Birthdays: George Seurat, Charles Ringling, Julie Harris, Gianni Verasce, Ray Walston, Monica Seles, Cathy Lee Crosby, Lucy Liu is 53, Britney Spears is 40
1494 - BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES Now that the Medici family were driven out, mystical monk Savonarola proposed to the people of Florence that they create a republic ruled by God’s Law. Savonarola ruled Florence like a Christian Ayatollah. He led big public spectacles where in large bonfires Florentines burned their “vanities” like makeup, wigs, art and books, and tried to live a religious life. Even the artist Botticelli burned one of his own paintings. Eventually, it all got so boring they burned Savonarola instead, and recalled the fun-loving Medici family..
1697- Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London reopened. It was rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren after being destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666.
1854-Napoleon III was Napoleon's nephew and since 1848 legally elected President of the Second French Republic. But he decided that he wanted to be an Emperor like his uncle, so he seized dictatorial power on the anniversary of Austerlitz and arrested all dissenters like Victor Hugo, Alex DeTocqueville and cartoonist Honore' Daumier (gotta watch them cartoonists...)
1863- The dome of the U.S. Capitol completed as the Goddess of Freedom is hoisted up into place.
1877- Camille Saint Saens opera “Samson & Delilah” premiered in Weimar..
1933- Voice actor Clarence “Ducky” Nash began working at Walt Disney. He would create the voice for Donald Duck and his nephews.
1935- Animator Marc Davis first day at Walt Disney Studios. He retired in 1978.
1965- Walt Disney live action comedy That Darned Cat, with Dean Jones and Hayley Mills, opened.
1982- Wild-eyed British comedian Marty Feldman (Igor in Young Frankenstein) suddenly died of a heart attack in Mexico while filming the comedy YellowBeard. He was 48.
1994- LA jury found Heidi Fleiss ‘The Hollywood Madam” guilty of running a prostitution ring. Charlie Sheen and Sean Penn were among her frequent flyers.
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