was officially opened on this day 130 years ago. (1889)

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The main structural work was completed at the end of March 1889 and, on 31 March, Eiffel celebrated by leading a group of government officials, accompanied by representatives of the press, to the top of the tower. Because the lifts were not yet in operation, the ascent was made by foot, and took over an hour, with Eiffel stopping frequently to explain various features. Most of the party chose to stop at the lower levels, but a few, .........completed the ascent. At 2:35 pm, Eiffel hoisted a large Tricolour to the accompaniment of a 25-gun salute fired at the first level.

There was still work to be done, particularly on the lifts and facilities, and the tower was not opened to the public until nine days after the opening of the exposition on 6 May; even then, the lifts had not been completed...........After dark, the tower was lit by hundreds of gas lamps, and a beacon sent out three beams of red, white and blue light. Two searchlights mounted on a circular rail were used to illuminate various buildings of the exposition. The daily opening and closing of the exposition were announced by a cannon at the top.

Wiki

[VILLAMARV]

219 years ago Beethoven premiered his first Symphony in Vienna.

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The premiere took place on 2 April 1800 at the K.K. Hoftheater nächst der Burg in Vienna. Most sources agree that the concert program also included Beethoven's Septet as well as a symphony by Mozart, but there is some disagreement as to whether the remainder of the program included excerpts from Haydn's oratorio The Creation or from The Seasons and whether Beethoven's own Piano Concerto No. 1 or No. 2 was performed. This concert effectively served to announce Beethoven's talents to Vienna.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._1_(Beethoven)

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Beethoven creates a different orchestral balance than his predecessors, giving the wind instruments far greater parity with the strings. A reviewer present at the first performance of the work took great exception to this tendency, claiming that Beethoven was writing something that was more appropriate for a wind-band than for a symphony orchestra. It was a complaint that Beethoven totally ignored in his subsequent symphonies.

http://www.classical-music.com/article/beethovens-symphony-no-1

[bickster]

Today in 1930 Ras Tafari Makonnen becomes Emperor Haile Selassie of Abyssinia

[VILLAMARV]

1968 - MLKjr delivers his last speech

[VILLAMARV]

.....And rather inevitably on the 4th April 1968 MLKjr gets shot in the face. He died in hospital later that day, sparking the most widespread civil unrest in the US since the civil war -The Holy Week Uprisings.

Lyndon Johnson deploys the Army and National Guard to assist Law Enforcement.

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The King family and others believe the assassination was the result of a conspiracy involving the U.S. government, Mafia and Memphis police, as alleged by Loyd Jowers in 1993. They believe that James Earl Ray was a scapegoat. In 1999, the family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Jowers for the sum of $10 million. During closing arguments, their attorney asked the jury to award damages of $100, to make the point that "it was not about the money." During the trial, both sides presented evidence alleging a government conspiracy. The government agencies accused could not defend themselves or respond because they were not named as defendants. Based on the evidence, the jury concluded Jowers and others were "part of a conspiracy to kill King" and awarded the family $100. The allegations and the finding of the Memphis jury were later rejected by the United States Department of Justice in 2000 due to lack of evidence.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation was assigned the lead to investigate King's death. J. Edgar Hoover, who had previously made efforts to undermine King's reputation, told Johnson his agency would attempt to find the culprit(s). Many documents related to this investigation remain classified, and are slated to remain secret until 2027. In 2010, as in earlier years, some argued for passage of a proposed Records Collection Act, similar to a 1992 law concerning the Kennedy assassination, in order to require the immediate release of the records.[citation needed] The measure did not pass.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Martin_Luther_King_Jr.

He was 39 years old.

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"What was the price on his head?"

 

 

[VILLAMARV]

Maybe ironically, that was exactly 10 years after the public were first introduced to this enduring piece of design.

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The internationally recognized peace symbol – variously known as the nuclear disarmament symbol, the CND symbol and the peace sign – was designed for the British nuclear disarmament movement by Gerald Holtom. Holtom, an artist and designer, presented it to the Direct Action Committee on 21 February 1958 where it was "immediately accepted" as a symbol for a march from Trafalgar Square, London, to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston in Berkshire on 4 April. Holtom's design was adapted by Eric Austen (1922–1999) to ceramic lapel badges. The original design is in the Peace Museum in Bradford, England.

The symbol is a combination of the semaphore signals for the letters "N" and "D", standing for "nuclear disarmament". In semaphore the letter "N" is formed by a person holding two flags in an inverted "V", and the letter "D" is formed by holding one flag pointed straight up and the other pointed straight down. Superimposing these two signs forms the shape of the centre of the peace symbol.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_symbols

[VILLAMARV]

Seems we quite like a comeback. Some more important than others

 

[VILLAMARV]

104 years ago today, recently posthumously pardoned boxer Jack Johnson loses the heavyweight title to Jess Willard. Who ended the 7 year search for a "Great White Hope" to defeat the first African-American champion, in an era riddled with racism and segregation.

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On April 5, 1915, Johnson lost his title to Jess Willard, a working cowboy from Kansas who started boxing when he was twenty-seven years old. With a crowd of 25,000 at Oriental Park Racetrack in Havana, Cuba, Johnson was knocked out in the 26th round of the scheduled 45 round fight. Johnson, although having won almost every round, began to tire after the 20th round, and was visibly hurt by heavy body punches from Willard in rounds preceding the 26th-round knockout. Johnson is said by many to have spread rumors that he took a dive, but Willard is widely regarded as having won the fight outright. Many people thought Johnson purposely threw the fight because Willard was white, in an effort to have his Mann Act charges dropped. Willard said, "If he was going to throw the fight, I wish he'd done it sooner. It was hotter than hell out there."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Johnson_(boxer)

 

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Johnson found that he could not knock out the giant Willard, who fought as a counterpuncher, making Johnson do all the leading. Johnson began to tire after the 20th round, and was visibly hurt by heavy body punches from Willard in rounds preceding the 26th-round knockout. Johnson's claim of a "dive" gained momentum because most fans only saw a still photo of Johnson lying on the canvas shading his eyes from the broiling Cuban sun. No films of the fight were allowed to be shown in the United States because of an inter-state ban on the trafficking of fight films that was in effect at the time. Most boxing fans only saw the film of the Johnson-Willard fight when a copy was found in 1967.

At 6 ft 6 1⁄2 in (1.99 m) and 235 lb (107 kg), Willard was the tallest and the largest heavyweight champion in boxing history, until the 270 pounds (120 kg) Primo Carnera won the title on June 29, 1933, and the 6 ft 7 in (201 cm) Vitali Klitschko won the WBC title in 2004 and the 7 ft Nikolai Valuev won the WBA title in 2005.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jess_Willard

[VILLAMARV]

Lots of Olympic firsts today 123 years ago as Athens hosts the first modern Olympic Games (1896).

241 athletes from 14 countries competed in 43 events. American James Connolly became the first Olympic champion in more than 1,500 years when he won the triple jump.

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On 6 April (25 March according to the Julian calendar then in use in Greece), the games of the First Olympiad were officially opened; it was Easter Monday for both the Western and Eastern Christian Churches and the anniversary of Greece's independence. The Panathenaic Stadium was filled with an estimated 80,000 spectators, including King George I of Greece, his wife Olga, and their sons. Most of the competing athletes were aligned on the infield, grouped by nation. After a speech by the president of the organising committee, Crown Prince Constantine, his father officially opened the Games

Women were not entitled to compete at the 1896 Summer Olympics, because de Coubertin felt that their inclusion would be "impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic and incorrect".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1896_Summer_Olympics

Gold medals weren't a thing yet

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First place winners were awarded a silver medal, an olive branch and a diploma. Those in second place were given a copper medal, a branch of laurel and a diploma.

The obverse side of the medal has Zeus' face along with his hand holding a globe with the winged victory on it, with the caption in Greek "Olympia". The reverse side had the Acropolis site with the caption in Greek "International Olympic Games in Athens in 1896."

https://www.olympic.org/athens-1896

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....the 100m – often considered the flagship event of athletics. The race in group one was won by the USA’s Francis Lane in 12.20 seconds. With this victory, Lane entered into the record books as the winner of the first ever event at the modern Olympic Games.

https://www.olympic.org/news/6-april-1896-the-100m-opens-the-first-olympic-games-of-the-modern-era

 

Edited April 6, 2019 by VILLAMARV
numberwang

[VILLAMARV]

The first match was sold on this day 192 years ago in 1827

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John Walker was born in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, on 1781. He went to the local grammar school and was afterwards apprenticed to Watson Alcock, the principal surgeon of the town serving him as an assistant. He had, however, an aversion to surgical operations, and had to leave the profession, turning instead to chemistry. After studying at Durham and York, he set up a small business as a chemist and druggist at 59 High Street, Stockton, around 1818. Walker died in Stockton on 1 May 1859 and was buried in the grounds of St Mary's Church in Norton, near Stockton.

He developed an interest in trying to find a means of obtaining fire easily. Several chemical mixtures were already known which would ignite by a sudden explosion, but it had not been found possible to transmit the flame to a slow-burning substance like wood. While Walker was preparing a lighting mixture on one occasion, a match which had been dipped in it took fire by an accidental friction upon the hearth. He at once appreciated the practical value of the discovery, and started making friction matches. They consisted of wooden splints or sticks of cardboard coated with sulphur and tipped with a mixture of sulphide of antimony, chlorate of potash, and gum, the sulphur serving to communicate the flame to the wood.

The price of a box of 50 matches was one shilling. With each box was supplied a piece of sandpaper, folded double, through which the match had to be drawn to ignite it. He named the matches "Congreves" in honour of the inventor and rocket pioneer, Sir William Congreve. He did not divulge the exact composition of his matches.

Two and a half years after Walker's invention was made public, Isaac Holden arrived, independently, at the same idea of coating wooden splinters with sulphur. The exact date of his discovery, according to his own statement, was October 1829. Previously to this date, Walker's sales-book contains an account of no fewer than 250 sales of friction matches, the first entry bearing the date 7 April 1827. Already comfortably well off, he refused to patent his invention, despite being encouraged to by Michael Faraday and others, making it freely available for anyone to make. He received neither fame nor wealth for his invention, although he was able to retire some years later. The credit for his invention was attributed only after his death.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Walker_(inventor)