University of Nebraska Press

This Day in History

This edition of This Day in History comes to you courtesy of NPR, which this morning noted that today is the 70th anniversary of the first televised baseball game. The Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers played in this historic game, and about 3,000 viewers are estimated to have watched on  W2XBS (now WNBC-TV). Many more spectators watched from the stands.

The significance of this broadcast is outlined in Centerfield Shot: A History of Baseball on Television by James R. Walker and Robert V. Bellamy Jr. In this book the authors explain why the game’s arrival on the small screen was is considered one of the most significant things to happen to baseball during the 20th century. Center Field Shot is the winner of the 2008 Society for American Baseball Research Sporting News Award.
 

This Day In History

On this day in history, Cecil B. DeMille was born in Ashfield, Mass., in 1881.

DeMille produced and directed 70 films, and is perhaps best-known for his over-the-top productions of Cleopatra, The Crusades, and The Ten Commandments (which was a remake of a silent version of the film he produced and directed in the 1920s).

Pulp writer Harold Lamb was a technical adviser to DeMille, and the University of Nebraska Press has published several collections of Lamb’s short stories, including Swords from the Desert and Swords from the West, which are new this fall. Many of Lamb’s stories, like many of DeMille’s movies, are set in biblical times in exotic locales, and feature brave warriors, shrewd heroines and cunning villains; one can imagine Elizabeth Taylor playing a character in a Lamb book.

For a complete list of UNP Harold Lamb titles click here. For a more comprehensive biography of DeMille, visit History.com. And for a rundown of DeMille’s movies, visit his IMDB page.

That's one small step for man...

Today is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11’s lunar landing. The University of Nebraska Press (as previously mentioned on this blog) is the publisher of the Outward Odyssey series, which chronicles the evolution of spaceflight. One of the books in this series, In the Shadow of the Moon, chronicles the early days of the space race with Russia through the July 20, 1969 moon landing.

I love this book. It’s fast-paced and suspenseful and full of interviews with astronauts, their families, and others instrumental in reaching the moon. It’s also a wealth of moon-landing trivia including:

-- The average age of the crew on the Apollo 11 mission was only 26. 

-- The spacecraft had just 17 seconds worth of fuel left at the time of the moon landing, and the mission was nearly abandoned. 

-- While the Apollo 11 crew hoped theirs would be the mission to finally make it to the moon, they were far from certain that it would actually happen and were as surprised, awed and emotional as the rest of the world when the landing actually took place.

Learn more about In the Shadow of the Moon and the Outward Odyssey series here. And click here for a wealth of articles related to the moon landing from the New York Times. Happy lunar-landing anniversary!

This day in history

On this day in history, 1930, the first World Cup matches took place in Montevideo, Uruguay. Interestingly, many of the best teams didn’t even compete in the tournament – Europe was in a depression, and many European players opted not to take time off work to play, for fear that their jobs would no longer be theirs upon return. The final match was played on July 30, and Uruguay won, beating Argentina 4-2.

The Global Game, edited by John Turnbull, Thom Satterlee, and Alon Raab, is a collection of writers’ reflections on the game of soccer, which, unlike that first World Cup, is truly a game played throughout the world. Read more about the book here.  And read more about the first World Cup here. 

This Day in History, and three bicycling links

It’s a lovely, lovely Friday here in Lincoln, and it’s also time for another round of This Day in History.

The first anniversary doesn’t apply directly to literary history or to any University of Nebraska Press titles, but it is an important date as far as bloggers are concerned – on this day in 1977, Apple introduced the first practical home computer, the Apple II. And nerds everywhere rejoiced.

Today is also the birthday of Pat Garrett, the American sheriff who shot Billy the Kid. Pat Garrett was the son of a wealthy plantation owner in the south, who, as a young man, moved to Texas to become a cowboy, and then had a bunch of other adventures in the Old West (as seems to be the norm for rebellious young men in those days). He shot Billy the Kid at a mutual friend’s house, twice, late at night. The Kid likely had no idea Garrett was even there, and and even though Billy the Kid was an outlaw, many people believed the way that Garrett shot him was underhanded and sneaky, which later adversely affected Garrett’s political ambitions. Even so, later in his life, Garrett became a friend Theodore Roosevelt. Read more in our aptly titled Billy the Kid biography, Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life, by Robert M. Utley.

A note about posting next week: I’m off to do the Bicycle Ride Across Nebraska, which begins tomorrow and runs through next Saturday, which means that posting will be light next week. And since I have bicycling on my mind, I’m going to leave you with three links:

The first is to our fantastic bicycling book, Bicycling Beyond the Divide, by Daryl Farmer. Farmer rode his bike across the entire Western United States – once when he was in his early 20s and had few responsibilities and energy to spare, and again 20 years later, when his list of obligations was much longer and his stamina much lower. This is a book about bicycling and change – both personal change and the way the Western United States changed and aged during the 20 years between rides. This is a lovely book that was also a 2008 Summer Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection.

The second is to another bicycling book, Need for the Bike, by Paul Fournel. This is a short collection of Fournel’s thoughts about biking, and it’s so engaging, relatable and well-written that several of my bicycle enthusiast friends keep copies on hand to give as gifts to every avid cyclist they know.

The third is a link to my friend Cindy’s column that ran yesterday in the Lincoln Journal Star. Cindy went for a bike ride with the Chubby Super Biker, a super nice guy and very good writer, who began blogging in 2005 as he embarked on a quest to lose half his weight – yes, half. After shedding more than 100 pounds, Chubby Super Biker began biking and writing about it. If you live in Lincoln and spend any time on the bike trails, you’ve probably seen him.

This day in history, Wisconsin trivia, and a reminder about BEA

 On this day in 1848, Wisconsin became the 30th U.S. State. To celebrate this anniversary, here are some facts about the Badger State:

-- The name “Wisconsin” comes from a Ojibwa word meaning “red rocks” or “gathering of waters.” The name was originally used to describe the Wisconsin River.

-- Wisconsin claims to be the home of more country music festivals than any other state.

-- America’s Dairyland is actually only the second highest producer of dairy products in the United States – California is first.

-- Architect Frank Lloyd Wright was a Wisconsin Native, and a summer home and studio he built there, Taliesin, is now a National Historic Landmark.

-- Throughout the twentieth century, Wisconsin won national visibility and praise for its role as a “laboratory of democracy” within the American federal system. Are you intrigued? You can learn more about Wisconsin’s politics and government in the University of Nebraska Press title Wisconsin Politics and Government, by James K. Conant, published in 2006 by the University of Nebraska Press. This book is part of our  Politics and Governments of the American States Series, which also includes books on the politics of Alabama, Kentucky, Minnesota and others.

In completely unrelated this-day-in-history news, on this day in 1942, Bing Crosby recorded “White Christmas” in a Los Angeles Studio, according to the New York Times. A variety of interesting stuff happened on May 29, according to the NYT, and you can learn more about those interesting things here.

And finally, BEA is officially underway. As I mentioned here earlier this week, the University of Nebraska Press is giving away a limited number of advance reading copies of two of our fall titles, and our Bison Books Editor, Tom Swanson, will speak today about Ted Kooser’s forthcoming memoir. Our booth is no. 2870, so stop by and say hello. 

This day in history: May 8

Happy Friday, UNP blog readers! It’s time for another edition of This Day in History, and this week’s featured historical occurrence is an interesting one.

On this day in 1973, the second battle of Wounded Knee ended. From the New York Times that day:

Wounded Knee, S.D., May 8 -- The Second Battle of Wounded Knee ended Today.

After 70 days, two deaths, numerous injuries, countless meetings, bureaucratic bickering and a last-minute gunfight, more than 100 militants lay down their arms and surrendered this occupied reservation town to wary Federal officials.

Nearly 20 years after the occupation, which the NYT article described as having the atmosphere of a bizarre carnival, the University of Nebraska Press published Wounded Knee 1973: A Personal Account, by Stanley David Lyman. Lyman, the superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs at the time, gives an inside view of what happened when the American Indian Movement (AIM) activists occupied the village of Wounded Knee. Close to the action, he recorded it with unusual candor, directing his sorrow, frustration, and occasional anger to all parties involved—the Tribal Council, the Justice Department, the BIA, FBI, and AIM. His account of the besiegers and besieged reveals a well-meaning and intelligent man forced by dramatic events to reevaluate some long-cherished assumptions. It deserves to be read and studied in any attempt to understand fully Wounded Knee II.

Other notable events that occurred this day in history:

1899: The Irish Literary Theatre in Dublin opened to the public.

1928: JFK’s legendary speechwriter, Ted Sorensen, was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. 

1937: Thomas Pynchon, American novelist best known for The Crying of Lot 49 and Gravity’s Rainbow, among others, was born in New York. Pynchon is also known for the great lengths he’s taken to stay out of the spotlight; only a few photographs of him have ever been published.

That's it for this week. Have a great weekend!

This Day in History

It’s been a while since I incorporated any historical milestones into this blog, and I felt it was high time. Hence today’s post.

According to the History Channel Web site, on this day in history in 1967, Muhammad Ali was stripped of his heavyweight title after he refused to be inducted into the U.S. Army. Ali cited his Muslim beliefs as reason for his refusal.

The University of Nebraska Press is the publisher of Ali’s biography, Sting Like a Bee: The Muhammad Ali Story, by Jose Torres. Torres himself was a famous boxer; he won an Olympic Silver Medal in 1956 – four years before Ali won an Olympic Gold Medal.

Friday the 13th

Today is Friday the 13th, which means it’s either a day of good luck or bad luck, depending on how you look at it. Yes, it’s associated with bad luck, but according to various web sites I found during a short Google-fueled research session, some research shows there are fewer car accidents (and other accidents) on Friday the 13th than other days because some people are so superstitious about the date that they avoid driving (or taking part in other potentially dangerous activities). So there you have it.

A number of semi-significant historical events have occurred on Friday the 13th, including the release of several Friday the 13th movies. Also, the following events also happened this day in history (though not necessarily on a Friday).

In 1781, the planet Uranus was discovered.

In 1854, Uncle Sam made his debut, in cartoon form.

In 1906, Susan B. Anthony died at the age of 86.

In 1911, Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard was born in Tilden, Neb. Another interesting fact about L. Ron Hubbard: He was reportedly the youngest Eagle Scout in the United States – a distinction he achieved at the age of 13.

For more on this day in history, visit the New York Times or History Channel lists.

In the meantime, I suggest you celebrate this Friday the 13th by not driving and instead staying home and reading. And what better genre to read on a day traditionally associated with superstition than science fiction? The Man with the Strange Head, published in 2008 by the University of Nebraska Press, is a collection of early science fiction stories by Miles J. Breuer, and it’s sufficiently weird to make you think twice about walking under any ladders or opening your umbrella inside today. Enjoy, and have a great weekend.

This week in history, and tomorrow morning at 7 a.m.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted any this day in history news. A few tidbits for today:

On this day in history in 1927 novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist Gabriel García Márquez was born in Columbia. Among his most famous books are One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982.  Sharing his birthday is Alan Greenspan, who was born a year earlier, in 1926.

On this day in history in 1931, the first radio newsreel debuted.

On this day in history in 1981, Walter Cronkite signed off from the CBS Evening News for the last time after spending 19 years with the program.

Moving into the future, what are you doing tomorrow morning? Be sure to check out the University of Nebraska Press’s own Alan Zaremba on NPR’s Only a Game. Alan will be on the show (which airs locally on NET Radio, 91.1 FM) talking about his new book The Madness of March: Bonding and Betting with the Boys in Las Vegas. The program airs on NET Radio at 7 a.m.