Birthdays: Roman Emperor Claudius, Emperor Pertinax, Francis Scott Key, William Clark of Lewis & Clark, Herman Melville, Robert Todd Lincoln, Geoffrey Holder, Yves St. Laurent, Giancarlo Giannini, Dom Deluise, Jerry Garcia, Coolio, Sam Mendes
1893 - Henry Perky & William Ford patent Shredded Wheat cereal.
1933- The WPA Arts Project set up to employ starving artists on large public works projects like murals for libraries and bridges, etc. Artists like Grant Wood, Andrew Wyeth, Dorothea Lang, Orson Welles and Bernice Abbott got commissions.
1936- The opening ceremonies for the Olympic Games in Berlin. The first Olympic torch lighting ceremony. United States was the only nation to refuse to dip their flag in salute to the host head of state- Adolf Hitler. Filmmaker Leni Reifenstahl was given unlimited access to document the Games. She pioneered the use of slow motion, tracking shots and closeups to revolutionized the way sports was filmed.
1953- The Alan Ladd movie Shane released.
1960 - Chubby Checker released "The Twist" and started a worldwide dance craze.
1960 –A young Baptist preacher’s daughter who had sung nothing but gospel went into a recording booth to try her hand at R & B. Aretha Franklin’s career began.
1970- The first San Diego Comicon. Shel Dorf, Richard Alf, and Ken Keuger’s idea of a comic book & fantasy fan convention has run continually ever since, and had brought in the Hollywood studios. There have always been other comicons in other cities, but San Diego’s has become the premiere event, averaging hundreds of thousands of attendees.
. Special guests for the very first convention were comic book artist Jack Kirby and science fiction authors Ray Bradbury and A.E. van Vogt.
1971- The Rock Concert for Bangladesh, organized by George Harrison. The first charity-fund raising rock-concert.
1971- The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour debuted.
1971- PBS started a new television series called Masterpiece Theater hosted by Alastair Cooke. It’s first presentation was a the Six Wives of Henry VIII. The high quality BBC and Thames Television programs became so popular in the USA, that people said PBS stood for Preferably British Shows.
1973- With the tag line “Where were you in ’62?” the film American Graffiti opened in theaters. The hit made skinny young director George Lucas a player in Hollywood, and made stars of kids like Harrison Ford, Richard Dreyfus and Susanne Somers.
1976- Elizabeth Taylor had married Richard Burton a second time. Today she divorced Richard Burton a second time. This was her 6th marriage.
1981-I WANT MY MTV! MTV goes on the air, rock videos 24 hours a day. The idea was funded by a consortium of investors including Mike Nesmith of the Monkees, then on the board of 3M Paper company. If you put on the TV this day you saw a slide of an astronaut for several hours, then finally a voice said:” Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Rock & Roll.” The first rock video played was by a British New-Wave Band called the Buggles entitled “Video Killed the Radio Star.” followed by a Pat Benatar single.
1986- Howard the Duck premiered. George Lucas’ first major flop.
1991- Elderly movie queen Heddy Lamarr was busted in Tampa Florida for shoplifting.
2014- Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy opened in theaters. I am Groot.
2018- The NY Mets lost to the Washington Nationals by a score of 25-2, a team record loss.
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