Birthdays: Roman Emperor Claudius, Emperor Pertinax, Francis
Scott Key, William Clark of Lewis & Clark, Herman Melville, Robert Todd
Lincoln, Geoffrey Holder, Yves St. Laurent, Giancarlo Giannini is 72, Dom
Deluise, Jerry Garcia, Coolio, Sam Mendes.
14 A.D. The Roman Senate decided to change the name of the
Month Sextilius (number 6) to the Month of the Divine Augustus, or August.
1933- The WPA Arts Project set up to employ starving artists
on large public works projects like murals for libraries and bridges, etc.
Artists like Grant Wood, Andrew Wyeth, Dorothea Lang , Orson Welles and Bernice
Abbott got commissions.
1960 - Chubby Checker releases
"The Twist" and starts a world wide dance craze.
1971- The Rock Concert for Bangladesh, organized by George
Harrison. The first charity-fund raising rock-concert.
1971- The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour debuted.
1971- PBS started a new television series called Masterpiece
Theater hosted by Alastair Cooke. It’s first presentation was a the Six Wives
of Henry VIII. The high quality BBC and Thames Television programs became so
popular in the USA, that people said PBS stood for Preferably British Shows.
1973- With the tag line “Where were you in ’62?” the film
American Graffiti opened in theaters. The hit made skinny young director George
Lucas a player in Hollywood, and made stars of kids like Harrison Ford, Richard
Dreyfus and Susanne Somers.
1976- Elizabeth Taylor had married Richard Burton a second
time. Today she divorced Richard Burton a second time. This was her 6th
marriage.
1981-I WANT MY MTV! MTV goes on the air, rock videos 24
hours a day. The idea was funded by a consortium of investors including Mike
Nesmith of the Monkees, then on the board of 3M Paper company. If you put on
the TV this day you saw a slide of an astronaut for several hours, then finally
a voice said :”Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Rock & Roll.” The first rock
video played was by a British New-Wave Band called the Buggles entitled “Video
Killed the Radio Star.” followed by a Pat Benatar single.
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