Day Tripping: May 22

Fountains and the killing of youth

Monolithic Masterpiece

One of the world’s most famous landmarks, the 86 foot tall and 160 foot wide Trevi Fountain was officially completed in 1762. The Baroque structure was commissioned to Noicola Salvi as designing architect. Several other architects took over following Salvi’s death in 1751 after twenty-one years of construction. Another eleven years passed before architect, Giuseppe Pannini finished the work using Travertine stone quarried from Tripoli, twenty-two miles away.

The name Trevi is derived from the Latin for three intersecting streets, originally the apex of the aqueducts where ancient Rome gathered its water supply. The fountain has appeared in films such as Three Coins In A Fountain, Roman Holiday, and La Dolce Vita by Frederico Fellini.

Justice Delayed

A jury of nine white and three black persons delivered a guilty verdict for murder to former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry in 2002. The Alabama church bombing that killed four girls, Denise McNair, and Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley in 1963, began a groundswell of civil rights activism in the Southern United States. McNair was eleven and the others were fourteen years old.

At the age of seventy-one, Cherry was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. A demolitions expert from the Marines, Cherry listened to members of his own family testify against him. Two other Klan members were also tried and convicted for plotting to blow up the Birmingham church while a fourth man died before his trial began.

Innocents Murdered

As people filed out of Manchester Arena, England in 2017, a suicide bomber detonated explosives, killing twenty-two people and wounding eight hundred others. A twenty-two-year-old Islamist Extremist of Lybian descent waited in the arena lobby as young concert-goers made for the exits where their parents waited. The assailant was carrying a homemade device packed with shrapnel of various metal pieces.

With enough explosive to hit people as far as sixty feet away, the bomber was killed instantly on detonation. Many of those who were not physically injured have suffered from psychological trauma in the aftermath. The Mancheser Arena Bombing holds the dubious distinction of being the deadliest terrorist attack in Britain, and the first by suicide bombing.

Musical Milestones

With their third album Headquarters which was released on this day in 1967, The Monkees set out to show the world they more than mere TV personalities. Their first effort in taking creative and performance control, the band’s record produced no singles hit, but it did go to #1 on Billboard’s chart until a little record called Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band took over the spot a week later.

Narratives

After thirty years as the undisputed King of late-night television, Johnny Carson made his final appearance as the host of The Tonight Show in 1992. Carson did the entire hour from a stool at centre-stage with no guests. Following the broadcast, Johnny walked off to a life as a nearly total recluse.

Remembrance

Author of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Les Misérables, French writer and poet Victor Hugo died in 1885 at the age of 83.

Notable Births

1907 — Considered to be the finest Shakespearian actor of the modern era, Laurence Olivier

1930 — Harvey Milk was the first openly gay elected official in California, and a human rights activist.

1950 — Decades long writing partner to Elton John, lyricist Bernie Taupin

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 Thewriteyard David Perlmutter Joe Luca

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