This was the real Battle of the Sexes. And, no, we’re not talking about Sarah Palin and Barack Obama (or Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, for that matter). We’re talking tennis this week, as Saturday marks the 35th anniversary of Billie Jean King’s defeat of Bobby Riggs in straight sets (6-4, 6-3, 6-3). The famous Battle of the Sexes match set a record for the largest tennis audience and the largest purse awarded up to that time.
Among the other features on Britannica’s homepage this week are:
September 15: Britannica looks back at one of the all-time best sellers, Agatha Christie, who was born 118 years ago Monday and whose works have sold more than 100 million copies and have been translated into some 100 languages. Britannica also wishes a happy 79th birthday to Murray Gell-Mann, the Nobel Prize winner and member of Britannica’s Board of Directors. Monday also marks the 173rd anniversary of the arrival of Charles Darwin at the Galapagos Islands and the 187th anniversary since Spanish colonies in Central America declared their independence.
September 16: Ten years ago Tuesday was a hopeful day in Spain, when the Basque separatist ETA declared, after 30 years of guerrilla attacks in Spain, a cease-fire; unfortunately, it only lasted 14 months. ETA announced a permanent cease-fire in March 2006 but officially lifted that just over a year later. On a happier note, Lucille’s Dad, B.B. King, a principal figure in the development of the blues, celebrates his 83rd birthday on Tuesday, and it was 388 years ago that the Pilgirm’s set sail aboard the Mayflower from Plymouth, England, for the New World, beginning a fashion trend of cute buckle shoes that survives today.
September 17: From the Mayflower to the Massachusetts Bay Company, which 378 years ago Wednesday established the city of Boston, today the home of clam chowder and the champion Boston Red Sox and Celtics. Thirty years ago Jimmy Carter did what many thought could not be done. After 13 days at Camp David, he secured an accord that would bring the next year a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. Carter recounts the events in Britannica’s article on the Camp David Accords. Sports fans remember Rube Foster, born 129 years ago; this baseball player gained fame as a pitcher, manager, and owner and became known as the “father of black baseball” after founding in 1920 the Negro National League (NNL), the first successful professional league for African American ballplayers. And, it’s happy 64th birthday to explorer Reinhold Messner, who in 1978 with Austrian Peter Habeler, was the first to climb Mount Everest without the use of contained oxygen for breathing. Impressed? I survive the Chicago Transit Authority almost every day without the benefit of oxygen–and, I usually really need it.
September 18: The mob’s favorite wise guy, Tony Soprano (aka James Gandolfini), turns 47 on Thursday. Although the HBO series may be no more, we may all get the chance to see Tony in action in a Sopranos movie. Thursday is also the anniversary of the birth of two giants: Samuel Johnson, the English critic, biographer, essayist, poet, and lexicographer, regarded as one of the greatest figures of 18th-century life and letters, was born 299 years ago, and Agnes de Mille, the American dancer and choreographer who further developed the narrative aspect of dance and made innovative use of American themes, folk dances, and physical idioms in her choreography of musical plays and ballets, was born 103 years ago. And, in the midst of the historic U.S. election, Britannica looks back at the Atlanta Compromise, the famed statement on American race relations, which was made by Booker T. Washington 113 years ago. In one sentence he summarized his concept of race relations appropriate for the times: “In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.”
September 19: Up, up, and away! It was 225 years ago Friday that the Montgolfier brothers sent aloft a balloon with a rooster, a duck, and a sheep–a test flight that rapidly advanced French aeronautics–not to mention upsetting foie gras lovers. From the near atmosphere to deep space, Trekkies celebrate the anniversary of the birth of Gene Roddenberry on Friday; the creator of Star Trek, who died in 1991, would have been 87 years old. Friday also marks the 212th anniversary of George Washington’s Farewell Address, which still provides guidance to American presidents.
September 20: Are you Gellin? No, not the soothing massaging gel pads, but Ferdinand Magellan. (Yeah, I ought to stick to my day job, I know.) It was 489 years ago Saturday that the great Portuguese navigator left Spain to begin his planned circumnavigation of the globe. As Thailand and its current monarch, Bhumibol Adulyadej, experience turmoil, the country celebrates the 155th anniversary of the birth of Chulalongkorn, the king of Siam who avoided colonial domination and embarked upon far-reaching reforms. Happy 67th birthday goes to Dale Chihuly, the American artist whose work in glass sculpture—often presented in complex and dynamic public projects—led to a resurgence of interest in that medium.
September 21: Mormons remember one of the most pivotal events in their history–it was 185 years ago Sunday that Joseph Smith claimed he was visited by the angel Moroni, thus inspiring him to create the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Sunday also marks the 142nd anniversary of the birth of the English novelist H.G. Wells, who’s best known for his sci-fi novels such as The War of the Worlds. Well, they don’t have Abe Shinzo to kick around any more. He lasted only twelve months in the job as Japanese prime minister. But, as he turns 54 on Sunday, the country’s first prime minister to have been born after World War II and its youngest since the war, can take solace in the fact that his successor, Yasuo Fukuda, will last little longer. On September 22, the ruling Liberal-Democratic Party will choose a successor.
This and other information is available this week via Britannica’s homepage. Or, you can search the site to read other articles of interest. I’ll be back next week with another preview of Britannica’s weekly content.