Birthdays: M C Escher, Charles Gounod, James Montgomery Flagg, Kay Kayser, William Lassell 1799- English astronomer who discovered Neptune's moon Triton, Richard Boone, Jeanette MacDonald, Key Luke, Isabella Rosselini, E.G. Marshall, Roger Ebert, Eduard Daladier, Carol Kane, Sammy Kahn, The Quay Brothers, Paul McCartney is 83
1682 – Quaker leader William Penn founded Philadelphia.
1879 - W H Richardson, an African American inventor, patents the baby buggy or perambulator.
1892 - Macadamia nuts first planted in Hawaii.
1898 - 1st amusement pier opens in Atlantic City, NJ
1903 - 1st transcontinental auto trip began in SF. Arrived in NY 3-month later.
1913- composer Cole Porter graduated from Yale.
1922- The Atlantic City Séance- In his later years Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle was constantly trying to convince his good friend Harry Houdini in his belief in spiritualism. He set up a séance with a leading psychic-medium to try and communicate with Houdini’s dead mother. During the séance Houdini recognized the same tricks he used to fool people on stage and reacted angrily. The spectre of his mother spoke to him in English and Houdini’s mother only spoke Hungarian and Yiddish.
1923- The first Checker Cab was manufactured in Chicago. The big, boxy, durable Checkers were the most famous American city taxicabs until phased out in the 1980s.
1927- The last radio transmission of the flying boat carrying famous arctic explorer Roald Amundsen to the arctic circle. Norwegian Amundsen had conquered the South Pole and flew over the North Pole. He was now called out of retirement to lead an international effort to save Italian Polar explorer General Nobile, who’s zeppelin had crashed on the arctic ice. Ironically Amundsen disliked Nobile personally. Nobile and his men were rescued, but Amundsen and his plane were never found.
1953- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. married Coretta Scott.
1959 - 1st TV telecast transmitted from England to US.
1967- At the Monterey Pop Rock festival Jimi Hendrix electrified the audience then finished his set by burning and smashing his guitar on stage. Until then musicians didn’t behave in such a way towards their instruments. Ravi Shankar was particularly shocked.
1969- Sam Peckinpah’s film “The Wild Bunch” opened. With William Holden, Warren Oates, Robert Ryan and Ernest Borgnine.
1980 –"We are on a mission from God." John Landis movie " The Blues Brothers" with Dan Ackroyd & John Belushi premiered.
1983- Sally Ride became the first U.S. woman in Space. Russian Valentina Tereshkova had gone up in 1963.
1993- Hanna Barbera’s feature Once Upon a Forest opened. Directed by Charlie Grovernor.
1999- George Lucas film Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. The first mainstream film shot completely digital.
2021- Pixar’s Luca opened, directed by Enrico Casarosa.
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