Anniversaries and commemorations come and go daily. Most of us, even the best historians, miss most occasions. If we think of history as events then we are faced with a continually showering in the grains of sand. Nevertheless, we do pick out certain patterns in the remembrance of historical dates. The blog here reminds us of some dates where the local, state, national, and global perspectives entwine.
What Time is It? It is flow of a sandstorm that will on each day compress somewhere into a structure – sandstone, selected and only remembered in the longue durée.
On Monday, 29 March 1920, Sir William Robertson is promoted to Field Marshal, the first man to rise from private (enlisted 1877) to the highest rank in the British Army.
On Thursday, 29 March 1945, WWII: The Red Army almost destroys the German 4th Army in the Heiligenbeil Pocket in East Prussia.
On Thursday, 29 March 1945, The “Clash of Titans”: George Mikan and Bob Kurland duel at Madison Square Garden in New York as Oklahoma State University defeats DePaul 52–44 in basketball.
On Tuesday, 29 March 1960, “Tom Pillibi” by Jacqueline Boyer (music by André Popp, text by Pierre Cour) wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1960 for France.
On Monday, 29 March 2010, 100 boats have arrived since November 2007 bringing 4,386 asylum-seekers and at least 225 crew members to Australia. The 100th boat, with 41 passengers and 3 crew on board, was intercepted in the vicinity of Christmas Island.
On Sunday, 29 March 2015, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announces that the Member for Cook, Billy Gordon, has been expelled from the Labor Party over his failure to disclose elements of his past, including criminal convictions.
Images Citations in Composite: ID 17208541 © Anhong | Dreamstime.com; ID 35001957 © DiversityStudio1 | Dreamstime.com; ID 156394527 © Gerd Zahn | Dreamstime.com
Neville Buch