Friday

May 7, 1999

Daddy Fell into the Pond

by Alfred Noyes

Broadcast Date: FRIDAY: May 7, 1999

Poem: "Daddy Fell into the Pond," by Alfred Noyes, from Collected Poems (John Murray).

It was on this day in 1975 that President Gerald Ford declared a formal end to the VIETNAM WAR. A few weeks earlier, in one of the final acts of the conflict, Ford ordered some 230,000 Vietnamese refugees airlifted to the U.S. In all, America dropped 7.8 million tons of bombs on Vietnam during the war, more than all countries dropped throughout WWII.

It's the birthday in Glencoe, Illinois, 1892, of poet ARCHIBALD MACLEISH, winner of 3 Pulitzer Prizes.

Doctor Nathan Davis founded the AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION at Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences on this day in 1847. One of the association's first actions was to establish a board to analyze quack remedies of the day.

It's the birthday of two Romantic-era composers: PETER TCHAIKOVSKY, in Votkinsk, Russia, 1840; and JOHANNES BRAHMS, born in Hamburg, Germany, 1833.

It's poet ROBERT BROWNING's birthday, born in the London suburb of Camberwell in 1812.

Congress divided the NORTHWEST TERRITORY in half on this day in 1800. The Territory had been established 13 years earlier—the land west of Pennsylvania where Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota now exist. Then in 1800 Congress designated the western part "Indiana Territory" while the east remained the Northwest Territory.

It was on this day in 1429 that the 16-year-old JOAN OF ARC defeated the English at Orleans, the first of her military victories, and the turning point in the Hundred Years War between the French and English.

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

 

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