Each year on June 12, people in the United States observe National Red Rose Day. The day is meant to honor the flower that is a symbol of love and romance, the red rose.
Apparent the other color roses don't have as strong a lobby.
Give a hearty handshake to the men and women who keep your car running and on the road (Today is Automotive Service Day.)
Just remember, you probably aren't using your car tonight.
June 12, 1913 -
Pathé Frères studios releases Dachshund (also known as The Artists Dream,) the first animated cartoon made in the U.S. with modern techniques, .
John Randolph Bray invented and patented the process while producing the film. He patented many of his improvements on the animation process, realizing early on the business potential of these developments.
June 12, 1950 -
Elia Kazan's film-noir thriller, Panic In The Streets, opened on this date.
Though Elia Kazan liked to claim that much of Panic in the Streets was improvised, there was a script, adapted by Richard Murphy and Daniel Fuchs from a story by Edward Anhalt and Edna Anhalt.
June 12, 1963 -
The four-hour film spectacle, Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, premiered in New York City, on this date.
When the film finally broke even in 1973, 20th Century-Fox "closed the books" on Cleopatra, keeping all future profits from this film secret to avoid paying those who might have been promised a percentage of the net profits.
June 12, 1968 -
Roman Polanksi horror classic Rosemary's Baby, premiered on this date.
It was on the set of this film that Mia Farrow received divorce papers from then-husband Frank Sinatra.
June 12, 1972 -
The film Deep Throat was released in NYC on this date. You look for longer clips
The total box office of this movie has often been stated to be $600 million. As noted by Roger Ebert in his review of Inside Deep Throat, most of the porn theaters in the pre-video days were owned by the mob. Inflating box office receipts could have been one of their ways of laundering income from drugs and prostitution, so the $600 million figure may have been a gross overestimation. More conservative estimates would put the figure somewhere around $100 million. Whatever may be the case, very few of the people directly involved in the making of the film saw a big piece of the earnings. As stated in 'Inside Deep Throat', much of the box office disappeared when mobsters came to cinemas to collect all the cash profits, with no one being able to do something about it.
June 12, 1981 -
A bizarre coincidence but Mel Brooks' History of the World Part 1 and Lucas/ Spielberg's Raiders Of The Lost Ark both premiered on this date.
Gregory Hines replaced Richard Pryor at the last minute. Just like in Mel Brooks' earlier Blazing Saddles, Pryor was originally cast but had to pull out of the picture. Pryor's part eventually was taken by Hines in his screen debut. Just before filming was to begin, Pryor had his infamous drug-related accident, catching fire and getting severely burnt.
Indiana Jones never loses his hat as an homage to the classic serials of the 1940s. In those serials, the heroes' hats stayed on heads through virtually any assault. This was done for continuity reasons, but also because it was considered poor taste for a gentleman to be without his hat in certain situations - even on the silver screen.
Aren't you glad that you know all of this.
Today's moment of Zen -
Today in History -
In early 1381 England imposed a new tax, which was called the "Pole Tax" because everyone got the shaft.
June 12, 1839 -
Alexander Cartwright, and not, Abner Doubleday, should be credited with the invention of baseball.
On the one hundredth anniversary of the apocryphal story, the National Baseball Hall of Fame opened in Cooperstown, New York (in an effort to bring tourists to town.)
The first five inductees were Walter Johnson, Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson and Babe Ruth.
The Swiss Army Knife was patented on June 12, 1897. It was the fruit of centuries of Swiss research, development, and testing. Its release was heralded as the dawn of a golden age of Swiss technology.
Switzerland may not have won a war since, but they've never been caught without a corkscrew.
June 12, 1942 -
A young Dutch girl receives the crappy gift of a diary as a birthday present on this date.
She natters on for a little more than two years of small, inconsequential things young girls usually do in their diaries and then she abruptly stops writing. Today, her diary has been published in over 30 languages.
So parents, chose wisely when giving your children birthday gifts.
June 12, 1963 -
Civil rights leader and NAACP official, Medgar Evers was fatally shot in front of his home in Jackson, Mississippi by the KKK.
An informant in the KKK, Delmar Dennis, later served as a key prosecution witness in convicting Byron De La Beckwith for the slaying. Beckwith was convicted of murdering Evers and sentenced to life in prison; he died in 2001 at age 80.
June 12, 1967 -
51 years ago today, the US Supreme Court, in Loving v. Virginia, struck down state laws prohibiting interracial marriages.
Mildred Jeter and her white husband, Richard Loving, married in 1958, had been arrested in Virginia within weeks of arriving from Washington DC and convicted on charges of "cohabiting as man and wife."
June 12, 1978 -
David Berkowitz was sentenced to a maximum of 365 years in prison without the possibility of parole on this date.
Berkowitz killed six New Yorkers between 1976 and 1977, known collectively as the Son of Sam murders.
Harvey, Sam Carr's dog, was not charged with any crime.
June 12, 1982 -
The largest anti-nuclear protest, with some one million anti-nuclear demonstrators rallied in Central Park, NYC on this date.
At the time, it was also the largest political demonstration, of any kind, in American history.
June 12, 1987 -
U.S. President Ronald Reagan publicly challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall at Brandenburg Gate.
Although there is some disagreement over how much influence, if any, Reagan's words had on the destruction of the wall, the speech is remembered as an important moment in Cold War history.
And so it goes.
Before you go - Today is the second year anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub shooting.
Please take a moment today to remember the victims and their families.
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