Tiger's Back.
The Maundy Monday Newsletter - This Week in History April 11 -17.
Happy Midday Monday everyone. Thank you for your continued support of Okay History.
We bring you a short lunchtime Maundy Monday Newsletter in the spirit of better late than never. Also, we think we messed up dropping Friday's lesson on the latest state rankings, but you can find this post here and yell at us later. It's been quite a busy week as we shuttle back and forth to Kentucky.
The Masters Golf Tournament was this past weekend. If you call it The Masters Golf Tournament, you are obviously reaching out to a demographic, signaling them to go ahead and skip to the bottom for the three historical events this week. Feel free to jump down.
If you are still here, the 2022 edition of The Masters celebrated the return of Tiger Woods, arguably the best golfer of the late 20th and early 21st century. This was the first tournament for Woods since his last car wreck a little over a year ago.
Tiger played well for about half the tournament. He finished at 13+ over par, the worst finish of his career at Augusta National, but remember, he flipped his car over a million times and still shot better than we have ever done on any golf course, so we give him props.
We bring up Tiger's return because it was 25 years ago when Tiger won his first major tournament after shooting an astounding -18 under par to become the youngest and first person of color to win The Masters Golf Tournament. His margin of victory was the largest until 2020, a year after his last Masters win in 2019, his fifth.
Woods is a few weeks older than us, has 15 major golf tournament titles, and is a World Golf Hall of Fame member. We won the consolation basketball tournament in eighth grade, and there's no doubt Okay History is The Masters of mediocre history blogs. We are practically the same.
Okay, let's highlight what else happened this week. Here's what we got:
Kurt Vonnegut died on April 11, 2007. The famous American writer had his pinnacle moment in the movie, Back to School when Rodney Dangerfield fired him.
The Titanic hit an iceberg on April 14, 1912. To cross the Atlantic in record time, the mighty ship ran right into mother nature in the middle of the dark. James Cameron made about a billion dollars turning it into a love story.
3. China sent two Giant Pandas to President Nixon as a gift on April 16, 1972. During the historic trip to China, First Lady Pat Nixon commented on her fondness for the animals. China shipped two right on over to the National Zoo, where they are the main attraction to visitors. Obviously, they are not the same pandas, but you get the point.
Today also marks the beginning of Holy Week, which means we will not be dropping a lesson on Good Friday. We try not to work on that day and instead spend it praying the rosary and doing the stations and crying for most of the day. Hey, we acknowledge that we are sinners.
It also means Passover, and while we have yet to experience Seder, it looks good.
The point here is that we hope this week brings reflection and renewal, hugs and joy. We will see you in this space next week.
Have a great week!
Okay,
Chris