Birthdays: Emperor Hirohito, Duke Ellington, Duke
Wellington, Sir Thomas Beacham, Zuben Mehta is 80, Tom Ewell, Rod McKuen, Fred
Zinnemann, Jerry Seinfeld is 61, Michelle Pfeiffer is 58, Daniel Day Lewis is 59,
Uma Thurman is 46
1771- Artist Benjamin West unveils his painting of the
“Death of General Wolfe” at the Royal Academy in London. Wolfe was killed in
the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, which decided that Canada would be
English. West’s portrayal of Wolfe in his actual uniform instead an idealized
Grecian god was considered scandalously realistic and revolutionized painting.
1786- The day before his opera THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO was to
premiere, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart sat down after dinner and wrote the famous
overture. Friends said he liked to think while playing billiards.
1929- The film "All's Quiet on the Western Front"
premiered. The world war one battlefield was constructed on a California ranch
and dozens of veterans hired to be extras. When the antiwar film debuted in
Germany, Nazis agitators were sent out to Berlin theaters to release rats,
skunks and snakes in the theaters to scare people away.
1944- Dancing Romeos, the last Our Gang comedy short was
produced by MGM, which had bought the franchise in 1938 from Hal Roach.
1949- MGM chief Louis B. Mayer fired Frank Sinatra for
making a joke about him. Mayer had hurt his hip riding, and Sinatra joked he
got hurt not from falling off his horse, but falling off Jean Howard, a young
actress Mayer was chasing.
1986- Los Angeles Central Library burns down. A lot of the
costs of rebuilding was raised by private donation, much raised by a wild local
televangelist named Dr. Gene Scott. Scott would preach his own strange brand of
Bible study while smoking a cigar and wearing funny hats on camera. He also
liked to laugh at other evangelists.
25th Anniversary 1992- THE GREAT LOS ANGELES
RIOT- Los Angeleanos go berserk after an all white jury in Simi Valley
acquitted four policemen who beat up drunk motorist Rodney King while being
videotaped. 63 killed, 2500 businesses destroyed, $1.5 billion dollars in
damage, 13,200 arrests and large sections of Los Angeles put under martial law.
Even Rodney King was moved to go on TV and proclaim: " Can't we all just
get along?"
2001- Pioneer 10 was a space
probe launched to the outer planets in 1972. After sending the first photos of
Jupiter and Pluto in 1973, Pioneer 10 left our solar system and headed for deep
space in 1997. It is aimed at the Constellation Taurus. On this day 7 billion
miles away Pioneer 10 phoned home to say it was fine. Its last message was
received in 2003. I wonder if it asked if Richard Nixon was still president?
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