Birthdays: Sappho, John Milton, Jean De Brunhoff, Emil Waldteufel the composer of The Skaters Waltz, Admiral Grace Hopper who wrote the earliest computer language, Margraret Hamilton, Hermoinie Gingold, Dalton Trumbo, John Cassavettes, Broderick Crawford, Dick Butkus, Red Foxx, Cesar Franck, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Kirk Douglas, Buck Henry, Felicity Huffman, Mario Cantone, Alan Zaslove, John Malkovich is 70, Judy Dench is 89
1641- Famed Flemish portrait artist Sir Anthony van Dyck died of a fever at his home in Blackfriars, London. He was 42.
1783- First executions began at England’s Newgate Prison, replacing the traditional public hanging, drawing, quartering, branding, beheading place of Tyburn Hill- approximately where London’s Marble Arch is today.
1854- Albert Tennyson's poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade" published. The battle had been fought earlier that June.
1889- The Chicago Auditorium dedicated. The landmark building’s architect Louis Sullivan had hired a new assistant to help with the drawings-Frank Lloyd Wright.
1905- Richard Strauss’s opera Salome premiered in Dresden. The lead role demands a soprano with big Wagnerian lungs but also a flat stomach to do the strip tease The Dance of the Seven Veils. When the opera debuted in New York, prudish old millionaires like J.P. Morgan were shocked at its’ blatant sexuality. They threatened to cut off funding until Sal and her skimpy veils was banished from the schedule.
1931- Disney short Mickey’s Orphans debuted.
1936- The first cookery show appeared on British television.
1946- Damon Runyon died, the writer whose characters the musical "Guys and
Dolls' are based. His philosophy: "All life is six to five against."
1948- Actor Ossie Davis married actress Ruby Dee.
1960- Coronation Street premiered on British ITV.
1964- John Coltrane recorded his landmark jazz album “A Love Supreme”. Late on foggy nights Trane liked to take his saxophone out onto the middle of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge in the night fog, and practice by himself.
1965- Bill Melendez's "A Charlie Brown Christmas" the first half hour animated TV special featuring the music of Vince Guaraldi. Producer Lee Mendelson had heard Guaraldi's jazz combo perform in San Francisco. He never scored a film before:" How many yards of music do you want? At the preview screening for CBS executives, the show was met with deathly silence; when the show concluded, one executive said to the director Bill Melendez, "Well, you gave it a good try." CBS hated its religious message, the idea of actual kids voicing the characters, not having a laugh track and having jazz as the soundtrack. They only aired it out of obligation to the sponsor, Coca-Cola. It was not screened for any critics sans one Time Magazine critic (who gave it a positive review). Estimates are that 15,490,000 households and 36 million people watched Charlie Brown and his friends that night. A Charlie Brown Christmas won an Emmy and has been a holiday favorite every year since.
1967- At a Doors concert lead singer Jim Morrison was sprayed with mace and arrested by Miami police for “lewd behavior” on stage, but probably more for referring to the cops as pigs.
1968- The MOTHER OF ALL DEMOS- At the Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco, Dr Douglas Engelbart of Stanford demonstrated the first personal computer workstation. He showed how people would use hot keys, a printer and scanner, cut and paste text. And he had a real time internet hookup to another workstation at Palo Alto, 120 miles away. His student assistant was Stewart Brand, who would later create the Whole Earth Catalog. In the audience was student Andries van Dam, who would one day create SIGGRAPH. Its been called “The 21 Century dropped in on 1968”.
1967- Nicholas Ceaucescu became dictator of Communist Romania.
1992-Britains Prime Minister John Major announced the separation of Prince Charles and Princess Diana of Wales.
1994- Disney Animators in California move into their new Animation building designed by Robert Stern.
2004- Mia Hamm and the stars of the Women’s National Soccer Team played their last game, defeating Mexico 5-0.
2340- Mr Worf, the Klingon officer of Star Trek Next Generation was born.
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