Animation Fun Facts for Aug 4th,2012

Hope to see you at the Siggraph 2012 at the Los Angeles Convention Center this week. Monday Dreamworks is hosting a conference of animation educators at the USC campus. Tuesday the AEF will hold a roundtable discussion ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Educators Forum Asks: How Do We Maintain Excellent Animation Programs and Teach the Latest Technology at the Same Time? Time: 2:00 ­ 3:00 PM Room Name: 402A The event is free. August 4, Birthdays- Percy Bysshe Shelley, Nicholas Conte' 1777-inventor of the modern pencil and the conte'-crayon, Louis Armstrong, Dr Alexander Schure-computer animation pioneer and founder of NYIT, Richard Belzer, Elizabeth-England's late Queen Mum, Billy-Bob Thornton is 58, President Barack Obama is 51 1776-The nice printed up Declaration of Independence we all recognize was officially signed. The declaration approved on July 2nd and published on July 4th was the rough draft. Today John Hancock signed that big flowing signature "So old King George won't need his spectacles". Today a nickname for a signature is a John Hancock. It was a gutsy thing to do, the signatures would be their death warrants if the rebellion was crushed. British commander Lord Howe was given a list of ringleaders to be round up. Ironically if you asked Hancock for a pinch of snuff his snuffbox was an engraved gift from King George III he received during a visit to London ten years earlier. During the War of 1812 when the British burned Washington D.C. the Declaration was hidden under a doorstep in Baltimore. It later hung in a sunlit window for 30 years which bleached it’s print almost to invisibility. Today millions are being spent on restoration efforts, like encasing it in pure helium. 1782- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart married Constanze Weber, the aunt of composer Karl Maria Von Weber. Mozart had first proposed to Constanze's sister but she chose another.