Very clever work
October 28, 1947 -
A forgotten yet still powerful film-noir, Nightmare Alley, was released on this date.
Tyrone Power gives a memorable performance. Audiences, unfortunately weren't able to deal with him casted against type and he never had such a dramatically heavy role again.
October, 28, 1957 -
Federico Fellini's Le Notti di Cabiria (Nights of Cabiria) opened in the US on this date.
This is the film that provided the basis for the musical "Sweet Charity."
Today's word -
Chermadic: adjective, of a heavy weight used as a projectile. Wile E. Coyote continues to be crushed by his own chermadic snares.
Here's Your Today in History -
October 28, 4004 BC -
God creates Adam and Eve five days after the rest of the universe,
according to Biblical calculations by Archbishop James Ussher
October 28, 1858 -
Macy's Department Store in New York City, on the corner of 14th Street and 6th Avenue, opens on this date
On the company's first day of business, the sales totaled $11.06. Betcha didn't know that the star in the Macy's logo comes from a tattoo that Mr. Macy got as a teenager when he worked on a Nantucket whaling ship.
October 28, 1886 -
The Statue of Liberty was dedicated at Liberty Island, New York, by President Grover Cleveland. The statue weighs 225 tons and is 152 feet tall. It was originally known as "Liberty Enlightening the World." Lady Liberty, as she came to be called, quickly become a symbol of America, partly because she was such a striking visual symbol of our national reverence for liberty, partly because of the five-dollar hot dogs and ten-dollar plastic replicas sold at her feet.
The statue's inscription was written by poet Emma Lazarus, and attributes the following exhortation to Lady Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
(Cynics like to point out that construction of the golden door was never completed.)
Exactly thirty-three years later, in 1919, Congress passed a law prohibiting alcohol.
With alcohol outlawed, only outlaws had drinks and the atmosphere fosters Mafia encroachment into legitimate businesses. Strangely, the lesson here has yet to be learned. Fortunately there were an awful lot of them and they overturned the law as soon as they were sober enough to vote.
October 28, 1922 -
Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini seizes power in Italy, with the assistance of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XI declared "Mussolini is a man sent by divine providence."
In return for this endorsement, the silly dictator signs the Lateran treaty, restoring papal sovereignty over the Vatican.
But at least the trains run on time.
October 28, 1948 -
The Nobel committee announces that Swiss chemist Paul Mueller has won the 1948 chemistry prize.
He discovered the unusual insecticidal properties of 1,1,1-trichloro-2,2- bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethane. Thanks to Mueller, the world embraces the phenomenal bug-killer... until somebody discovers that the hydrocarbon, popularly known as DDT, also excels at causing cancer.
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Oops
October 28, 1955 -
William Henry Gates III is born in Seattle.
Even with the economic downturn, Bill's coupon clipping has helped him regain the number one position on Forbes' billionaire list.
Good for him.
And so it goes
P.S. And on a personal note: Happy Birthday Olivia.
Now, get off the computer.
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