Hi Bob!

September 16, 1953 -
The first movie filmed in the widescreen process CinemaScope, The Robe, premiered at the Roxy Theater in New York on this date.



Richard Burton was once threatened with a gun by Stewart Granger because of the affair he was having with Granger's wife Jean Simmons during filming.


September 16, 1963 -
The science-fiction anthology series The Outer Limits premiered on ABC-TV on this date.



The original title for "The Outer Limits" was "Please Stand By". But, America was facing the Cuban Missile Crisis and the executives thought it might make people fearful of an air raid. This is why, in the new series when the show would cut to a commercial, the Control Voice said, "Please stand by." A tip-of-the-hat to the original series title.


September 16, 1972 -
Everybody's favorite therapist, before Frasier (see below) walked through his front door as The Bob Newhart Show premiered on CBS-TV on this date.



A popular drinking game was invented by college students during the run of the show. Whenever someone on the show says, "Bob," each player had to take a drink. If someone said "Hi, Bob," you had to guzzle your drink.


September 16, 1993 -
Kelsey Grammer continued playing Dr. Fraiser Crane as Frasier, premiered on NBC-TV on this date.



Kelsey Grammer has been Emmy-nominated for playing the same character on three different shows: Cheers, Frasier and a guest appearance on Wings.


Today in History:
September 16, 1498 -
Tomas de Torquemada, the notorious Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition, died in Avila, Spain on this date.

More than 2,000 heretics were burned to death and 9,654 otherwise tortured under his aegis before all the Jews were expelled in 1492. In 1836, vandals break into Torquemada's tomb, cremate the bones, and scatter his ashes upon the winds.


At precisely twelve noon on September 16, 1893 a cannon's boom unleashed the largest land rush America ever saw.



Carried by all kinds of transportation - horses, wagons, trains, bicycles or on foot - an estimated 100,000 raced to claim plots of land in an area of land in northern Oklahoma Territory known as the Cherokee Strip.


September 16, 1810 -
No tequila for you if you thought Mexican Independence Day was Cinco de Mayo. Today is Independence Day in Mexico.



Mexico began its revolt against Spanish rule on this date. Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla issued "El Grito de Dolores" (Cry of Freedom), which claimed the end of Spanish rule.


September 16, 1920 -
A horse-drawn carriage loaded with dynamite exploded in front of the J.P. Morgan & Company headquarters at 23 Wall Street in New York's financial district, on this date. 30 people were killed in the blast. More than 400 were injured.



Although the crime was never solved, it was believed to have been the work of the Anarchists, angry internationalists who believed the only good institutions were smoldering ruins. Anarchist Leon Czolgosz had assassinated President McKinley two decades earlier, on September 6, 1901, in Buffalo - an assassination that caused Teddy Roosevelt and the bully pulpit.

(Despite similarities in spelling, Anarchists should not be confused with Antichrists, Arachnids or Pimentos.)


It was perhaps no accident that the Morgan bombing took place on the 300th anniversary of the Mayflower's departure from England. Passengers were mostly members of a separatist Protestant congregation separating from the Church of England (Puritan Party Poopers). They were from the English Midlands. They had gone at first to a village near Amsterdam, lived in Holland for ten years (generally bringing everybody down) and then decided to start their own society from scratch. They had two boats for the trip across the Atlantic: the Speedwell and the Mayflower. The Speedwell was leaky, and they spent time trying to repair it.



So when they finally set sail on September 16 (September 6th on the OC), they were way behind schedule. The journey took 66 days. It was rainy, it was cold, and the ocean was rough (They loved it). The boat was 90 feet long and carried 102 passengers. There were no separate cabins. They all had to live in the cargo area. But the Mayflower had previously been used to transport wine, and so the hold smelled wonderful (They hated it).



The Mayflower (and the Speedwell) carried its cargo of Puritan Party Poopers (Pilgrims) to Massachusetts, where they became the first tourists in history to visit Plymouth Rock.

Anarchists hate tourists.


September 16, 1968 -
Presidential candidate Richard M. Nixon appears on the NBC comedy show Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In and asks Sock it to me? on this date.



George Schlatter, the creator of Laugh-In, unsuccessfully chased after Vice-President Hubert Humphrey to offer him the same opportunity to appear on the show.  Humphrey was unable to make room in his schedule and always regretted it, stating that he believed it was one of the reasons he lost the election.


September 16, 2008 -
Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy (the largest so far in the United States) on this date and is seen as the beginning of the global financial crisis.



I'm not sure what the correct anniversary gift should be - just find a banker or hedge fund manager and kick him square in the groin (repeatedly.)


And so it goes