Birthdays: Camille Saint Saens, E. Howard Hunt, Jacques Tati, Alastair Sim, Bruce Catton, Joe Pepitone, cartoonist Mike Peters, Savannah, John Lennon would be 81, his son Sean Lennon, E. Howard Hunt, Scott Bakula, Peter Tosh, Charles Rudolph Walgren-the inventor of the modern Drugstore, Guillermo Del Toro is 57, Tony Schaloub is 69, Pete Doctor is 54.
1609- Invalid Captain John Smith is put on a ship back to England. Smith had earlier gotten stung by a stingray and almost died. This time a powder horn exploded on his hip and blew out part of his side. While Smith was leader of the Jamestown Colony, he had many enemies among the jealous gentry. Some don't think it was an accident. Opinions also differ as to why the Jamestown settlers put Smith through a two-month Atlantic crossing that would kill even healthy men. Some say they were hoping he wouldn't make it.
He did survive, but never returned to Jamestown. Nobody told Pocahontas, and when she visited the camp, the men told her he was dead and forget about him. She would meet him ten years later in England when she was a wife and mother of the children of settler John Rolfe. Eyewitnesses said he was “shocked” when she ran into Smith alive and well.
1855- James Stoddard patents the steam calliope.
1899- Chicago writer L. Frank Baum noted he had just finished a new book called The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. “It is the best thing I’ve written, so they tell me. We’ll see if the queer and fickle public will like it.” It became a huge bestseller.
1905- The World Series resumes after a one year haggle between the owners of the American and National leagues. A best of seven contest between the N.Y. Giants and the Philadelphia Athletics. It would continue undisturbed until 1994 with the players strike.
1938- Eugene O'Neill's play 'The Iceman Cometh' opened.
1951- RKO Pictures asked Marilyn Monroe to please wear panties while working, She was upsetting the film crew.
1981- Sir Hugh Hudson’s movie Chariots of Fire, about British Olympians at the 1924 Paris Olympics became a sleeper hit. The decision to let Greek composer Vangelis score the period film with an all-electronic synthesizer soundtrack became a sensation. Soon most of the movies of that time had synthesizer tracks. People said symphony orchestras, Jazz quintets and garage bands would all be obsolete.
1986- People said there would never be more than three networks. Today the first show of the fourth network, The Fox Network's the Late Show with Joan River's, premiered. That show failed, but future hits like The Simpson's, Married With Children and the X-Files made Fox a major network within ten years.
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