On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive coast-to-coast rallies.
Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment.
Happy Earth Day!
Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values.
So perhaps you're ready to brave to great outdoors, with or withour your mask and hug a tree.
If you don't want to be this familiar with nature, give a deep bow to your house plants.
April 22, 1935 -
Universal Studios released the sequel to the original Frankenstein movie, Bride of Frankenstein, starring Boris Karloff, Colin Clive and Elsa Lanchester on this date.
When filming the scene where the monster emerges from the burnt windmill, Boris Karloff slipped and fell into the water-filled well. Upon being helped out, it was discovered that he had dislocated a hip in the fall. The hip was strapped into place and Karloff soldiered on. He continued to receive massage and heat treatments for the hip for the rest of the shooting of the film.
April 22, 1939 -
Warner Bros. released the film, Dark Victory, starring Bette Davis (in one of her favorite roles) and George Brent (her favorite actor with whom she had an affair) on this date.
Gossip columnist Hedda Hopper was notorious for not verifying her sources. She reported that director Edmund Goulding had engaged Sigmund Freud as technical adviser for this film. If she had checked on her scoop, she would have found out that the world's most famous psychiatrist had been dead for several months.
April 22, 1942 -
One of Hitchcock's brilliant World War II efforts (and with his first all-American cast), Saboteur, premiered in Washington D.C. on this date.
The shot of the ship on its side toward the end was an actual shot of the ocean liner S.S. Normandie, which had caught fire and capsized at its pier in New York. The fire was an accident, not sabotage (a cutting torch accidently set fire to some kapok life vests), though there were rumors of sabotage at the time.
April 22, 1953 -
Twentieth Century Fox releases the surrealistic science fiction film Invaders from Mars, directed by William Cameron Menzies on this date.
According to script supervisor Mary Yerke, director and production designer William Cameron Menzies filled 12 notebooks with charcoal sketches depicting every scene he planned to shoot. Just days before principal photography, all of these storyboard sketches disappeared from the production office.
April 22, 1966 -
The Troggs' (who were originally called The Troglodytes) song, Wild Thing was released in the U.S. on this date.
The song went on to reach No.1. Fronted by Reg Presley, Wild Thing became a major influence on garage rock and punk rock.
April 22, 1978 -
The Blues Brothers (John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd) make their debut on Saturday Night Live, on this date, later becoming the first characters from the show to get their own movie.
Steve Martin performs King Tut on the same Saturday Night Live episode, popularizing goofy Egyptian dancing.
The song, which portrays the pharaoh as his "favorite honky," goes on to sell over 500,000 copies.
Another unimportant moment in history
Today in History:
April 22, 1451 -
Isabella I, Queen of Castille, was born on this date. She also became the Queen of Aragon in 1479.
She was Christopher Columbus' patron, and must therefore share some of the responsibility for the many thousands of casinos across America.
April 22, 1500 -
Portuguese navigator Pedro Alvares Cabral, on a voyage to India, sails far to the southwest and discovers Brazil, claiming it for Portugal. The indigenous people of the area may have had something to say about it but as historian Eddie Izzard has observed, "...they didn't have a flag."
The land was first visited earlier in the year by a Spaniard, Vicente Yanes Pinzon, but in his rush to get two-for-one Caipirinhas, he left his flag on-board ship and failed to claim it for Spain.
April 22, 1870 -
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov was born on this date He later became Lenin, invented the Communist Party in Russia and made himself first Head Bastard of the Soviet Union.
It's interesting to note that Alexander Kerensky, the leader of Russia's provisional revolutionary government in 1917 until overthrown by Lenin, was born on the same day as Lenin, only eleven years later.
Well, it's interesting to some people.
April 22, 1904 -
Robert Oppenheimer was born on this date. Mr. Oppenheimer is known as the Father of the Atomic Bomb.
The bomb's mother has never been identified to anyone's satisfaction, which only underscores the lax security at Los Alamos.
April 22, 1923 -
For years I had my hair parted down the middle in a ponytail, tucked down around the sides... Well, I went and cut the bangs, and I've been wearing them ever since. They say it's my trademark..
Bettie Mae Page was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on this date.
April 22, 1946 -
I always was a weird child. My mother told me the story that, in kindergarten, I would come home and tell her about this weird kid in my class who drew only with black crayons and didn't speak to other kids. I talked about it so much that my mother brought it up with the teacher, who said, 'What? That's your son.'.
John Waters, film director, actor, raconteur, and the owner of the world's greatest pencil-thin mustache was born on this date.
April 22, 1950 -
Peter Frampton, musician, singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, was born on this date.
If you were a teenager in the mid 70s, you were issued your standard copy of Frampton Comes Alive to face your 'awkward' years. (Mr. Frampton appears doing well these days and has continued his farewell tour.)
April 22, 1964 -
President Johnson opened the New York World's Fair in Flushing Meadow, Corona Park, New York, on this date.
The Fair also is remembered as the vehicle Walt Disney utilized to design and perfect the system of "audio-animatronics," in which a combination of sound and computers control the movement of life-like robots to act out scenes. In the It's a Small World attraction at the Pepsi pavilion, animated dolls and animals frolicked in a spirit of racially-insensitive unity on a boat-ride around the world.
Once the fair was over, Walt feverishly pushed his Imagineers to build him an 'actual' President. Historians argue that this was the beginning of Ronald Reagan campaign for the Presidency.
April 22, 1994 -
Richard M. Nixon suffered a fatal stroke on this date. His body was laid to rest in the unhallowed grounds of his Presidential Library.
His head was severed from his body and wooden stakes were driven through his heart to make sure he was dead.
And so it goes.
1 comment:
Indeed he left his flag on-board ship
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