Good News in History, March 23

249 years ago today, American Founding Father Patrick Henry spoke to Virginia legislators, where he famously proposed that their colony should join the revolution against King George and fight for independence. “I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!” READ other anecdotes from the moment… (1775)

The debate was over whether Virginia should adopt the wording of a petition put forward actually by the planter of the Jamaica colony, who argued against imperial overreach, but admitted His Majesty could still veto their colonial legislation.

It was on this language that Henry added the more radical idea to raise a militia independent of royal authority in terms that recognized that conflict with Britain was inevitable, which sparked opposition from moderates. As he concluded his dramatic speach, in which he claimed the chains of Virginians were “already forged,” and “may be heard clanking in the plains of Boston,” Henry plunged an ivory letter opener towards his chest in imitation of the Roman patriot Cato the Younger.

Thanks in part to Patrick Henry’s persuasion, the resolution passed by a narrow margin with two future U.S. Presidents voting in the affirmative—Thomas Jefferson and George Washington.

MORE Good News on this Date:

• George Frideric Handel’s Messiah premiered in London to great applause (1743)
• First recorded use of OK as an abbreviation for “oll korrect”, but additionally the phrase is thought to have come from the initials of a Native American chief who was known for keeping his word (1839)
• The Constitution of the Commonwealth of the Philippines was signed (1935)
• First peacekeeping troops arrived in Lebanon (1978)
• Archbishop Óscar Romero of El Salvador made news when he appealed to the nation’s armed forces to stop killing the Salvadorans (1980)
• Taiwan held its first direct elections (1996)
• Titanic won 11 major Academy Awards, tying the record set by Ben-Hur, and later, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (1998)

Happy 41st Birthday to Sir Mo Farah, the world’s most decorated distance runner in history. He is the most successful British track athlete in modern Olympic Games history, which got him a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II. The astonishing origins of this mega athlete are that he was born in present-day Somaliland as Hussein Kahin, before being trafficked from Djibouti to London under the name of another child, Mohamed Farah. At the age of nine where he was forced into child labor as a domestic servant.

He was flown from the country by a woman he had never met, and made to look after another family’s children. He obtained British citizenship in July 2000 under the name Mohamed Farah. He wasn’t allowed to go to school, but at 11 or 12 he managed to start taking some classes at Feltham Community College where he was noticed by the PE coach there.

Farah is the 2012 and 2016 Olympic gold medalist in both the 5,000 m and 10,000 m. He is the second athlete, after Lasse Virén, to win both the 5,000 m and 10,000 m titles at successive Olympic Games. He also completed the ‘distance double’ at the 2013 and 2015 World Championships in Athletics, which he almost turned into a triple gold when in 2017 in his home of London, he won gold in the 10,000 m, but silver in the 5,000. (1983)

52 years ago today, the film of The Concert For Bangladesh, featuring George Harrison, Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton, premiered in New York. The featured event had been the first high-profile benefit concert in world history. The musicians raised more than a quarter million dollars in one night for Bangladesh relief. Sales of the album and DVD continue today to benefit millions to the George Harrison Fund for UNICEF. WATCH a highlights clip with interviews… (1972)

Harrison had never played by himself in front of a large audience before, but his friends’ participation buttressed his enthusiasm. The video clip below was produced in 2011 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the 1971 concert in Madison Square Garden. By 1985, revenue raised from the live album–a boxed three-record set–and film, which is still on sale today, totaled an estimated $12 million –all donated to UNICEF’s work in the once war-torn East Pakistan region.

114 years ago, Akira Kurosawa was born in Tokyo. Director of legendary films such as Ran, Yojimbo, Ikiru, Throne of Blood, Kagemusha and The Seven Samurai, he was widely regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers in history. He often adapted western tales into Japanese settings, often involving Samurai. Ran is essentially Shakespeare’s King Lear, and Ikiru is based on a Tolstoy novella.

Italian director Federico Fellini considered Kurosawa to be “the greatest living example of all that an author of the cinema should be,” while according to an assistant, Stanley Kubrick considered Kurosawa to be “one of the great film directors,” In 1999, he was named “Asian of the Century” in the “Arts, Literature, and Culture” category by AsianWeek magazine and CNN, cited as “one of the [five] people who contributed most to the betterment of Asia in the past 100 years”. (1910)

68 years ago today, Elvis Presley’s debut album was released on RCA Victor, after being recorded in Nashville and New York.

The first rock and roll album ever to make it to the top of the charts, the LP Elvis Presley spent ten weeks at number one on the Billboard Top Pop chart in 1956—and became the first million-selling rock album. Certified gold and platinum, it was ranked number 56 on Rolling Stone magazine’s 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

With rock music still untested by the major record labels, Colonel Tom Parker, Presley’s new manager, talked RCA into buying Elvis’s contract from Sun Records, and the album’s No.1 hit, Heartbreak Hotel along with the top 20 hit Blue Suede Shoes proved a stunning success following several nationwide TV appearances.

The iconic cover design was echoed by the Clash for the front of their 1979 album London Calling. (1956)

And, 30 years ago today, Wayne Gretzky broke one of hockey’s greatest records—most all-time goals for a player.

Widely regarded as the greatest player ever to carve the ice, he overtook his role model, Gordie Howe, when he scored his 802nd career goal, on the way to scoring 894 goals in 1,487 games before retiring five years later. WATCH the moment… (1994)

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