Today in History, 6/20

It's "My Favorite Movies Day" here today. There's Ed Wood, The Grifters, and two Barton Fink clips!

1214: The University of Oxford receives its charter.
1685: The Monmouth Rebellion takes place as James Scott, the First Duke of Monmouth (an illegitimate son of Charles II) declares himself King of England. King James II was also a son of Charles II, (Chucky got around) but he was a Catholic king in a Protestant country, so the Duke of Monmouth thought he had a pretty good shot. Nevertheless, the rebellion failed and Monmouth got the chop. I think if there's one overarching lesson to be learned from this blog it's "If you're going to overthrow the king, don't do a half-assed job."
1756: A British garrison is imprisoned in the Black Hole of Calcutta, a very small room in which 123 out of 146 prisoners died. 1782: The US Congress adopts the Great Seal of the United States.1787: Oliver Ellsworth (from Windsor, CT!) moves at the Federal Convention to call the new government the United States.1789: Deputies of the French Third Estate take the Tennis Court Oath, which really gets the French Revolution going.1791: King Louis XVI and his immediate family attempt to flee Paris to the Royalist stronghold of Montmedy disguised as servants of a Russian baroness. The attempt was unsuccessful, they were captured and public opinion turned further against the royal family.
1837: At the age of 17, Queen Victoria succeeds to the British throne.1863: West Virginia is admitted as the 35th US state.
1877: Alexander Graham Bell installs the world's first commercial telephone service in Hamilton, Ontario.
1893: Lizzie Borden is acquitted of the murder of her step-mother and father.1905: Lillian Hellman, playwright, Communist, smoker, is born. She wrote, among others, The Little Foxes and The Children's Hour.

48th level lich.

1907: Jimmy Driftwood is born. He wrote the song The Battle of New Orleans, which Johnny Horton made famous.

1909: Errol Flynn is born.1926: Audie Murphy is born. He is the most decorated US soldier of all time. He's also one of the few people to play himself in his own biopic To Hell and Back, although he was extremely uncomfortable with the whole affair. 1931: Martin Landau is born. He was great as Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood. Clip is rated NSFW because of Bela's potty mouth.

1940: John Mahoney is born. He is most famous for playing Martin Crane on Frasier but he was also great in Barton Fink as the William Faulkner/F Scott Fitzgerald pastiche WP Mayhew.

1941: Stephen Frears is born. He directed The Grifters.

1942: Brian Wilson, founder of The Beach Boys is born.1945: Anne Murray, Canadian songbird, is born.1946: Bob Vila is born.1949: Lionel Richie is born.1947: Bugsy Siegel is whacked by the mob because of cost overruns on the construction of his Flamingo casino. 1948: Toast of the Town, later called The Ed Sullivan Show premiers.
1952: John Goodman is born. Hey, he was great in in Barton Fink, too!

1960: John Taylor, bassist for Duran Duran, is born.

1963: The red telephone is installed between the Soviet Union and the United States following the Cuban Missile Crisis.
1967: Nicole Kidman is born.1967: Muhammed Ali is convicted of violating Selective Service laws by refusing to be drafted. The conviction is later overturned by the Supreme Court.
1968: Robert Rodriguez is born. Here's a liquor commercial he directed with George Clooney for European consumption.

1975: Jaws is released. I know, I just posted this a couple of weeks ago, but Quint's Indianapolis speech is so damned great.



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.