Today In History: What Happened This Day In History (Tuesday, February 10, 2015)

Today In History. What Happened This Day In History

A chronological timetable of historical events that occurred on this day in history. Historical facts of the day in the areas of military, politics, science, music, sports, arts, entertainment and more. Discover what happened today in history.

February 10

1258		Huegu, a Mongol leader, seizes Baghdad, bringing and end to the Abbasid caliphate.
1620		Supporters of Marie de Medici, the queen mother, who has been exiled to Blois, are defeated by the king’s troops at Ponts de Ce, France.
1763		The Treaty of Paris ends the French-Indian War. France gives up all her territories in the New World except New Orleans and a few scattered islands.
1799		Napoleon Bonaparte leaves Cairo, Egypt, for Syria, at the head of 13,000 men.
1814		Napoleon personally directs lightning strikes against enemy columns advancing toward Paris, beginning with a victory over the Russians at Champaubert.
1840		Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert.
1846		Led by religious leader Brigham Young, the first Mormons begin a long westward exodus from Nauvoo, Il., to Utah.
1863		P.T. Barnum’s star midgets, Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren, are married.
1904		Russia and Japan declare war on each other.
1915		President Wilson blasts the British for using the U.S. flag on merchant ships to deceive the Germans.
1939		Japanese occupy island of Hainan in French Indochina.
1941		London severs diplomatic relations with Romania.
1941		Iceland is attacked by German planes.
1942		The war halts civilian car production at Ford.
1945		B-29s hit the Tokyo area.
1955		Bell Aircraft displays a fixed-wing vertical takeoff plane.
1960		Adolph Coors, the beer brewer, is kidnapped in Golden, Colo.
1966		Protester David Miller is convicted of burning his draft card.
1979		The Metropolitan Museum announces the first major theft in 110-year history, $150,000 Greek marble head.
1986		The largest Mafia trial in history, with 474 defendants, opens in Palermo, Italy.
Born on February 10
1890		Boris Pasternak, Russian novelist and poet (Dr. Zhivago).  (Listen to Doctor Zhivago, by Boris Pastenak on euzicasa! just click on the shortcut above!)
1893		Jimmy Durante, American comedian and film actor.
1894		Harold MacMillan, British prime minister (1957-1963).
1897		John F. Enders, virologist.
1898		Bertolt Brecht, German poet and dramatist (The Threepenny Opera).
1901		Stella Adler, actress and teacher.
1902		Walter Brattain, physicist, one of the inventors of the transistor.
1910		Dominique Georges Pire, Belgian cleric and educator.
1914		Larry Adler, harmonica virtuoso.
1920		Alex Comfort, English physician and author (Joy of Sex).
1927		(Mary Violet) Leontyne Price, opera singer.

– See more at: http://www.historynet.com/today-in-history#sthash.9xy5kPzI.dpuf

ALEXANDRA LEAVING, from Leonard Cohen’s ‘T h e B o o k o f L o n g i n g’

ALEXANDRA LEAVING,
from Leonard Cohen‘s

T h e  B o o k  o f  L o n g i n g

Leonard Cohen – Alexandra Leaving -The Book of Longing_FotoSketcher_FotoSketcher (Click to enlarge)

The song Alexandra Leaving on
Ten New Songs is based on this poem.

(based on The God Abandons Antony,
a poem by Constantine P. Cavafy)

Suddenly the night has grown colder.
Some deity preparing to depart.
Alexandra hoisted on his shoulder,
they slip between the sentries of your heart.

Upheld by the simplicities of pleasure,
they gain the light, they formlessly entwine;
and radiant beyond your widest measure
they fall among the voices and the wine.

lt’s not a trick, your senses all deceiving,
a fitful dream the morning will exhaust—
Say goodbye to Alexandra leaving,
Then say goodbye to Alexandra lost.

Even though she sleeps upon your satin.
Even though she wakes you with a kiss.
Do not say the moment was imagined,
Do not stoop to strategies like this.

As someone long prepared for this to happen,
Go firmly to the window. Drink it in.
Exquisite music, Alexandra laughing.
Your first commitments tangible again.

You who had the honor of her evening,
And by that honor had your own restored—
Say goodbye to Alexandra leaving.
Alexandra leaving with her lord.

As someone long prepared for the occasion;
In full command of every plan you wrecked—
Do not choose a coward’s explanation
that hides behind the cause and the effect,

You who were bewildered by a meaning,
whose code was broken, crucifix uncrossed—
Say goodbye to Alexandra leaving.
Then say goodbye to Alexandra lost.

Hydra, Greece
September 1999

this pressed for your right to know: Timeline: The Tortured History of the Senate’s Torture Report|ProPublica

via

Timeline: The Tortured History of the Senate’s Torture Report.|ProPublica

Saint of the Day for Friday, December 5th, 2014: St. Sabas

Saint of the Day for Friday, December 5th, 2014

   St. Sabas

Sabas was born at Mutalaska, Cappadocia, near Caesarea. He was the son of an army officer there who when assigned to Alexandria, left him in the care of an uncle. Mistreated by his uncle’s wife, … continue reading

More Saints of the Day

St. Sabas St. Anastasius St. Basilissa St. Bassus St. Cawrdaf St. Crispina St. Dalmatius of Pavia St. Firminus St. Galagnus

 

St. Gerald St. Gerbold St. John Almond St. John the Wonder-Worker St. Julius St. Nicholas Tavigli St. Pelinus Bl. Philip Rinaldi St. Sabas

Egypt court dismisses criminal charges against ex-president Mubarak over 2011 protester deaths — NBC News (@NBCNews)

Egypt court dismisses criminal charges against ex-president Mubarak over 2011 protester deaths http://t.co/ZEoeHZMrFL pic.twitter.com/4uyauB10Ni

— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 29, 2014

today’s birthday: Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908)

Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908)

Claude Lévi-Strauss—not to be confused with jeans manufacturer Levi Strauss—was a French anthropologist and leading exponent of structuralism, an anthropological theory that holds that cultures, like languages, can be viewed as systems of signs and analyzed in terms of the structural relations among their elements. Borrowing heavily from contemporary linguistics, his theory was a major departure from earlier “functionalist” theories. Why was Lévi-Strauss investigated by the FBI? More… Discuss

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• Father of Modern Anthropology

Mozart: Violin Sonata in G, K. 379 (Schneider & Kirkpatrick, 1945): great compositions/performances

Mozart: Violin Sonata in G, K. 379 (Schneider & Kirkpatrick, 1945)

shellackophile

Published on Nov 8, 2012

Mozart: Sonata in G Major, K. 379
Alexander Schneider (violin)
Ralph Kirkpatrick (harpsichord)

Recorded on November 28, 1945, in New York City, on Columbia matrices XCO 35472 through XCO 35475. Issued in 1947 on Columbia 71864-D and 71865-D in Masterworks Set M-650, and in automatic sequence on Columbia 71866-D through 71869-D in Set MM-650. The same set has two other Mozart violin sonatas (K. 296, K. 378), which I have uploaded separately.

Mozart’s Sonata in G Major, K. 379, consists of three movements:

1. Adagio
2. Allegro (at 3:43)
3. Theme and Variations: Andantino cantabile (at 7:32)

The substitution of a harpsichord for the usual piano in this work was and is somewhat controversial, but seems to have been intended as a compromise, as fortepianos (the term that has come to be used for replicas of pianos of Mozart’s time) hadn’t come into general use by the 1940s. It didn’t work for contemporary music critic Irving Kolodin, who, in his “New Guide to Recorded Music” (1950), calls the harpsichord substitution “a mere excuse to conceal the obvious fact that Schneider and Kirkpatrick like to play together and have devoted themselves mainly to Bach, in which the harpsichord is, largely speaking, acceptable.”

To download a higher-quality audio file of this recording, please visit my blog, The Shellackophile – http://shellackophile.blogspot.com – where this and many other vintage recordings may be downloaded.

Louis Armstrong plays for his wife in Giza, 1961 — Classic Pics (@classicepics)

Louis Armstrong plays for his wife in Giza, 1961 pic.twitter.com/YqxKwYGGUC

— Classic Pics (@classicepics) October 26, 2014

Aleister Crowley (1875)

Crowley was a 20th-century English occultist who developed a religious philosophy called Thelema. As a young adult, he was a member of the influential occult society the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn but later turned toward yoga and Asian mysticism. While visiting Cairo, Egypt, Crowley reportedly had a mystical experience involving a voice that dictated The Book of the Law, the central text of Thelemic religious philosophy. According to Crowley, what did the voice call itself? More… Discuss

ARTICLE: THE MAMLUKS

The Mamluks

The Mamluks were members of a warrior caste that ruled Egypt from about 1250 to 1517. Islamic rulers created the caste by collecting non-Muslim slave boys, grooming them as cavalry soldiers, and converting them to Islam during training. The Mamluks initially served the Ayyubid sultans but grew powerful enough to challenge them and claim the sultanate. Though the Ottomans crushed the Mamluks and took Cairo in 1517, the word “mamluk” lives on in various cultures today. What meanings does it have? More… Discuss

 

Christmas comes to the Gaza Strip, despite storm damage and flooding – #Focus

The snow storm that hit the Middle East two weeks ago has affected people from Beirut to Cairo. In the Gaza Strip, thousands have been left unable to return to their homes, as torrential rains and melting snow flooded the streets. Christmas is coming too to some parts of the enclave; of the 1.7 million Gazans, there are 176 Roman Catholics and 1200 Orthodox Christians – fewer than 1% of the population. Our correspondent found out what kind of Christmas they’ll be having this year.
12/24/2013 REPORTS
An in-depth report on a major news issue.
More FRANCE24 reports:
http://www.france24.com/en/reportages