Birthdays: Joshua Norton aka Joshua I Emperor of the United States 1819, Jack Benny- real name Benjamin Koubielsky, Frederick Douglas, Christopher Latham Scholes- inventor of the typewriter, George Washington Ferris inventor of the Ferris Wheel, Pier Francesco Cavalli, Jimmy Hoffa, Vic Morrow, Skeezix Wallet (character in Gasoline Alley comic strip), Gregory Hines, Ignaz Friedman, Thelma Ritter, Carl Andersen, Hugh Downs, Jim Kelly, Florence Henderson, Meg Tilly, Alan Parker, Simon Pegg is 52, Margaret Knight the inventor of the flat bottom paper bag. The character Lara Croft, is 55.
Happy Valentines Day!
1886- Los Angeles began to export its first trainload of oranges back east.
1887- Several leading French intellectuals including Honore’ Balzac, and Charles Gounod published a letter to the President of the Republic begging him NOT to build the Eiffel Tower. "A Useless Monstrosity, which even America with it's crazed passion for commerce has the sense to reject! And what if it lasts 20 years?" There were plans to pull down the Eiffel tower 1907, but by then it had gained a new purpose as a radio antenna.
Novelist Guy de Maupassant, hated the tower but still went to its restaurant every day. When asked why, he said, "Because it is the only place in Paris where I cannot see it".
1907- Golden Books incorporated. One of their artists was Gustav Tennegren, who would become a key stylist of Walt Disney's Snow White and Pinocchio.
1927-Alfred Hitchcock’s first suspense film “The Lodger” opened in London.
1931- Tod Browning's film of the play Dracula, starring Hungarian actor's union organizer and recreational morphine addict Bela Lugosi, premiered.
1941- Mickey Mouse cartoon The Little Whirlwind, was released.
1962- First Lady Jackie Kennedy gave a tour to network television cameras of the private living quarters of the White House. It’s the first time most Americans had ever seen the inside of the Executive Mansion. She worked mostly without a script, adding her own details as she went along. The day after the broadcast, Pres. Kennedy called the FCC just to see how her Nielsen ratings were. They were much higher than his speeches ever were.
1979- Digital music composer Walter Carlos, who scored the film A Clockwork Orange, announced he had undergone a sex change and was now Wendy Carlos.
1990- As the Voyager 1 spacecraft was leaving our solar system, Dr. Carl Sagan had the spaceship look back and take a family photo of our planet system, 3.7 billion miles away. A few faint dots on a distant sunbeam.
1991-Meg Ryan married Dennis Quaid. The divorced a few years later.
2005- Steve Chen, Chad Harley and Jared Karan started You Tube.
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