Birthdays: Sir Issac Newton, Emile Cohl, Louis Braille, General Tom Thumb, Jane Wyman, Jacob Grimm of the Brothers Grimm, Sterling Holloway the voice of Winnie the Pooh, Francois Rude, Dyan Cannon is 86, Floyd Patterson, Don Shula, Barbara Rush, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Julia Ormond is 59
1863- James Plimpton of New York patented four-wheeled roller skates.
1881- Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture premiered in Breslau. Johannes Brahms was offered an honorary degree by the University of Breslau. But he learned that in exchange, they expected him to write them a free symphony! Whaat? Brahms responded by sending them an overture to be played at commencement. On being performed, locals recognized several bawdy student drinking songs Brahms had worked into the score. The Academic Festival Overture is the basis for the opening music to National Lampoons Animal House.
1904, Thomas Edison's movie crew filmed the electrocution of an elephant. Topsy, was being destroyed by its owners after she killed three men in as many years. (The third was a man who for a joke, fed her a lit cigarette.) The event was a public spectacle to a paying audience of 1,500 people at Coney Island, where the elephant had actually helped build the attraction. Edison was the consultant chosen to arrange the electrocution, after cyanide-laced carrots had failed. He made sure to use Nikolas Tesla’s AC current, to show people how dangerous it was.
1920- Eight teams combine to form the Negro Baseball Leagues. They were active until Major League Baseball finally integrated in 1948.
1932- Casey Stengel returned from the minors to manage the Brooklyn Dodgers, aka the Bums.
1936- Mickey’s Polo Team, directed by Dave Hand.
1944- Kaj Munk, Danish playwright and poet who preached passive resistance to the Nazi occupation, was arrested by the Gestapo and shot.
1946- Terrytoons "The Talking Magpies" the first Heckle and Jeckle cartoons.
1954- Young truck driver Elvis Presley went into Sun Records recording studio in Memphis. He plunked down $4 to record two demos for his mothers’ birthday. " Casual Love Affair" and "I’ll Never Stand in your Way". Studio manager Marion Keisker was impressed enough to play the demo for Sun Records boss Sam Phillips, who called Presley back in for an audition.
1954- The Pinky Lee Show premiered on TV. Sponsored by Tootsie Roll.
1956- In the Peanuts comic strip, Charles Schulz made Snoopy first stand up on two legs.
1956- Walt Disney had lunch with his old competitor Max Fleischer, now retired. The meeting was arranged by Max’s son Richard Fleischer, who was working for Disney directing movies like Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Although everyone had a nice time, Richard later admitted he found the whole thing depressing. Seeing his dad humbled:” It was like seeing David vanquished by Goliath.”
1957- The Dodgers are the first baseball team to buy an airplane to travel around in.
1958- the TV show Seahunt premiered. It made a star out of Lloyd Bridges, the father of Jeff and Beau.
1960- Writer Albert Camus was killed in a car accident. He was 46.
1973- In San Francisco, scientists from several top food companies like Proctor & Gamble, Heinz and Del Monte began work inventing the Universal Product Code, or The Bar Code, now seen on everything you buy. The first product to sport the bar code was Wrigley’s Spearmint Gum.
1997- Spoon bending psychic Uri Geller predicted a UFO would land in Tel Aviv. Israelis watched the skies, but in the end, nothing appeared.
1999- Ed, Edd n Eddy premiered on Cartoon Network.
2010- Dubai opened the largest office building in the world, the Burj Khalifa. 163 floors.
2000- Charles Schulz published the very last Peanuts daily comic strip. It ran continuously since 1950. Schulz refused to allow any one to ghost him or take over the strip. He died a month later of colon cancer, and his last Sunday was printed the next day.
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