In case you were wondering.

Today is the last day of Dry January

You may resume drinking with abandon tomorrow for the start of Lunar New Year


January 31, 1921 -
John G. Agar, American's greatest B movie actor, first husband of Shirley Temple,



and once the owner of the world's largest King Kong statue (I kid you not),



was born on this day.



Some days, it just doesn't get any better.


January 31, 1957 -
Terrorama! Double Horror Sensation!





It's not to be believed but on a double bill, Attack of the Crab Monsters and Not of this Earth premiered on this date.

Oh Roger Corman, still alive and kicking, we love you!


January 31, 1970 -
Led Zeppelin's single, Whole Lotta Love reaches #4 in the US, on this date,the highest any of their songs will ever chart on the Hot 100. Most of their songs, including Stairway To Heaven, were not released as singles.



Jimmy Page served as Led Zeppelin's producer, and on this song, he let loose in the studio, using all kinds of innovative techniques, particularly in the freeform section about 1:20 in, which was the result of him and engineer Eddie Kramer "twiddling every knob known to man." This part is often referred to as "the freakout."


January 31, 1986 -
Paul Mazursky's funny remake of Jean Renior's film Boudu Saved From Drowning, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, starring Nick Nolte, Bette Midler and Richard Dreyfuss, premiered on this date.



Nick Nolte's character remarks that he became a bum in part because he was "pretty active politically in the '60s. Sold some draft cards." In real life, Nolte received five years' probation for selling fake draft cards in the 1960s.


January 31, 1988 -
Everyone went back to the late 60s and early 70s when The Wonder Years, starring Fred Savage, Danica McKellar and Josh Saviano premiered on ABC-TV on this date.



Arye Gross performed the narration for the pilot when it originally aired. However, Arye's narration was later removed and replaced with Daniel Stern's voice when the pilot aired in reruns.


January 31, 1999 -
Seth MacFarlane's Family Guy premiered on Fox, on this date.



This is the most watched episode of the all the episodes from all the series. It is estimated that 22,000,000 Americans saw this when it was originally broadcast in 1999, (it aired immediately after Super Bowl XXXIII.)


Word of the Day


Today in History:
January 31, 1606 -
Guy Fawkes and a group of English Catholics attempted to overthrow and assassinate King James I with the intention of installing his daughter, Princess Elizabeth as queen, on November 5, 1605. The failed attempt came to be known as the Gunpowder Plot.



Fawkes was sentenced to the traditional traitors' death - to be 'hanged, drawn and quartered'. In any event, on this date, he jumped from the gallows, breaking his own neck and thereby avoiding the horror of being cut down while still alive, having his testicles cut off and his stomach opened and his guts spilled before his eyes. His lifeless body was hacked into quarters and his remains sent to 'the four corners of the kingdom' as a warning to others.



While most of England celebrates the failed Gunpowder Plot as a national holiday on November 5, Guy Fawkes was also voted #30 in the BBC-sponsored list of "100 Greatest Britons" in 2002.


January 31, 1921 -
The Carroll A. Deering was a five-masted commercial schooner that was found run aground off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, on this date. Its crew was mysteriously missing.



Theories abound about the the crews disappearance ranging from piracy, mutiny and victims of the dread 'Bermuda Triangle'.

The truth is out there.


January 31, 1940 -
The first monthly retirement check was issued to Ida May Fuller of Ludlow, Vermont, in the amount of $22.54. Miss Fuller, a Legal Secretary, retired in November 1939. She started collecting benefits in January 1940 at age 65 and lived to be 100 years old, dying in 1975.



Ida May Fuller worked for three years under the Social Security program. The accumulated taxes on her salary during those three years were a total of $24.75. During her lifetime she collected a total of $22,888.92 in Social Security benefits.


January 31, 1945 -
Private Eddie Slovik was the first U.S. soldier to be shot for desertion since the Civil War on this date.



Although over 21,000 American soldiers were given varying sentences for desertion during World War II, including 49 death sentences, Slovik's was the only death sentence carried out.


January 31, 1950 -
Coming off yet another three day bender, President Truman gave the go-ahead for the development of Edward Teller's hydrogen bomb on this date.

The "hell bomb," as it was called, served to greatly heighten US-USSR tensions in the Cold War. Hopefully, the terrorists are not reading my blog and taking notes.


January 31, 1951 -
People like to hear the original artists playing the songs - there's nothing like the real thing.



Phil Manzanera, guitarist for Roxy Music was born on this date.


January 31, 1958 -
Explorer-I, officially Satellite 1958 Alpha (and sometimes referred to as Explorer 1), was the first Earth satellite of the United States, having been launched at 10:48 pm EST on this date, as part of the United States program for the International Geophysical Year.



The satellite was launched from LC-26 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, on board a Juno I rocket. Although it carried a number of instruments, Explorer I was relatively small, weighing just 30 lbs (13 kg).



Electrical power was provided by mercury chemical batteries that made up approximately 40 percent of the payload weight. These provided power that operated the high power transmitter for 31 days and the low-power transmitter for 105 days. (This is on the test.)


January 31, 1961 -
The United States sends its first space monkey into space, Ham the chimpanzee. His Mercury/Redstone 2 achieves an altitude of 158 miles. Ham's capsule splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean and was recovered by a rescue ship later that day.



After the flight, Ham lived for 17 years in the National Zoo in Washington D.C., then at the North Carolina Zoo before dying at the age of 27 on January 19, 1983. Ham the Chimp was not the first animal in space. That honor goes to Laika the dog, who was sent into orbit by the Soviet Union in 1957. Ham could not deal with this fact; and NASA had to hide the fact that Ham had become hooked on smack.


January 31, 1971 -
NASA launched the manned U.S. lunar lander Apollo 14 on a mission to the Fra Mauro region of the Moon, on this date. The crew consists of Commander Alan Shepard, Command Module Pilot Stuart Roosa, and Lunar Module Pilot Edgar Mitchell.



The crew will land on February 5, 1971 and collect 42.9 kilograms of lunar samples, completing the aborted mission of the Apollo 13.



And so it goes