1810: Napoleon annexes Holland as part of the First French Empire.
1816: Argentina declares independence from Spain.
1819: Elias Howe, inventor of the sewing machine, is born.
1850: After laying the foundation stone for the Washington Monument, President Zachary Taylor dies of an overdose of an early form of Cherry Garcia. Or perhaps heat stroke, or just a regular stroke or maybe cholera but almost certainly not poison. Millard Fillmore is sworn in the next day as the 13th president.
1863: During the Civil War the Siege of Port Hudson ends.1868: The 14th Amendment is ratified, giving African-Americans full citizenship and all persons in the United States due process.
1900: Queen Victoria gives royal assent to an act creating the Commonwealth of Australia, which unites all of the Australian colonies under one united government.
1922: Johnny Weissmuller swims the 100 meter freestyle in 58.6 seconds setting a new world record and breaking the "minute barrier."
1927: Ed Ames is born. He played Chief Bromden in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and his tomahawk throwing routine on The Tonight Show causing one of the longest continuous bursts of laughter on TV.
1942: Richard Roundtree is born. He played Shaft, can ya dig it?
1944: During the Battle of Normandy, Allied forces capture Caen, France.
1945: Horror novelist Dean R. Koontz is born. He's sort of a low-rent Stephen King (which is pretty low-rent these days). I enjoyed Watchers, mostly because the two animal characters were many times more interesting than any of the human characters. I really felt for that evil monkey-monster thing that pathetically loved Mickey Mouse.
1951: Chris Cooper is born. He's made a good living playing evil government types.
1956: Tom Hanks is born. I wish he'd go back to making vulgar comedies like Bachelor Party.1957: Kelly McGillis 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.
3 comments:
memory and IMDB would have the last actor WILL SAMSON as the fellow that played Chief Broom in Cuckoo's Nest, for what it's worth - but Ed Ames' tomahawk on Johnny Carson is never to be forgotten - love the blog!
I meant the Late actor, not last actor, of course
Yep, you're exactly right. Ed Ames played Chief Broom on Broadway while Will Samson played him in the movie.
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