April 11, 1942 -
Horton Hatches the Egg, a Merrie Melodies production, is released on this date.
Bob Clampett's version of Dr. Seuss's Horton Hatches the Egg was the first cinematic adaptation of a Dr. Seuss book.
April 11, 1947 -
Charlie Chaplin's very dark comedy (from an idea by Orson Welles), Monsieur Verdoux, premiered on this date in NYC.
The film was a colossal box-office flop on its 1947 release, despite being ardently championed by writer-critic James Agee, who considered Charles Chaplin's acting performance the greatest male performance he had ever seen in films.
Today in History:
April 11, 1814 -
Able was I ere I saw Elba.
Napoleon tried a forced retirement, for the first time, as Emperor of France, on this date.
He retaining the title of emperor and 400 volunteers to act as his guard. He was granted sovereignty over Elba and a pension from the French government. Retirement on a small island in the Mediterranean off the coast of Italy, doesn't suit him and he comes back for his metric Hundred Day campaign (see March 20).
April 11, 1890 -
If I had a million dollars, well I'd buy you John Merrick's remains. Oh all of them crazy elephant bones.
Joseph "John" Merrick, the Elephant Man dies at the Royal London Hospital at the age of 27.
April 11, 1905 -
A simple patent clerk, Albert Einstein, known mostly for looking at the town clock or passing trains, produces a not so simple paper discussing the Theory of Relativity which among other things postulates that E = MC2 (yeah, yeah I'm no Einstein, I can't make 2 squared).
This astonished the world because previously E had always equally the fifth letter of the alphabet.
April 11, 1979 -
Kampala, the capital of Uganda, falls to the Tanzanians and dictator Idi Amin is overthrown. Amin escaped to Libya and settled into exile in Saudi Arabia.
Amin, an occasional cannibal who killed perhaps 300,000 during his reign, had made the mistake of invading Tanzania - this is the mistake most occasional cannibals make.And so it goes
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