Today in History, 12/31

Jane Badler and Bebe Newirth have birthdays today. Both ladies played raven-haired ice queens on TV during the 80's and deeply affected my young mind. Or is it "effected?"


1599: The British East India company is formed. At the start they were just a small company, maintaining isolated trading outposts at the mercy of the Mughal Empire (who were running India at the time). When the Mughals finally fell the British realized that if India was to be profitable it would need to be added to the Empire on a full-time basis.
1384: John Wycliffe dies. He founded the Lollard movement and was one of the first people to translate the Bible into the vernacular. Astonishingly he died of natural causes, but his corpse was dug up 41 years later and all kinds of nasty things were done to it.1720: Charles Edward Stuart, aka Bonnie Prince Charlie is born. He was the grandson of James II who had been deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He attempted to retake the English throne in 1745 without success. His army did pretty good, but when you're trying to seize a crown there's no such thing as partial success and when they started losing they just kept losing - much like the Mets last year. This led (more or less)to the Highland Clearances, which sounds like a sale but really were not that much fun, especially if you were Scottish.1775: The Battle of Quebec takes place and the Brits beat the Yanks, although American designs on Canada wouldn't be laid to rest until many years later.
1879: Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting for the first time.
1880: General George Marshall is born.1891: Ellis Island opens for business.
1904: The first New Year's Eve Celebration is held in Times Square. The famous ball is dropped for the first time in 1907.
1908: Simon Wiesenthal, Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter is born.
1909: Manhattan Bridge opens.1933: Edward Bunker is born. He played Mr. Blue in Reservoir Dogs. He led an interesting life, to say the least.
1937: Anthony Hopkins is born.
1938: Rosiland Cash is born. She played Lisa in the classic The Omega Man.
1943: John Denver is born.
1943: Ben Kingsley is born. Hey, he's got the same birthday as Simon Wiesenthal who he played in Murderers Among Us!
1947: Burton Cummings is born. He played keyboards for The Guess Who.
1951: George Thorogood is born.

1953: Jane Badler is born. She is most famous for playing the slickly evil alien Diana in the various incarnations of V.

Charles Nelson Reilly wants his glasses back.

1958: Bebe Newirth is born.
1959: Val Kilmer is born.
1961: The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than 12 billion dollars to rebuild Europe.
1980: Marshall McLuhan dies. He's the guy who said, "The medium is the message."1983: The AT&T Bell System is broken up by the US Government.
1985: Ricky Nelson dies in a plane crash.
1991: The USSR is officially dissolved.

Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up

Today in History, 12/30

1460: During the Wars of the Roses, the Battle of Wakefield takes place. The forces of Margaret of Anjou were victorious over the forces of Richard, Duke of York.
1853: The Gadsden Purchase is finalized.1862: The USS Monitor sinks of Cape Hatteras, NC.1865: Rudyard Kipling is born.
1873: Al Smith, New York politician is born.1884: Hideki Tojo, Prime Minister of Japan during WWII is born.
1879: The Pirates of Penzance is first performed.
1903: The Iroquois Theater Fire in Chicago kills 600.
1920: Jack Lord is born.1922: The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is formed.
1928: Bo Diddley is born.
1934: Del Shannon is born.
1935: Sandy Koufax is born.
1942: Michael Nesmith of The Monkees is born. His mother invented White-Out.
1942: Fred Ward, movie tough guy is born. Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins is big dumb fun.
1945: Davy Jones, also of The Monkees is born.
1953: The first NTSC color television sets go on sale for 1$1,175 each.
1959: Tracy Ullman is born.
1970: Sonny Liston dies.
1975: Tiger Woods is born.
1996: Jack Nance dies.

Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up

Today in History, 12/29

Not a good day to be Thomas Beckett. Not a very proud day for US-Native American relations, either.

1170: Thomas Beckett is murdered. He was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Henry II because he thought Beckett would be easy to control. But at some point Beckett had a religious epiphany and started taking his duties very seriously, including not bowing to the rule of the Crown. He felt that, as a man of the Church, the chain of command went from Beckett to the Pope to God. Notice Henry II isn't in that chain. Henry famously remarked, "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" A few of his knights heard this and (probably correctly) interpreted it as meaning, "Will no one whack this mutt?" and they went and did it. They did it during Mass, while Beckett was leading services and sliced the top of his head off and then smeared his brains on the pulpit, all in front of a horrified congregation. Yikes!
1808: Andrew Johnson, 17th president of the US is born. He was the first president to be impeached.
1813: British soldiers burn Buffalo, NY. If you've ever been there you can sympathize.
1721: Madame de Pompadour is born. She was the mistress of King Louis XV of France and also dallied with Doctor Who in the episode The Girl in the Fireplace.1800: Charles Goodyear is born. He invented the process of vulcanizing rubber.
1809: William Gladstone is born. He was the Punch to Disraeli's Judy in the arena of Victorian-era British politics.1835: The Treaty of New Echota is signed. It ceded all Cherokee lands east of the Mississippi to the US. It pretty much kicks off the Trail of Tears.
1845: Texas is admitted as the 28th state.
1876: The Ashtabula Horror occurs when Train # 5 on the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway crashes through a bridge over the Ashtabula River. 64 people are killed.
1890: US soldiers massacre more than 400 Sioux men, women and children at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
1911: Mongolia gains independence from the Qiang dynasty.
1930: Sir Muhammed Iqbal introduces the Two-Nation Theory which leads to the creation of Pakistan 17 years later.
1934: Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty and the London Naval Treaty, which limit the size of battleships.
1935: Mary Tyler Moore is born.
1937: Barbara Steele is born. She was the scream queen of Italian horror movies. She once said, "I never want to climb out of a fucking coffin again."
1938: Jon Voight is born.
1939: The B-24 Liberator flies for the first time.
1947: Ted Danson is born.
1959: Paula Poundstone is born.
1972: Jude Law is born.

Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up

Today in History, 12/27

Blogger is acting up today, so no pictures.

537: The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey is completed.
1822: Louis Pasteur is born.
1831: Charles Darwin starts his voyage aboard the HMS Beagle.
1879: Sydney Greenstreet is born.

1901: Marlene Dietrich is born.
1929: Leon Trotsky is deported from the Soviet Union.
1932: Radio City Music Hall opens.
1943: Cokie Roberts is born.

Today in History, 12/26

Jeez, a couple of real cheap shots at Pauline Kael today. Sorry, Pauline, in whatever afterlife you inhabit!
838: A storm causes heavy flooding in the Netherlands. 2437 people die.
1606: First performance of King Lear. Pauline Kael pans it.
1776: The British are defeated in the Battle of Trenton.
1791: Charles Babbage is born. He originated the idea of a programming computer, but his difference engine was never built in his lifetime.
1837: George Dewey is born. He was an admiral in the US Navy during the Spanish American War. He famously said, "You may fire when ready, Gridley." It was a very popular catchphrase in the US up until about WWII. Now I think I'm the only one who still says it. 1871: Gilbert & Sullivan collaborate for the first time. The opera the produce, Thespis, does only fair-to-middlin' business and they don't work together for four years.
1893: Mao Zedong is born. He was very naughty.
1903: Elisha Cook, Jr. is born. He played Wilmer the gunsel in The Maltese Falcon and a cowardly gunman in about a million other movies. He also played Samuel T. Cogley in the Star Trek: TOS episode "Court Martial.1906: The world's first feature film, The Story of the Kelly Gang is released. Pauline Kael pans it.
1919: The Red Sox sell Babe Ruth to the Yankees.1921: Steve Allen is born. According to MST3K, he invented a cheap, efficient desalination process.

1933: FM radio is patented.

1940: Phil Spector is born. He is responsible for the "Wall of Sound" sound that the Beach Boys used so much (and which is reason enough to hate him, as far as I'm concerned). He also has produced or written more hit records than I've had hot dinners. Don't let him date your sister, especially if she's an over-40 actress/model desperately trying to achieve some kind of fame.

This look just screams "Not Guilty!"

1941: Winston Churchill becomes the first British Prime Minister to address a joint meeting of the US Congress.
1944: The Glass Menagerie premieres.
1945: John Walsh, host of America's Most Wanted is born. His son, Adam was most probably killed by Ottis Toole.
1947: Carlton Fisk is born in Bellows Falls, VT. He once said to Deion Sanders, "If you don't play the game right, I'm going to kick your ass right here."1956: David Sedaris is born.
1963: Lars Ulrich, drummer for Metallica is born.

1972: Harry S Truman dies
1985: Dian Fossey is murdered by poachers in Africa.

Today in History, 12/25

1066: William the Conqueror is crowned king of England at Westminster Abbey. The cries of exultation outside were misinterpreted by guards as the start of a rebellion and they immediately set fire to the town.
1223: St. Francis of Assisi assembles the first Nativity scene.
1635: Samuel de Champlain dies.
1642: Sir Isaac Newton is born.
1643: Captain William Mynors finds (and names) Christmas Island.
1650: Thomas Cooper is hanged as a Royalist rebel.
1776: George Washington and his army cross the Delaware River and attack the Hessian troops in Trenton, NJ.1821: Clara Barton, founder of the Red Cross is born.
1868: President Andrew Jackson grants an unconditional pardon to all Civil War Confederate soldiers.
1890: Robert Ripley is born.
1899: Humphrey Bogart is born. I just watched Treasure of the Sierra Madre for the first time a few weeks ago and it's as good as everyone says it is.

1907: Cab Calloway is born.
1924: Rod Serling is born.1938: Karel Capek dies. He is credited with coining the term "robot" in his play R.U.R (Rossum's Universal Robots).
1945: Rick Berman, producer of most modern Star Trek is born. While many Trek fans revile him, he did preside over the heyday of Trek in the 90's, so he gets credit for that.
1945: Gary Sandy is born. He played Andy Travis on WKRP.1946: Jimmy Buffet is born. Margeruitaville is an excruciating song and I have no idea why people like it so much.
1946: W.C. Fields dies.
1948: Barbara Mandrell is born. I had a huge crush on her when I was a little kid and her variety show was on.1950: The Stone of Scone, first stolen from Scotland by Edward I and installed as the seat of the English coronation throne is stolen back by Scottish nationalists.1952: CCH Pounder is born.
1954: Annie Lennox is born.
1962: Darren Warren, keyboardist for Thin Lizzy is born.
1977: Charlie Chaplin dies.
1989: Nicolae Ceaucescu, former dictator of Romania and his wife are executed.
1989: Billy Martin dies. George Steinbrenner falls into a deep depression upon learning that you can't fire a dead man.1995: Dean Martin dies.
1997: Denver Pyle dies. He played Uncle Jesse on The Dukes of Hazzard.2006: James Brown dies.

Today in History, 12/24

1166: King John of England is born. He is best known as being the enemy of Robin Hood, but he also is the king who signed the Magna Carta.
1491: Ignatius of Loyola is born. He founded the Jesuits.
1515: Thomas Wolsey is named the English Lord Chancellor. He fell from grace when he was unable to get the Pope to agree to Henry VIII's divorce from Catherine of Aragon.1809: Kit Carson is born.1814: The Treaty of Ghent is signed, ending the War of 1812.
1818: Silent Night is composed by Franz Gruber and Josef Mohr.
1865: The Ku Klux Klan is formed.
1880: Johnny Gruelle, creator of Reggedy Ann is born.1914: The World War I Christmas Truce begins.
1922: Ava Gardner is born
1943: Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the Supreme Allied Commander.
1953: Dragnet becomes the first network-sponsored television program.
1966: Diedrich Bader is born. He played one of the slacker friends of The Drew Carey Show.
1968: The crew of the Apollo 8 become the first humans to orbit the moon.
1979: The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan.
1984: Peter Lawford dies. He played the drug kingpin in the MST3K episode Angels Revenge.1992: Peyo, the creator of the Smurfs dies.

Today in History, 12/23

1783: George Washington resigns as Commander-in-Chief. This is the first of two times when he voluntarily gave up power. The second was when he didn't run for a third term.
1788: Maryland votes to cede a 100 square-mile area to become Washington, DC.
1805: Joseph Smith, Jr. is born in Sharon, VT.1823: The poem A Visit from St. Nicholas (aka The Night Before Christmas) is published.
1888: Vincent van Gogh cuts off the lower part of his left ear.
1911: James Gregory is born. He played General Ursus in Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Inspector Luger in Barney Miller and the Dr. Tristan Adams, the director of Tantalaus IV Penal Colony in the Star Trek: TOS episode Dagger of the Mind.1913: The Federal Reserve Act is signed into law by Woodrow Wilson.
1938: The first modern coelacanth is discovered in South Africa.
1938. Robert E. Kahn is born. He created the TCP/IP protocol.
1941: American forces on Wake Island surrender to the Japanese.
1943: Harry Shearer is born. He is best known for his voice work on The Simpsons and as Spinal Tap's bassist.1947: Bell Labs develops the first transistor.
1948: Seven Japanese convicted of war crimes are executed at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo. One of them is Hideki Tojo, the former Prime Minister.
1958: The Tokyo Tower, the world's highest self-supporting iron tower, is dedicated. Kaiju line up for the chance to knock it over.
1949: Adrian Belew is born. He played guitar for King Crimson and is known for doing really wild stuff with a guitar.

1952: Bill Kristol was born.
1971: Corey Haim is born.1972: 16 survivors of the Andes flight disaster are rescued after having to resort to cannibalism.
1973: Charles Atlas dies.
1979: Soviet forces occupy Kabul.
1982: Jack Webb dies. Watch him lay the smack down on some punk in this clip:

Today in History, 12/22

1807: The Embargo Act is passed, forbidding all trade with foreign countries.
1809: The Non-Intercourse Act is passed, lifting The Embargo Act.
1862: Connie Mack is born. He is widely considered to be one of the best managers in baseball.1864: Savannah falls to General Sherman.1894: In France, Alfred Dreyfus is wrongly convicted of treason.
1912: Lady Bird Johnson is born.
1917: Gene Rayburn, host of The Match Game is born.
1936: James Burke is born. He did those great Connections series for the BBC.1943: Beatrix Potter dies.
1944: During the Battle of the Bulge, German troops demand the surrender of US troops at Bastonge. General Anthony McAuliffe famously replied: "Nuts!"1946: Rick Nielsen, guitarist for Cheap Trick is born.
1949: Maurice and Robin Gibb are born. They would go on to found The Bee Gees.
1964: Lenny Bruce is convicted of obscenity.
1964: The first flight of the SR-71 Blackbird. I had no idea it was that old!
1968: Dina Meyer is born. She was in Starship Troopers and the so-bad-it's-good Bats.
1984: Bernie Goetz shoots four men on a subway in New York City.

Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up