Day Tripping: March 16
Early Assault, Timely Lyric, Late Admission
Welcome to my daily feature where each day on the calendar marks a part of our shared history.
Silencing A Reformer
King Gustav III of Sweden, a great patron of the arts, attended a ball at the Royal Opera House in 1792. As he walked through the foyer greeting his subjects, a lone man approached from behind and shot the King in the back. Though all the guests including the monarch were wearing masks, it was a masquerade ball, Count Jacob Johan Anckarström was later apprehended for the crime.
King Gustav III survived thirteen more days before succumbing to his wound on March 29. The assassination was perpetrated as a coup d’etat by the Swedish aristocracy, who were against the King’s progressive policies.
Bittersweet Lyrical Break
Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay by Otis Redding becomes the first-ever posthumous Number 1 hit in 1968. Redding was only twenty-six when his plane crashed and killed all on board the previous December. The song would be the only chart-topping hit from the budding star who never actually completed the song.
The trademark whistling at the end of the piece was recorded because Otis hadn’t written lyrics for the end of the tune. He intended to return to the studio to finish the song. Instead, this iconic track, whistling and all, served as a desperately needed respite from the daily barrage of Vietnam War news.
The Department of ‘What Took So Long?’
The State of Mississippi is the last in the union to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment, approving the abolition of slavery. The year was 1995, but the act went undocumented with the US Archivist until a state resident watched the film Lincoln by Steven Spielberg in 2013. The (oversight) was finally corrected.
Also, in 1998 Pope John Paul II publicly asks God for forgiveness for the silence and indifference of many Roman Catholics during the Nazi Holocaust, fifty-three years after World War II.
Musical Milestones
They don’t get tougher than 2011 Dave Mustaine, guitarist for Megadeath. The band’s frontman collapsed backstage before a show in Russia from an acute case of kidney stones. Refusing to let his fans down, Mustaine took the stage to perform six songs before going to the hospital 30 minutes later.
Narratives
Publishing company Ticknor, Reed and Fields of Boston prints the first copies of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlett Letter in 1850, though the author never believed his writing would have mass appeal.
Remembrance
Billing himself as “The Only Law West of the Pecos”, legendary Judge and saloon keeper, Roy Bean died in 1903.
Nicknamed The Old Redhead, Arthur Godfrey commanded the TV and radio airwaves through most of the 1950s. Godfrey’s popularity was unmatched until publicly firing a cast member during his syndicated radio broadcast. The public outrage continued to tarnish his legacy right up to his death in 1983.
Notable Births
1926 — For most of his career Jerry Lewis truly was The King of Comedy. Beginning with his stage partnership with Dean martin to his numerous films in which he both starred and directed, Jerry will also be remembered as a philanthropist for his tireless fundraising for Muscular Dystrophy research.
1965 — Mark Carney may not be a name many people know, but they should and probably will by the time he’s through. In his career, Carney has served as Governor of the Bank of Canada, and then as Governor of the Bank of England. He has recently taken on a new role as the United Nations’ special envoy on climate action, but he always wanted to be a hockey player.
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
