Month: February 2017

066: An Immense Box of Sand

Mark Podcast

Italian soldiers defending the Tripoli perimeter in 1911. Note the use of defensive trenches.

 
Spurred on by right-wing agitation at home, the government of Italy declares war on the Ottoman Empire to secure its claim to the province of Tripoli, known in our time as Libya.
 

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Playlist:
 
Fanfare

Opening Theme

Overture to La Forza del Destino
Composed in 1862 by Giuseppe Verdi. Public domain.
Performed by the University of Chicago Orchestra, and used pursuant to a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) license. Source.

Closing Theme

Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2016, 2017 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

065: The Panther Leap

Mark Podcast

The German gunboat SMS Panther.

 

Unrest and instability plague the Ottoman Empire, and a year of relative calm in the rest of Europe ends when a German gunboat suddenly appears off the coast of Morocco.
 

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Playlist:
 
Fanfare

Opening Theme

“Kâtibim”
Traditional Turkish folk song. Public domain.
Public domain recording. Source.

Tradidional Moroccan folk music
Public domain.
Recorded by Freesound user Eelke and used pursuant to a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) license. Source.

Closing Theme

Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2016, 2017 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

064: A Night to Remember

Mark Podcast
Sixteen-year old newsboy Ned Parfett hawks newspapers reporting the Titanic disaster outside the London office of White Star Line. Ned would later enlist in the Royal Artillery and be killed in action on October 28, 1918, just two weeks before the end of the Great War.

The world’s largest ocean liner, Titanic, strikes an iceberg and sinks on the night of April 14, 1912, becoming history’s most famous maritime disaster.

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Transcript.

 

Playlist:
 
Fanfare

Opening Theme

Overture to Oberon, or The Elf King’s Oath
Composed in 1826 by Carl Maria von Weber. Public domain.
Performed by The United States Navy Band. Public domain recording. Source.

“Alexander’s Ragtime Band”
Composed in 1911 by Irving Berlin. Public domain.

“Eternal Father, Strong to Save”
Composed in 1860 by William Whiting. Public domain.
Performed by The United States Navy Band. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme

Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2016, 2017 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.