Browsing: March 21

A Brief History On March 21, 1952, disc jockey Alan Freed (inventor of the term “rock and roll”) and record store owner Leo Mintz staged the first rock concert in Cleveland, Ohio! Digging Deeper At the time, our country was divided by race, with African-Americans who served the country during World War II expecting to achieve something more like equality than the segregation and discriminatory treatment of the day. With major civil rights milestones such as integration of the armed forces in 1948 and landmark events such as Brown v. Board of Education and the Rosa Parks led bus boycott…

A Brief History On March 21, 1804, the Code Napoleon became the law of France, and went on to influence legal reforms in many other countries. Digging Deeper Napoleon Bonaparte, emperor of the French, was somewhat more down to earth than the ego-maniacal image he is usually portrayed as. The Code Napoleon, or Napoleonic Code (or Code Civil des Francais as they say in France) had modern rules popular with the masses, with such novel ideas as freedom of religion, no privilege based on birth, and government positions based on merit instead of wealth. Of course, there was the law…

A Brief History The United States Senate approved the observance of a National Rosie the Riveter Day on March 21 in 2017.  Americans celebrate Women’s History Month in March and frequently hold up the example of Rosie the Riveter as emblematic of great American women, but who was the real woman behind the propaganda poster? Over the years many characters in popular culture and our everyday life get to be so familiar they almost become part of the background.  Many of these people or characters or their real personae are nearly anonymous despite their fame, a contradiction addressed here. Digging…

A Brief History On March 21, 1871, New York Herald journalist Henry Morton Stanley set off on his famous African expedition to find missionary and explorer David Livingstone who had not been heard from in years.  When the pair finally met, Stanley uttered his famous quote, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” Digging Deeper Livingstone was a Scotsman of humble origins.  His thirst for knowledge led him to study medicine and religion as well as the natural sciences.  He became a missionary and explorer, going to places largely unknown to Europeans such as Africa and “discovering” and “naming” the Victoria Falls there.  Although lauded for his…