Today in History, 2/22

This is my 100th post on this blog, which is 98 more posts than my old blog got.1295 BC: Ramses II is crowned. Here's his temple at Abu Simbel.
1732: George Washington is born.
1819: Spain sells Florida to the US for five million dollars.
1856: The Republican Party opens its first national conference in Pittsburgh, PA.
1857: Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts, is born.
1879: Frank Woolworth opens his first five-and-dime in Utica, NY.1899: Dwight Frye is born. He played Renfield in the 1931 version of Dracula.
1904: The United Kingdom recognizes the South Orkney Islands as being a part of Argentina. It would change its mind in in 1908.

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1908: Sir John Mills is born, English actor is born. Apparently, he is one of the most beloved English actors of all time but I've never heard of him. Not only that, but he's done more movies than John Carradine and I haven't seen a single one. So, I'll have to check out something he's done. He played the abolitionist William Wilberforce in the movie The Young Mr. Pitt, which isn't out on DVD. That's for my Dad, as we were just talking about William Wilberforce last night.1915: During WWI, Germany institutes unrestricted submarine warfare.
1918: Don Pardo is born.
1920: In Emeryville, NY the first dog track to use a motorized rabbit opens.
1924: Calvin Coolidge becomes the first president to deliver a radio address from the White House.
1925: Edward Gorey is born.1926: Kenneth Williams is born. He's the star of the seemingly endless series of British Carry On! films. Good Lord, there's even a Carry On Emmannuelle!
1928: Paul Dooley is born. He played the Dad in Sixteen Candles and clown entrepeneur Owen Cheese in Shakes the Clown.1929: Rebecca Schull is born. She played Fay on the sitcom Wings.
1930: Marni Nixon is born. She did Debra Kerr's singing in The King and I and Natalie Wood's singing in West Side Story and Audrey Hepburn's singing in My Fair Lady. She didn't actually get on camera until she played Sister Sophia in The Sound of Music.
1932: Ted Kennedy is born.
1935: It becomes illegal for airplanes to fly over the White House.
1942: FDR orders Mac Arthur to retreat from the Philippines. They didn't get along very well (two prima donnas, if you ask me) and FDR was astonished at Mac Arthur's lack of action during the first days of the war.
1942: Christine Keeler is born. When her affair with British Secretary of War John Profumo was discovered it nearly brought down the government of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.1944: Johnathan Demme is born.
1950: Julius Erving is born.
1953: Nigel Planer is born. He played the hippie Neil on The Young Ones.1959: Kyle MacLachlan is born.
1968: Jeri Ryan is born. She played the reformed Borg "Seven of Nine" on Star Trek: Voyager. I wonder why her character was so popular? 1974: Samuel Byck fails to assassinate Nixon.1975: Drew Barrymore is born.
1979: Saint Lucia gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
1980: The US Olympic hockey team defeats the Soviets 4-3.

Today in History, 2/21

1613: Mikhail I is elected unanimously as Tsar by a national assembly, beginning the Romanov dynasty.
1804: The first self-propelling steam locomotive makes its first run at the Pen-y-Darren ironworks in Wales.
1842: John Greenough is granted the first US patent for a sewing machine.
1848: Karl Marx and Frederich Engels publish the Communist Manifesto.
1878: The first telephone book is issued in New Haven, CT. It had 50 listings.
1885: The Washington Monument is dedicated.1893: Andres Segovia is born. He helped establish the guitar as a legitimate classical instrument.

1915: Ann Sheridan is born. She was in a ton of movies, but I remember her in an uncredited cameo in Treasure of the Sierra Madre as the prostitute who gives Bogie the eye after he gets a haircut.1916: During WWI, the Battle of Verdun begins. More than a quarter of a million people would die.
1918: The last Carolina parakeet dies at the Cincinnati Zoo.1925: The New Yorker publishes its first issue.
1925: Sam Peckinpah is born. He directed The Wild Bunch and Straw Dogs.
1927: Erma Bombeck is born.
1929: Roberto Gomez Bolanos is born. He played the title character in the Mexican sitcom El Chavo about a homeless boy who lives in a rain barrel in a slum of Mexico City. As he was 44 when he first assayed the role of an eight-year old homeless kid, the show was...odd.

1937: Gary Lockwood is born. He is best known for playing Dr. Frank Poole in 2001: A Space Odyssey, but he also played Gary Mitchell in the second Star Trek pilot Where No Man Has Gone Before and was the hero of the MST3K episode The Magic Sword. 1943: David Geffen is born.
1944: Rue McClanahan, the sassy Southern matron on The Golden Girls, is born.
1945: Japanese Kamikaze planes sink the escort carrier Bismarck Sea and damage the Saratoga.
1946: Anthony Daniels is born. He played C-3PO.
1946: Alan Rickman is born.
1953: Francis Crick and James D. Watson discover the structure of the DNA molecule.
1955: Kelsey Grammer is born.
1958: The Peace Symbol is designed by Gerald Holtom.1958: Mary Chapin Carpenter is born.

1960: Fidel Castro nationalizes all businesses in Cuba.

1961: Christopher Atkins is born. He played the oily bohunk who hangs out with (and deflowers) Brooke Shields on that island in The Blue Lagoon.

A little something for the ladies!

1961: Martha Hackett is born. She played the wicked and duplicitous Seska on Star Trek: Voyager.1962: Chuck Palahniuk is born. He wrote the love letter to terrorism Fight Club.
1965: Malcolm X is assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City by members of the Nation of Islam.1972: President Nixon visits the People's Republic of China to normalize relations.
1979: Jennifer Love Hewitt 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, 2/20

1472: Orkney and Shetland are left by Norway to Scotland as part of a dowry payment.
1547: Edward VI is crowned King of England. He was Henry VIII's son, but he didn't last long due to health issues.1792: George Washington signs an act creating the US Post Office.
1872: In New York City, the Metropolitan Museum of Art opens.1902: Ansel Adams is born.1906: Gale Gordon is born. He played the stingy Mr. Mooney on The Lucy Show.
1912: Pierre Boulle is born. He wrote Planet of the Apes and The Bridge on the River Kwai.
1925: Robert Altman is born.
1926: Richard Matheson is born. He wrote I Am Legend and a ton of other books.
1927: Roy Cohn is born. He was a big anti-Communist during the 50's and a crony of Senator McCarthy.

"Senator, your shoulder smells terrific!"

1927: Sidney Poitier is born.
1931: Construction of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is approved.1933: Congress proposes the 21st Amendment, repealing Prohibition.
1936: Marj Dusay is born. She's been in lots of things, but I remember her as one of the aliens who steals Spock's brain.

"Brain, brain brain. What is brain?"

1936: Larry Hovis is born. He played Carter on Hogan's Heroes.
1943: American movie executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies.
1943: Big Week, an Allied attempt to destroy Luftwaffe air superiority begins.
1945: Brion James is born. He was a character actor in lots of movies but he is perhaps best know as the Replicant who says, "My mother? I'll tell you about my mother!" in Bladerunner.1946: Sandy Duncan is born.
1946: J. Geils, of the J. Geils Band, is born.

1947: The State of Prussia ceases to exist.
1950: Walter Becker, guitarist for Steely Dan is born.
1954: Anthony Stewart Head is born. He played Giles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He also played the wicked Mr. Finch in the Doctor Who episode "School Reunion."1954: Patty Hearst is born.
1960: Joel Hodgson, creator of Mystery Science Theater 3000 is born.

1962: John Glen becomes the first American to orbit the Earth.
1964: French Stewart, of Third Rock From the Sun, is born.
1966: Cindy Crawford is born.1967: Kurt Cobain is born.
1967: Lili Taylor is born.

Today in History, 2/19

1674: England and the Netherlands sign the Peace of Westminster, ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War. A provision of the agreement transfers the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam to England, which renamed it New York, after the king's brother the Duke of York.
1807: Former Vice President Aaron Burr is arrested for treason.

I need to see this movie!

1819: British explorer William Smith discovers the South Shetland Islands near Antarctica and claims them in the name of George III.1847: Surviving members of the Donner Party is rescued.
1861: Serfdom is abolished in Russia.
1878: The phonograph is patented by Thomas Edison.
1881: Kansas becomes the first US state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages.
1915: During WWI, the Battle of Gallipoli begins.
1924: Lee Marvin is born. He played the title character in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, a movie I can't recommend highly enough.1930: John Frankenheimer is born. He's a hit-or-miss kind of director. For every Manchurian Candidate there's a Holcroft Covenant.1936: Max Schreck dies. He is most famous for originating the role of Nosferatu.1940: Smokey Robinson is born.

1942: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, allowing the US military to relocate Japanese-Americans to internment camps.
1955: Jeff Daniels is born.1957: Falco is born.

1963: Laurell K. Hamilton is born. She wrote the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series.
1966: Justine Bateman is born. 1967: Benicio del Toro is born.
1969: Madge Blake dies. She played Aunt Harriet in the old Batman TV show.

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, 2/18

3102 BC: Lord Krishna is believed by Hare Krishnas and Hindus to have left the planet.
1478: George, Duke of Clarence is convicted of treason against his older brother King Edward VI of England and executed in the Tower of London.
1516: Queen "Bloody" Mary I is born.1683: Forth St. Louis is established by a Frenchman at Matagorda Bay, forming the basis for France's claim to Texas.
1841: The first ongoing filibuster in the US Senate begins and lasts until March 11.
1848: Louis Comfort Tiffany is born. Here's his window for the Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, MD.1856: The American Party (aka The Know-Nothings) convene in Philadelphia to nominate their first Presidential candidate, former President Millard Fillmore.
1861: Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the President of the Confederate States of America.
1865: Forces under the command of General Sherman set the South Carolina State House ablaze.
1885: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published.
1892: Wendell Willkie is born. He ran against FDR in '40.1901: Winston Churchill makes his maiden speech in the British House of Commons.
1919: Jack Palance is born. Hey, I'm watching him in the MST3K episode Angel's Revenge right now!1922: Helen Gurley Brown, editor of Cosmo, is born.
1922: Allan Melvin is born. He played Sam the Butcher on The Brady Bunch.
1925: George Kennedy is born.
1930: Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto.
1930: Elm Farm Ollie becomes the first cow to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft and also the first cow to be milked in an aircraft. It's difficult for us to imagine how truly exciting those days were.1932: The Empire of Japan declares Manchuria to be independent from China.
1933: Yoko Ono is born. Her she is with some guy on the Dick Cavett Show.

1938: Manny Mota is born. He played mostly for the LA Dodgers. He was mentioned in a classic joke from Airplane! "Pinch hitting for Pedro Borbon...Manny Mota...Mota...Mota" although Borbon and Mota never played on the same team.1950: Cybill Shepherd is born.1952: Juice Newton is born.

1954: The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles, CA.
1954: Coincidentally (or perhaps not) John Travolta was born today.
1957: Vanna White is born. I had two posters on my bedroom wall as a teen: Vanna White and Jessica Rabbit.1962: Julie Strain is born. She got her start in Penthouse (not writing articles) and went on to be Andy Sedaris's muse in many of those terrible action/soft core porn movies he churned out. She was, much like Grace Kelly was to Hitchcock. I actually had to look around for a bit to find a picture of her with her top on. Here's one of her as Vampirella. Actually, Andy Sedaris's Vampirella would actually be a pretty good movie, playing on her strengths as actor (both of them) and his strengths as a director: lots of explosions and nudity and just a bare whiff of a plot. Too bad he's dead.1968: Molly Ringwald is born. She's just about the polar opposite of Julie Strain and, for my money, way more attractive.
1970: The Chicago Seven are found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
1979: Snow falls on the Sahara Desert in southern Algeria for the first and only time in recorded history.
1993: Jacqueline Hill dies. She played Barbara in all the old Doctor Who episodes and my favorite Doctor Who companion. Here she is laying the smackdown on The Doctor in Edge of Destruction. I always like the companions who don't tremble in terror at the Doctor's often childish rages.


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

That was painless

Toshiba to give up on HD DVD, end format war

By Mayumi Negishi and Kentaro Hamada

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp is planning to give up on its HD DVD format for high definition DVDs, conceding defeat to the competing Blu-Ray technology backed by Sony Corp, a company source said on Saturday.

For all the talk of this being a replay of the epic Betamax vs VHS wars of the 20th century most consumers just decided to sit this one out.

Today in History, 2/17

1621: Miles Standish is appointed as first commander of Plymouth Colony.
1753: In Sweden, February 17 is followed by March 1 when they switch from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar.
1819: The House of Representatives passes the Missouri Compromise.
1864: During the Civil War, the H.L. Hunley becomes the first submarine to engage and sink a warship, the USS Housatonic.1867: The first ship passes through the Suez canal.
1925: Harold Ross and Jane Grant found The New Yorker magazine.
1925: Hal Holbrook is born.
1933: Newsweek is first published.
1933: The Blaine Act ends Prohibition.
1936: The world's first superhero, The Phantom, premieres in the comic section.1936: Jim Brown is born.1947: The Voice of America begins to transmit radio broadcasts into the Soviet Union.
1954: Rene Russo is born.
1956: Richard Karn is born. He was the long-suffering assistant on Home Improvement.
1958: Pope Pius XII declares Saint Clare of Assisi the patron saint of television. Since she died in 1253, somebody in the afterlife probably had to explain to her what television was. She got the TV gig because, while she was sick, she miraculously saw and heard the Mass projected on her bedroom wall.1963: Michael Jordan is born.

1965: Michael Bay is born.
1968: In Springfield, MA, the Basketball Hall of Fame opens.
1971: Denise Richards is born.
1974: Jerry O'Connell is born. He's kind of a low-rent Jason Bateman. Or maybe it's the other way around.
1981: Paris Hilton 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