May 6, 2011 by CATHERINE DEGENNARO Note: This is a recurring series in which we ask our unimaginably young interns to review classic albums they’ve never heard before. Catherine DeGennaro just finished her internship at NPR Music last week.   Courtesy of Sony/Columbia LegacyThe Complete Recordings by Robert Johnson. For more information on Robert Johnson, stay tuned toWeekend Edition Saturday for a piece on The Complete Original Masters: Centennial Edition. Until then, here’s some historical context on Johnson’s song “Hellhound on My Trail” and an introduction to Mississippi Delta blues. During a screening of Les Blank’s The Blues Accordin’ to Lightnin’ Hopkins in a class a couple months ago, the blues finally found me. Sure,…

May 6, 1937: A Ball of Fire und Alles Ist Kaput By Tony Long May 6, 2011  | 7:00 am  | Categories: 20th century, Disasters, Transportation   1937: The German passenger zeppelin Hindenburg explodes and crashes while landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 36 people and dooming the future of commercial trans-Atlantic zeppelin service. The Hindenburg (which might have been named Adolf Hitler if not for the strong anti-Nazi views held by Hugo Eckener, director of the Zeppelin Co.) and its sister ship, Graf Zeppelin II, are the largest aircraft ever to fly. They stretched 804 feet — nearly the length of the largest trans-Atlantic ocean liners of the period. Although other nations, notably Great Britain and the United…

MOTHER’S DAY HISTORY The majority of countries that celebrate Mother’s Day do so on the second Sunday of May. On this day, it is common for Mothers to be lavished with presents and special attention from their families, friends and loved ones. But it wasn’t always this way… Spiritual Origin of Mothers Day Only recently dubbed “Mother’s Day,” the highly traditional practice of honoring of Motherhood is rooted in antiquity, and past rites typically had strong symbolic and spiritual overtones; societies tended to celebrate Goddesses and symbols rather than actual Mothers. The personal, human touch to Mother’s Day is a relatively new phenomenon. The maternal objects of adoration ranged from…

National Day of Prayer, Obama, Ground Zero (photos, video) May 5th, 2011 12:21 pm PT By Sheila OConnor SF Top News Examiner On National Day of Prayer, Obama visits Ground Zero, thanks firefighters Obama visits Ground Zero, thanks firefighters Credit: Getty Images San Francisco residents are learning that President Barack Obama has visited Ground Zero and the firefighters who lost colleagues in the attacks of September 11th, 2001. He chose today, the National Day of Prayer, to do so. The National Day of Prayer was established back in 1952 by Congress. It was established as an event by a joint resolution and was signed into law by President Truman. Today, 5th May…

By AP / KRISTEN GELINEAU SYDNEY) — Claude Stanley Choules, the last known combat veteran of World War I, died in a Western Australia nursing home Thursday at age 110. And though his accomplishments were many — including a a 41-year military career that spanned two world wars — the man known as “Chuckles” to his comrades in the Australian Navy was happiest being known as a dedicated family man. “We all loved him,” his 84-year-old daughter Daphne Edinger told The Associated Press. “It’s going to be sad to think of him not being here any longer, but that’s the way things go.” Choules was born March 3, 1901, in…

By: JENNY WILSON (2 hours ago) Topics: BATTLE OF PUEBLA, CINCO DE MAYO, CINCO DE MAYO HISTORY,FRENCH, HISTORY, HOLIDAYS, MAY 5, MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE, MEXICO,UNITED STATES, WORLD Dressed up in Mexican outfits, performers wait to perform during a Cinco de Mayo reception in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, DC, on May 5, 2010 Getty Images / Jewel Samad Contrary to what some may believe, it’s not Mexican Independence Day. (via TIME Photos) Cinco De Mayo is the holiday of tequila and tex-mex, shares a genre with Mardi Gras and St. Patrick’s day and has become hugely popular throughout the United States. But how many people actually know the history behind this springtime celebration? (More on TIME.com: See the top…

May 2, 2011 By Catherine Lutz A SINGULAR WOMAN The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mother By Janny Scott Illustrated. 376 pages. Riverhead Books. $26.95. Pieces of the story of Ann Dunham, the mother of Barack Obama, we know already. A “white woman from Kansas,” as he referred to her at the Democratic convention in 2008, who married an African intellectual and had a son with him. A strict mother who roused that son before dawn to study. An anthropologist who spent years studying in Indonesian villages, several of those years without her son. A 52-year-old woman whose last year before succumbing to cancer was spent in part trying to…