Birthdays: Marcus Whitman the missionary who led US settlement of Oregon, Howard Morris, Darius Mihlaud, Anton Bruckner, Chateaubriand, Craig Claiborne, Dick York, Richard Wright, Mary Renault, Mitzi Gaynor, Computer AI pioneer John McCarthy, Damon Wayans is 59, Paul Harvey, Beyonce’ Knowles is 38
1781- HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LOS ANGELES. Royal Governor of New Spain Felipe de Neve and Franciscan monk Fra Junipero Serra with twelve soldiers, some free black families and Indians, about 44 in all, dedicated a new town, one days ride from Mission San Gabriel. The 63 year old Fra Serra had been stung by a scorpion but ignored it, so he hobbled around dragging his swollen leg. Fra Serra named the town after St. Francis of Assisi's first church in Italy- St. Mary of the Angels.
So LA’s official name is La Ciudad de la Iglesia de Nuestra Señora, Reina de Los Angeles sobra la Porziuncola de Asís.
1888- George Eastman patents the roll film camera. The word "Kodak" is supposedly the sound the shutter made.Another story on the origin of the word was that George wanted a word pronounced the same in all known dialects. So after some research (Rochester lore has it that he did all of this himself) he concluded that only k and x qualified as sounds uttered the same way in all languages. Thus Eastman Kodak.
1893- Writer and illustrator Beatrix Potter sent a letter to a sick child: " I don't know what to write you, so I shall tell you the story of four little rabbits. Their names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter."The Peter Cottontail stories born.
1918- Someone threw a bomb into the Adams St Entrance of the Chicago Federal building. At first it was thought the bomber was a radical anarchist or German agent. But it turned out to be a local gangster. The blast killed 4 people and 75 were injured. One person who just missed the explosion was a part time mail carrier named Walt Disney. Walt later said, “I missed the explosion by three minutes. “
1934- Young actress-filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl was contracted by the German Propaganda Ministry to film the 1934 Nazis Party Congress to be held in Nuremburg. While they were expecting a routine documentary, Riefenstahl instead created the filmThe Triumph of the Will, who’s darkly hypnotic images made film history.
1936- The musical Swing Time opened. Considered by critics one of the best pairings of the dance team of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
1940- The Columbia Broadcast Service or CBS network started up their first television station.
1949- THE PEEKSKILL RIOTS. Singer Paul Robeson was a renaissance man who embraced controversy. An athlete, opera singer and actor he was also a passionate Black Civil Rights champion who expressed open admiration for the Soviet Union and Maoist China. This did not win him any friends in the segregated, paranoid America of the post war era.
This day when Robeson and fellow activist folksinger Pete Seeger gave a concert in Peekskill New York, their cars were pelted with stones by screaming white rioters, all with the blessing of the local police. Robeson’s person was shielded by a bodyguard of union men. Fifty years later the town of Peekskill officially apologized to Paul Robeson Jr. Pete Seeger saved some of the stones to fix his chimney.
1972- American swimmer Mark Spitz won his 7thgold medal in Olympic competition in Munich. He also spawned a cottage industry selling the poster of him wearing his medals, tiny Speedos and that’s about it. This image and the swimsuit poster of Farrah Fawcett, were two of the more famous images of the 1970’s. Spitz’ record held until Michael Phelps in 2008.
1982- the single “Valley Girl” by Frank Zappas daughter Moon Unit Zappa became a hit.
1985- Australian press baron Rupert Murdoch became a U.S. citizen so he could build the Fox television and movie networks. US regulations forbade foreign ownership of broadcasting stations so Rupert didn’t fuss about what country he was a citizen of.
1993- Herb Villechaise, the little person who began the show Fantasy Island with the announcement:”Da PLANE! Da PLANE!’ committed suicide with a shotgun.
2002- Kelly Clarkson won the first American Idol contest.
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