Calendar: May 6

A Year: Day to Day Men: 6th of May

The Full Stretch

On May 6, 1937, the German airship Hindenburg caught fire while attempting to dock.

The Hindenburg, Luftschiff Zeppelin #129, had a duralumin structure, incorporating fifteen Ferris wheel-like main ring bulkheads along its length, with sixteen cotton gas bags fitted between them. The airship’s outer skin was of cotton doped with a mixture of reflective materials intended to protect the bags from light damage and overheating from the sun. There were small passenger quarters in the middle flanked by large public rooms Long slanted windows ran the length of both decks.

Helium was initially selected for the lifting gas because it was the safest being not flammable. Despite a U.S. ban on the export of helium under the Helium Control Act of 1927, the Germans designed the airship to use the far safer gas in the belief that they could convince the US government to license its export. When the designers learned that the National Munitions Control Board would refuse to lift the export ban, they were forced to re-engineer Hindenburg to use hydrogen for lift. No alternative lighter than air gases could provide sufficient lift.

On the fateful May 1937 trip, the Hindenburg took off on time, it ran into delays crossing the Atlantic due to headwinds and approaching storm fronts. The crew radioed Lakehurst announcing they would delay their arrival time by 10 to 12 hours, from 6 a.m. on May 6 to late afternoon. This allowed the airship to float over the Boston and New York City skies during daylight hours, which was not part of the original schedule.

The airship arrived at Lakehurst at about 4:15 p.m., only to begin circling again because of bad weather. By 6:15 p.m., the storm had subsided and Lakehurst’s commanding officer told the ship’s captain to land as soon as possible to beat another approaching storm. Shortly after 7 p.m., the Hindenburg neared the mooring mast, but the tail felt heavy and the winds prevented the ship from being level. In response, the captain released hydrogen from cells 11 to 16 for 30 seconds in hopes of reducing the buoyancy of the bow and keeping the ship in level trim.

At the same time, the winds shifted, leaving the airship little room to maneuver. So the crew executed a sharp turn to align with the mooring mast. In the end, it was a lot of adjusting, leveling and quick decision-making that all could been factors what ended up happening. At 7:21 p.m, with the airship 180 feet in the air, the forward landing ropes were dropped. Then the airship caught on fire; at 7:25 pm, little was left but rubble.

Hindenburg left Frankfurt with ninety seven people onboard; 62 survived the crash at Lakehurst, although many suffered serious injuries. Thirteen of the thirty-six passengers, and twenty-two of the sixty-one member crew, died as a result of the crash, along with one member of the civilian landing party.

Calendar: May 5

A Year: Day to Day Men: 5th of May

Barroco Tesouro

May 5, 1914 is the birthdate of American film actor Tyrone Edmund Power III.

Tyrone Power went to Hollywood in 1936. The director Henry King was impressed with his looks and poise, and he insisted that Power be tested for the lead role in “Lloyd’s of London”. Producer Darryl F. Zanuck decided to give Power the role, believing Power had a great screen presence. Power had fourth billing in the credits; but he had the most screen time of the actors. On the night of the movie premier, he walked in an unknown and walked out a star.

Power racked up hit after hit from 1936 until 1943, when his career was interrupted by military service. In those years he starred in comedies, westerns, dramas, and swashbucklers such as: “Thin Ice”, “Blood and Sand”, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”, “Jesse James”, “The Black Swan” and”The Mark of Zorro”. Power was named the second biggest box office draw in 1939, surpassed only by Mickey Rooney.

In 1940 the direction of Power’s career took a dramatic turn when his movie “The Mark of Zorro” was released. Power played the role of Don Diego Vega/Zorro, fop by day, bandit hero by night. The film was a hit, and 20th Century Fox often cast Power in other swashbucklers in the years that followed. Power was a talented swordsman in real life, and the dueling scene in “The Mark of Zorro” is highly regarded. The great Hollywood swordsman Basil Rathbone, who starred with him in the film, commented, “Power was the most agile man with a sword I’ve ever faced before a camera. Tyrone could have fenced Errol Flynn into a cocked hat.”

The 1955 movie “Untamed” was Tyrone Power’s last movie made under his contract with 20th Century Fox. The same year saw the release of “The Long Gray Line”, a successful military John Ford film for Columbia Pictures with Power playing the lead role. Power’s old boss, Darryl F. Zanuck, persuaded him to play the lead role in the 1957 “The Sun Also Rises”, adapted from the Hemingway novel. This was his final film with Fox.

For Power’s last completed film role, he was cast against type as the accused murderer Leonard Vole in the first film version of Agatha Christie’s “Witness for the Prosecution”, directed by Billy Wilder. Robert Fulford, film critic of the Washington Post, commented on Power’s “superb performance” as “the seedy, stop-at-nothing exploiter of women”. The movie was well received and a success at the box office.

In September of 1958 Tyrone Power went to Spain to film the epic “Solomon and Sheba”. He had filmed about 75 per cent of his scenes when he was stricken by a massive heart attack while filming a dueling scene with his co-star and friend George Sanders. Power died in Madrid on November 15, 1958 at the age of 44. On his tombstone at Hollywood Forever Cemetery are the masks of comedy and tragedy, with the inscription “Good night, sweet prince”.

Calendar: May 4

A Year: Day to Day Men: 4th of May

The Distance of Space

On May 4, 1953, Ernest Hemingway wins the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style had a strong influence on 20th century fiction, while his adventurous lifestyle and his public image brought him admiration from later generations. He published seven novels, six short-story collections, and two non-fiction works. Three of his novels, four short story collections, and three non-fiction works were published posthumously.

In late September of 1921, Hemingway married Hadley Richardson; the couple then moved to France. In Paris, Hemingway met American writer and art collector Gertrude Stein, Irish novelist James Joyce, American poet Ezra Pound and other writers. He was introduced to the expatriate artists and writers of the Montparnasse Quarter referred to as the “Lost Generation”—a term Hemingway popularized with the 1926 publication of his debut novel “The Sun Also Rises”. At Stein’s salon he met influential painter such as Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro, and Juan Gris.

In 1941, the Pulitzer Prize jurors voted unanimously for Ernest Hemingway’s 1940 book “For Whom the Bell Tolls”. Everyone was in favor of the book except for Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University and ex-officio chairman of the board. Butler vetoed the jurors’ choice, deeming the book offensive and profane. He said, “I hope that you will reconsider before you ask the University to be associated with an award for a work of this nature.” There was no fiction winner that year.

However, Hemingway did go on to win the Pulitzer on May 4, 1953 for his novel, “The Old Man and the Sea”. Some have interpreted Hemingway’s eventual Pulitzer more as a nod to his overall career than as an award for “The Old Man and the Sea”—generally considered a lesser work to “For Whom the Bell Tolls”. Shortly after the publication of “The Old Man and the Sea”, Hemingway went on safari to Africa, where he was almost killed in two successive plane crashes that left him in pain or ill health for much of the rest of his life.

In October 1954, Hemingway received the Nobel Prize in Literature. Because hs was suffering pain from the African accidents, he decided against traveling to Stockholm. Instead he sent a speech to be read: “Writing, at its best, is a lonely life. Organizations for writers palliate the writer’s loneliness but I doubt if they improve his writing. He grows in public stature as he sheds his loneliness and often his work deteriorates. For he does his work alone and if he is a good enough writer he must face eternity, or the lack of it, each day.”

Calendar: May 3

A Year: Day to Day Men: 3rd of May

Absorbed in His Thoughts

May 3, 1469 was the birthdate of Niccolo di Bernardo dei Machiavelli, the Italian diplomat, politician, and writer of the Renaissance period.

Machiavelli was born in a tumultuous era in which popes waged acquisitive wars against Italian city-states. People and cities often fell from power as France, Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire battled for regional influence and control. Political-military alliances continually changed, featuring mercenary leaders, who changed sides without warning. The result was a rise and fall of many short-lived governments.

Between 1503 and 1506, Machiavelli was responsible for the Florentine militia. Under his command, Florentine citizen-soldiers defeated Pisa in 1509. However, Machiavelli’s success did not last. In August 1512 the Medici, backed by Pope Julius II, used Spanish troops to defeat the Florentines at Prato. After the Medici victory in 1512, the Florentine city-state and the republic were dissolved, and Machiavelli was deprived of office. In 1513 the Medici accused him of conspiracy against them and had him imprisoned. Despite having been subjected to torture, he denied involvement and was released after three weeks.

Machiavelli then retired to his estate at Sant’Andrea in Percussina and devoted himself to studying and writing the political treatises that earned his place in the intellectual development of political philosophy and political conduct. He wrote his most well-known work “The Prince” in 1513 during his exile from city affairs.

Machiavellianism is widely used as a negative term to characterize unscrupulous politicians of the sort Machiavelli described most famously in “The Prince”. Machiavelli described immoral behavior, such as dishonesty and the killing of innocents, as being normal and effective in politics. He even seemed to encourage it in some situations. The book gained notoriety due to claims that it teaches “evil recommendations to tyrants to help them maintain their power”.

The term “Machiavellian” is often associated with political deceit, deviousness, and realpolitik. On the other hand, many commentators, such as Baruch Spinoza, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Denis Diderot, have argued that Machiavelli was actually a republican, even when writing “The Prince”, and his writings were an inspiration to Enlightenment proponents of modern democratic political philosophy. In one place, for example, he noted his admiration for the selfless Roman statesman Cincinnatus, who, after twice being granted absolute authority during crises, gave up the power as soon as it was no longer necessary, each crisis have been resolved.

Calendar: May 2

A Year: Day to Day Men: 2nd of May

Nestled in Slate-Gray Sheets

May 2, 1946 was the release date of the film “The Postman Always Rings Twice”.

The film noir “The Postman Always Rings Twice” is one of the earliest prototypes of today’s erotic thrillers. The screenplay by Harry Ruskin and Niven Busch was based on the 1934 controversial first novel of the same name by crime fiction writer James M. Cain. Cain was known for novels with forbidden lust, love triangles, brutal, raw sexiness, and adultery-motivated murder. Two previous, sexually-charged classic film noirs adapted from Cain’s novels had met with both critical and box-office success: “Double Indemnity” and “Mildred Pierce”.

In early February 1934, before Cain’s novel was published, a synopsis of his story was submitted to the Production Code Administration, which reviewed movie scripts against the morals code established for motion picture industry. The PCA persuaded RKO Studio to abandon its plans to film Cain’s story, calling it “definitely unsuitable for motion picture production.”

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer purchased the rights to make a movie adaptation a full twelve years prior the film’s release. They were dissuaded from moving forward with the project earlier because of fears that its themes of adultery and murder would run afoul of the production code that began to be rigorously enforced not long after they had acquired the rights. The studio finally decided to proceed with the film in 1944.

The film was a breakthrough in the battle against screen censorship. Although the Production Code Administration had kept James M. Cain’s novel off the screen for twelve years, they approved the 1946 picture despite its sizzling love scenes. Shocked fans even insisted the two stars, Lana Turner and John Garfield, were French kissing on screen.

“The Postman Always Rings Twice” was a big hit, earning about five million dollars at the box office, recording a profit of about two million dollars. Despite the profit, Louis B. Mayer of MGM hated the film. Although known now as a one of the key works in the development of the film noir style, it did not receive even one Academy Award nomination.

Calendar: May 1

A Year: Day to Day Men: 1st of May

Reaching Forward

On May 1, 1776, the Illuminati in Upper Bavaria was established by Jesuit-taught Adam Weishaupt.

Johann Adam Weishaupt was a German philosopher and professor of law at the University of Ingolstadt, Bavaria. He began his education at the age of seven at a Jesuit school. He later enrolled at the University of Ingolstadt and graduated in 1768 at age 20 with a doctorate of law. In 1772 he became a professor of law at that university.

After Pope Clement XIV’s suppression of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1773, Weishaupt became a professor of canon law, a position that was held exclusively by the Jesuits until that time. In 1775 Weishaupt was introduced to the empirical philosophy of Johann Georg Feder, a philosopher and author. Feder’s philosophy was based on the premise that knowledge was only deduced or inferred by one’s sense-based experience, from which one can then develop universal concepts.

Johann Adam Weishaupt founded the “Illuminati” in the Electorate of Bavaria on the first day of May in 1776. References vary on the goal of the Order: some saying the Order was not democratic internally, but sought to promote the doctrines of equality and freedom throughout society; others say the aim was to combat religion and superstition and foster rationalism in its place. Contrary to the the Enlightenment movement’s dictum that the passage of man out of his immaturity was done by using his own reason without the guidance of others, Weishaupt’s Order of Illuminati prescribed in detail everything which the members had to read and think.

Weishaupt’s radical rationalism and vocabulary did not succeed. Writings that were intercepted in 1784 were interpreted as seditious, and the Society was banned by the government of Karl Theodor, Elector of Bavaria, in 1784. Weishaupt lost his position at the University of Ingolstadt and fled Bavaria. After Weishaupt’s Order of Illuminati was banned and its members dispersed, it left behind no enduring traces of an influence, not even on its own members, who went on in the future to develop in quite different directions

Calendar: April 30

A Year: Day to Day Men: 30th of April

The Mesh Pouch

April 30, 1952 was the date for the first advertisement of a toy on national television in the United States.

In the early 1940s, Brooklyn-born toy inventor George Lerner came up with the idea of inserting small, pronged body and face parts into fruits and vegetables to create a “funny face man”. Lerner would often take potatoes from his mother’s garden and, using various other fruits and vegetables as facial features, he would make dolls with which his younger sisters could play. The grape-eyed, carrot-nosed, potato-headed dolls became the principal idea behind the plastic toy which would later be manufactured.

In the beginning, Lerner’s toy proved controversial. With World War II and food rationing a recent memory for most Americans, the use of fruits and vegetables to make toys was considered irresponsible and wasteful. After several years of trying to sell the toy, Lerner finally convinced a food company to distribute the plastic parts as premiums in breakfast cereal boxes.

in 1951, Lerner showed the idea to Henry and Merrill Hassenfeld, who conducted a small school supply and toy business called Hassenfeld Brothers which later changed its name to Hasbro, Inc.. Realizing the toy was quite unlike anything in their line, they paid the cereal company to stop production and bought the rights. Lerner was offered an advance of $500 and a 5% royalty on every kit sold. The toy was dubbed “Mr. Potato Head” and went into production.

On April 30, 1952, Mr. Potato Head became the first toy advertised on television. The campaign was also the first to be aimed directly at children; before this, commercials were only targeted at adults, so toy adverts had always been pitched to parents. This commercial revolutionized the field of marketing, and caused an industrial boom. Over one million kits were sold in the first year.

In 1953, Mrs. Potato Head was added, and soon after, Brother Spud and Sister Yam completed the Potato Head family with accessories reflecting the affluence of the fifties that included a car, a boat trailer, a kitchen set, a stroller, and pets called Spud-ettes. Although originally produced as separate plastic parts to be stuck into a real potato or other vegetable, a plastic potato was added to the kit in 1964.

Calendar: April 29

A Year: Day to Day Men: 29th of April

Lazy Sunday Morning

A pivotal figure in the history of jazz, Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was born on April 29, 1899 in Washington, D.C.

Duke Ellington wrote his first composition “Soda Fountain Rag” in the summer of 1914 while working as soda jerk at the Poodle Dog Cafe. This piece was created by ear, as he had not yet mastered reading and writing music. At the age of 14, he began sneaking into poolrooms to listen to the poolroom pianists play, causing him to get serious about his piano lessons. With the guidance of Washington pianist and band leader Oliver “Doc” Perry, Ellington learned to read sheet music, project a professional style and improve his technique.

Ellington played in other band ensembles while at the same time working several day jobs. In late 1917 he formed and acted as booking agent for his first group “The Duke’s Serenaders”. He had a successful career in Washington D.C. playing for private society balls and embassy parties. When his drummer Sonny Greer was invited to join the Wilber Sweatman Orchestra in New York City, Ellington made the fateful decision to leave behind his successful career in Washington, D.C., and moved to Harlem, New York, ultimately becoming part of the Harlem Renaissance.

In 1925 Duke Ellington and his Kentucky Club Orchestra grew to a group of ten players; they developed their own sound by displaying the non-traditional expression of Ellington’s arrangements, the street rhythms of Harlem, and the exotic-sounding trombone growls and wah-wahs, high-squealing trumpets, and sultry saxophone blues licks of the band members.

In the late 1950s Ellington began to work directly on scoring for film soundtracks; one was the 1959 film “Anatomy of a Murder”, in which Ellington appeared fronting a roadhouse comb. Film historians have recognized the soundtrack of “Anatomy of a Murder” as a landmark – the first significant Hollywood film music by African Americans comprising non-diegetic music, that is, music whose source is not visible or implied by action in the film, like an on-screen band. The score avoided the cultural stereotypes which previously characterized jazz scores and rejected a strict adherence to visuals in ways that presaged the New Wave cinema of the 1960s.

Despite his advancing age in the 1960s and 70s, Ellington showed no sign of slowing down as he continued to make vital and innovative recordings: ‘The Far East Suite’, ‘New Orlean Suite’, ‘The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse’, and ‘Francis A and Edward K’, his only album recorded with Frank Sinatra. Ellington performed what is considered his final full concert in a ballroom at Northern Illinois University on March 20, 1974. At his funeral, attended by over 12.000 people at the cathedral of Saint John the Divine, Ella Fitzgerald summed up the occasion, saying “It’s a very sad day. A genius has passed”.

Calendar: April 28

A Year: Day to Day Men: 28th of April

A Road Well Traveled

April 28, 1879 was the birthdate of Edgard Tytgat, the Flemish painter and etcher.

Edgard Tytgat was a Belgium based artist: a painter, author, and engraver. He studied at the Brussels Academy of Fine Arts where he discovered the new movements of symbolism and post-impressionism. It was artists like Cezanne and Bonnard that influenced his work.

One of the publications with woodcuts that he produced in 1917 after the death of his friend, Wouters, is the volume “Quelques Images de la Vie d’un Artiste” (Some Images of an Artists’ Life), of which he singlehandedly printed forty numbered copies. By every one of the sixteen intentionally naïve prints Tytgat wrote a short text about the life of Rik and Nel Wouters, whom he knew so well.

Tytgat’s style evolved from local Fauvism to a wayward Expressionism with a popular and naïve character. During his career Edgard Tytgat painted nearly five hundred canvases and made countless watercolors, woodcuts, etchings and drawings. Even though he belonged to the group of artists associated with the journal Sélection, his work cannot be placed in any one particular camp. It is difficult to divide his work into well-defined periods, and it lacks clear chronological development. His earliest works are considered impressionistic, while later works can be described as expressionistic or naive.

Tytgat’s world was bittersweet. He was thoroughly familiar with art history and often drew inspiration from classic themes. His works are often bathed in an atmosphere of lost innocence or youth, fantasies, and eroticism. Everyday life and incidents from his own environment were also a great source of inspiration. However, Tytgat’s real strength was his virtuoso manner of storytelling. He invested images that at first glance seem naive, childlike and cheerful with a dark side. In this way he was able to create a complex web of meanings. A multitude of scenarios play out within a single image.

Calendar: April 27

A Year: Day to Day Men: 27th of April

Natural Extension into Space

April 27 1791 was the birthdate of Samuel Finley Breese Morse, the American painter and inventor.

In England, Morse perfected his painting techniques under the watchful eye of notable artist Washington Allston; by the end of 1811, he gained admittance to the Royal Academy. At the Academy, he was moved by the art of the Renaissance and paid close attention to the works of Michelangelo and Raphael. After observing and practicing life drawing and absorbing its anatomical demands, the young artist produced his masterpiece, “The Dying Hercules” after first making a sculpture as a study for the painting.

In 1825, Samuel Morse decided to explore a means of rapid long distance communication. While returning by ship from Europe in 1832, he encountered Charles Thomas Jackson, a man from Boston well schooled in electromagnetism. Witnessing various experiments with Jackson’s electromagnet, Morse developed the concept of a single-wire telegraph. In time the Morse code, which he developed became the primary language of telegraphy in the world. It is still the standard for rhythmic transmission of data.

Morse encountered the problem of getting a telegraphic signal to carry over more than a few hundred yards of wire. His breakthrough came from the insights of Professor Leonard Gale, who taught chemistry at New York University. With Gale’s help, Morse introduced extra circuits or relays at frequent intervals and was soon able to send a message through ten miles (16 km) of wire. This was the great breakthrough he had been seeking. Morse and Gale were soon joined by Alfred Vail, an enthusiastic young man with excellent skills, insights, and money.

At the Speedwell Ironworks in Morristown, New York, on January 11, 1838, Morse and Vail made the first public demonstration of the electric telegraph. Although Morse and Alfred Vail had done most of the research and development in the ironworks facilities, they chose a nearby factory house as the demonstration site. The first public transmission, with the message, “A patient waiter is no loser”, was witnessed by a mostly local crowd.

On May 24, 1844, a 38 mile line financed by Congress and stretching between Washington D.C. and Baltimore, was officially opened. Samuel Morse sent the now-famous words, “What hath God wrought” from the Supreme Court chamber in the basement of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., to the B&O’s Mount Clare Station in Baltimore.

Calendar: April 26

A Year: Day to Day Men: 26th of April

Hanging at the Park

On April 26, 1478 the Pazzi Conspiracy occurred in Florence, Italy.

The Pazzi conspiracy was a plot by members of the Pazzi family and others to displace the de’ Medici family as rulers of Renaissance Florence, Italy. The Salviati, Papal bankers in Florence, were at the center of the conspiracy. Pope Sixtus IV was an enemy of the Medici family. He had purchased from Milan the lordship of Imola, a trade route stronghold on the border between Papal and Tuscan territory. Lorenzo de’ Medici also wanted this stronghold for the city of Florence. The purchase was financed by the Pazzi bank, even though Francesco de’ Pazzi had promised Lorenzo they would not aid the Pope.

Girolamo Riario, Francesco Salviati and Francesco de’ Pazzi put together a plan to assassinate Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici. Pope Sixtus was approached for his support. He made a very carefully worded statement in which he said that in the terms of his holy office he was unable to sanction killing. He made it clear that it would be of great benefit to the papacy to have the Medici removed from their position of power in Florence, and that he would deal kindly with anyone who did this. He instructed the men to do what they deemed necessary to achieve this aim, and said that he would give them whatever support he could.

On Sunday, 26 April 1478, during High Mass at the Duomo before a crowd of 10,000, the Medici brothers were assaulted. Giuliano de’ Medici was stabbed 19 times by Bernardo Bandini dei Baroncelli and Francesco de’ Pazzi. As Giuliano bled to death on the cathedral floor, his brother Lorenzo escaped with serious, but not life-threatening, wounds. Lorenzo was locked safely in the sacristy and the coup d’etat failed.

Most of the conspirators were soon caught and summarily executed; five, including Francesco de’ Pazzi and Salviati, were hanged from the windows of the Palazzo della Signoria. Jacopo de’ Pazzi, head of the family, escaped from Florence but was caught and brought back. He was tortured, then hanged from the Palazzo della Signoria next to the decomposing corpse of Salviati. He was buried at Santa Croce, but the body was dug up and thrown into a ditch.

Although Lorenzo appealed to the crowd not to exact summary justice, many of the conspirators, as well as many people accused of being conspirators, were killed. Between 26 April, the day of the attack, and 20 October 1478, a total of eighty people were executed. The Pazzi were banished from Florence, and their lands and property confiscated. Their name and their coat of arms were perpetually suppressed. The name Pazzi was erased from public registers, all buildings and streets.

Calendar: April 25

A Year: Day to Day Men: 25th of April

Rivulets of Water

The first edition of “Robinson Crusoe” by Daniel Defoe was published on April 25, 1719.

Around 1692 at the age of thirty-two, Daniel Defoe began to write, partly as a moneymaking venture. One of his first creations was a poem written in 1701, entitled “The True-Born Englishman,” which became popular and earned Defoe some celebrity. He also wrote political pamphlets. One of these, “The Shortest Way with Dissenters”, was a satire on persecutors of dissenters and sold well among the ruling Anglican elite until they realized that it was mocking their own practices. As a result, Defoe was publicly pilloried—his hands and wrists locked in a wooden device—in 1703, and jailed in Newgate Prison.

He also worked as a spy, reveling in aliases and disguises, reflecting his own variable identity as merchant, poet, journalist, and prisoner. This theme of changeable identity would later be expressed in the life of Robinson Crusoe, who becomes merchant, slave, plantation owner, and even unofficial king. In his writing, Defoe often used a pseudonym simply because he enjoyed the effect. He was incredibly wide-ranging and productive as a writer, turning out over 500 books and pamphlets during his life.

Defoe began writing fiction late in life, around the age of sixty. He published his first novel “Robinson Crusoe”, in 1719, attracting a large middle-class readership. He followed in 1722 with “Moll Flanders”, the story of a tough, streetwise heroine whose fortunes rise and fall dramatically. Both works straddle the border between journalism and fiction. “Robinson Crusoe” is thought to be based on the true story of a shipwrecked seaman named Alexander Selkirk and was passed off as history, while “Moll Flanders” included dark prison scenes drawn from Defoe’s own experiences in Newgate and interviews with prisoners.

His focus on the actual conditions of everyday life and avoidance of the courtly and the heroic made Defoe a revolutionary in English literature and helped define the new genre of the novel. Stylistically, Defoe was a great innovator. Dispensing with the ornate style associated with the upper classes, Defoe used the simple, direct, fact-based style of the middle classes, which became the new standard for the English novel. With the theme of solitary human existence in “Robinson Crusoe”, Defoe paved the way for the central modern theme of alienation and isolation. Defoe died in London on April 24, 1731, of a fatal “lethargy”—an unclear diagnosis that may refer to a stroke.

Calendar: April 24

A Year: Day to Day Men: 24th of April

A Lavish Display

April 24, 1944 was the release date of the thriller movie “Double Indemnity”.

The movie “Double Indemnity” is a 1944 film noir, co-written by Billy Wilder and detective fiction writer Raymond Chandler. The screenplay was based on the novella of the same name by James M. Cain which was originally presented as an eight-part serial. The term ‘double indemnity’ refers to a clause in certain life insurance policies that doubles the payout in rare cases when death is caused accidentally, such as while riding a railway.

The film starred Fred MacMurray as the insurance salesman, Edward G Robinson as the insurance claims adjuster who job is to find phony claims, and Barbara Stanwyck as a housewife who wishes her husband were dead. Fred MacMurray is infatuated with Barbara Stanwyck and devises a plan to make the murder of her husband appear to be an accidental fall from a train, thus triggering the double indemnity clause in the husband’s insurance policy.

The story began making the rounds in Hollywood shortly after it was published as a serial in 1936. Its author James Cain had already made a name for himself the year before with the “Postman Always Rings Twice”, a story of murder and passion between a migrant worker and the unhappy wife of a café owner. Cain’s agent sent copies of the novella to all the major studios and within days, all were competing to buy the rights for $25,000. Then a letter went out from Joseph Breen at the Hays Office, the enforcers of the 1930 Production Code, saying the story was unacceptable. All the studios withdrew their bids.

Eight years later, Paramount resubmitted the script to the Hays Office, but the response was nearly identical to the one eight years earlier. The studio then submitted a film treatment crafted by Wilder and his writing partner Charles Brackett, and this time the Hays Office approved the project with only a few objections: the portrayal of the disposal of the body, a proposed gas-chamber execution scene, and the skimpiness of the towel worn by the female lead in her first scene.

Praised by many critics when first released, “Double Indemnity” was nominated for seven Academy Awards but did not win any. Widely regarded as a classic, it is often cited as a model for the film noir style and as having set the standard for the films that followed in that genre. Wilder himself considered “Double Indemnity” his best film in terms of having the fewest scripting and shooting mistakes and always maintained that the two things he was proudest of in his career were the compliments he received from James Cain about “Double Indemnity” and from Agatha Christie for his handling of her “Witness for the Prosecution”.

Calendar: April 23

A Year: Day to Day Men: 23rd of April

The Observer

The Cath Chluain Tarbh, the Battle of Clontarf, took place on April 23, 1014.

The Battle of Clontarf took place at Clontarf, near Dublin, Ireland pitting the forces of Brian Boru, High King of Ireland, against a Norse-Irish alliance comprised of forces of the Kings of Dublin and Leinster and an external Viking contingent. It lasted from sunrise to sunset and ended in a rout of the Viking and Leinster forces.

It is estimated that between seven to ten thousand men were killed. Although Brian Boru’s forces were victorious, Brian Boru was himself killed, as were his son Murchad and his grandson Toirdelbach, leaving no heirs to the throne. The Leinster King Mael Morda and the Viking leaders were also slain. After the battle the the Kingdom of Dublin was reduced to just a secondary power.

Brian’s body was brought to Swords, north of Dublin. There it was met by the coarb of Patrick, the traditional head of the church in Ireland, who brought the body back with him to Armagh, where it was interred after twelve days of mourning. Along with Brian were the body of his son Murchad and the heads of Conaing, Brian’s nephew, and Mothla, King of the Déisi Muman. Máel Sechnaill, then King of Mide, was restored as High King of Ireland, and remained secure in his position until his death in 1022.

The battle was an important event in Irish history and is recorded in both Irish and Norse chronicles. In Ireland, the battle came to be seen as an event that freed the Irish from foreign domination, and Brian was hailed as a national hero. This view was especially popular during English rule in Ireland; it still has a hold on the popular imagination.

In modern times there has been a long-running debate among historians, which is now 250 years old, about Ireland’s Viking age and the Battle of Clontarf. The standard view, and the popular view, is that the battle ended a war between the Irish and Vikings by which Brian Boru broke Viking power in Ireland. However revisionist historians see it as an Irish civil war in which Brian Boru’s Munster forces and its allies defeated Leinster and Dublin, and that there were Vikings fighting on both sides.

Calendar: April 22

A Year: Day to Day Men: 22nd of April

Piercing Eyes

The Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889 began on April 22.

On March 3, 1889, U. S. President Harrison announced the government would open the 1.9 million-acre tract of Unassigned Lands in Oklahoma for settlement precisely at noon on April 22. Anyone could join the race for the land. With only seven weeks to prepare, land-hungry Americans quickly began to gather around the borders of the irregular-shaped rectangle of territory. By the appointed day more than 50,000 hopeful settlers were living in tent cities on all four sides of the territory.

The events that day at Fort Reno on the western border were typical of events that happened in other places of the border. At 11:50 a.m., soldiers called for everyone to form a line. When the hands of the clock reached noon, the cannon of the fort boomed, and the soldiers signaled the settlers to start. With the crack of hundreds of whips, thousands of settlers streamed into the territory in wagons, on horseback, and on foot. All told, from 50,000 to 60,000 settlers entered the territory that day. By nightfall, they had staked thousands of claims either on town lots or quarter section farm plots.

By the end of the day of April 22, towns like Norman and Kingfisher had sprung into being almost overnight. Both Oklahoma City and Guthrie had established cities of around 10,000 people in literally half a day. The story that ran in the Harper’s Weekly, a New York based political magazine read: “At twelve o’clock on Monday, April 22d, the resident population of Guthrie was nothing; before sundown it was at least ten thousand. In that time streets had been laid out, town lots staked off, and steps taken toward the formation of a municipal government”.

Many settlers immediately started improving their new land or stood in line waiting to file their claim. Many children sold creek water to the new homesteaders waiting in line for five cents a cup, while other children gathered buffalo dung to provide fuel for cooking. By the second week, schools had opened and were being taught by volunteers paid by the pupils’ parents until regular school districts could be established. Within one month, Oklahoma City had five banks and six newspapers.

On May 2, 1890, the Oklahoma Organic Act was passed creating the Oklahoma Territory. This act included the panhandle area of Oklahoma within the territory. It also allowed for central governments and designated the city of Guthrie as the territory’s new capitol. By 1907, the area once known as Indian Territory entered the Union as a part of the new state of Oklahoma.