Birthdays: Benjamin Franklin, Max Sennett-1880, Al Capone, Ethan G. Hodell 1883- the inventor of the Tow-Truck, Constantin Stanislavsky, Moira Shearer, Shari Lewis, Vidal Sassoon, Claude Coats, Denny Doyle, Kevin Reynolds, Muhammad Ali, Jim Carrey is 58, Michelle Obama is 58, Zooey Deschanel is 40, James Earl Jones is 90, animator Genndy Tartakovsky, Betty White is 98!
1904- Chekov's The Cherry Orchard opened in St. Petersburg.
1926- FATS WALLER KIDNAPPED- Harlem Jazz great Fats Waller was in Chicago for a gig. On the street several gunmen grabbed him and dragged him into their limo and sped off to the lair of mob boss Al Capone. When he arrived there, the terrified Waller was reassured that it was Big Al¹s birthday. All he wanted was for Fats to perform at his party. The bash went on for three days and the joint was really jumpin! Fats Waller left unharmed, and with a very fat paycheck as well, but resolved to go back to Harlem where it was safe.
1926- George Burns married Gracie Allen.
1929- Elzie Segar was drawing a comic strip for Hearst’s NY Journal called The Thimble Theatre. It featured Olive Oyl, her brother Castor Oyl, and her boyfriend Ham Gravy. In this day’s strip, Ham meets an odd-looking sailor based on a neighbor of Segar’s who liked to fight. Popeye the Sailor was born.
1949- The first Volkswagen beetle automobiles arrived in North America.
1949- The Goldbergs, a radio comedy show about a Jewish family in the Bronx, moved to television and became the first true sitcom. The show ended when Mrs. Goldberg was accused by the House UnAmerican Activities Committee of being a Communist.
1994-The Great Northridge Earthquake rocked Los Angeles. 72 deaths and 20 billion dollars in damage. It was officially listed as 6.8 on the Richter Scale, although many persist that in some areas it was as high as 7.2. The epicenter was in the San Fernando Valley, so the valleys two major industries, animated cartoons and pornography, were temporarily disrupted.
1995- One year to the day after the Los Angeles earthquake, a massive earthquake struck Kobe Japan. The Japanese place great resources and time in earthquake preparedness, yet this 7.2 quake toppled whole freeways, killed 5,000 and left 1 1/2 million people homeless. It was the worst natural disaster in Japan since the 1923 Tokyo quake.
2000-A Complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton was offered for sale on E-Bay.
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