Birthdays: Jacques Montgolfier,
Joseph Bonaparte- Napoleons older brother, St. Bernadette of Lourdes,
Revolutionary War General Israel Putnam, Francois Poulenc, Butterfly McQueen,
Adolph Zukor, Charles Adams, E.L. Doctorow, Jean Pierre Rampal, Millard
Filmore, Katie Couric, William Peter Blatty the author of Jaws, David Caruso,
Nicholas Cage- originally Nicolo Coppola, is 53
1839- Frenchman Louis Daguerre
announces the invention of Photography (Just three weeks later on the 31st
William Fox Talbot will say HE invented photography first). Despite the
controversy of credit, the Daguerrotype photographic process becomes the
popular system worldwide in the nineteenth century. The image of Lincoln on the
five dollar bill is from a daguerreotype.
1894-" The Sneeze" The
first motion picture film to be copyrighted by Thomas Edison and his engineer
W.K.L. Dickson
1922-THE IRISH CIVIL WAR. After a furious debate the Irish Dail’ (
parliament ) voted by just seven votes to approve the Anglo-Irish Treaty
negotiated by IRA chief Michael Collins and
Sinn Fein founder John Griffiths. This was the take-it-or-war deal
offered by David Lloyd George that allowed for an Irish Free State but not a
republic and with six counties of Northern Island sliced off to remain part of
Britain. Irish President Eamon De Valera angrily took his partisans out of the
Dail and the street fighting broke out shortly afterwards. Griffiths died of a heart attack and Collins
was assassinated. The Irish Republic declared in 1932 but the Northern Irish
question is still a problem.
1924- George Gershwin completed
his Rhapsody for Piano and Jazz Orchestra, popularly called the Rhapsody in
Blue. Ira Gershwin came up with the name after seeing a museum show of Whistler
paintings with names like "Composition in Grey, Nocturne in Green,"
etc.
1926- George Burns married Gracie
Allen.
1929-With the approval of Edgar
Rice Burroughs, artist Hal Foster began drawing the Tarzan comic strip.
1934 –The First Buck Rogers
adventures.
1935- Roger Sherwood’s play the
Petrified Forrest opened to smash revues at the Broadhurst Theater on Broadway.
Leslie Howard got great notices, but the real find was an obscure hard drinking
actor with sad eyes playing the gangster Duke Mantee – Humphrey Bogart. In the
audience was Jack Warner of Warner Bros, who decided Mr. Bogart might just make
it in motion pictures.
1943- Nicholas Tesla died. The
inventor of AC current, rotary field motors and the Tesla coil. In his last
years he had been experimenting with telegraphy, and trying to develop a death
ray for the US Army.
1943- Walt Disney released the
propaganda short The Spirit of ’43, commissioned by the Treasury Dept. Donald
Duck explained that the best way to win the war was to pay your taxes!
1961- In Providence Rhode Island a
bunch of kids were stopped by police for driving a round a neighborhood store
suspiciously carrying guns and masks. One 21 year old who did three days in
jail for carrying a concealed weapon later became a pretty good actor- Al
Pacino..
1966- A hippie group from what
would become Silicon Valley, called the Grateful Dead, got their first gig
playing a club called the Matrix. They would be one of the most successful rock
bands in history, only breaking up after the death of their leader, Jerry
Garcia in 1995.
2015- CHARLIE HEBDO- In Paris,
Muslim extremists shot up the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo
for making disrespectful cartoons of the prophet Mohammad. 12 people were
murdered, including the editor and four of France’s most loved
cartoonists. Their editor in chief
Stephane “Charb” Charbonnier, when he saw the gun pointed at him, stood and
defiantly gave his killer the finger before being killed.
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