This Day in History - April 14

In honour of someone special's birthday, I wanted to do a random bit of history for April 14th.

1611 - First time the word "telescope" was used.

1814 - Napoleon abdicated and was banished to Elba.

Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David

1818 - Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language is printed. Webster's dictionary was one of the first to have distinctly American words and introduced more than 10,000 "Americanisms" (http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/websters-american-dictionary-of-the-english-language-is-printed). It took Webster nearly two decades to complete his dictionary.

1859 - "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens was first published.

1860 - The first Pony Express rider arrives in San Francisco with mail originating in St. Joseph, MO.

Poster for the Pony Express

1865 - President Abraham Lincoln is shot by John Wilkes Booth while watching "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater.

1894 - The first public showing of Thomas Edison's kinetoscope.

An Edison Kinetoscope

1902 - James Cash Penny (JC Penny) opens his first store called "The Golden Rule Store" in Kemmerer, WY.

1912 - RMS Titanic hits an iceberg. Just after 2:00 am on April 15th, the Titanic sinks to the ocean floor.

1923 - Golfer Roberto De Vicenzo was born. He is famous for winning over 230 Tournaments worldwide, including 8 on the PGA tour. His most famous victory was the 1967 Open Championship.

Roberto De Vicenzo - BBC Mundo

1935 - Country Superstar Loretta Lynn is born in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky. With a career spanning two decades, her first big break came at the age of 27 when she had her first Top 10 country hit "Success".

1936 - Golfer Bobby Nichols was born. He is best known for winning the 1964 PGA Championship. He began his PGA tour in 1960 and had 12 PGA Tour victories. Waverly Park in Louisville has a 9-hole course named Bobby Nichols Golf Course in his honour.

1939 - "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck was published for the first time.

1956 - Ampex Corporation demonstrate the first commercial magnetic tape recorder for sound and picture.

Ampex VRX-1000

1960 - Montreal Canadiens win their 5th consecutive Stanley Cup sweeping the series and defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-0 in the final game. They are the only team in NHL history to win 5 consecutive Stanley Cup victories.

Montreal Canadiens Logo

1969 - Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand tie for the Best Actress Oscar. Katharine Hepburn was nominated for her role as Eleanor of Aquitaine in "The Lion in Winter" and Barbra Streisand for her role as Fanny Brice in "Funny Girl". This was the first exact tie in Oscar history.

1969 - The Montreal Expos host the first Major League Baseball game to be played in Canada. The Expos were named after Expo '67 World's Fair that took place in Montreal. After the 1976 Montreal Olympics, the team moved to Olympic Stadium for their games. In 2004 the Expos played their final game as the Montreal Expos. The team was moved to Washington in 2005 and became the Washington Nationals.

Montreal Expos Logo

1981 - The space shuttle Columbia returns to Earth after a 3 day test flight, orbiting the Earth nearly 36 times. This was the first space shuttle completed by NASA.

1984 - The Texas Board of Education issues a ruling that all public school textbooks describe evolution as a theory rather than a proven fact.

1992 - A US court throws out Apple's lawsuit against Microsoft.

1996 - Detroit Red Wings defeat the Dallas Stars 5-1 and become the team with the most victories in NHL history with 62 victories. The Montreal Canadiens had the former record with 60 victories in the 1976-1977 season.

2010 - Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland explodes resulting in an ash plume in the atmosphere over most of northern and central Europe. This creates havoc on air travel with planes being grounded for several days.

Eyjafjallajokull Exploding - Photo by Sigurdur Hrafn Stefnisson

Enjoy!

The Roman Crowd - The Real Power of Ancient Rome?

The Colosseum of Rome

The Mob of Ancient Rome: was it a very powerful group of classes that could influence the Emperor?

Crowds in Ancient Rome could be very boisterous and brazen. This was were the Plebians could have their say. The Mob of Rome comprised all the social classes under the Patrician class, the Plebians and the slaves. These were the common people of Rome. Although the Emperor had all the power, he did fear the Mob, and for good reason. An angry Mob was a powerful force that if motivated could and would kill the Emperor and put Rome in a state of disorder. A bored Mob could spell disaster. Hence the Latin term panem et circenses, translated to "bread and circuses" or "bread and games". This is basically a metaphor for the appeasement of the Mob. Give the Mob bread and circuses and everyone will be happy. The number of slaves and lower classes outweighed the Patrician class by almost double. By ensuring the Mob, ie: Plebians, were happy, that meant an orderly and prosperous Rome. Without trouble at home, Rome could expand her boarders and worry about external troubles.

Pollice Verso by Jean-Leon Gerome, 1872

We can see the power of the Roman crowd especially well in the Munera or Gladiatorial contests of Rome. These events were usually marked a special occasion, such as a funeral. Munera translates to mean "duty" or "service" and the original munera were duties or services paid to dead ancestors. Later Gladiatorial games lost this connection with funerals and ancestors, but kept the name Munera. In Imperial Rome, Gladiatorial games were used as political tools by the Emperor and high ranking Senators and Politicians as a means of persuasion. There was always much pomp and publicity for these events, with some Gladiatorial contests lasting upwards of 100 days.

To view any of the gladiatorial contests in the Roman Empire, you would go to the local amphitheater, or if you were in Rome, the Colosseum. Women were permitted to the munera, but were required to sit in the uppermost sections of the Colosseum and other amphitheaters with the common poor and certain classes of slaves. As with most things in Ancient Rome, social structure dictated where your place was. The closer you were to the action, the higher your social standing. Two elevated special boxes were reserved at either end of the Colosseum for the Emperor and the Vestal Virgins. These were the positions of honour and were the best seats. On the same level was the Podium where the Senatorial class would sit. The next level was reserved entirely for the equites, the non-senatorial noble class. Levels after these were divided up into various sections for the various social groups of Plebians, ie: boys and their tutors, scribes, priests, soldiers on leave.

Photo by Jean-Pol Grandmont, Interior of Colosseum

By keeping the Plebeian class happy, the Roman Emperors ensured that their power would be untested, for the most part at least. There were and will always be a struggle of the orders, but in the Colosseum, the Plebeians had the power. The Munera were merely publicity tools used by later Roman Emperors to keep their subjects happy and occupied, to keep them wanting the Emperor in power. It was also used to show them what the Emperor had done for the People of Rome by bringing in exotic animals and people.

In the end, the Mob had the power. Although I hate quoting movies, the writers of Gladiator did a decent job. When speaking with one of the Senators about the new Emperor, Graccus states: "Rome is the Mob, conjure magic for them and they will be distracted. Take away their freedom and still they’ll roar. The beating heart of Rome is not the marble of the Senate it’s the sand of the Colosseum. [Commodus] will bring them death and they will love him for it.”