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Here's your Today in History -

October 11, 1899 -


The Bores of South Africa declared war on Great Britain in the hopes of generating interest, on this date. (The war should not be confused with the Boar War, which had been cancelled on account of tusks.)

October 11, 1910 -
Ex-president Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first U.S. president to fly in an airplane. He flew for four minutes with Arch Hoxsey in a plane built by the Wright Brothers at Kinloch Field (Lambert-St. Louis International Airport), St. Louis, Missouri. He was having such a good time, they had to club him like a baby seal to get him out of the plane. Bully.

October 11, 1952 -
Referee Francis DeReus halts the college football match between Wesleyan and Dubuque because of the profanity spewing from Dubuque's coach, Maco Mercer. History does not record which vulgarities were involved. Wanna guess?

October 11, 1961 -
Leonard Marx, Chico, one of the Marx Brothers, died on this date. Chico Marx was a compulsive womanizer, and had a lifelong gambling habit. His addiction cost him millions of dollars by his own account. When an interviewer asked him how much money he'd lost from gambling, he answered, "Find out how much money Groucho's got. That's how much I've lost." Gummo Marx, in an interview years after Chico's death, said, "Chico's favorite people were actors who gambled, producers who gambled, and women who screwed." Chico's lifelong gambling addiction compelled him to continue in show business long after his brothers had retired in comfort from their Hollywood income, and in the early 40s he found himself playing in the same small, cheap halls he had begun his career in 30 years previously.

For a while in the 1930s and 1940s Chico led a big band. Singer Mel Tormé began his professional career singing with the Chico Marx Orchestra.







October 11, 1975 -
Cold open of a new TV program:



And so began the long running (some say too long running) comedy variety show, with George Carlin as its host, it was called NBC's Saturday Night, because ABC featured a program at the same time titled Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell. After ABC canceled the Cosell program in 1976, the NBC program changed its name to Saturday Night Live on March 26, 1977. The first episode featured two musical guests Billy Preston (Nothing From Nothing & Fancy Lady ) and Janis Ian (At Seventeen & In The Winter).


October 11, 1976 -


The Gang of Four were arrested in Peking, on this date. Their first album, "Entertainment!" is released two years later. After re-education, eventually, so are they.



October 11, 1978 -
Former Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious (Gary Oldman) stabs girlfriend Nancy Spungeon (Chloe Webb) to death in room 100 of New York's Chelsea Hotel. Because Sid remembers nothing about the crime, theories include robbery and an abortive suicide pact. Vicious dies of an ugly heroin overdose shortly before his trial.



Folks, there are no pretty heroin overdoses.

October 11, 1981 -
Andy Kaufman successfully defends his World Intergender Wrestling Champion title in Atlantic City, by defeating Playboy magazine's Miss September, pinning her at the 18-minute mark.



And so it goes