Monday, March 18, 2024

Life is short. Eat cookies for breakfast

Today is Oatmeal Cookie Day. (Remember to keep you cookie jar filled with Oatmeal cookies!)



Given the amount of drinking many of you probably did yesterday, a little extra fiber in your diet today wouldn't be the worst idea in the world. Word to the wise - if one of the raisins stats to crawl away, don't eat the cookie.


March 18, 1924 -
The Douglas Fairbanks swashbuckler adventure film, The Thief of Bagdad, which tells the story of a thief who falls in love with the daughter of the Caliph, was released on this date.



For the flying carpet effect, Douglas Fairbanks stood on a 3/4-inch thick sheet of steel attached to 16 piano wires and rigged to the top of a crane, which lifted him above the crowd.


March 18, 1938 -
The under appreciated Ernst Lubitsch film, Bluebeard's Eighth Wife starring Gary Cooper and Claudette Coulbert (written by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder) premiered on this date.



Ernst Lubitsch originally wanted Marion Davies for the part of Nicole, but she had retired from films by 1938.


March 18, 1959
-
One of the last classic westerns, Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo, starring John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Angie Dickinson, Walter Brennan, and Ward Bond premiered on this date.



Howard Hawks always wanted someone who would connect with teenagers to play Colorado. Reportedly, his first choice was Elvis Presley, who was enthusiastic about the opportunity. Unfortunately, Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, wanted too much money and top billing. Neither Hawks nor John Wayne would have any of it, so the search continued. Hawks settled on Ricky Nelson, although he considered him to be both too young and too lightweight, and deliberately gave him the fewest possible number of lines for a third-billed star. However, he later admitted that having Nelson's name on the poster had probably added $2 million to the film's box office performance.


March 18, 1964 -
In his first outing as the bumbling Inspector Clouseau, Peter Sellers starred in The Pink Panther, which premiered in New York City on this date.



With just two weeks to go before shooting begun, the producers decided that Ava Gardner's erratic lifestyle could affect filming and decided not to offer her the part of Madame Clouseau. Capucine was hired in a hurry, but Peter Ustinov's wife felt this would affect the calibre of the production and told him to withdraw . From this chaos, Peter Sellers became an international superstar.


March 18, 1967 -
The Beatles' single Penny Lane became their 13th hit to go to the #1 spot on the Billboard Charts, on this date.



Paul McCartney was sitting at a bus shelter waiting for John Lennon to meet him on Penny Lane, a street near their houses in Liverpool, England. While sitting there Paul jotted down the things he saw, including a barber's shop with pictures of its clients and a nurse selling poppies for Remembrance Day


March 18, 1968 -
Mel Brook's screamingly funny first film, a send-up of Broadway, The Producers, opened in New York City on this date.



Gene Wilder said in an interview on TCM that at the first reading of the script, he excused himself to leave for a dentist appointment he could not miss, when in fact he had to go to the unemployment office to collect a check for $55 he desperately needed at the time.


March 18, 1972 -
Neil Young's Heart Of Gold, with backing vocals by James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt, hit No. #1 on the Billboard Charts in the US, on this date.



Young wrote this in 1971 after he suffered a back injury that made it difficult for him to play the electric guitar, so on the Harvest tracks he played acoustic. Despite the injury, Young was in good spirits (possibly thanks to the painkillers), which is reflected in this song.


March 18, 1975
McLean Stevenson’s character (Lt. Colonel Henry Blake) died in the M*A*S*H episode Abyssinia, Henry, its third season finale on this date.



According to producer Larry Gelbart, when Larry Linville read the (previously concealed) final page of the script, he said, "Fucking brilliant!" When Gary Burghoff read it, he looked at McLean Stevenson and said, "You'll probably win the Emmy for this, you son of a bitch!"


March 18, 1976 -
Nicholas Roeg's adaptation of the Walter Tevis' novel, The Man Who Fell To Earth, starring David Bowie (in his first major role), Candy Clark, Buck Henry, and Rip Torn, premieres in London, on this date. (And yes Bunkies, this was not a porno film even though it had actors with names like Candy, Buck, and Rip.)



According to costume designer May Routh, David Bowie was so thin that some of his outfits were boys' clothes.


March 18, 1981 -
Stephen J. Cannell's take on superheroes, The Greatest American Hero, starring William Katt, Robert Culp, and Connie Sellecca, premiered on ABC-TV, on this date.



Two years after the show's cancellation by ABC, NBC picked up the series, and aired its reruns in a Sunday night, post-primetime time slot. This led to speculation that NBC was looking to revive the series, but their efforts only resulted in The Greatest American Heroine pilot.


March 18, 2005
The very popular Disney Channel series, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, starring Dylan and Cole Sprouse, premiered on this date.



Kim Rhodes was notorious for her "potty mouth" and consistently sweared on set. One of the Disney Channel representatives suggested having a "swear jar" on the set. Dylan Sprouse responded, "We've worked with Adam Sandler. We've heard it all!"


Word of the Day


Today in History:
March 18, 1314 -
Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, was burned at the stake during the final purge of the Templars in France on this date.



Among the things de Molay admitted to the Inquisitor panel (though possibly coerced) were the obligation of Templars to deny Christ when they joined, and a sacrament that involved spitting on a crucifix.

Oh that wacky life during the Middle Ages.


March 18, 1584 -
Ivan IV of Russia died on this date. He is better known by his nickname: Ivan the Terrible. He was the first king of Russia to call himself a Caesar, probably in the hopes that Shakespeare would write a play about him. He also replaced the sale of beer and mead with vodka at state-run taverns.



He couldn't pronounce Caesar, however, so he simply called himself "zar," and subsequent arguments over whether that should be spelled czar, tsar, zar or tzar became so heated that they eventually resulted in Russian History.

And all of this led to Vladimir Putin having himself elected president in a rigged election, for another time.


March 18, 1913 -
(Once again kids follow along, it's complex.) Itinerant sailor and general layabout Philip Mountbatten's (nee Philip Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg) grandfather, Christian Wilhelm Ferdinand Adolf Georg of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (sibling to a king and two queens) was out on an afternoon stroll. This, in and of itself, is not remarkable, except for the fact that this minor Danish/ German prince had changed his name to George and became the King of Greece. Wilhelm/ George, like most royalty, went out for an afternoon stroll without any pocket change (royalty and presidents don't carry money.)

Alexandros Schinas, an alcoholic vagrant asked the King for some spare change and shot him in the back went the King refused to give him money. Wilhelm/ George died en route to the hospital,

Alexandros died five days later after he 'accidentally' fell out of a window at police headquarters.



So kids let this be a lesson to you, if you find yourself the ruler of a European nation - the change you carry, may save your life.


March 18, 1915 -
Wenseslao Moguel, suspected of taking part in the Mexican Revolution, was captured by the Mexican Constitutionalists, on this date.



He was sentenced to summary execution, and was shot 8–9 times by a firing squad in the body, and received one final shot to the head point-blank range to ensure death. He survived his execution and lived to the age of 85.


March 18, 1922 -
Mohandas K. Gandhi a British educated lawyer, was arrested and sentenced to prison in India for civil disobedience after calling for mass civil disobedience which included boycotting British educational institutions and law courts, not working for the British controlled government and the boycott of foreign-made goods, especially British goods, on this date.

Although he was sentenced to six years in prison, he only served two before being released for an appendicitis operation.


March 18, 1937 -
A massive gas explosion at the New London Junior-Senior High School in New London, Texas, killed more than 400 people, most of them children, on this date.



As a result of the explosion, legislation was passed requiring an odor to be added to natural gas so that leaks may be detected.


March 18, 1954 -
In 1948, Howard Hughes gained majority control of RKO Pictures stock; at that time RKO had becomes a struggling Hollywood studio. A steady stream of lawsuits from RKO's minority shareholders became an increasing nuisance, especially as Hughes looked to focus on his aircraft-manufacturing and TWA holdings during the Korean War years. And so our favorite bisexual billionaire, ever increasing germaphobe and aviator Howard Hughes bought RKO Pictures for $23,489,478 (and not a penny more,) on this date.

With his purchase of the studio, Hughes became the closest thing to a sole owner of a studio that Hollywood had seen in more than three decades. Six months later, Hughes sold the studio to General Tire and Rubber Company for $25 million.


March 18, 1965 -
Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov performed the first spacewalk on this day. He stayed outside his ship for 12 minutes, held to the ship by a tether.



By the time his walk was over, his spacesuit had inflated so much in the vacuum of space that he could barely get back inside the ship. With a bit of quick thinking, he opened a value to allow some of the suit’s air to bleed off without venting all of it, only barely getting back into the capsule in time.


March 12, 1965 -
Gene Sesky of Scranton lost control of the truck he was driving, hauling 30,000 pounds of bananas, barreling down Moosic Street toward central Scranton, unable to stop and crashes into cars, telephone poles, and houses on its way down the hill, injuring many people and killing Mr. Sesky.



Harry Chapin sang about of the tragic event in his song 30,000 Pounds Of Bananas.
 

March 18, 1970 -
Country Joe McDonald (of Country Joe and the Fish) was convicted on obscenity charges after he asks for an F, a U, a C and one other letter at a concert in Massachusetts.



The song was meant as a satire of US government attitudes toward the Vietnam War. Country Joe MacDonald released it at the height of the war after he had been discharged from the US Navy for several years. He wrote it in about 30 minutes after it popped into his head.


March 18, 1980 -
50 people were killed at the Plesetsk Space Center, Mirny, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia, when a Vostok rocket exploded on the launch pad on this date.



At the time, this represented a significant percentage of the Soviet space program's scientists.


Before you go - Spring starts tomorrow in Northern Hemisphere at 11:06 P.M. EDT,



Partially sunny, forecast highs in the upper 40s. We'll discuss it all tomorrow.



And so it goes.



And so it goes.

Sunday, March 17, 2024

May your home always be too small to hold all your friends.

The Feast Day of St. Patrick is celebrated on March 17.



St. Patrick is considered the father of Celtic Christianity. He founded more than three hundred churches, drove the snakes out of Ireland, invented green beer, and coined the popular slogan, Kiss me, I'm Irish (although, he himself was not.)



This year, the Citizenry of Chicago were once again encouraged to drink cheap green beer early and often before St. Patrick's Day so the Chicago River could be dyed with their vomit. (Many cities around the country, including NYC, are also once again having their in-person St. Patrick Day festivities.)



I like to joke about the dyeing of the river every year but here's the actual story behind it: Turning the Chicago River green for St. Patrick's Day first began in 1962, one year after Savannah, GA tried to dye their river green but did not succeed. Mayor Richard J. Daley suggested that the city find a way to turn Lake Michigan green for St. Patrick’s Day. According to the Chicago Tribune, the business manager of the Chicago Plumbers Union, Stephen M. Baily came up with the idea of dyeing the river with a solution that was used for identifying pollution and had the happy side effect of creating green streaks.



I'm pretty sure that St. Patrick would be horrified by St. Patrick's Day.


March 17, 1958 -
The song Tequila by the Champs was number one on the music charts on this date.





This was originally released as the B-side to a song by The Champs called Train to Nowhere in December 1957. Disc jockeys flipped the single and played Tequila instead, making the song one of the biggest hits of the '50s.


March 17, 1966 -
The Walker Brothers had their second UK No.1 hit (their first being, Make It Easy on Yourself) with the song The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore, on this date.



In the UK this is regarded as a death song, supposedly because of an incident in the mid 1960s concerning Ronnie Kray. The story goes that the legendary London gangster, armed with a 9mm Mauser, strolled into the Blind Beggar pub in London's East End to shoot and kill rival gangster George Cornell. This song was playing on the jukebox at the time and a stray bullet hit the machine, forcing the record to repeat the line "The sun ain't gonna shine, anymore, anymore, anymore…" as Cornell lay dying just a few feet away.


March 17, 1968 -
The Bee Gees made their U.S. television debut on the Ed Sullivan Show, on this date.



Besides their song, Words (which went on to become a no. 1 hit in several countries,) they sang To Love Somebody, (which went on to be one of their most covered songs.)


March 17, 1972 -
John Water presented Divine to an unsuspecting world: Pink Flamingos, premiered in Baltimore on this date. (In 2021, this cult classic was inducted into the National Film Registery of important films that need to be preserved.)



According to production designer Vincent Peranio, the art department's budget was about $200. Half went to purchasing the trailer, half to decorating it. "And then after that (running out of money), we would just steal things."


March 17, 1972 -
Ringo Starr released the single Back off Boogaloo, in the UK, on this date. The song peaked at number 2 in Britain and Canada, and number 9 on the U.S.' Billboard Hot 100 chart. It remains Starr's highest-charting single in the United Kingdom.



"Boogaloo" was Ringo's nickname for Paul McCartney. The song was Ringo urging Paul to stop his snide remarks in the press about the other Beatles, and just make good music ("Give me something tasty").


March 17, 1978 -
Paramount Pictures releases the bio-pix about Alan Freed, American Hot Wax, starring Tim McIntire, Fran Drescher, Jay Leno, and Laraine Newman (and featuring performances by Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, and Frankie Ford,) on this date.



The film was not as successful at the box-office as the similarly titled American Graffiti had been a few years earlier.


March 17, 1982 -
Dean Jones reprised his role as Jim Douglas when CBS aired the short-lived TV version of Herbie The Love Bug on this date.



Herbie The Love Bug was a 1963 Volkswagen Beetle deluxe ragtop sedan painted in Volkswagen L87 pearl white. Under normal circumstances, the interior would be a matching white. However, Herbie's interior was painted a special non-reflective grey color so the camera and studio lights would not reflect.


March 17, 2014 -
Sia released her chart smashing hit Chandelier on this date.





The song's music video features a dance performance from a Sia-wigged Maddie Ziegler. The 11-year-old star of Lifetime's Dance Moms was personally asked to be in the clip by the singer.



Another book from the back shelves of The ACME Library


Today in History:
March 17, 45 BC -
In Hispania, at Munda, on this date, the last battle of the civil war between Julius Caesar and the forces of the Optimates (the traditionalist majority of the Roman Senate) who have backed Pompey, ends with Caesar victorious and Pompey’s eldest son, Gnaeneus Pompeius killed in the battle.



Caesar can now return to Rome and rule as the elected Roman dictator perpetuo rei publicae constituendae, dictator-for-life

But you don't care, you just want to continue to drink your green beer today.


March 17, 965 -
Pope Leo VIII died of a stroke during sexual congress with a prostitute on this date.

Perhaps a fine way for a man to die, but not a very appropriate choice for the Bishop of Rome. (it's OK if you hum to yourself, Back in the Saddle Again.)


March 17, 1756 -
St. Patrick's Day was celebrated in New York City for the first time (at the Crown and Thistle Tavern).

The patrons finally sober up and six years later, the celebration evolves into a parade (the first in NYC) and the St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York City has become the largest celebration of the holiday in the world (drawn more revelers than any parade for the holiday in the whole of Ireland.)


March 17, 1845 -
Stephen Perry and Thomas Barnabas Daft, British inventors and businessmen patented the rubber band on this day.

They conceived of the device after experimentally slicing up rubber bottles that had been manufactured by South and Central America natives and brought to England by sailors. Other regional names for the rubber band include a binder, a laggy band, an elastic, and a gum band.


March 17, 1884 -
John Joseph Montgomery made the first manned, controlled, heavier than air flight in a glider he built. Although not publicized at the time, this flight was first described by Montgomery as part of a lecture delivered at the Conference on Aerial Navigation in Chicago, 1893 and published by Octave Chanute in Progress in Flying Machines.



While Montgomery himself never claimed firsts, his flight experiments of the 1880s are considered by several historians and organizations to have been the first controlled flights in America, or in the Western Hemisphere depending on source. After a crash destroyed his glider in 1886, Montgomery abandoned aviation, but then took it up again in 1903.


March 17, 1891 -
The SS Utopia accidentally collided with the moored battleship HMS Anson in the Bay of Gibraltar, on this date.

Utopia sank within 20 minutes; with a loss of 562 of 880 passengers and crew of Utopia and two rescuers from HMS Immortalité died in the accident. The sinking of Utopia was blamed on "grave error of judgement" of her captain John McKeague, who survived the accident.

So this shows that Utopia, sometimes, isn't the greatest place to be.


March 17, 1905 -
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, niece of President Theodore Roosevelt, married her fifth cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt in New York on this date.


Apparently, Roosevelt confuses himself with British Royalty by marrying his distant relative. FDR jokes with friends that, "Only on St. Patrick's Day can you marry your cousin".


March 17, 1919 -
Nathaniel Adams Coles, the premiere singer and jazz pianist was born on this date.



Cole's popularity allowed him to become the first African American to host a network variety program, The Nat King Cole Show, which debuted on NBC television in 1956. The show fell victim to the bigotry of the times, however, and was canceled after one season; few sponsors were willing to be associated with a black entertainer.


March 17, 1939 -
After German troops crossed the Czech border, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain threw all his years of careful diplomacy out the window and accused Adolf Hitler of breaking his word.

He instantly regretted having let these angry words slip, however, and subsequently resigned.


March 17, 1941 -
President Franklin D. Roosevelt opened the National Gallery of Art to the public, on this date. The National Gallery of Art would become known as one of the best museums in the world. It contains a collection of more than 130,000 paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture, decorative arts, and furniture pieces.



At the time of its inception, it was the largest marble structure in the world. The museum stands on the former site of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station, most famous for being where 20th president James Garfield was shot in 1881 by Charles Guiteau.


March 17, 1958 -
The United States Navy launches the Vanguard I satellite from Cape Canaveral, on this date, following the Soviet Union’s success with their satellites Sputnik I and Sputnik II spacecraft.



Vanguard is the fourth artificial satellite to be put into space, and the first launch in the United States. The three pound satellite was developed in just two years, six months, and eight days from scratch.


March 17, 1966 -
A U.S. midget submarine, the Alvin, located a missing hydrogen bomb which had fallen from an American bomber into the Mediterranean off Spain on this date. Oops.

Most famously, the Alvin was involved in the exploration of the wreckage of RMS Titanic in 1986. Launched from her support ship RV Atlantis II, she carried Dr. Robert Ballard and two companions to the wreckage of the great liner. RMS Titanic sank while attempting to transit the North Atlantic Ocean, after striking a large iceberg in 1912.



Alvin, accompanied by a small remotely operated vehicle (ROV) named Jason Jr., was able to conduct detailed photographic surveys and inspections of the Titanic's wreckage. Many of the photographs of the expedition have been published in the magazine of the National Geographic Society which was a major sponsor of the expedition.


March 17, 1967
Snoopy and Charlie Brown of Peanuts are on the cover of LIFE magazine, on this date

The rest of the Peanuts gang are miffed but say nothing.


March 17, 1999 -
Six members of the International Olympic Committee were expelled for corruption, all from poor third world countries. They received bribes from Salt Lake City totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars, a practice that had been going on for years.

It should also be noted that the IOC Vice President at the time was named Dick Pound.


And on a personal note:
March 17, 1960 -
My good friend John (a fraternity brother) was born on this day.

Not to be confused with his cousin, John, who was also born but not on this day.


March 17, 1970 -
My actual fraternal brother was born at Jewish Memorial Hospital in Upper Manhattan on this date.

As was noted at the time, he must be a lucky kid as he was a Puerto Rican baby born in a Jewish Hospital on an Irish holiday.

Happy Birthday guys.



And so it goes.

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Pull on your tongue

It's National Hiccup Day today (apparently, according to the interweb, this is a cure for hiccups. But, do not put it over your head.)



It's also known as synchronous diaphragmatic flutter or singultus.

Now you know.


March 16 -

Today is the celebration of St. Urho's Day, Patron saint of Finnish vineyard workers. Attributed to him is the miracle of banishing grasshoppers from Finland which he accomplished with a few choice Finnish phrases, thereby saving the season's grape crop.



But in reality a bunch of very drunk people made this up in 1956.



Please celebrate responsibly, (remember, tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day.)


March 16, 1934 -
An (almost) all singing Popeye cartoon, The Man on the Flying Trapeze, premiered on this date.



The Daring Young Man On The Flying Trapeze is based on a real person: Jules Leotard. He was a former law student who ran away from home and joined a circus as an adolescent. Young Jules was the first performer to wear the skin-tight suit of clothes that would later be named after him; he died of tuberculosis aged only twenty-eight.


March 16, 1954 -
Max Ophüls'
beautifully acted film, La Ronde, premiered in the US on this date. (Psst kids, the films about the transmission of syphilis - really.)



The film was shot entirely in the studio.

This is a must-see film - find time to watch it today.


March 16, 1955 -
Elia Kazan's powerful family drama, East of Eden, premiered in Los Angeles on this date (this is the only one of the "big three" James Dean films to be released before his death.)



In the scene where Adam refuses to accept Cal's money, the script called for Cal to turn away in anger from his father. It was James Dean's instinct to embrace him instead. This came as a surprise to Raymond Massey, who could think of nothing to do but say, "Cal! Cal!" in response.


March 16, 1960 -
One of the iconic films of the French New Wave, À Bout de Souffle (Breathless), directed by Jean-Luc Godard, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg was released in France on this date.



Jean-Paul Belmondo was very surprised by the warm reception the film received. Immediately after production he was convinced it was so bad that he thought the film would never be released.


March 16, 1963 -
The musical group of Peter Paul and Mary released their hit single Puff the Magic Dragon, on this date. This song was rumored to be about drugs, particularly marijuana.



Some of the alleged drug references in this song include the "autumn mist," which was marijuana smoke, and the "land of Hanah Lee," which was the Hawaiian town of Hanalei, famous for its marijuana plants. Peter Yarrow insists that not only did the song have nothing to do with drugs, but that he didn't even know about pot in 1958, which kills any theories that he put drug references in subconsciously.


March 16, 1967 -

The Star Trek episode Errand of Mercy premiered on this date. In it, Kirk and Spock attempt to protect the planet Organia from the Klingon and sway them to the side of the Federation, but they aren’t welcome.



The episode marks the first appearance of Klingons on the series. Popularly known as The Vietnam Story, for its obvious allusions to Vietnam and its abuse by the colonial powers.


March 16, 1979 -
The Columbia Pictures thriller The China Syndrome, starring Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas, and Wilford Brimley premiered in the US on this date. The film opened less than two weeks before the Three Mile Island Nuclear meltdown.



When the film was first released, nuclear power executives soon lambasted the picture as being "sheer fiction" and a "character assassination of an entire industry". Then twelve days after its launch, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident occurred near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.


March 16, 2019 -
Lil Nas X's song Old Town Road makes the Country chart, but is removed the following week when Billboard declares it ineligible for the tally.



Like most unknown artists, Lil Nas X wasn't signed to a label when he uploaded this song to YouTube and various streaming platforms. When it became a viral sensation, radio stations added it to their playlists, but had to get it by ripping the song from YouTube because there was no label to service it. With a hit on his hands, Lil Nas X found himself in a a bidding war among multiple labels. Columbia Records won out and Lil Nas X inked an exclusive agreement with them on March 22, 2019.



Don't forget to tune in to The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour today


Today in History:
March 16 1190 -
More than 150 and perhaps as many as 500 Jews, secured in Clifford's Tower at York, died from suicide and massacre after they were sieged by townspeople under Richard Malebys on this date. Malebys was a nobleman who owed money to the Jews; after their siege all records relating to moneylending were destroyed.

This was seen as a warm-up for the Crusaders invasion of the Holy Land. It is the largest massacre of Jews in the history of the United Kingdom.


March 16 1792 -
At a masquerade ball, a disgruntled Captain Jacob Johan Ankarstroem shot Swedish King Gustav III near the heart with a bullet composed of lead and carpet tacks, on this date. It took the King almost two weeks to die.


Shakespeare never wrote about Gustavus, probably because Gustavus was born well after Shakespeare's death, but Giuseppe Verdi (or under his stage name, Joe Green) wrote an opera about the affair called Un Ballo in Maschera ("A Bull in Mascara").



As punishment, the Captain was decapitated, drawn, and quartered.

Ouch!!!


March 16, 1912 -
I'll have to have a room of my own. Nobody could sleep with Dick. He wakes up during the night, switches on the lights, speaks into his tape recorder

Thelma Catherine Pat Nixon (nee Ryan) - the patron saint of long suffering political wives and good Republican cloth coats was born on this date.


March 16, 1916
Tsutomu Yamaguchi, born on this date, was one of the only individuals who witnessed and survived both atom bombs in Japan, Hiroshima on August 6th, and Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.



Mr. Yamaguchi slowly recovered and went on to live a relatively normal life. He died from radiation related stomach cancer at 93, on January 4, 2010.


March 16, 1926 -
I will do whatever is necessary to make better the stupidity on my part - and therefore go after those who are acting stupid themselves. It's not popular. You don't make friends when you do that. And I couldn't care less.



Joseph Levitch, comedian, actor, producer, writer, director, singer, Légion d'honneur recipient and the dollar sign in Dean Martin eyes, was born on this date.


March 16, 1926 -
Robert H. Goddard, fueled the first hopes of space travel when he successfully launched the world's first liquid-fueled rocket at Auburn, Massachusetts on this date.



The rocket traveled for 2.5 seconds at a speed of about 60 mph, reaching an altitude of 41 feet. The rocket was 10 feet tall, constructed out of thin pipes, and was fueled by liquid oxygen and gasoline.

(This will be on the test.)


March 16 1949 -
It's Erik Estrada's birthday today.



Reason enough to live another day.


March 16, 1966 -
NASA launches the Gemini 8 on this date. It is the twelfth manned American space mission. Shortly after its launch, it will take part in the first physical docking of two spacecraft in orbit when it rendezvous with the Gemini Agena to conduct extravehicular activities six hours and thirty-three minutes after launch.



However, about twenty-seven minutes after docking, a malfunction in the capsule’s control thrusters occurs, and it is forced to abort the mission and return to Earth, only 6.5 orbits after launch. The mission is crewed by command pilot Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong and pilot Astronaut David R. Scott.


March 16 1978 -
Italian Red Brigades kidnapped former Italian Premier Aldo Moro on this date, in order to obtain the release of imprisoned comrades.



Moro was murdered and his body was later found on May 9, 1978.



And so it goes.