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Oct. 17, 2022
October 17th, 2022

Question: Know your Roman numerals? Tell me something that happened in the XVIII Century.

Yesterday’s Question Answered below: In opera, what is a heldentenor?
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History for 10/17/2022
Birthdays: Arthur Miller, Rita Hayworth, Jean Arthur, Montgomery Clift, Jimmy Breslin, Tom Poston, Gary Puckett, Margot Kidder, Evil Knievel, Jerry Siegel (Superman co-creator), Virgil 'Vip' Partch, Charles Kraft the sliced cheese king, Beverly Garland- star of Attack of the Alligator People, George Wendt, Cameron Mackintosh, Mike Judge is 60, Eminem is 50

641 A.D.- ALEXANDRIA, the "Paris of the Ancient World" fell to the advancing armies of Islam. The Byzantine emperors had been persecuting the native Coptic Christians as a heresy, so the Egyptians didn’t mind opening their gates to the Arab invaders.

1777- SARATOGA- 'Gentleman Johnny' Burgoyne, and his British Army were surrounded in upper New York State and forced to surrender. This is seen as the turning point of the Revolution, because the victory gave the American rebels credibility in the eyes of England's traditional European rivals- France, Holland and Spain.
When Burgoyne left England that spring, he had wagered politician Charles Fox 50 guineas he would conquer America singlehanded and return by Christmas. Well, he did get home by Christmas...

1787- The US Constitution accepted and signed into law, U.S. Constitutional Convention adjourned.

1805- THE BATTLE OF ULM- Napoleon maneuvered his regiments around an entire Austrian army and captured it while it sat waiting for their Russian allies. Nobody in the Austrian command realized that the Russian's Julian calendar date for their rendezvous was two weeks different then the Western Calendar. The last they heard, Napoleon's army was at the English Channel. Napoleon sent his army in five columns racing across Europe to suddenly appear in Austria. He piled soldiers in wagons to create the first motorized infantry.
When the Austrian defeat seemed certain the honorary commander of the army the Emperor’s brother Archduke Ferdinand ran for the hills and left the actual commander General Mack to take the consequences. When Mack was brought before Napoleon to surrender he exclaimed: "Behold the Unfortunate Mack !" Before the war Mack taught strategy and tactics. Not only did the Austrian Emperor order Mack court-martialed and sacked, but I’ll betchya a lot of students must have dropped his class.

1814- In London a large beer vat burst and drowned nine people.

1815- Napoleon was landed on his final island of exile, St. Helena, off the coast of sub equatorial Africa. The humid climate was considered by the British so unhealthy that they rotated the garrison every year. Napoleon spent the voyage learning English and became such good friends with his physician Dr. O'Meara (who was Irish) that the doctor was reprimanded. Napoleon loved to poke fun at doctors, he first addressed O'Meara- "So you are a doctor ? Well I am a general. How many men have you killed? I wager more than me ! “

1904- In San Francisco, Amadeo & Giovanni Giannini opened the New Bank of Italy, which in 1930 became the Bank of America. Among the 40 or so independent banks in California, Giannini’s bank grew because they encouraged immigrants to put their money in, when Anglo bankers refused to deal with foreigners. After the great San Francisco earthquake, they buried the banks total assets in a strongbox in their garden until their building could be rebuilt. The Bank of America grew from that garden to become the largest bank in the U.S. and a major Hollywood financier.

1928- Duke Ellington recorded The Mouche, the Fly.

1938- The radio show Captain Midnight premiered on WGN Chicago. In 1940, sponsor Ovaltine dropped its decade old show Little Orphan Annie in favor of making Captain Midnight a nationwide broadcast.

1943- The Burma Railway was completed by occupying Japanese forces using British prisoners of war as laborers, the infamous Bridge on the River Kwai. Contrary to the David Lean movie, the bridge was never blown up, and is still in use today.

1965- After a two-year run, the New York Worlds Fair in Flushing Queens officially closed.

1967- The Hippy musical “Hair” opened at the Anspacher Theatre on Broadway.

1973- Arab nations of OPEC declared a crude oil embargo on any nation supporting Israel. Oil went from $12 a barrel to $79. Called “ The Oil Weapon”, it made Gas rationing and long lines appear at gas stations in the US and England.

1989- In the late afternoon, the BAY AREA EARTHQUAKE- called the Loma Prieta Quake, shook San Francisco and vicinity. For the first time since 1906, fires were seen in the Mission District. The epicenter was a little town called Watsonville. 67 people were killed. California was planning to relieve traffic pressure by building upper levels onto existing freeways systems. When one of these new double deckers, the Cypress Freeway, collapsed, crushing motorists, all such plans were abandoned.
There was a World Series baseball game under way in Candlestick Park, but miraculously no one was hurt. National TV audiences amazed that local fans laughed at the danger. They chanted to the TV cameras: "Welcome to California!".

1990- William Stieg published his children’s book Shrek.

1990- IMDB.com, the Internet Movie Data Base started up.

2005- A spinoff from Jon Stewart’s Daily Show, The Colbert Report with Steven Colbert premiered on Comedy Central.
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Yesterday’s Question: In opera, what is a heldentenor?

Answer: A heldentenor or heroic tenor is a male opera singer who specialized in Germanic roles, like Wagner operas. As opposed to Italian or French operas.


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