Landscape: Bazille

"Paysage au bord du Lez" (Landscape by the River Lez) from 1870.  French impressionist painter Frédéric Bazille was born on this day in 1841. 

Pow! Bam! Thunk!

"Batman" premiered 60 years ago. The show was on ABC, with 120 episodes. The show ran from January 12, 1966, to March 14, 1968, twice weekly during the first two seasons, and weekly for the third. The show was such a big deal!

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Sergei Korolev and the Soviet Space Program

 Born January 12, 1907, Soviet engineer Sergei Korolev (on the right) was the lead designer and engineer in the Soviet space program of the '50s and '60s. Here he is with Yuri Gagarin, the first human to go into space. Korolev invented the R-7 rocket, the first artificial satellite Sputnik 1, and the satellite Sputnik 3. He worked on the missions that sent dogs into orbit, and also Gagarin's mission and that of Alexi Leonov, who made the first spacewalk. A successful manned mission to the moon remained out of reach for the Soviet space program. In 1938-1944 Korolev--at the time an engineer at a research institute in Leningrad--was incarcerated and sent into the Gulag system as a consequence of Stalin's Great Purge. It's likely that some of Korolev's health issues leading to his death in 1966 stemmed from that awful period.

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John DeLorean and His Famous Car

Back in the late '90s, I was filling up my car at Burnt Prairie, IL, a little place along I-64, way out in the country. A DeLorean pulled up for gas, and I thought, That's neat!  Then a second one arrived, and a third, and a fourth. What's going on? It was a DeLorean car club, traveling together. No flux capacitors.... John DeLorean was born 100 years ago, January 6, 1925, (He died in 2005.) He was a General Motors executive who oversaw the development of the Pontiac GTO, Pontiac Firebird, Pontiac Grand Prix, and the Chevrolet Cosworth Vega. He left GM to found the DeLorean Motor Company. But the production of the cars was long delayed. The first DMC DeLorean sports car was completed on January 21, 1981. They had quality issues resulting in recalls, and they arrived amid an economic downturn. DeLorean was caught cocaine trafficking, to pay his company's debts, but he was ultimately acquitted with the defense of police entrapment. The Back to the Future movies helped his car gain immortality.

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Marianne Faithfull

Born December 29, 1946, English singer and actress Marianne Faithfull was a big part of the "British Invasion" of the 1960s, beginning with her '64 single "As Tears Go By". She became one of the leading female artists of the British Invasion in the United States. She recorded albums for Decca, and also appeared in films like I'll Never Forget What's'isname (1967), The Girl on a Motorcycle (1968) and Hamlet (1969). She and Mick Jagger were in a relationship in the late '60s. She is said to have inspired Stones songs like "You Can't Always Get What You Want", "Wild Horses", and others. She cowrote their song "Sister Morphine". In the '70s, Faithfull dealt with serious problems including addiction and homelessness.But unlike some Sixties icons, she did have a long life and career, which are interesting to read about. She died last January.

 

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When Jews Were Expelled from Paducah

On December 28, 1862, thirty Jewish families were expelled from Paducah, Kentucky and sent off on an Ohio River boat. What happened? During the Civil War, there was a lucrative black market in southern cotton along the river. Some of the traders were Jewish, but by no means all. Grant became furious at his own father for joining in the trader with a prominent Jewish company from Cincinnati. On December 17, 1862, Grant issued General Orders No. 11, which stated: “The Jews, as a class, violating every regulation of trade established by the Treasury Department, and also Department orders, are hereby expelled from the Department.” The Paducah expulsion was the largest result of the order. A Jewish citizen of that city, Cesar Kaskel, traveled to DC and met with President Lincoln about the order. Already, Lincoln had received many telegrams in protest. Lincoln--described by his law partner as one of the least prejudiced persons he'd ever met--had always had Jewish friends. Lincoln quickly demanded that the order be immediately rescinded. Grant regretted the order, although his comments about it weren't very good apologies. When he ran for president in 1868, no less a figure than Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise urged Jews not to vote for him. However, Grant seemed to have a genuine desire to rectify his earlier failure. He supported and appointed Jews during his presidency, speaking on their behalf. At his death he was mourned by the Jewish community. But the wartime incident was a painful reminder of the many expulsions--on a much larger scale--that Jews have suffered through the centuries.

https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/ulysses-s-grant-and-general-orders-no-11.htm?fbclid=IwY2xjawPA0cZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEe0SUxtcTPu5KX8m1FFFIUy_06LBrgrc7t3a1G9cMDTcZNsiu6fgbs3RxhPlc_aem_LkQIG3PGKGV7l5VLDMVhuw

Maud Gonne

"But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,/ And loved the sorrows of your changing face." Born December 21, 1866, Maud Gonne was an Anglo-Irish actress, suffragette, and Irish republican leader to worked for many years for Home Rule. She co-founded the organization that became the foundation for the Sinn Féin party. She founded Inghinidhe na hÉireann ("Daughters of Ireland"), an influential women's literary society. She also worked for programs for the hungry, for debt relief, and for prisoners. A tall person--at least 6' and possibly taller--with a background in theatre, she was a compelling public speaker. Unfortunately, she also held antisemitic views. Gonne was the muse of poet W. B. Yeats, who proposed to her unsuccessfully four times, and who even proposed to her daughter. Gonne didn't want to adopt Yeats' Catholicism, and she believed he was insufficiently passionate about Irish nationalism. Many of his poems were written for or about her: The Countess Cathleen, A Woman Homer Sung, No Second Troy, When You Are Old, The Rose of the World, He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven, and others. He also wrote of her in poems like Easter 1916 ("That woman's days were spent/ In ignorant good-will,/ Her nights in argument/ Until her voice grew shrill....") and Among School Children:

I dream of a Ledaean body, bent

Above a sinking fire, a tale that she

Told of a harsh reproof, or trivial event

That changed some childish day to tragedy—

Told, and it seemed that our two natures blent

Into a sphere from youthful sympathy,

Or else, to alter Plato's parable,

Into the yolk and white of the one shell.

Gonne knew that Yeats' poetry was part of her own legacy. She told him that posterity would be glad that she rejected his proposals, considering how he transformed his sadness into immortal verse.

(I used to read a lot of Yeats' poetry and I enjoy Irish history!)

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