Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Tom Sito's Animation Almanac for Jan 31, 2024


Birthdays: Gouverner Morris, Zane Grey, James G. Blaine, Franz Schubert, Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, Sir John Profumo, Phillip Glass, Johnny Rotten, Ernie Banks, Norman Mailer, Nolan Ryan, Susanne Pleshette, Anthony LaPaglia, Tallulah Bankhead, Jean Simmons, Justin Timberlake is 43, Portia DiRossi, Minnie Driver is 54, Carol Channing 


1954- Howard Armstrong, the inventor of FM Radio, driven to despair by constant lawsuits with RCA Corporation over his patents, jumped to his death out of a hotel window. He first put on his hat, overcoat and gloves because he didn't want to be cold. Armstrong normally loved heights and used to climb hundreds of feet in the air to meditate on top of his radio antennas. By 1977 his family won all the lawsuits. Today, most radio, television and air traffic communications are by FM band.


1958- The U.S. enters the Space Race with the launching of satellite Explorer- 1.


1968- The Seattle city council concluded that there was no legal means to curb hippies hanging out in the downtown U- District.


1974- Apollo 14 blasted off for the moon. This voyage is chiefly remembered for Alan Shepard playing golf on the lunar surface.


1978- Polish director Roman Polanski fled the U.S. for exile after being charged for drugging, then having sex with a thirteen-year-old girl in Jack Nicholson’s house. On the eve of sentencing after learning that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Laurence Rittenband intended to send him back to prison, Polanski skipped town.


1978- Famed animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston retired together.


1995- First Meeting of the WTO- World Trade Organization.



1999- The first episode of Seth McFarlane’s show Family Guy premiered.


2005- The documentary Dream On, Silly Dreamer premiered at the Animex Festival in England. Dan Lund and Tony West’s doc about the loyal Disney 2D animators jobs being eliminated in 2002.



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