Birthdays: Meriwether Lewis, Austrian Emperor Franz Josef II, Leo Slezak, Shelly Winters, Roberto Clemente, Rafer Johnson, Enoch Light, Coco Channel, Patrick Swayze, Madeleine Stowe, Christian Slater, Edward Norton is 57, Martin Mull, Denis Leary is 67, Robert Redford born Charles Robert Redford Jr, is 88, Roman Polanski is 90
1850- Honore' Balzac died after drinking too much coffee. He was overweight, seldom bathed and picked his nose in public, but women still found him irresistible.
1856. Mr. Gale Borden patented condensed milk. It became popular during the Civil War when it was used by the army, then it spawned the process food industry. When Borden died, he left instructions that his tombstone be shaped like a milk can.
1937- The Toyota Automobile Company was established as an offshoot of the Toyoda Motorized Loom Works. They changed the name Toyoda to Toyota because a Shinto priest told them the name would be luckier.
1939- The movie The Wizard of Oz opened and made a star of Judy Garland. Frank Morgan, the actor playing the Wizard, needed to wear a shabby old coat so a studio costume designer went through some L.A. thrift stores until she found the good candidate. When Morgan looked in the lining he discovered the coat was previously owned by L. Frank Baum, creator of the Oz stories. Lyricist Yip Harburg (Somewhere over the Rainbow) was later blacklisted as a communist. "And yer little dog, too!!"
1953- The first MacDonalds franchise restaurant opened in Downey California.
1955- Folksinger Pete Seeger appeared before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee. He refused to cooperate and was blacklisted. But he still managed to have a successful career on the folk scene and appeared on TV in 1967.
1956- Actress Vivien Leigh suffered a mental breakdown after a miscarriage.
1958 - "Lolita," by Vladimir Nabokov, published. The novel was rejected by four publishers before Putnam picked it up. It became a best seller and allowed Nabokov to quit teaching and focus on writing.
1958 – The TV Game Show Scandal investigation began. Allegations that popular quiz shows like 21 were rigged turned out to be true.
1962 - Peter, Paul & Mary release their folk song "If I Had a Hammer".
1966- HAPPY BIRTHDAY SLURPEE! The Icee was invented by Omar Knedlik for a failing Oklahoma ice cream store. When licensed to 7-Eleven it was changed to Slurpee.
1969- Woody Allen’s first movie “Take the Money and Run”, opened.
1969- The closing day of the Woodstock Rock Concert, Jimmy Hendrix did his famous rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. Of the original 500,000 attendees, many were already headed home. Only 30,000 stragglers were left to hear him. Originally scheduled instead of Hendrix , was old cowboy Roy Rogers to sing his signature tune “ Happy Trails to You.” But Roy never made it there.
1977- The Xerox Company decided not to seriously market the Alto. It was the first personal computer that had a GUI, ethernet and mouse, color graphics, long before anyone else. Xerox decided to stick with copying machines and laid off many of their Palo Alto development team Xerox PARC. Most of their breakthroughs wound up in other computers like Apple’s Lisa, Macintosh and the IBM PC.
1977- The rock band the Police make their debut in a Birmingham nightclub. The lead singer Gordon Sumner started to get the nickname Sting, from the black & yellow striped jumper he habitually wore.
1989- Publishing Tycoon Malcolm Forbes flew 800 guests to Tangiers to celebrate his birthday. His birthday party cost $2 million. The soiree' came to symbolize 1980's wealth excess.
1990- 510 animators pay tribute to Betty Boop creator Grim Natwick on his 100th Birthday. It was the last big gathering of the artists of the Golden Age Hollywood Animation. Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, June Foray, Walter Lantz, Disney’s Nine Old Men, Mae Questel.
1999- Popular TV psychic Kriswell predicted that day would be the End of the World.
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