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# 85 NOVEMBER 21 , 2016
# 85 November 21 2016
vernor of Connecticut from 1975 to 1980.
She was the first woman to be elected as
a state chief executive in her own right,
namely without being the widow or the
wife of a former or incumbent governor.
read more about #Great Italians of the Past
GREAT ITALIANS OF THE PAST:
Peter Rodino
Vito Marcantonio
I would also point to Peter W. Rodino, a
Democratic member of the U.S. House
ALESSANDRO VOLTA
By Giovanni Verde
East Harlem in the House between 1935
and 1951, was the only Communist-oriented Congressman in U.S. history.
Outside institutional politics, Mario Savio deserves being mentioned, too. The
son of a Sicilian immigrant, he was one
of the informal leaders of the free speech movement at the University of California at Berkeley in 1964-65, a student
protest, calling for the repeal of a ban of
of Representative from New Jersey for
on-campus political activities, which laforty years (1949-89). President Richard
ter ignited the civil liberties and anti-VieM. Nixon once joked that one could not
tnam War movements.
find an Italian American who was honest.
Rodino proved such a defamatory ethnic
stereotype wrong. He was the chairperson of the House Judiciary Committee
that started the impeachment of no less
a person than Nixon himself.
Among Left-wing radicals, Vito Marcantonio, who discontinuously represented
The inventions and discoveries of Alessandro
Volta have provided this
Italian scientist fame and
an immense popularity.
Indeed, the invention of a
device that would generate electricity without the
help of an external power
supply, aka the battery, represented a turning point
in the evolution of technologies and scientific
progress in the history of
humanity. Even the discovery of methane gas, occurred by chance, gains in
this times a more symbolic
value for the West.
for him of priesthood or
lawyer. In 1775 Alessandro finalizes the perpetual
electrophorus, an electrostatic generator that can
accumulate a modest
amount of electric charge
in a discontinuous manner. The invention arouses
amazement and admiration in the scientific world.
Alessandro Volta was
born in Como (Lombardy) on February 18, 1745.
His extraordinary scientific
vocation, evident from the
earliest years of his life,
soon causes his parents In 1778 in the letter on
to abandon any ambition the ability of the electrical
Mario Savio
48 | WE THE ITALIANS
WE THE ITALIANS | 49
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