#OTD 15 April

Behind the throne there is the power. Behind the inventor Thomas Edison sat the financier JP Morgan. In 1889, Morgan had orchestrated the merger of Edison’s business interests into Edison General Electric Company. At the time, DC man Edison was enmeshed in the costly battle of the currents with AC man George Westinghouse. In 1890,… Continue reading #OTD 15 April

#OTD 13 April

On 13 April 1742, Handel’s Messiah had its world premiere in Dublin. Everyone knew something was happening. To accommodate a large audience, gentlemen were asked to remove swords and ladies were asked not to wear hoops in their dresses. The oratorio is performed every year in many places including Royal Albert Hall. In 2010, Royal… Continue reading #OTD 13 April

#OTD 12 April

12 April 1927 was the Shanghai massacre. Or, in Taiwan, the April 12 incident or purge. Or, in China, the April 12 Counter-revolutionary Coup. Each tells a story of the day that Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and the conservative forces of the KMT violently suppressed Communist groups in Shanghai. The immediate consequences were a greatly diminished… Continue reading #OTD 12 April

#OTD 11 April

11 April 1976 is generally accepted as the day Steve Wozniak built the Apple-I. To the orthodoxy that Wozniak was Apple’s inhouse inventor and Steve Jobs the inhouse marketer, the Apple-I brings two quirks. First, Wozniak and not Jobs set the retail of $666.66 because he liked repeating digits and because it was a one-third… Continue reading #OTD 11 April