Today in History, 6/30

1520: The Spaniards are expelled from Tenochtitlan.1688: The Immortal Seven issue the Invitation to William III (aka William of Orange), inviting him to come to England and unseat the Papist King James II, thus kicking off the Glorious Revolution.1805: Michigan Territory is organized.
1859: French acrobat Charles Blondin crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope.1864: President Lincoln grants Yosemite Valley to California for "public use, resort and recreation."1883: Charles Guiteau is hanged in Washington, DC for the assassination of President James Garfield.1905: Albert Einstein publishes the article "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" where he introduces special relativity.
1906: The US Congress passes the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food & Drug Act.
1908: The Tunguska Impact Event occurs in Sibera. Most scientists these days think it was the explosion of a large meteor or comet 3-6 miles above the Earth's surface and had a blast power of 10-15 megatons.

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1917: Lena Horne is born.

1934: The Night of the Long Knives takes place takes place in Nazi Germany. The German paramilitary force the SA had been getting too big for their britches and the flaming homosexuality of their leader Ernst Roehm was getting embarrassing for the Nazi Party so Hitler had them all whacked. The story I learned in college history was that Hitler himself kicked down Roehm's hotel door while brandishing a Tommy gun and found Roehm in an embrace with the bell hop. Then Hitler growled "I am cleaning the filth from the Fatherland!" before ventillating Roehm (and, it is assumed, the bell hop). As I pointed out to my history prof, this sounds like a big fat load of crap. I'll buy that somebody else did that (I can see someone like Otto Skorzeny doing it, for example) but Hitler? Come on. He was not a "hands on" kind of leader in the best circumstances. I think it may just be a case of propaganda that got incorrectly passed on as fact.
1936: Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell is published.1943: Florence Ballard, singer with The Supremes, is born.

1950: Leonard Whiting is born. He played Romeo in the Zeffirelli version of Romeo and Juliet. Wait, there was a male part in that movie? All I remember from high school is Olivia Hussey.
1953: The first Corvette rolls off the line in Flint, Michigan.1959: Vincent D'Onofrio is born. He played the doomed Private Pyle in Full Metal Jacket.

1987: The Royal Canadian Mint introduces the 1 dollar coin, known as the Loonie. On Deep Space Nine, the Canadian turncoat Michael Eddington carried a Lucky Loonie with him whenever possible.1997: The United Kingdom transfers sovereignty of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China.

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, 6/29

512: A solar eclipse is recorded by a monastic chronicler in Ireland.
1534: Jacques Cartier makes the first European discovery of Prince Edward Island.
1613: The Globe Theater in London burns to the ground.
1644: Charles I of England defeats a Parliamentarian detachment at the Battle of Cropredy Bridge. It is the last battle won by an English King on English soil.
1786: Bishop Alexander Macdonell and over 500 Roman Catholic highlanders leave Scotland to settle in Glengarry County, Ontario.1858: George Washington Goethals is born. He is the engineer who supervised the construction of the Panama Canal.1888: The first known recording of classical music is made, as Handel's Israel in Egypt is laid down on an Edison wax cylinder.
1915: Ruth Warrick is born. She played Kane's first wife in Citizen Kane.
1919: Slim Pickens is born.

1920: Ray Harryhausen is born. He was a pioneer of stop-motion photography and some of his effects (the skeletons in Clash of the Titans, for example) still look better than anything that can be done with CGI. I watching the 1956 version of Earth vs the Flying Saucers the other day and was thinking, "This movie's kind of dumb, but gosh the effects are cool for 1956!"

1922: France grants Canada one square kilometer at the Vimy Ridge battlefield, for use as a Canadian World War I memorial.1927: The first test of Wallace Turnbull's controllable pitch propeller.1930: Robert Evans, film producer, is born. He is known not only for producing such films as The Godfather and Chinatown but also for living an impressively hedonistic lifestyle.1943: Little Eva, singer of The Locomotion, is born.

1944: Gary Busey, actor and lunatic, is born. Here he is messing with the wrong guy in Under Siege.

1947: Richard Lewis, comedian, is born.1951: Don Rosa is born. He is most famous for illustrating the Donald Duck/Scrooge McDuck comic books. Here's his drawing of Donald Duck's family tree. Hey, it looks like there were some geese in the woodpile. Bet Scrooge McDuck doesn't talk about them.

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1953: Colin Hay is born. He was the lead singer for the 80's pop band Men at Work.

1956: The Federal Aid Highway Act is signed, officially creating the United States Interstate Highway System. Huzzah!1961: Sharon Lawrence is born. She played an aging-but-attractive cougar on the aborted NBC sitcom Fired Up! and provided the voice of the Superman-obsessed Maxima, Warrior Queen on Superman: TAS. Oh, she's done of bunch of award winning real acting, but that's what I remember her for.1962: Amanda Donohoe is born. She was in the cult classic Lair of the White Worm and The Madness of King George.1967: Jayne Mansfield and two friends are killed when their car rams into an unlit, slow-moving truck on a foggy night east of New Orleans. You can actually get pictures of the accident scene, but I think we'll just remember Jayne in happier times. The fella is her husband Mickey Hargitay who played Hercules a couple of times. 1969: Ilan Mitchell-Smith is born. He played Wyatt in the teen epic Weird Science.

1972: The US Supreme Court rules that the death penalty could constitute cruel and unusual punishment. This is the reason why Charles Manson is still alive, as he had been scheduled to ride Old Squirty when the judgment was handed down.

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, 6/28

1491: King Henry VIII is born.
1577: Peter Paul Reubens, Flemish painter, is born. He was an artist for the English Stuart kings for many years and, along with Anthony van Dyck, created the lasting images of the Stuart court. He did the massive paintings of the royal family on the ceiling of the Banqueting House at Whitehall.1712: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, French philosopher, is born. Much of what is thought of as Liberalism today came from him. The back to nature ethos, natural education, love of the common man, sexual liberation, dislike of cities and a bunch more. He practically invented the Western notion of environmentalism. Not really into women's lib, though.1776: Thomas Hickey, bodyguard to George Washington, is hanged for mutiny and sedition.
1778: During the American Revolution, the Battle of Monmouth is fought.
1838: Victoria is crowned Queen of the United Kingdom.
1865: The Army of the Potomac is disbanded.
1883: Pierre Laval is born. He was the Prime Minister of the Nazi puppet state of Vichy France and was later executed for treason.1891: Carl Spaatz is born. He was the first Chief of Staff of the US Air Force.1894: Labor Day becomes and official US holiday.
1903: The US Congress passes the Spooner Act, authorizing President Teddy Roosevelt to acquire the rights from Columbia for the Panama Canal.
1914: Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie are assassinated in Sarajevo, Serbia by Gavrillo Princip. This is the spark that ignited WWI.1919: The Treaty of Versailles is signed in Paris, formally ending WWI.
1922: The Irish Civil War begins with the shelling of the Four Courts by Irish Free State forces.
1922: Michael Vale is born. He was the "Time to make the doughnuts" guy.

1926: Mel Brooks is born.

1932: Pat Morita is born.1938: John Byner is born. Here are the credits to his old sketch comedy show Bizarre.

1935: John Inman is born. He played the sexually ambiguous menswear salesman Mr. Humphries in the Britcom Are You Being Served?

1946: Gilda Radner is born.

1948: Kathy Bates is born.
1950: Seoul is captured by North Korea.
1954: Alice Krige is born. She played the wicked Borg Queen in the various Star Trek franchises. Here she is without all the makeup and fetish gear as the Lady Jessica Atreides in the Sci Fi Channel version of Children of Dune.1964: Malcolm X forms the Organization of Afro-American Unity.
1966: John Cusack is born. Here's the famous "In Your Eyes" scene from Say Anything. Good thing he didn't use "Shock the Monkey" or that weird "Here come the birds" song.

1983: The Mianus River Bridge collapses in Greenwich, CT, killing three.1994: The Aum Shinryko cult releases a sarin gas attack in the subway at Matsumoto, Japan, killing seven and injuring 660.
1997: Mike Tyson is disqualified in the third round for biting a chunk out of Evander Hollyfield's ear.

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, 6/27

1743: During the War of Austrian succession, at the Battle of Dettingen, King George II of Britain personally leads troops into battle. This will be the last time a British monarch commands troops in the field.
1759: General James Wolfe starts the Siege of Quebec.1844: Joseph Smith, Jr, founder of the Mormons, and his brother Hyrum are murdered by a mob at the Carthage, Illinois jail.1847: New York and Boston are linked by telegraph wires.
1880: Helen Keller is born.1905: Sailors aboard the Battleship Potemkin start a mutiny to protest harsh treatment. This is one of the seminal events leading up to the Russian Revolution and was immortalized in Sergei Eisenstein's silent propaganda epic.

1923: Captain Lowell H Smith and Lieutenant John P. Richter perform the first midair refueling in a DH-4B biplane.1927: Bob "Captain Kangaroo" Keeshan is born.

1942: The FBI announces the capture of eight Nazi saboteurs who had been put ashore from a submarine on Long Island.
1944: American forces capture the French port of Cherbourg.
1950: The United States decides to send troops to fight in the Korean War.
1951: Julia Duffy is born. She is most famous for playing the self-obsessed preppie Stephanie Vanderkellen on Newhart. I had a huge crush on her. 1966: J.J. Abrams is born. He created the TV show Lost and is currently doing the new Star Trek movie.1967: The world's first ATM is installed in London.
1969: The Stonewall Riots in Manhattan mark the beginning of the gay liberation movement.
1975: Tobey Maguire, of the Spiderman movies, is born.
1980: President Jimmy Carter signs legislation reviving draft registration.
1985: Route 66, which once stretched from Chicago to Santa Monica, is officially decertified as a road.

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, 6/26

1284: According to legend, the Pied Piper lures 130 children away from the village of Hamelin.
1541: Francisco Pizarro is assassinated in Lima, Peru by the son of a rival.1723: After a siege and artillery bombardment, the city of Baku, Azerbaijan surrenders to the Russians.

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1819: Abner Doubleday is born.1824: William Thomson, Lord Kelvin is born. He invented the Kelvin scale of absolute temperature measurement.1870: Christmas is declared a federal holiday in the United States.
1870: The first section of boardwalk in Atlantic City is opened to the public.
1892: Pearl S. Buck is born. She wrote novels about peasant life in China and is one of the people who made that land more accessible to Americans.1898: Chesty Puller, the most decorated Marine in history, is born. I'd make a joke about having a porn star name, but I think he could rise from the grave and kick my ass.1904: Peter Lorre is born. Here's his first scene in The Maltese Falcon

1909: Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis Presley's manager (and enabler) is born. If I understand correctly, he wasn't a real colonel at all, but just called himself one as was the style among certain Southern gentlemen of the time. Of course, he wasn't real Southern gentlemen at all - his real name was Andreas Cornelius van Kuijk and he was from Holland. Man, the things I learn doing this blog!1915: Paul Castellano, head of the Gambino crime family is born. After he was murdered in 1985, the Roman Catholic Church refused him last rites because of his state as an unrepentant murderer.1917: The first troops of the American Expeditionary Force arrive in France during WWI.
1918: During WWI, the Battle for Belleau Wood ends as forces under General Jack Pershing defeat the Germans.
1927: The Cyclone roller coaster opens in Coney Island.1928: Yoshiro Nakamatsu is born. He is credited with inventing the floppy disc, the CD, the DVD, CinemaScope and the digital watch along with about 2,000 other patents.1934: The initial flight of the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, the first practical helicopter.1945: The United Nations Charter is signed in San Francisco.
1955: Mick Jones, lead guitar and vocalist of The Clash, is born. Here's "Rock the Casbah" live from 1982.

1956: Chris Isaac is born.

1959: Mark McKinney, of The Kids in the Hall, is born.

1959: The Saint Lawrence Seaway opens, opening the Great Lakes to ocean-going ships.1963: John F. Kennedy speaks the famous words "Ich bin ein Berliner" on a visit to West Berlin.
1963: Richard Garfield is born. He created the game Magic: The Gathering and thus the whole collectible card game industry.
1970: Chris O'Donnell is born. He played Robin in the twin suckfests Batman Forever and Batman & Robin.
1974: The Universal Product Code is scanned for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley's chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, OH.
1993: The US launches a missile attack on the Iraqi intelligence headquarters in Baghdad in retaliation for the attempted assassination of former President George H.W. Bush.

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, 6/25

1678: Elena Cornaro Piscopia becomes the first woman to be awarded a doctorate of philosophy.
1788: Virginia becomes the 10th state to ratify the US Constitution.
1876: The Battle of Little Bighorn takes place and Lt. Col George Armstrong Custer and his entire company are wiped out.1886: Hap Arnold is born. He was the first commander of the US Army Air Force and was taught how to fly by the Wright Brothers themselves.1900: Lord Louis Mountbatten is born. Speaking of the Raj, he was the last Viceroy of India and oversaw the dismantling of the Raj in 1947. He is also responsible for the partition of Pakistan off of India in an effort to quell Muslim/Hindu violence (it didn't work). He would later be murdered by the IRA in 1979.1903: George Orwell is born. He had a rather different perspective on the Raj than did Lord Mountbatten. Here's a link to his classic story Shooting an Elephant.1905: The Cullinan Diamond is discovered by Frederick Wells in South Africa. At 3,106.75 carats, it is the largest rough-cut gem quality diamond known.1924: Sidney Lumet is born. He directed some of the greatest movies ever (Twelve Angry Men, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon) and some of the worst (The Witness ripoff A Stranger Among Us with Hasidic Jews standing in for the Amish and Melanie Griffith for Harrison Ford). Here's the trailer to Serpico, one of my favorites.

1925: June Lockhart is born. She played the mom on Lassie and Lost in Space.1928: Peyo is born. He is the creator of the Smurfs. I've always wondered why the plural of "smurf" isn't "smurves." After all, the plural of "dwarf" is "dwarves" and the plural of "elf" is "elves." It is one smurfy mystery.1932: Peter Blake is born. He designed the album cover for Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Wikipedia has a list of everyone on the cover.1945: Carly Simon is born. She has steadfastly refused to say who You're So Vain is about, but most people (including Warren Beatty) think it's about Warren Beatty.

1946: Ian McDonald, of King Crimson and Foreigner, is born.
1947: The Diary of Anne Frank is published.
1947: Jimmie Walker is born. Dy-no-mite! Here's a scene where JJ gets falsely accused of robbing a liquor store and has to spend the night in jail.

1948: The Berlin Airlift begins.
1949: The Long-Haired Hare starring Bugs Bunny and Giovanni Jones is released to theaters.

1950: South Korea is invaded by North Korea, kicking off The Korean War.
1961: Ricky Gervais is born. He is best known as the creator of the British version of The Office. Here he is interviewing Patrick Stewart.

1963: George Michael of Wham! is born. Here's the gas fight scene from Zoolander that used "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" to such great effect.

1975: Linda Cardellini is born. She played Velma Dinkley in the live-action Scooby Doo movies (which weren't as bad as I had been expecting) and proved why gentlemen of taste prefer Velma to Daphne (and Mary Ann to Ginger and Bailey Quarters to Jennifer Marlowe).


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.