Saturday

May 10, 1997

The Railroad Blues

by Anonymous

SATURDAY 5/10

Today's Reading:"The Railroad Blues," also know as "The Cannon Ball Blues" by an anonymous author.

The Savannah Scottish Games and Highland Gathering takes place today in Savannah, Georgia.

Today is the Trillium Festival, a two-day celebration of Michigan wildflowers, beginning in Hoffmaster State Park, Muskegon, Michigan.

It was on this day in 1941 that the worst of the London Blitz occurred when 550 German bombers dropped 100,000 incendiary bombs.

In 1940 Hitler began his blitz of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg---the neutral lowland states that stood between him and his sworn enemy, France. By doing this he was able to skirt France's "impenetrable" Maginot Line and eventually corner the Allies in Dunkirk.

It was on this same day in 1940 that Winston Churchill replaced Neville Chamberlain as British prime minister.

In 1933 on this day, the Nazis began burning books by "unGerman" writers such as Heinrich Mann and Erich Maria Remarque, author of ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT.

It's the birthday today of African-American dancer Judith Jamison, prima ballerina of the Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre. She was born in Philadelphia in 1944.

American playwright Arthur Kopit, who won recognition in 1962 for the Off-Broadway farce OH DAD, POOR DAD, MAMA'S HUNG YOU IN THE CLOSET AND I'M FEELING SO SAD. He was born in New York City in 1937.

Film Producer David O. Selznick (DINNER AT EIGHT; GONE WITH THE WIND; REBECCA) was born on this day in Pittsburgh, 1902.

It's the birthday of dancer Frederick Austerlitz, Fred Astaire (FLYING DOWN TO RIO; TOP HAT; SWING TIME), born in Omaha, Nebraska, In 1899.

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.®

 

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