CAMPUS CALENDAR
2 • The Daily Beacon
InSHORT
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
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What’s HAPPENING AROUND CAMPUS
April 28 - 29, 2010
Wednesday, April 28 — • 3:35 p.m. until 4:35 p.m. — Greg Knese of the University of California, Irvine, speaks on “Pick interpolation and stable polynomials” in room 113 of Aconda Court. This analysis seminar is free and open to the public.
• 7 p.m. — Barbara Bodine, former ambassador to Yemen, who works on issues including U.S. bilateral and regional policy, strategic security issues, counterterrorism and governance and reform, speaks in the Baker Center’s Toyota Auditorium.
• 7 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. — As part of the Poverty, Energy and the Environment minisummit, a discussion on “Alternative Energy and the Future of Green Jobs” will be held in the Hodges Library Auditorium. Panelists include Kim Jensen, professor of agricultural economics, and Gil Hough and J.P. Plumlee of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
Thursday, April 29 — • 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. — As part of National Sexual Assault Awareness Month, a group of experts on sexual assault from the UT and Knoxville communities discuss prevention of sexual assault through bystander intervention, trauma associated with experiencing sexual violence, the narratives of those who have committed sexual assault and the incidence of sexual violence in the LGBTQ community in the Baker Center’s Toyota Auditorium.
George Richardson • The Daily Beacon
Students cross at the busy intersection of Andy Hold Avenue and Volunteer Boulevard between classes. Rainy weather threatens to put a damper on the usually joyous final week of classes.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY • 1945 — “Il Duce,” Benito Mussolini, and his mistress, Clara Petacci, are shot by Italian partisans who had captured the couple as they attempted to flee to Switzerland. The 61-year-old deposed former dictator of Italy was established by his German allies as the figurehead of a puppet government in northern Italy during the German occupation toward the close of the war. As the Allies fought their way up the Italian peninsula, defeat of the Axis powers all but certain, Mussolini considered his options. Not wanting to fall into the hands of either the British or the Americans, and knowing that the communist partisans, who had been fighting the remnants of roving Italian fascist soldiers and thugs in the north, would try him as a war criminal, he settled on escape to a neutral country. He and his mistress made it to the Swiss border, only to discover that the guards had crossed over to the partisan side. Knowing they would not let him pass, he disguised himself in a Luftwaffe coat and helmet, hoping to slip into Austria with some German soldiers. His subterfuge proved incompetent, and he and Petacci were discovered by partisans and shot, their bodies then transported by truck to Milan, where they were hung upside down and displayed publicly for revilement by the masses. • 1965 — In an effort to forestall what he claims will be a “communist dictatorship” in the Dominican
Republic, President Lyndon B. Johnson sends more than 22,000 U.S. troops to restore order on the island nation. Johnson’s action provoked loud protests in Latin America and skepticism among many in the United States. Troubles in the Dominican Republic began in 1961, when long-time dictator Rafael Trujillo was assassinated. Trujillo had been a brutal leader, but his strong anticommunist stance helped him retain the support of the United States. His death led to the rise of a reformist government headed by Juan Bosch, who was elected president in 1962. The Dominican military, however, despised Bosch and his liberal policies. Bosch was overthrown in 1963. Political chaos gripped the Dominican Republic as various groups, including the increasingly splintered military, struggled for power. By 1965, forces demanding the reinstatement of Bosch began attacks against the military-controlled government. In the United States government, fear spread that “another Cuba” was in the making in the Dominican Republic; in fact, many officials strongly suspected that Cuban leader Fidel Castro was behind the violence. • 2004 — Comcast, America’s largest cable operator, abandons its $54 billion hostile takeover bid for the Walt Disney Company in the face of faltering stock prices and Disney’s continued refusal to entertain the proposal. If accepted, Comcast’s February bid would
have made it the largest media company in the world. Based in Philadelphia, Comcast had begun as a regional cable company in Tupelo, Miss., and increased its holdings through a series of lucrative acquisitions. For its $54 billion in stock, Comcast would have received control of Disney’s film studio, the ABC television broadcasting network and the cable channel ESPN, among other assets. Observers of the proposed merger predicted problems similar to those that had faced other media giants, such as AOL-Time Warner, including scrutiny from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which had objected to ownership of local networks and cable stations in the same market. The Disney board evaluated Comcast’s offer and rejected it, stating that the Comcast bid was worth $3.60 per share less than the current market price of Disney stock. Still, Disney’s troubles — and those of its chief executive, Michael Eisner — did not begin or end with the potential Comcast takeover. Credited with reviving Disney’s sprawling empire since he assumed the reins in 1984, Eisner had reportedly provoked the wrath of other studio executives and shareholders over the previous several years with his management style and decisions, according to The New York Times. — Courtesy of History.com