... and we're so easily called away

September 4, 1942 -
Warner Brothers reunited most of the cast of The Maltese Falcon for John Huston's war drama, Across the Pacific, which premiered on this date.



Much of the action takes place upon a Japanese freighter named the Genoa Maru. There was a real Japanese cargo ship by the same name which was torpedoed and sunk by the USS Finback on June 11, 1943.


September 4, 1951 –
The first national live television broadcast in the U.S. took place when President Harry Truman's speech at the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference in San Francisco, California was transmitted to broadcast stations in local markets across the country.



It has been estimated that more than 40 million people saw  the president open the Peace Treaty Conference; it was the largest single television audience to date.


September 4, 1953 -
The science fiction film Project Moonbase, based on a story by Robert A. Heinlein and directed by Richard Talmadge was released in the US on this date.



This movie and Cat-Women of the Moon were made using the some of the same sets and costumes. The two films were then released within one day of each other.


September 4, 1971 -
Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey by Paul & Linda McCartney topped the charts on this date.



McCartney combined pieces of various unfinished songs to create this; in the later years of The Beatles, they did this a lot as a way to put unfinished songs to good use. As a result, Uncle Albert - Admiral Halsey contains 12 different sections over the course of its 4:50 running time. This jumble of musical textures, comic character voices, sound effects and changing tempos turned off a lot of listeners, but many others thought it was brilliant. The song wasn't released as a single in the UK, but in America it became McCartney's first #1 hit as a solo artist.


Today in History:
September 4, 1781 -
Captain Rivera y Moncada (good friend of Uncle Porky) on the behest of the Mexican Provincial Governor, Felipe de Neve, led eleven Mexican Pobladores and their families, 46 settlers in all, established Our Pueblo by the River of Our Lady of the Angels of Uncle Porky near the the river they had seen 11 years earlier - (El Rio de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula.)



Los Angeles was founded on this date.


September 4, 1882 -
Thomas Edison displayed the first practical electrical lighting system on this date.

He successfully turned on the lights in a one square mile area of New York City (NY's Pearl Street Station).


September 4, 1885 -
The world's first cafeteria, The Exchange Buffet, catering to an exclusively male clientele, opens in New York at 7 New Street, on this date.

And if you hurry, there's still some of the original luncheon special available.


September 4, 1886 -
Geronimo was a prominent Native American leader of the Chiricahua Apache who warred against the encroachment of the United States on his tribal lands and people for over 25 years.  While outnumbered, Geronimo fought against both Mexican and United States troops and became famous for his daring exploits and numerous escapes from capture from 1858 to 1886.



At the end of his military career, he led a small band of 38 men, women, and children. They evaded 5,000 U.S. troops (one fourth of the army at the time) and many units of the Mexican army for a year. His band was one of the last major forces of independent Indian warriors who refused to acknowledge the United States Government in the American West. This came to an end on this date, when Geronimo surrendered to United States Army General Nelson A. Miles at Skeleton Canyon, Arizona.

Dubya's grandpappy, the anti-Indiana Jones, somehow figures into this story (you knew he would). In 1918, certain remains of Geronimo were apparently stolen in a grave robbery. Three members of the Yale secret society of Skull and Bones served as Army volunteers at Fort Sill during World War I; one of those three members was Prescott Bush; father of the forty-first President of the United States, George Bush, grandfather of the forty-third President of the United States, George W. Bush. They reportedly stole Geronimo's skull, some bones, and other items, including Geronimo's prized silver bridle, from the Apache Indian Prisoner of War Cemetery.



The stolen items were alleged to have been taken to the society's tomb-like headquarters on the Yale University campus, and are supposedly used in rituals practiced by the group, one of which is said to be kissing the skull of Geronimo as an initiation.  (But I've said too much already.)


September 4, 1888 -
Remember, You press the button, we do the rest.



George Eastman received patent #388,850 for the first roll-film camera and registers "Kodak" on this date.


September 4, 1957 -
Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas, in a vain attempt to take a stand against segregation, used the US reserve militia troops to stop nine black students from entering a high school in Little Rock on this date.



Faubus was in violation of a federal desegregation order and President Dwight Eisenhower, roused from his afternoon nap, sent the US military to escort the black children into the school.

You must know that you are on the wrong side of history if your first name is Orval.


September 4, 1972 -
American swimmer Mark Spitz became the first athlete to win seven Olympic gold medals on this date .



For his all of his effort, he is forced to walk around in a Speedo for years - the constant jock itch was horrible.


September 4, 1976 -
George W Bush was arrested in Kennebunkport, Maine for driving with a blood-alcohol level of 0.10 percent. He pays the $150 fine and has his driving privileges suspended for a month.

Years later, during Bush's 2000 campaign for President, a WPXT-TV reporter from Portland, Maine uncovers the arrest record just one week prior to election day. It is also revealed that Bush's V.P. candidate, Dick Cheney, had arrests for drunken driving in 1962 and 1963.


September 4, 1998 -
The Internet search engine, Google, was founded by two PhD students at Stanford University in California, Sergey Brin and Larry Page on this date.



Today, more than one million servers worldwide are used to power Google, which processes more than one billion search requests per day.  And all of those requests and e-mails goes straight to the NSA - hope you didn't search about that rectal itch you had.


September 4, 2006 -
“Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin was killed by a stingray’s barb piercing his chest and heart. He was snorkeling in shallow water at the Great Barrier Reef, filming some scenes for a segment in a television show

A similar incident in Florida a month later in which a man survived a stingray barb through the heart showed that Irwin may have caused his own death by removing the barb.



And so it goes


Before you go - during my daily trawling through the dark and vast intraweb, I found this charming short film by Oscar-winning filmmaker Torill Kove My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts on the welcoming shores of  the blog Nag on the Lake.



Please do yourself a favor and watch the film.