Birthdays: Diego Velasquez, Pierre Corneille. Alexandre Pushkin, Nathan Hale, John Trumbull, Thomas Mann, The Dalai Lama, Klaus Tennestedt, Bjorn Borg, Richard Crane, Dr. Karl Braun, Walter Chrysler, Isaiah Berlin, Aram Khachaturian, Jason Issacs, Sam Simon (Simpsons Producer), Sandra Bernhard is 68, Paul Giamatti is 56, Aaron Sorkin is 62, Angelo Moriondo 1851, Inventor of the expresso machine.
1683- The world’s first public museum, the Ashmolean, was opened. English archaeologist Elias Ashmole donated his collection of curiosities to Oxford University for the students to study. A building was commissioned from Christopher Wren and the museum opened to the public this day.
1929- Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali’ surrealist masterpiece Un Chien Andalou ( The Andalusian Dog) premiered at the Teatre des Ursulines in Paris. All the modernist artists were present like Picasso, Andre Breton and Jean Cocteau. Bunuel had filled his pockets with rocks, in case the crowd hated the film and he needed to defend himself, but it was warmly received.
1933-The first Drive In movie opened in Camden, New Jersey. 25 cents a car. Richard Hollingshead, a young entrepreneur, devised a way to offer comfortable movie watching to the public by experimenting in his own driveway.
1939- Playright Eugene O’Neill had hit a dry spell of no writing and dread of his impending Parkinsons disease. This day he got the inspiration to sketch out outlines for two plays- The Iceman Cometh, and Long Days Journey into Night.
1941- Actor George Raft wrote a memo to studio head Jack Warner reminding him of his contractual commitment to send Raft only good quality scripts. The latest he got: " The Maltese Falcon" he thought was “a lousy substandard idea, that has no chance." Humphrey Bogart did the film instead.
1944- D-DAY, the NORMANDY INVASION- General Dwight Eisenhower launched 6,000 ships, 14,000 planes and 156,000 troops on the shores of Nazi occupied France with the order: "Okay. Let's go."
In the assault were voiceover actor Paul Frees, Disney key assistant Dale Oliver, Marvel cartoonist Jack Kirby, and Disney/Warner development artist Victor Haboush. Peanuts creator Charles Schulz was in the second wave to Utah Beach. Ernest Hemingway was in a landing craft among other war correspondents. James Doohan (Scotty in Star Trek) was a Canadian officer and was wounded and Alec Guinness was in the Royal Navy. On Omaha Beach, war photographer Robert Capa leaped into the surf before the landing barges reached shore and walking backwards with the whole Nazi army shooting at him to photograph the first G.I.s landing. His 22 rolls of film were later ruined by an inept lab developer. Only three photos remain.
1949- Comic strip character Joe Palooka gets married to Ann Howe.
1949-BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING- George Orwell's book about technological tyranny -1984 was first published. Orwell's working title was "The Last Free Man", but the publisher thought it too depressing to sell. So, Orwell picked the date 1984, who's only significance was that it was the year he was writing 1948- reversed.
1952- Disney short Susie, the Little Blue Coupe, directed by Clyde Geronimi. From a story by Bill Peet. The anthropomorphized cars became the inspiration for Pixar’s Cars movies.
1955 - Bill Haley & Comets, "Rock Around the Clock" hits #1.
1959-The Submarine Voyage attraction opened in Disneyland's updated Tomorrowland. The 8 vessels are named Nautilus, Seawolf, Skate, Skipjack, Triton, George Washington, Patrick Henry, and Ethan Allen. Originally painted to look like USN nuclear subs, after the VietNam war they repainted them explorer yellow.
1972 - David Bowie released "Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust"
1976- The Glendale Galleria shopping mall in Glendale Cal. opened.
1984- In Moscow, 29 year old mathematics Professor Alexey Pajitnov invented the game Tetris.
1991 - NBC announced Jay Leno would replace retiring Johnny Carson, winning out over David Letterman. Letterman moved to CBS.
2007- The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim California, named for a Walt Disney comedy movie, won the Stanley Cup after defeating the Ottawa Senators. It is the first Stanley Cup won by a west coast team since 1925.
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