Birthdays: Marcus Whitman the missionary who led US settlement of Oregon, Howard Morris, Darius Mihlaud, Anton Bruckner, Chateaubriand, Craig Claiborne, Dick York, Richard Wright, Mary Renault, Mitzi Gaynor, Computer AI pioneer John McCarthy, Damon Wayans is 63, Paul Harvey, Beyonce’ Knowles is 42
Happy Labor Day in the USA.
1781- HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LOS ANGELES. Royal Governor of New Spain Felipe de Neve and Franciscan monk Fra Junipero Serra with twelve soldiers, some free black families and Indians, about 44 in all, dedicated a new town, one days ride from Mission San Gabriel. The 63 year old Fra Serra had been stung by a scorpion, but he ignored it, so he hobbled around dragging his swollen leg. Fra Serra named the town after St. Francis of Assisi's first church in Italy - St. Mary of the Angels. LA’s official name is La Ciudad de la Iglesia de Nuestra Señora, Reina de Los Angeles sobra la Porziuncola de Asís.
1884-Thomas Edison proved he could replace gas streetlights with electricity by illuminating one square New York City block (around Pearl St.) with his new dynamo. J.P. Morgan's bank on the corner of Wall and Broad streets is the first private business to be lit solely by electricity.
1888- George Eastman patents the roll film camera. The word "Kodak" is supposedly the sound the shutter made. Another story on the origin of the word was that George wanted a word pronounced the same in all known dialects. After some research (Rochester lore has it that he did all of this himself) he concluded that only k and x qualified as sounds uttered the same way in all languages. Thus Eastman Kodak.
1893- Writer and illustrator Beatrix Potter sent a letter to a sick child: " I don't know what to write you, so I shall tell you the story of four little rabbits. Their names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter." The Peter Cottontail stories born.
1918- Someone threw a bomb into the Adams St Entrance of the Chicago Federal building. At first it was thought the bomber was a radical anarchist or German agent. But it turned out to be a local gangster. The blast killed 4 people and 75 were injured. One person who just missed the explosion was a part time mail carrier named Walt Disney. Walt later said, “I missed the explosion by three minutes. “
1934- Young actress-filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl was contracted by the German Propaganda Ministry to film the 1934 Nazis Party Congress to be held in Nuremburg. While they were expecting a routine documentary, Riefenstahl instead created the film The Triumph of the Will, who’s darkly hypnotic images made film history.
1936- The musical Swing Time opened. Considered by critics one of the best pairings of the dance team of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
1940- The Columbia Broadcast Service or CBS network started up their first television station.
1950- Mort Walker's "Beetle Bailey" comic strip first appeared. Walker first had Beetle as a college student, but when the Korean War broke out, he had Beetle enlist. In 1953, when that war ended, Walker figured interest in the strip would fade, so he created Hi & Lois as a fall back. But Beetle Bailey kept finding new fans and kept going.
1972- American swimmer Mark Spitz won his 7th gold medal in Olympic competition in Munich. He also spawned a cottage industry selling the poster of him wearing his medals, and tiny Speedos. This image and the swimsuit poster of Farrah Fawcett, were two of the more famous images of the 1970’s. Spitz’ record held until Michael Phelps in 2008.
1982- the single “Valley Girl” by Frank Zappas daughter Moon Unit Zappa became a hit.
1985- Australian press baron Rupert Murdoch became a U.S. citizen so he could build the Fox News and TV networks. US regulations forbade foreign ownership of broadcasting stations so Rupert didn’t fuss about what country he was a citizen of. He keeps addresses in the U.S., London and Australia.
1986- Aardman Animation studio was founded.
1993- Herb Villechaise, the little person who began the show Fantasy Island with the announcement:” Da PLANE! Da PLANE!’ committed suicide with a shotgun.
2002- Kelly Clarkson won the first American Idol contest.
Answer: Little Goody Two-Shoes was a popular children's story published by John Newbery in London in 1765
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