Word: minorca
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...canvas is broad, shifting from Chopin's native Poland to Paris or to George Sand's island retreat at Minorca, and finally to the various capitals of Europe, when the fever-racked young composer breaks the hypnotic spell cast over him by the iron-willed, amorous Sand and sets out on a suicidal concert tour to raise money to help his people in an uprising against the Czar. Paraded across the background in a rather ludicrous attempt at historical realism are such figures as De Musset, Balzac, Pagnanini, and Franz Liszt...
...green timber, cork and rawhide was set afire by red-hot British cannonballs. In that long siege, British General Sir George Elliot lost in action only 333 out of 7,000 men in the face of attackers totaling 40,000. Britain offered to trade Gibraltar for Florida or for Minorca, but the Spanish refused. Spain offered to buy it for $10,000,000 and the British refused. By the 19th Century its value to British naval supremacy was recognized as beyond price and it became a world symbol for permanent security...