Realizing just how much the world changes in a period of fifteen years, the world of 1957 was considerably different than the world of 1942 on this day. In 1942 Russia was an ally against Germany and the Axis plague eager to dominate Europe. In 1957 a divided Germany was now our ally against the "evil empire" of Russia and the Soviet Union.

So in 1957, West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer visited Washington in an effort of seek continued support from the Eisenhower administration and to bolster Adenauer's position with the West during the upcoming elections in West Germany. Facing a bitter election fight at home, Adenauer was keen on receiving assurances from Washington that support, economically as well as militarily would continue and increase. And also some sign, however small, that the possibility of reunification of the two Germany's would become a possibility.

Commenting on the meeting as well as an observation over the upcoming British Elections was Cedric Foster, a regular newscaster/commentator for the Mutual Broadcasting System on May 31st, 1957.

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The news on this morning in April of 1945 was about the eventual collapse of Germany and the end of the War in Europe. With news reports coming in, and bulletins being reported one on top of the other, news of the Fall of Berlin was being reported. Soviet troops had succeeded in occupying the center of the city, while defacto head of the German government, Heinrich Himmler was busy hammering out surrender terms. The latest communique had Himmler attempting to reach a surrender with the Allies without including the Russians. Needless to say, it was rejected. And despite some rumors to the contrary, no Surrender had been arrived at. Allied forces were systematically taking over and occupying every other German city, with news that Munich had fallen while this broadcast was on the air. Also reported was news that the Allies had liberated the Dachau Conentration camp, and news of that discovery would be coming in time. During the course of the morning news broadcast, an address by Gen. Spaatz of the Allied Air Forces announced confirmation that the German Luftwaffe had been completely obliterated and subsequently, the Allied Air Force would changed its role over to tactical support of ground forces during these final hours/days.

Meanwhile, the War in the Pacific was still far from over. With news reports of a Kamikaze attack on an Allied Hospital ship near Okinawa brought outrage from the Allied High Command and fighting was still intense.

And that was the news for this April 30, 1945, as presented in two morning Newscasts over NBC. One, the Morning Roundup and the later Alka-Seltzer News Of The World.

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News on this day in 1945 was entirely about the historic linkup of Soviet and Western-Allied forces at the Elbe River, effectively cutting Germany in half and sealing the fate of Hitler's "Thousand year Reich". It would be a matter of days, and with bulletins racing in, with reports cutting in and flying on top of each other, it was clear the war in Europe would be over soon. Still, there was caution, and it was stressed over and over in the course of the newscasts that this was not to be considered the end of the war in Europe. Fighting was still intense. With overwhelming numbers of displaced, refugees and former Nazi officials fleeing to safety managing to clog the roads leading to Berlin.

As the reports kept coming in, the later bulletins placed Russian troops, within blocks of the Chancery in Berlin, seizing the Deutches Bank building. So there were conflicting reports with some saying the allies were 75 miles away from the heart of Berlin, and later reports of fighting going on in the streets of Berlin. No one knew for sure and Allied censorship of news reports made it difficult to get an accurate picture of just far along everything was going.

And that's what the news sounded like from 11:00pm-12:00 midnight via NBC and WEAF in New York for April 27th, 1945.

Over to Berlin via Paris this week for a concert featuring the legendary Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by the venerable Riccardo Chailly in music of Dmitri Shostakovitch, Nino Rota, Ottorino Respighi and Paul Lincke.

It was recorded on August 23rd 2011.

Here's the rundown:

Berlin : Chostakovitch, Rota, Respighi, Lincke

Dmitri Chostakovitch
Suite N°2 for Jazz Orchestra (1938)

Nino Rota (1911-1979)
La Strada, suite (1954) .

Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936)
Les Fontaines de Rome, Poème symphonique (1916)

Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936)
Les Pins de Rome, Poème symphonique (1924)

Dmitri Chostakovitch (1906-1975)
Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, Suite, Op. 29a (Ext.; 1930-1932)

Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936)
Belkis, reine de Saba, Danse guerrière (1930-1931)

Paul Lincke (1866-1946)
Berliner Luft (1899)

Orchestre Philharmonique de Berlin
Riccardo Chailly, Direction
Concert donné le 23 août 2011 à la Waldbühne de Berlin.

With a particularly excited audience and no less than three encores, the orchestra is in fine form making this an out-of-the-ordinary concert to go with your Anti-Road Rage Wednesday.

I try.

Over to Berlin this week for a concert recorded live by RBB Berlin on December 20, 2011 featuring The Berlin Radio Symphony, conducted by its current Music Director Marek Janowski and featuring German/Japanese violinist Arabella Steinbacher in music of Schubert, Mozart and Brahms.

The concert is broken up into two players, and the notes are as follows:

Marek Janowski dirigiert das Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin

Mit Werken von Franz Schubert, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart und Johannes Brahms

Top Player: Franz Schubert:
Ouvertüre D-Dur D 590 (Im italienischen Stile)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:
Violinkonzert Nr. 5 A-Dur KV 219
Arabella Steinbacher

Bottom Player: Johannes Brahms:

Sinfonie Nr. 2 D-Dur, op. 7

Aufnahme vom 20.12.2011 in der Berliner Philharmonie

Announcements are in German and the audience is enthusiastic. Good concert. Great straight-ahead repertoire. Perfect Anti-Road Rage Music.

Enjoy.

This week fifty years ago, President Kennedy assessed his first year in office, expressed concern over the drop in graduates in the Sciences in colleges around the country and disappointment that the Test Ban Treaty was a failure.

Other topics covered in this first Press Conference of 1962 were Berlin, the Indonesia/Dutch dispute, the issue of Trade, the Food For Peace Program, Civil Rights, The Common Market and proposed Medicare Legislation. A question was raised as to whether there were troops engaged in combat in Vietnam, and the answer was no.

A fascinating glimpse into the Kennedy Years from January 15, 1962.

It's been almost fifty years since the Berlin Wall heightened the tensions in an already tense Cold War between the Soviet Union and the West. At the center of it stood West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. In November of 1961 Adenauer paid a visit to President Kennedy, during a time when flash points were erupting around the world. Cuba was heading towards crisis with the question of nuclear missiles being installed on the island nation. War broke out between India and China and Berlin stood more or less in the middle of it.

On November 5, 1961, Adenauer was asked to address the National Press Club during one of their regular luncheons:

Konrad Adenauer: “I’m not a prophet and I never claimed to be one. And in politics in particular you should never try to make any predictions whatsoever, and therefore I remain patient, and I maintain what I have found to be true and correct and right. And even if something takes a long time and before it is achieved you have to stick to what you have recognized to be right and true. That of course requires patience and that is, in my view the only policy which can be successful, vis-à-vis Communism. I’m convinced that the reunification of Germany will come, because each nation and each people has the right of self-determination. And this right is granted to small nations, in Africa. And that is a right to which the German nation is entitled and the German’s will wait and wait and wait and wait until they’re given this right.”

Sadly, Adenauer wouldn't live to see reunification (he died in October of 1963) - but at the time, any thought of that seemed as unlikely as finding life on Mars. Here is his complete address to the National Press Club and a number of questions from the audience afterwards.

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This day in 1941 was staring at the 600th since that ominous overture to Poland in 1939. And in that time, Europe was engulfed in a series of invasions, surrenders and daily desperation.

From London came word that German bombing raids over Britain the previous night were mostly confined to the Southeast and Northeast of England, but casualties were reported to be small. It was also the second successive night London went without a raid alarm.

The RAF retaliated with attacks on targets throughout occupied Europe.

The Free French Island of Tahiti declared itself on the side of DeGaulle.

There were unconfirmed yet persistent reports that Athens had fallen to the Germans and that Greece was in danger of being a lost Allied cause.

From Berlin came news that the previous nights address by Charles Lindbergh of the America First Committee at Madison Square Garden in New York drew praise in the German press, fueling speculation that maybe America would not get involved in the War after all.

Hitler concluded talks with Hungarian leaders in the wake of preparing German plans for the occupied Balkan region. Japanese Foreign Minister Matsuoka returned to Tokyo, armed with assurances and a renewed alliance with Berlin. Rumors that Germany was planning a move to Spain and Portugal were shrugged off as British propaganda, despite credible reports that some 2,500 German operatives posing as "tourists" were roaming the streets of Madrid.

It was also learned that German brewers were considering the idea of "light beer" to go with calls from the government to curb alcohol use, even though they hadn't even entered the experimental stage yet. And shortages were turning into rationing of cigarettes and cigars, in the wake of government calls to ban tobacco, which was deemed not such a good thing from a morale point of view.

And back in the U.S. - Secretary of State Cordell Hull called for renewed support of Britain in their fight against the axis and to support Lend-Lease.

All on this day in April, 1941 as reported by NBC and it's News Of The World.

A particularly grim day in 1940. Starting with news reports that France had appointed delegates to receive the German surrender terms. From the relocated French government in Bordeaux, Marshall Petain appealed to the French people, and the remaining French troops, to give up the War, that France had been defeated.

And while the appeals were going out and the envoys were readying to receive terms, the German Army were quickly advancing on all fronts, taking the important French Port city of Brest and the rumored capture of numerous French warships. What was left of the French Army had been separated into four areas and cut off from communication with each other. The German Army was also poised to take Paris.

All this had an uneasy affect on London, as it was reported that emergency cabinet meetings had taken place and plans for the defense of Britain were underway. Among those plans was the initial evacuation of some 20,000 children to Canada and the Dominions for the duration. The first ships were scheduled to convoy out in 2 weeks and offices handing the evacuation requests were flooded with applicants. It was widely believed that, now with the fall of France, Britain was facing Germany's Final Objective. German Bomber raids overnight hit the industrial cities of Billingham and Hull. The fires from Billingham could be seen for 30 miles. Reports from Berlin claimed they were reprisal bombings for British raids on German cities.

News from Washington initially came in the form of a bulletin that stated FDR made a surprising motion to form a Coalition Cabinet and the unprecedented move of appointing two high-ranking Republicans, Col. Frank Knox and Henry L. Stimson to the posts of Secretary of The Navy and Secretary of War, respectively. Knox was vice-Presidential Candidate for the Republicans in 1936 and Stimson was Secretary of State in the Hoover Administration and Secretary of War in the Taft Administration. The dismay came from the Republicans who felt it created damage to their 1940 Platform and it was purely a political move on FDR's part.

Another nail-biting day in history, this June 20, 1940, as reported on the NBC News Of The World.

News for this day in June, 1942 was about the War on all fronts.

Starting with reports from Australia that the War wasn't getting much in the way of newspaper space because of the monotony of the dispatches. However, on this day it was reported that Darwin had it's first raid-free day. The same couldn't be said for Port Moresby, as raids by some 18 Heavy Japanese bombers made up for Darwin's lack of action. The whole picture was painted in grim terms as General MacArthur, in an appeal for support of an Australian War Loan drive, said Australia was facing an imminent invasion and it was imperative they be prepared for it.

While on the air, a bulletin came through the newsroom that the Canadian Air Force and Anti-aircraft units had joined up with U.S. forces, for the first time, in the defense of Alaska over the invasion of the Aleutian Islands.

From Stockholm came reports that Berlin was counting on a Japanese Declaration of War against Russia within hours, and that the Russian-Japanese Friendship Pact signed a year earlier was now worthless. Reports also came through that the situation in North Africa was cautious, as Germany was experiencing difficulties with their Italian allies in the area of water supplies and dwindling morale.

From London the picture was a bit different, with news that British forces had withdrawn from El Aderri and Sidi Rezegh and that Rommel was making good his threat to cut off land communication between Tobruk and Egypt. It was also noted that the British Government voiced concern over the lessening of antagonism between Washington and the Laval Government of Vichy, despite reports that Laval had okayed sending idle French workers to Germany in an effort to shore up Berlin's lagging war production, since Laval had shut most non-essential industry in Occupied France.

From Washington came reports that the Sugar shortage was an on-again-off-again situation with wild discrepancies in rationing being noted. Also of concern on Capitol Hill was the recent signing of the Anglo-Soviet Pact which led many to wonder just where Moscow would be fitting in with the proposed United Nations and Post-War atmosphere in Europe.

And today marked the second anniversary of the Surrender of France.

All that and much more on this June 18, 1942 as reported by the NBC World News Roundup.