Friday April 11, 2014

KALW

Published April 11, 2014 at 6:23 AM PDT

On This Day In History
1814 --- Napoleon Bonaparte, emperor of France and one of the greatest military leaders in history, abdicates the throne, and, in the Treaty of Fontainebleau, is banished to the Mediterranean island of Elba. In 1812, thinking that Russia was plotting an alliance with England, Napoleon launched an invasion against the Russians that eventually ended with his troops retreating from Moscow and much of Europe uniting against him. In 1814, Napoleon's broken forces gave up and Napoleon offered to step down in favor of his son. When this offer was rejected, he abdicated and was sent to Elba. In March

1815, he escaped his island exile and returned to Paris, where he regained supporters and reclaimed his emperor title, Napoleon I, in a period known as the Hundred Days. However, in June 1815, he was defeated at the bloody Battle of Waterloo. Napoleon's defeat ultimately signaled the end of France's domination of Europe. He abdicated for a second time and was exiled to the remote island of Saint Helena, in the southern Atlantic Ocean, where he lived out the rest of his days. He died at age 52 on May 5, 1821, possibly from stomach cancer, although some theories contend he was poisoned.

1919 --- The International Labor Organization (ILO) is founded as an independent, affiliated agency of the League of Nations. The call for just and equal labor standards and improved working and living conditions for the world's workers had begun to be heard long before the outbreak of World War I. As the Industrial Revolution swept from France and Britain across the rest of Europe over the course of the 19th century, it completely altered the economic and social landscape of the continent (and eventually the world).

1921 --- The first live sports event on radio took place this day over KDKA radio. Pittsburgh sports writer, Florent Gibson, gave an account of the action in the lightweight boxing match between Johnny Ray and Johnny Dundee.

1938 --- The SPEBSQSA (Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America) was founded by 26 singing, striped-shirted gentlemen. Now we know that’s 6½ quartets worth, but that’s what it took to get the

organization humming. So, let’s head for the barbershop and ask for a refrain of Sweet Adeline. By the way, Sweet Adeline, favorite of barbershop quartets, was written in 1903 by Richard Gerard and Henry Armstrong; and there really was a sweet Adeline. She was opera singer Adelina Patti. Today, female barbershop quartets are called Sweet Adelines.

1945 --- American Third Army liberates the Buchenwald concentration camp, near Weimar, Germany, a camp that will be judged second only to Auschwitz in the horrors it imposed on its prisoners. As American forces closed in on the Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald, Gestapo headquarters at Weimar telephoned the camp administration to announce that it was sending explosives

to blow up any evidence of the camp--including its inmates. What the Gestapo did not know was that the camp administrators had already fled in fear of the Allies. A prisoner answered the phone and informed headquarters that explosives would not be needed, as the camp had already been blown up, which, of course, was not true. Among those saved by the Americans was Elie Wiesel, who would go on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.

1947 --- Jackie Robinson became the first black player in major-league history. He played in an exhibition game for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
1951 --- In perhaps the most famous civilian-military confrontation in the history of the United States, President Harry S. Truman relieves General Douglas MacArthur of command of the U.S. forces in Korea. The firing of MacArthur set off a brief uproar among the American public, but Truman remained committed to keeping the conflict in Korea a "limited war."

1956 --- Elvis Presley reached the top spot on the Billboard music chart with his first double-sided hit. The disk featured Heartbreak Hotel and I Was the One. The RCA Victor record stayed at number one for eight weeks. Elvis also made the country and R&B charts, as well.

1961 --- Bob Dylan got his first real chance to put those on display with his first major gig in New York City, opening for bluesman John Lee Hooker at Gerde's Folk City.
1961 --- Carl Yastrzemski replaced Ted Williams in left field for the Boston Red Sox. The ‘Yaz’ was just 21 years old and had but two years experience in the minor leagues when he was called. In his first at-bat, he got a hit off Kansas City’s Ray Herbert. Yastrzemski retired in 1984, having played his entire major-league career in a Boston Red Sox uniform.
1962 --- The New York Mets played their first regular season game. The team, managed by Casey Stengel, lost its first ten games. The

St. Louis Cardinals won by a score of 11-4 -- prompting Stengel to say, before a group of reporters and players, “Can anyone here play this game?”
1963 --- One hundred U.S. troops of the Hawaiian-based 25th Infantry Division are ordered to temporary duty with military units in South Vietnam to serve as machine gunners aboard Army H-21 helicopters. This was the first commitment of American combat troops to the war and represented a quiet escalation of the U.S. commitment to the war in Vietnam.

1970 --- Apollo 13, the third lunar landing mission, is successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying astronauts James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert, and Fred W. Haise. The spacecraft's

destination was the Fra Mauro highlands of the moon, where the astronauts were to explore the Imbrium Basin and conduct geological experiments. After an oxygen tank exploded on the evening of April 13, however, the new mission objective became to get the Apollo 13 crew home alive.

1979 --- Ugandan dictator Idi Amin flees the Ugandan capital of Kampala as Tanzanian troops and forces of the Uganda National Liberation Front close in. Two days later, Kampala fell and a coalition government of former exiles took power.

1981 --- U.S. President Ronald Reagan returned to the White House from the hospital after recovering from an assassination attempt on March 30.

1986 --- Kellogg's stopped giving tours of its breakfast-food plant. The reason for the end of the 80-year tradition was said to be that company secrets were at risk due to spies from other cereal companies.
1988 --- Cher won the Best Actress Oscar for her role in "Moonstruck."
2001 --- China agreed to release 24 crew members of a U.S. surveillance plane. The EP-3E Navy crew had been held since April 1 on Hainon, where the plane had made an emergency landing after an in-flight collision with a Chinese fighter jet. The Chinese pilot was missing and presumed dead.

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