"Because ignorance of your culture is considered uncool"
Despite news earlier in the week of the sinking of the German Battleship Admiral Graf Spee, Germany was celebrating Christmas, this week in 1939, with a shipment of some 1 million Christmas trees into Berlin. War news, it seemed, wasn’t going to deter anybody from celebrating. The trees were plentiful...
Carl Millöcker – A veritable one-man Factory of Viennese Operetta in the late 19th century. Karl Millöcker – Der Bettelstudent (abridged) – Soloists, chorus and Orchestra of the Berlin State Opera – Hermann Weigert, cond – Recorded in 1930 – Polydor (export) – Deutsche Grammophon (domestic) – Gordon Skene Sound...
News for this day in 1939 had to do with the sudden scuttling and sinking of the German Battleship Graf Spee, after an intense sea battle off the Uruguayan coast. The battleship, discovered and chased by British Naval forces, sustained considerable damage and was granted safe harbor by Uruguay, who...
When U.S. Army Air Corps Captains Albert W. Stevens and Orville A. Anderson landed their Explorer II High-altitude balloon on the ground near White Lake South Dakota, they were the first Scientific Observers to reach a distance of some 72,395 feet above the earth, the highest anyone had gone before....
René Amengual – Preludio – NBC Studio Orchestra – Joseph Stulpak, cond. June 24, 1943 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection Chipping in really helps: Become a Patron! Mid-twentieth century music from Chile this week, via composer, pianist and educator René Amengual in a rare performance of his Preludio for Orchestra,...
Dale Carnegie – Discusses Booth Tarkington – February 14, 1945 – Mutual – Gordon Skene Sound Collection – Booth Tarkington – a name that most likely rings no bells of recognition, outside of those studying 19th century/early 20th century American authors, discussed in a radio program narrated by the man...
A little less than two months into the shooting war in Europe, the news was filled reports of preparations and precautions going on throughout Europe. News from the front, with German reconnaissance planes penetrating French lines and being thrown back. Skirmishes in the air. From Paris came word of pending...
No doubt the irony was more than a little pronounced, but this radio report didn’t mention anything about that. This report, from American correspondent Arthur Manne from the front “somewhere in France” described the goings-on, some four months into the new war. With British troops stationed in France, and reports...
Become a Patron! Even though this day has come to encompass all wars, it was originally intended to be the day commemorating the Big One. World War 1; the War to End All Wars. It was a day to commemorate the end of the one of the most devastating wars...
Lest we all forget events in history leading up to other events in history, the Munich Crisis of 1938 served as the Preview Of Coming Attractions in what would eventually become World War 2. In what became a word associated with weakness in Foreign Policy, Appeasement had averted, at least...
Gordon Skene, two-time Grammy Nominee and archivist runs The Gordon Skene Sound Archive and this website, which is dedicated to preserving and encouraging an interest in history and historic news, events, and cultural aspects of our society. Past Daily is the only place on the Internet where you can hear a Nixon speech, listen to an interview with John Cassavettes or play a broadcast of Charles Munch rehearsing the Boston Symphony in 1950, all in the same place. It's living history and it's timeless.
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