Birthdays: Michel de Montaigne, The Marquis de Montcalm, Zero Mostel, Vasclav Nijinsky, Molly Picon, Gavin MacCleod, Bernadette Peters, Bubba Smith, Mario Andretti, Milton Caniff- the creator of Terry and the Pirates", Ben Hecht, Ben 'Bugsy' Siegel, Tommy Tune, Vincente Minelli, Linus Pauling, Dorothy Stratton, Frank Gehry, Sir John Tenniel, John Tarturro, Gilbert Gottfried, Bernadette Peters is 77.
1820- The birthday of Sir John Tenniel (1820-1916). The original illustrator for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass.” He was also a leading political cartoonist for Punch and the first cartoonist to ever be knighted.
1835- Dr. Elias Lohnnrot published the Finnish national epic poem Kalevala. It’s about the first man Vanjiamoimmen, who was born old and searched for the magical machine called The Samo, kept in a mountain with seven locks, guarded by seven wizards chanting Samo, Samo! Modern scholars cannot agree just what the samo was, or what it did.
1882- The first college store opened, the COOP, this one attached to Harvard & MIT. The COOP means Harvard Cooperative Society.
1896- Robert Paul demonstrates a kinetograph to the Royal Institute. The British Cinema industry is born.
1916- Writer Henry James died. William Faulkner said, "He was the nicest old lady I ever met." H.L. Mencken eulogized: "Henry James was an idiot, and a Boston idiot to boot, of which there is no form lower." Mencken was equally caustic of other cities.
1920 Maurice Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin debuted.
1938- Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev toured the Walt Disney Studio and performed his suite Peter and the Wolf for Walt and his music director Leigh Harline.
1940- At the Oscars ceremony Hattie McDaniel became the first black actress to win an Oscar for her supporting role in Gone With The Wind. When some criticized her for portraying a stereotype black mammy, McDaniel snapped:” I’d rather make $5000 a week playing a maid than $5 a week being a maid!”
1940- Richard Wright’s novel Native Son, about growing up black in America, first published.
1949- Bob Clampett’s live puppet show Time for Beanie premiered. Bill Scott was a writer and puppeteer. Albert Einstein was a fan. Ten years later it was revived as the popular animated series Beanie and Cecil.
1953- Chuck Jones “Duck Amuck” premiered.
1953- James Watson walked into his local pub and announced,” Barman, set them up. I’ve just discovered the secret of life!” That morning Watson & Francis Crick had indeed came upon the DNA double helix molecule. They were building on the work of fellow scientist Rosalind Franklin. It’s been argued that Franklin was the one who actually made the discovery, but she died before Watson and Crick were awarded the Nobel Prize.
1968- Former teen idol singer Frankie Lyman OD’s on heroin.
1982- BP oil tycoon J. Paul Getty had died in 1976 the richest man on earth. Getty found his immediate family so annoying he left the bulk of his estate to his little Getty Museum in Malibu California. This day after all attempts of the family to challenge his will were exhausted, the Getty Museum was endowed with two billion dollars and immediately became the richest museum on earth.
1983-The last episode of the television series M*A*S*H. It was the single most watched TV show episode in history.
1986- Disney animator Eric Larsen retired. Larsen had stayed on to train the next generation of animators who created the 2D Renaissance of the 1990s.
2001- Seattle rocked by a 7.0 earthquake. That’ll stir your Starbucks!
