Day Tripping: March 15

Et Tu, Brutes, and Hope for a Better world

Welcome to my daily feature where each day on the calendar marks a part of our shared history.

The Ides have it

Fearing that Julius Caesar, would use his newfound powers to renounce the Republic and bring an age of tyranny to Rome, several Senators conspired to stab the leader to death with knives in 44BC. A group of thirty men including Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius, stabbed the newly appointed Dictator Perpetuo repeatedly until he died on the Capitol floor while citizens flee from the scene.

The coup was perpetrated in the hopes of staving off the removal of a republican Roman government, but it only led to civil war and the eventual ascendence of Augustus as the first Roman Emperor. Hmm, why does that sound familiar?

Deal Breaker

Turning his back on the Munich Agreement he signed the year previous, Adolf Hitler calls Czechoslovakian President, Emil Hacha to a meeting in 1939 and threatens an air attack on the city of Prague. Taking advantage of the weakened state of the Czech military, the Nazi leader’s ambitions outweighed the integrity of the pact concerning the region that Czech officials weren’t even invited to.

During the meeting, Hacha suffers a heart attack and also weakened, is forced to sign an oath of allegiance to the Nazi regime. Within hours, Germany takes occupation of Czechoslovakia and World War II soon begins.

Fight For The Future

Beginning in New Zealand and Australia and sweeping across the globe in 2019, students leave their classrooms and take to the streets in protest of climate change inaction. Billed as Fridays For Future, the world youth event is spearheaded by Swedish activist, Greta Thunberg, then 15 years old.

While Thunberg’s message has been widely dismissed by adult leaders mostly as adolescent rantings, or worse, because of her condition with Asbergers Syndrome, young activists from over one hundred countries have picked up the torch to carry Greta’s message.

Another case where the content of a person’s character is overridden by the image she projects. Thankfully, today’s youth are not likely to be silenced.

Musical Milestones

Wedding plans go awry as John Lennon and Yoko Ono are stranded on the dock of Southampton in 1969, trying to get their passports sorted for travel to Holland or France. The nuptials finally happens in Gibraltar and Lennon writes The Ballad Of John And Yoko.

Narratives

Filed under the category of… Are You Kidding Me?

The Songwriters Hall Of Fame which was formed in 1969, inducts Bob Dylan and Paul Simon thirteen years later. Oddly, during the seventies, this so-called Hall of Fame could not find one inductee for five out of the decades ten years.

Remembrance

His friends and admirers knew him as Prez. The sultry tones of his saxophone made Lester Young who passed away in 1959, a loved musician by his peers, most notably Billie Holiday.

Famous for his writing on child-rearing in the twentieth century, Dr. Benjamin Spock was for many, the man with the answers. He passed in 1998 at the age of 94.

Notable Births

1933 — Ruth Bader Ginsburg was instrumental in affecting change for women and the underrepresented in America and around the world.

1943 — Flamboyant headman of The Family Stone funkadelic music spectacle, Sly Stone gave us Everyday People. — Turn up the volume!

K. Barrett Katie Wallace Maria Rattray Joseph M. Learned 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

The Story Of Day Tripping Through History What’s Past Is Often Present