Bon temps roulez mes amis. It's Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) folks. So everybody shake your groove thing.
Today is also know as Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day, which heralds the beginning of fasting in Lent. On this day (so the historians say) there were feasts of pancakes to use up the supplies of fat, butter and eggs... foods that were forbidden during austere Lent.
In England there arc several celebrations on this day but perhaps the best known one is the Pancake Day Race at Olney in Buckinghamshire which has been held since 1445. The race came about when a woman cooking pancakes heard the shriving bell summoning her to confession. She ran to church wearing her apron and still holding her frying pan, and thus without knowing it, started a tradition that has lasted for over five hundred years.
February 16, 1975 -
The music variety series Cher premiered on CBS television .
How did this get on the air?
Syfy Channel (the dumbest name for a cable network)has just greenlighted the long-awaited Sharktopus movie, to be directed by cult monster auteur Roger Corman.
I must have one for my secret lair!Today in History:
February 16, 1921 -
Vera-Ellen, actress and anorexia nervosa sufferer, was born on this date.
By the time she appeared in White Christmas, all of her costumes had to be redesigned to cover her neck which appeared horribly aged from the eating disorder.
February 16, 1923 -
Lord Carnarvon opens King Tut's tomb, revealing one of the most well-preserved treasures from the ancient world.
While it has been frequently reported that a curse killed 13 of the 20 people present at the opening of the tomb, there was no curse and no unusual death patterns occurred.
February 16, 1959 -
Failed baseball player Fidel Castro is sworn in as President For Life of Cuba after having led the revolution that removed Fulgenico Batista. At the time, Cuba was a nation plagued by poverty, racked by corruption, and held in thrall by the military force of its leader.
During his first year of rule, 500 are put to the firing squad, an RBI record any dictator would be proud of.February 16, 1918 -
Lithuania declared its independence from Russia.
It was such a successful declaration that they didn't have to repeat it for more than seventy years.February 16, 1990 -
Keith Haring, artist/cartoonist, died of AIDS at 31 on this date.
And so it goes
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