Good News in History, April 27

by Guest Thu Apr 27, 2017 4:24 pm

25 years ago today, Betty Boothroyd became the first woman in its 700-year history – and to date the only woman –to be elected Speaker of the British House of Commons. Born to textile workers, she traveled to the U.S. in 1960 to see the Kennedy presidential campaign, and was inspired to continue working in the Labor party and to get young people interested in politics. SEE her 2001 memoir here… (1992)

MORE Good News on this Day:

First performance of Handel’s Fireworks Music in Green Park, London (1749)
Togo gained independence (1960)
Sierra Leone is granted its independence from the UK (1961)
Baseball pitcher Nolan Ryan broke a 55-year-old major-league baseball record by striking out the 3,509th batter of his career; the hurler would go on to accumulate 5,714 strikeouts in his career, more than 800 more than the next closest pitcher on the list, Randy Johnson (1983)
The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, was established (1992)
Russia and 12 other former Soviet republics won entry into the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank (1992)
The first South African general election was held to allow black citizens to vote, which marked the end of a four-year process to abolish apartheid and elected Nelson Mandela, former political prisoner of 28 years, as president; marked annually as a public holiday (1994)
Construction began on the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower, set to be the tallest tower in New York City, on the World Trade Center site (2006)

And, on this day in 1810, Beethoven composed his famous piano piece, Für Elise, which would not be discovered until 40 years after the composer’s death. One of his most popular compositions, the Bagatelle in A Minor is commonly performed by young piano students and was played by Schroeder in the Peanuts TV special, A Charlie Brown Christmas. Musical scholars disagree on who the mysterious “Elise” was– for whom the piece was dedicated. (Hear the famous piece on YouTube)

Good News in History, April 27 Rocky_Marciano-150x150

Good News in History, April 27 Rocky_Marciano-150x150

Also, on this day in 1956, Rocky Marciano retired as undefeated boxing champ at age 32, becoming the only person to hold the heavyweight title without a tie or defeat during his entire career. Born to Italian immigrants in Brockton, Massachusetts, he worked out as a youth on homemade weightlifting equipment at home and dropped out of school in the tenth grade. While in the Army, he won the 1946 Amateur Armed Forces boxing tournament. Known for his relentless fighting style, stamina, and an iron chin, Marciano has been ranked by many boxing historians as one of the best heavyweight boxers of all time. His knockout percentage of 87.75 is one of the highest in heavyweight history.

Marciano was the inspiration for the title character Rocky Balboa from Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky film series. The character Rocky dreams of becoming like his idol Rocky Marciano and is given a boxing glove necklace made from a cuff link given to him by his trainer Mickey, who had received it from Marciano. (Books and Films on Rocky)

http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/events060427/

by Fred Moletrousers Fri Apr 28, 2017 9:23 am

I have always said that Betty Boothroyd was one of the finest Speakers of the 20th century bar none.

Mr Speaker Lenthall would have been rightly proud of her, regardless of the general misogamy (a word coincidentally first used in England at around the same time, the mid 17th century) of the ruling political classes.

Good News in History, April 27

Good News in History, April 27

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