What do Sir Isaac Newton, Queen Latifah, and Philip Roth have in common? Yes, yes. They’re all famous. But besides that? They’re all featured in today’s installment of “This Week in History,” of course! So whether you’re a fan of physics, female rappers, or fiction, you’re in for a treat. Let’s check out what happened…

This Week in History

March 16, 1836: A constitution was approved by the Republic of Texas.
Those interested in early Texas history will want to check out A Journey through Texas: Or a Saddle-Trip on the Southwestern Frontier by Frederick Law Olmsted. In 1856–57, Olmsted (later to be known as America’s foremost landscape architect) took a saddle trip through Texas to see the country and report on its lands and peoples. His description of the Lone Star State on the eve of the Civil War remains one of the best accounts of the American West ever published.

March 17, 1902: American golfer Bobby Jones, the first winner of the Grand Slam, was born.
Golf enthusiasts won’t want to miss Andy Brumer’s The Poetics of Golf. In this series of essays, Brumer, one of the most insightful writers on golf, considers the game from unexpected and often surprising angles, exploring the links between golf and life by way of art and literature, philosophy and psychology.

March 18, 1970: Queen Latifah, the famous rapper and actress, was born.
Read the story of another strong, African American woman in the pages of Pieces from Life’s Crazy Quilt by Marvin V. Arnett. Part memoir and part urban social history, Arnett’s book is one African American woman’s personal account of her life during a racially turbulent period in a northern American city.

March 19, 1943: Celebrated American writer Philip Roth was born.
Roth has made a name for himself as a writer of the Jewish American condition. Enjoy a fine selection of Jewish American writing in American Jewish Fiction: A Century of Stories edited by Gerald Shapiro. This ambitious anthology includes selections by Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Grace Paley, Tillie Olsen, and Bernard Malamud, as well earlier works by important immigrant writers from the early twentieth century.

March 20, 1727: Famed physicist, mathematician, and astronomer Sir Isaac Newton died in London.
Read the intriguing biography of another notable physicist in Science at the American Frontier: A Biography of DeWitt Bristol Brace by David Cahan and M. Eugene Rudd.

March 21, 1963: The last inmates were removed from Alcatraz prison in San Francisco, CA.
Years after the final prisoner left Alcatraz, American Indian activists occupied the island, reclaiming it as Indian land and demanding equality and fairness for all American Indians. Read more about the nineteen-month occupation upon the December 2008 release of The American Indian Occupation of Alcatraz Island: Red Power and Self-Determination by Troy R. Johnson. Mark your calendars now!

And the rest, as they say, is history! Happy Friday, bloggers! Join us again on Monday for reviews and other news.