Day Tripping: April 16

Sieges, Stages, and Songwriters

Last Stand

Three years after sacking the city of Jerusalem and the Second Temple, the Roman Army arrived at the peak of Masada, Judea in 73 AD. The 850-acre city on top of a plateau in the southern desert had become the last defensive bastion for the Jewish rebellion. The rebels were the last Jewish community after the siege of Jerusalem, and vowing never to become subservient to the Romans, they made their last stand on the mountaintop.

The Roman army spent months building a ramp that snaked its way up the side of the mountain to attack their trapped enemy. When they finally broke through, completing a three-month siege that incorporating over 15,000 slaves and fighting men, they found that the city’s 960 inhabitants had set fire to most of the buildings, and had committed mass suicide. Two women and five children were found alive to tell the tale that ended the first Jewish-Roman war.

Record First Prize

Long before her story was made famous on the stage, the real Annie Oakley entered a shooting contest on this day in 1922. From a distance of sixteen yards, Annie hit 100 clay targets in a row to win the contest, and she broke the women’s shooting record. Annie Oakley was 62 years old at the time.

Despite the many hardships Oakley endured in her previous life which included various bodily injuries, she maintained an unequalled talent for shooting. Even more remarkable is that during the suppressive era of the Victorian Age, Annie Oakley was also a master at marketing herself as a strong female figure without giving up her morals.

Major Recording

Folk singer and songwriter Woodie Guthrie had already created a notable music career during the ‘Dust Bowl’ of the nineteen-thirties. Then, during WWII, he joined the Merchant Marines. In 1944 while on shore leave, Woodie entered Folkways Records in New York and sat down for a session with company founder, Moses Asch.

It was here during the Asch recordings that the iconic This Land Is Your Land was recorded. The song has become an unofficial second anthem which has been covered over the years by stars like Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger.

Musical Milestones

Dean Martin was struggling to finish off an album he was making in 1964. With one song left to complete, he took a tune that his friend Frank Sinatra had recorded years earlier, and made Everybody Loves Somebody his first hit. The song went so big, it eventually surpassed the Beatles on the hits chart.

Narratives

Author of the immensely popular novel Roots, Alex Haley makes his first visit to the village of Juffure, Gambia in 1977. Juffure is the village where he traced his slave ancestry from the eighteenth century.

Remembrance

Wax figure maker of fame, Madame Marie Tussaud died in 1850. Too many one-liners come to mind here, so I’ll leave it alone. Too soon?

The director of epic films Bridge On The River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia, David Lean passed away in 1991.

Notable Births

1889 — The little tramp and a cinematic innovator, Charlie Chaplin

1947 —From Baker Street to Stuck In The Middle With You, Gerry Rafferty was a fine singer/songwriter.

K. Barrett Katie Wallace Maria Rattray Maryam Merchant Dr Mehmet Yildiz Tree Langdon Myriam Ben Salem Phil Truman Chelsea Mandler MAT Terry Mansfield Hollie Petit, PhD. Terry Trueman Dr Preeti Singh John Gruber Bill Abbate James G Brennan ScienceDuuude Marcus Liam Ireland Claire Kelly Noorain Hassan, BMS Amy Pierovich David Acaster Nora

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