Sunday

Jun. 4, 2000

Sonnet 104: To me, fair friend, you never can be old

by William Shakespeare

Broadcast Date: SUNDAY: June 4, 2000

Poem: "To me, fair friend, you never can be old," by William Shakespeare (1564-1616).

On this day in 1896, 32-year-old Henry Ford got up before dawn, wheeled his new invention out of his Detroit garage, fired it up, and drove it around the back streets of town. Ford called his invention the quadracycle: it was the first successful test run of an automobile.

It's the anniversary of the massacre at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, 1989. After reformer Hu Yaobang died in the spring of 1989, students took to the streets calling for democratic reforms, and about 100,000 gathered in Tiananmen Square defying a government ban on protests. Early on the morning of June 4, while it was still dark and most of the protesters were sleeping, tanks and soldiers opened fire. The Chinese government has said there were no casualties, while other estimates range as high as 2,600.

It's the anniversary of three important events during World War Two:

On this day in 1940, the Evacuation of Dunkirk was completed. In late May, British boats of all kinds yachts, fishing boats, rowboats made their way across the English Channel. In nine days, they saved over 300,000 soldiers from the German army, which had backed them into a corner.

In 1942 on this day, the U.S. Navy turned the tide of the Pacific war by winning the Battle of Midway.

On June 4, 1944, Rome was liberated: the first Axis capital to fall to the Allies.



Carson McCullers' first novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, was published on this day in 1940. The story, set in a Georgia mill town during the 1930, describes the lonely life of John Singer, and the town misfits who come to his room in the Kelly house to confide in him. McCullers was only 23 at the time.

It was on this day in 1919 that Congress approved the 19th Amendment, and then sent it to the states for ratification. The amendment granted women the right to vote.

The first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded on this day in 1917. Herbert B. Swope of the New York World, won the prize for journalism, and when he picked up his award, said: "I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula of failure which is try to please everybody."

It's the birthday, in Boston, 1898, of Henry Crosby, who moved to Paris after World War One and opened up a press called Black Sun, one of the first to publish D.H. Lawrence, and James Joyce.

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

 

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