Well readers it’s been a good week. We are now just two weeks away from Christmas, and of course the holiday season is overwhelming! Everywhere you look there are sales going on, and ideas for practical, homemade gifts. I have to tell you it seems that one of the few good things to come out of this recession will be creativity! Who knows maybe this economy will help us all find our own inner Martha Stewart. I’m sorry to say there are no tips for xmas gifts in this edition of This Week in History but we do have John Lennon, Tasmania, and Apollo 17…does that make up for it?

December 8, 1980: John Lennon is shot and killed by Mark David Chapman in front of the Dakota building in New York City.

    Well, I think it’s safe to say Mr. Chapman went to jail for this crime. Though being behind bars didn’t stop him from sharing his story. You can learn more about other famous authors who have penned their masterpieces from inside “the big house” in Jail Sentences: Representing Prison in Twentieth-Century French Fiction by Andrew Sobanet.

December 9, 1973: New York City’s first daily newspaper, The American Minerva, is established by Noah Webster.
    This country has a rich history is print media, with the newspapers being imperative to the forward movement we have become known for.  Another medium just as worthy of recognition is the radio. You can find out about one of the mostpivotal periods in which it was used in Radio’s Revolution: Don Hollenbeck’s CBS Views the Press by Loren Ghiglione.

December 10, 1902: Women are given the right to vote in Tasmania.

    The right to vote, in some eyes, is paramount to what it means to be a citizen of any place. In America the right for women to vote was then matched with their accessibility to education. In Bright Epoch: Women and Coeducation in the American West by Andrea G. Radke-Moss we get a full history of the progressiveness of four institutions as the forerunners of mixed gender education.


December 11, 1972: Apollo 17 becomes the sixth Apollo mission to land on the moon.

    Space. You can’t get much more exciting than that. For those of you who’ve seen Apollo 13, you also know you can’t get much more dangerous either. In Homesteading Space: The Skylab Story by David Hitt, Owen Garriott, and Joe Kerwin we get the story of America’s first space station, from start to fiery end.

December 12, 1950: Paula Ackerman is the first woman chosen to perform rabbinical duties in the United States and leads her first service.

    This was a first for the Jewish community, but if you read Memories of Jewish life: From Italy to Jerusalem, 1918-1960 by Augusto Segre, you can a series of other ‘firsts’, both historical and personal, from this amazing man’s life.

 

Well readers, I hope you enjoyed This Week in History. Remember you can find all these title and more at the UNP website. Have a great weekend, and don’t forget to join us next week for some Tuesday Trivia!