Today in History.....

Excellent analysis topdog! I've always seen GD Michael as a tragic victim in this mess; very unlikely scenario, but if the Provisional government had been successful, I've also thought that he may have been the one to drive the country to a constitutional monarchy. He had far more of a clue and much more democratic leanings than his older brother.

Saint Patrick (5th century CE) is the patron saint of Ireland and one of the most successful Christian missionaries in history.

He was a Roman citizen of Britain (known as Patricius) who was captured by pirates at the age of sixteen and sold into slavery in Ireland. He escaped back to Britain, became ordained as a bishop, and returned to the land of his captivity as a missionary in c. 432/433 CE.

He is credited with expanding literacy in Ireland through the monastic orders he established, revising and codifying the Brehon Laws, and converting the country to Christianity. He was not the first Christian missionary to Ireland but is the most famous. His influence on the laws and culture of Ireland was enormous as he championed the causes of women, the poor, and slaves while conferring with kings and nobles.

Saint Patrick's Day is observed on 17 March, the supposed date of his death.(ca 460) It is celebrated inside and outside Ireland as a religious and cultural holiday.

Wilfred Owen (born 18 March 1893) was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was heavily influenced by his mentor Siegfried Sassoon, and stood in stark contrast both to the public perception of war at the time and to the confidently patriotic verse written by earlier war poets such as Rupert Brooke.

Wilfred Owen was killed in battle while attempting to cross the Sambre-Oise Canal with his unit, on November 4th 1918. The war ended a week later. His mother received the telegram on Armistice Day. News of his death reached home as the town's church bells declared peace.He was 25 years old. He was posthumously awarded the Military Cross.

The Young Soldier

It is not death
Without hereafter
To one in dearth
Of life and its laughter,

Nor the sweet murder
Dealt slow and even
Unto the martyr
Smiling at heaven:

It is the smile
Faint as a (waning) myth,
Faint, and exceeding small
On a boy's murdered mouth.

Richard Francis Burton,born on 19 March 1821, was a legendary British explorer, geographer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, cartographer, ethnologist, spy, linguist, poet, fencer, and diplomat. He was famed for his travels and explorations in Asia, Africa and the Americas, as well as his extraordinary knowledge of languages and cultures. According to one count, he spoke 29 European, Asian and African languages.

Burton's best-known achievements include: a well-doented journey to Mecca in disguise, at a time when Europeans were forbidden access on pain of death; an unexpurgated translation of One Thousand and One Nights; the publication of the Kama Sutra in English; and a journey with John Hanning Speke as the first Europeans to visit the Great Lakes of Africa in search of the source of the Nile.

On 20 March 1930, American fast food restaurant chain "KFC" [Kentucky Fried Chicken] is founded by Colonel Harland Sanders in North Corbin, Kentucky.

Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, it is now the world's second-largest restaurant chain (as measured by sales) after McDonald's.

On 21 March 1980, J.R. is shot on TV show "Dallas"

Dallas was an American prime time television soap opera that aired on CBS from April 2, 1978, to May 3, 1991. The series revolved around a wealthy and feuding Texas family, the Ewings, who own the independent oil company Ewing Oil and the cattle-ranching land of Southfork.

The show was famous for its cliffhangers, including the "Who shot J.R.?" mystery. The 1980 episode "Who Done It" remains the second highest rated prime-time telecast ever.

Dan Hartman was an American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer.
Among songs he wrote and recorded were "Free Ride" with The Edgar Winter Group, and the solo hits "Relight My Fire","Instant Replay", "I Can Dream About You", "We Are the Young" and "Second Nature".

"I Can Dream About You", his most successful song, reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1984. The James Brown song "Living in America", which Hartman co-wrote and produced, was even more successful, reaching #4 in 1985.

Hartman died on March 22, 1994 at his Westport, Connecticut, home of an AIDS-related brain tumor. Sales of Hartman's solo recordings, group efforts, production, songwriting and compilation inclusions exceed 50 million records worldwide.

On this day: 22nd March

World Water Day is observed each year on March 22 to promote the responsible use of water and access to safe water for everyone. One in 10 people around the world still do not have a safe water supply close to home.

Joseph Christian Leyendecker (born March 23, 1874) was one of the preeminent American illustrators of the early 20th century. He is best known for his poster, book and advertising illustrations, the trade character known as The Arrow Collar Man, and his numerous covers for The Saturday Evening Post.

Leyendecker was one of the most sought-after artists of his time, creating a variety of indelible images for popular magazines and products. And his work remains some of the most homoerotic ever to reach a mainstream American audience.

His partner, Charles Beach, was the original model of the famous Arrow Collar Man.

Mr. Shatner and Mr. Leyendecker share their birthday with two greats of the musical theater: Stephen Sondheim (88) and Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber (70). See my birthday tribute here.

The Exxon Valdez Disaster

On 24 March 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez went off course in a 16 kilometre-wide channel in Alaska’s Prince William Sound and hit submerged rocks on a reef. The hull of the tanker was gashed in several places and 42 million litres of crude oil (22% of its cargo) leaked out, causing one of the worst oil spills and environmental disasters in US waters.

Immediate effects included the deaths of 100,000 to as many as 250,000 seabirds, at least 2,800 sea otters, approximately 12 river otters, 300 harbor seals, 247 bald eagles, and 22 orcas, and an unknown number of salmon and herring. It also oiled over 5 100 kilometres of shoreline.

The American oil company, Exxon, eventually paid approximately $400 million in fines. The disaster has become a significant and valuable case study to illustrate a number of different environmental points.

Sir Elton Hercules John CBE (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on 25 March 1947) is an English singer, pianist, and composer.

In his five-decade career Elton John has sold more than 300 million records, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world.

For 31 consecutive years (1970–2000) he had at least one song in the Billboard Hot 100. His tribute single "Candle in the Wind 1997", re-penned in dedication to the late Princess Diana, sold over 33 million copies worldwide and is the best-selling single in the history of the U.K. and U.S. singles charts.

John was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. He has been heavily involved in the fight against HIV-AIDS since the late 1980s and was knighted in 1998. He continues to be a champion for the LGBT social movements.

In 1993, he began a relationship with David Furnish, originally from Canada. On 21 December 2005 (the day the Civil Partnership Act came into force), John and Furnish were amongst the first couples in the UK to form a civil partnership, which was held at the Windsor Guildhall. After gay marriage became legal in England in March 2014, John and Furnish married in Windsor, Berkshire, on 21 December 2014. They have two sons.

Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III (born March 26, 1911) was an American playwright. Along with Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the three foremost playwrights of 20th-century American drama.

Williams spent a number of years traveling throughout the country and trying to write. He became suddenly famous with The Glass Menagerie (1944), a play that closely reflected his own unhappy family background. This heralded a string of successes, including A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), and Sweet Bird of Youth (1959). His later work attempted a new style that did not appeal to audiences, and alcohol and drug dependence further inhibited his creative output.

His drama A Streetcar Named Desire is often numbered on short lists of the finest American plays of the 20th century.

The Tenerife airport disaster

Om 27 March 1977 two Boeing 747 passenger jets, KLM Flight 4805 and Pan Am Flight 1736, collided on the runway at Los Rodeos Airport (now Tenerife North Airport), on the Spanish island of Tenerife, Canary Islands, killing 583 people, and making it the deadliest accident in aviation history.

While the disaster was ultimately caused by the KLM taking off without permission from the control tower, there were many factors which all culminated in the fatal crash - including a bomb threat at another airport resulting in these flights being diverted to Tenerife airport, inclement weather (increased fog reducing visibility) and muddled communication with the control tower.

Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English writer who is considered one of the most important modernist twentieth century authors.

While she is best known for her novels, especially Mrs. Dalloway (1925) and To the Lighthouse (1927), Woolf also wrote pioneering essays on artistic theory, literary history, women’s writing, and the politics of power. A fine stylist, she experimented with several forms of biographical writing, composed painterly short fictions, and sent to her friends and family a lifetime of brilliant letters.

In a deep depression for many reasons, on 28 March 1941, Woolf drowned herself by filling her overcoat pockets with stones and walking into the River Ouse near her home.


“I have a deeply hidden and inarticulate desire for something beyond the daily life.”

On 29 March 1974 Chinese farmers discover the Terracotta Army near Xi'an, 8,000 clay warrior statues buried to guard the tomb of China's 1st emperor, Qin Shi Huang.

The Terracotta Army is part of a much larger necropolis. Ground-penetrating radar and core sampling have measured the area to be approximately 98 square kilometers.

The necropolis was constructed as a microcosm of the emperor's imperial palace or compound, and covers a large area around the tomb mound of the first emperor. The earthen tomb mound is located at the foot of Mount Li and built in a pyramidal shape, and is surrounded by two solidly built rammed earth walls with gateway entrances. The necropolis consists of several offices, halls, stables, other structures as well as an imperial park placed around the tomb mound.

The warriors stand guard to the east of the tomb. Up to 5 metres of reddish, sandy soil had aculated over the site in the two millennia following its construction.

"Chariots of Fire" directed by Hugh Hudson and starring Ben Cross and Ian Charleson premieres at a Royal Command Film Performance on 30 March 1981. It went on to win 4 Academy awards including Best Picture in 1982.

It tells the fact-based story of two athletes in the 1924 Olympics: Eric Liddell, a devout Scottish Christian who runs for the glory of God, and Harold Abrahams, an English Jew who runs to overcome prejudice.

It is ranked 19th in the British Film Institute's list of Top 100 British films. The film is also notable for its memorable electronic theme tune by Vangelis, who won the Academy Award for Best Original Score.

On 31 March 1889, the Eiffel Tower officially opens. It was designed to be the entrance
to the 1889 World's Fair. It has become a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognisable structures in the world. The Eiffel Tower is the most-visited paid monument in the world; 6.91 million people ascended it in 2015.

50 years ago today (2 April 1968), "2001 A Space Odyssey" directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood, premieres at the Uptown Theater in Washington, D.C.

The film, which follows a voyage to Jupiter with the sentient computer HAL after the discovery of a mysterious black monolith affecting human evolution, deals with themes of existentialism, human evolution, technology, artificial intelligence, and the existence of extraterrestrial life.

It is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films ever made. In 1991, it was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Critics' polls in the 2002 and 2012 editions of Sight & Sound magazine ranked 2001: A Space Odyssey sixth in the top ten films of all time; it also tied for second place in the magazine's directors' poll. In 2010, it was named the greatest film of all time by The Moving Arts Film Journal.

Its soundtrack is famous for its inclusion of a number of pieces of classical music, among them Also sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss.