A Brief History On September 17, 1961, downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was the site of the first retractable roof arena in the world, although its purpose may surprise you! Digging Deeper The Civic Arena was built mainly as the home of the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, although it moved into the sporting world in a big way in 1967 when it became the home of the Pittsburgh Penguins NHL hockey team, until 2010, when it finally closed. Of course, the 17,000 seat arena also hosted many other sporting events, professional and amateur, including basketball, wrestling, boxing, soccer, figure skating, gymnastics, and…
Browsing: Music
A Brief History On August 22, 2006, Russian mathematician Grigori Perelman was awarded the Fields Medal for creating the proof of the “Poincaré conjecture,” but then he refused the award, explaining, “I’m not interested in money or fame; I don’t want to be on display like an animal in a zoo.” Digging Deeper Some other people that have refused awards include: Three people have refused their Oscar statuettes, including Dudley Nichols in 1936, George Scott in 1970, and Marlon Brando in 1973. Jean-Paul Sartre turned down the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1964, as he previously refused France’s Legion of…
A Brief History On August 8, 2004, Chicago’s Little Lady, a tour boat carrying 120 passengers, was bombed by a tour bus belonging to the Dave Matthews Band. About 2/3 of the passengers were soaked with human waste dumped from the bus as it crossed the Kinzie Street bridge over the Chicago River in Chicago, Illinois. Digging Deeper Only the driver was aboard the bus and he decided to dump the waste from the toilets into the Chicago River as he crossed the bridge, the bridge made of open metal grates, and the driver claims he had no idea the…
A Brief History On July 1, 1980, Canada officially adopted “O Canada” as its national anthem. Dating back to 1880, “O Canada” became the informal national anthem of Canada in 1939. The English form of the lyrics have been amended several times, including in 2018, while the French words remained the same. Digging Deeper Other countries have well known stirring anthems, and we list a few for you to pick from as your favorite: France, “La Marseillaise,” 1792. Germany, ”Deutschland Über Alles,” 1922. United Kingdom, “God Save the King (or Queen),” 1745. United States, “Star-Spangled Banner,” written 1814, adopted 1931.…
A Brief History On May 23, 1829, Austrian maker of keyboard instruments, Cyrill Demian, a man of Armenian descent, was granted a patent for his new musical instrument, the Accordion. Digging Deeper As with so many other inventions, the actual inventor of the accordion is disputed, with some giving Christian Buschmann of Germany, credit as the real inventor. Some other instruments let their name lead you to their inventor, such as the Saxophone, invented by Adolphe Sax of Belgium in the 1840s, and the Sousaphone, of course invented by the March King himself, John Philip Sousa, in 1893, although the…
