Today is the anniversary of the première performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera, Nabucco. It is an Italian-language opera in four acts composed in 1841 by Giuseppe Verdi. It is the opera that is considered to have permanently established Verdi’s reputation as a composer. The opera follows the plight of the Jews as they are assaulted, conquered and subsequently exiled from their homeland by the Babylonian king Nabucco (Nebuchadnezzar II). The historical events are used as background for a romantic and political plot.
the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves (known as Va, pensiero) from the third act of the opera Nabucco was used an anthem for Italian patriots, who were seeking to unify their country and free it from foreign control in the years up to 1861 (the chorus’s theme of exiles singing about their homeland, and its lines such as O mia patria, si bella e perduta / “O my country, so lovely and so lost” were thought to have resonated with many Italians).
Verdi’s operas remain among the most popular in the repertoire today. In addition to Nabucco, Aida, Rigoletto, La Traviata, Otello and Falstaff are produced regularly around the world.
Today is the anniversary of the 1857 decision of the Supreme Court – Dred Scott v. Sandford. It held that the United States Constitution did not extend American citizenship to people of black African descent, and therefore they could not enjoy the rights and privileges the Constitution conferred upon American citizens.
The decision involved the case of Dred Scott, an enslaved black man whose owners had taken him from Missouri, a slave-holding state, into Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory, where slavery was illegal. When his owners later brought him back to Missouri, Scott sued for his freedom and claimed that because he had been taken into “free” U.S. territory, he had automatically been freed and was legally no longer a slave.
In March 1857, the Supreme Court issued a 7–2 decision against Scott. In an opinion written by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, the Court ruled that people of African descent “are not included, and were not intended to be included, under the word ‘citizens’ in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States”.
Although Chief Justice Taney and several other justices hoped the decision would settle the slavery controversy, which was increasingly dividing the American public, the decision only exacerbated interstate tension. In 1865, after the Union‘s victory in the Civil War, the Court’s ruling in Dred Scott was superseded by passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which outlawed slavery, and by Congress with the Civil Rights Act of 1866 conferring full citizenship and equal rights flowing from it. After Southern lawyers and courts countermanded this federal law with state law, Congress and 3/4 of the states in 1868 constitutionalized the 1866 Act by enacting the Fourteenth Amendment, whose first section guaranteed citizenship for “[a]ll persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”
Today is the anniversary of the 1770 Boston Massacre, known in Great Britain as the Incident on King Street. It was a confrontation on March 5, 1770 during the American Revolution in Boston in what was then the colonial-era Province of Massachusetts Bay.
In the confrontation, nine British soldiers shot several in a crowd, estimated between 300 and 400, who were harassing them verbally and throwing various projectiles. Five American colonists were killed. The event was subsequently described as “a massacre” by Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and other leading Patriots who later became central proponents of independence during the American Revolution and Revolutionary War.
Amid tense relations between the civilians and the soldiers, a mob formed around a British sentry and verbally abused him. He was eventually supported by seven additional soldiers, led by Captain Thomas Preston, who were hit by clubs, stones, and snowballs. Eventually, one soldier fired, prompting the others to fire without an order by Preston. The gunfire instantly killed three people and wounded eight others, two of whom later died of their wounds.
Eight soldiers, one officer, and four civilians were arrested and charged with murder, and they were defended in court by attorney, and future U.S. president, John Adams. Six of the soldiers were acquitted; the other two were convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to branding on the thumb, according to the law at that time.
The Boston Massacre is considered one of the most significant events that turned colonial sentiment against King George III and British Parliamentary authority. John Adams wrote that the “foundation of American independence was laid” on March 5, 1770, and Samuel Adams and other Patriots used annual commemorations (Massacre Day) to encourage public sentiment toward independence.
A variation of Paul Revere’s famous engraving, produced just prior to the American Civil War, which emphasizes Crispus Attucks, the black man in the center who became an important symbol for abolitionists
Unfortunate headline….
Today is the birthday, in 1951, of English singer and actress Elaine Page, best known for her work in musical theatre. Paige played Eva Perón in the first production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita in 1978 which for this role won the Laurence Olivier Award for Performance of the Year in a musical. She had the 1985 UK No.1 single with Barbara Dickson from the musical Chess ‘I Know Him So Well’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gd_ohoPzYc
Today is the birthday, in 1745, of Kazimierz Michał Władysław Wiktor Pułaski, anglicised as Casimir Pulaski. He was a Polish nobleman, soldier, and military commander who has been called “The Father of American cavalry” or “The Soldier of Liberty”.
Born in Warsaw and following in his father’s footsteps, he became interested in politics at an early age. He soon became involved in the military and in revolutionary affairs in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Pulaski was one of the leading military commanders for the Bar Confederation and fought against the Commonwealth’s foreign domination. When this uprising failed, he was driven into exile.
Following a recommendation by Benjamin Franklin, Pulaski traveled to North America to help in the American Revolutionary War. He distinguished himself throughout the revolution, most notably when he saved the life of George Washington. Pulaski became a general in the Continental Army, and he and his friend, the Hungary-born colonel commandant Michael Kovats, raised Pulaski’s Legion and reformed the American cavalry as a whole. At the siege of Savannah, while leading a cavalry charge against British forces, he was fatally wounded by grapeshot and died shortly after.
Pulaski is remembered as a hero who fought for independence and freedom in Poland and the United States. Numerous places and events are named in his honor, and he is commemorated by many works of art. Pulaski is one of only eight people to be awarded honorary United States citizenship.
Pulaski at Częstochowa, an 1875 painting by Józef Chełmoński.
Some people are just really hungry…
today is the birthday, in 1678, of Antonio Lucio Vivaldi, an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist and impresario of Baroque music. Regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, Vivaldi’s influence during his lifetime was widespread across Europe, giving origin to many imitators and admirers. His best-known work is a series of violin concertos known as The Four Seasons. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LiztfE1X7E
On this day in 1938, oil was discovered in in commercial quantities at Dammam oil well No. 7 in 1938 in what is now modern day Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
On January 15, 1902, Ibn Saud took Riyadh from the Rashid tribe. In 1913, his forces captured the province of al-Hasa from the Ottoman Turks. In 1922, he completed his conquest of the Nejd, and in 1925, he conquered the Hijaz. In 1932, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was proclaimed with Ibn Saud as king. Without stability in the region, the search for oil would have been difficult, as evidenced by early oil exploration in neighboring countries such as Yemen and Oman.
In 1922, Ibn Saud met a New Zealand mining engineer, Major Frank Holmes. During World War I, Holmes had been to Gallipoli and then Ethiopia, where he first heard rumors of the oil seeps of the Persian Gulf region. n 1923, the king signed a concession with Holmes allowing him to search for oil in eastern Saudi Arabia. In 1925, Holmes signed a concession with the sheikh of Bahrain, allowing him to search for oil there. He then proceeded to the United States to find an oil company that might be interested in taking on the concession. He found help from Gulf Oil.
Meanwhile Ibn Saud had dispatched American mining engineer Karl Twitchell to examine eastern Arabia. Twitchell found encouraging signs of oil, asphalt seeps in the vicinity of Qatif, but advised the king to await the outcome of the Bahrain No.1 well before inviting bids for a concession for Al-Ahsa. To the American engineers working in Bahrain, standing on the Jebel Dukhan and gazing across a twenty-mile (32 km) stretch of the Persian Gulf at the Arabian Peninsula in the clear light of early morning, the outline of the low Dhahran hills in the distance were an obvious oil prospect.
the California Arabian Standard Oil Company (CASOC) was set up to develop the oil concession. SOCAL also joined forces with the Texas Oil Company when together they formed CALTEX in 1936 to take advantage of the latter’s formidable marketing network in Africa and Asia. they identified a promising site and named it Dammam No. 7, after a nearby village. Over the next three years, the drillers were unsuccessful in making a commercial strike, but chief geologist Max Steineke persevered. He urged the team to drill deeper, even when Dammam No. 7 was plagued by cave-ins, stuck drill bits and other problems, before the drillers finally struck oil on 3 March 1938. This discovery would turn out to be first of many, eventually revealing the largest source of crude oil in the world.
Dammam No. 7, the first commercial crude oil well in Saudi Arabia, struck oil on March 3, 1938.
BADA BING!!!!!!!!
My wife keeps acquiring new tastes in music. First it was Sixpence None the Richer, then 50 Cent, now Nickelback. I think she’s going through the change.
Trump Invites Caucasian Half Of Alysa Liu To Visit White House.
I couldn’t beat a computer in a game of chess, but it would be no match for me in kickboxing. In a related development, my monitor and my toe are broken.
The Finland hockey team, who won Bronze, was not at the Olympic medal awards because they were Finish-ed.
State of the Union Fact Check: None Detected.
If the president invites you to the White House or the State of the Union Address, you go. If a pedophile invites you anywhere, tell them to fuck off.
What’s worse than a racist, authoritarian president? The people that support him.
Don’t bother walking a mile in my shoes, that would be boring. Spend 30 seconds in my head, that’ll freak you right out.
Sometimes I feels like my brain has a lot of things to hold and no pockets.
People who think you get boring as you age have obviously never experienced the thrill of seeing two hummingbirds at the feeder at the same time.
Someone asked me what the 9th letter of the alphabet is. I had to think about it, but I was correct.
You know what seems odd to me? Numbers that aren’t divisible by two.
People in the 80s: I bet they have flying cars in 40 years. Meanwhile on a pizza box in 2026: Open box before eating pizza.
The years passed, mankind became stupider at a frightening rate. Some had high hopes the genetic engineering would correct this trend in evolution, but sadly the greatest minds and resources were focused on conquering hair loss and prolonging erections.
I went outside once… The graphics were great but the story was horrible.
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