Work is no disgrace; the disgrace is idleness

We here at ACME hope that you're enjoying your last hot dog and ice cold beer of the summer today, (hopefully you're using ACME Split Buns to slip your ACME Snappy Weinie - The Almost 100% all beef frank (but hey don't ask what the other stuff in it is) - in our well buttered Split Buns and feel the difference,) but let's remember that there is actual a point to Labor Day -



to celebrate the economic and social contributions of workers. Keep in mind, the first minimum wage was established in the USA in 1938 –



for all of 25 cents per hour (adjusted for inflation, that would be worth $4.19 today.)



And please, don't make John Waters unhappy - starting tomorrow, don't wear white


September 7, 1935 -
The Merrie Melodies short, The Lady in Red, directed by Friz Freleng, was released on this date.



The Lady In Redwas a smash hit for Xavier Cugat and his Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra, peaking at #3 on Billboard's Hit Parade in 1935.


September 7, 1954 -
Roberto Rossellini's masterpiece, Journey to Italy (Viaggio in Italia,) starring Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders, is released on this date.



George Sanders, in his 1960 autobiography, wrote at length about the making of this film, which he found an exasperating and unpleasant experience. He spoke witheringly about Roberto Rossellini, whom he characterized as being more interested in scuba-diving than in film-making. Although the tone of his remarks is one of amusement, it became known that Sanders (who had admired earlier Rossellini films) had been deeply affected by exposure to a style of film-making quite foreign to his previous experience, and had spent the shoot feeling frustrated and angry, often bursting into uncontrollable tears.


September 7, 1963 -
The Merrie Melodies short, The Unmentionables, directed by Friz Freleng, and starring Bugs Bunny, Rocky and Mugsy, was released on this date.



This short has Rocky and Mugsy in their final appearance.


September 7, 1963 -
The first animated cartoon series to be imported from Japan, Astro Boy was broadcast on NBC-TV on this date.



The Japanese version originally didn't have a theme song, it wasn't until the success of the American theme song that they came up with one for the Japanese version.


September 7, 1967 -
The Flying Nun, starring Sally Field as a nun who finds that she can fly, debuted on ABC-TV on this date.



Sally Field has admitted that she disliked the scripts so much that she refused to read them. She would learn her lines right before shooting each scene by looking at the script supervisor's script.


September 7, 1968 –
The Banana Splits Adventure Hour (which only lasted 31 episodes,) starring Bingo, Drooper, Fleegle, and Snorky, premiered on NBC, on this date.



The show originally was going to be called The Banana Bunch. However, there was a children's book already released with that title and the author wouldn't give permission to Hanna-Barbera to use it. Also, the name change had further repercussions as Kellogg's, who was the show's sponsor, was going to sell cereal with the Banana Bunch name and when the name changed happened Kellogg's was forced to abandon their plans even though they had already printed 1.25 million boxes with the cereal's name.


September 7, 1979 -
ESPN, the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, made its debut on cable TV.



The first program on the air, Sports Center lasted a half-hour, consisting mainly of videotaped highlights and following its conclusion that night, the network aired a slow-pitch softball game along with other programming, including wrestling and college soccer.


September 7, 1984 -
The low budget sci-fi classic, The Brother from Another Planet, written and directed by John Sayles, and starring Joe Morton, Darryl Edwards, Steve James, Bill Cobbs, and David Strathairn, was released on this date.



John Sayles financed most of this movie himself. Sayles has describes this movie as being about the immigrant experience of assimilation. He spent part of his MacArthur Fellows 'genius' grant on the film, which cost $350,000 to produce. The film grossed over ten times its production cost in its first weekend of full release.


September 7, 1985 -
David Bowie and Mick Jagger's cover of the Martha Reeves and The Vandellas 1964 hit Dancing In The Street hit No.1 on the UK singes chart, on this date



The video was broadcast at Live Aid after Queen's historic set at Wembley Stadium. After it ended, Bowie started his live performance. Jagger went on much later from the Philadelphia stage.


September 7, 1985 -
Star Wars: Droids: The Adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO an animated television series spin off from the original Star Wars trilogy premiered on ABC TV, on this date. It was paired with the series Star Wars: Ewoks, which also premiered on ABC TV on this date.



As the story begins, R2-D2 and C-3PO find themselves on the planet Ingo after being tossed overboard along with their previous master's stolen goods. This master was a smuggler and won the two droids during a game of chance, but ended up being arrested himself. A deep dive into Star Wars lore will lead you to discover that Zevel Hortine is the name of the previously unidentified smuggler.


September 7, 1987 -
Pink Floyd released their first album without founding member Roger Waters, A Momentary Lapse of Reason, in the UK, on this date.



Pink Floyd had split up in 1983 after releasing the album The Final Cut. In 1985, Waters told their record company he was done with the band, which he thought would retire Pink Floyd. It didn't. The following year, David Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason reinstated keyboard player Rick Wright as a full member (Waters demoted him to session man) and announced they would be continuing as Pink Floyd. Waters tried to stop them, but his legal efforts failed. Convinced the album would fail, he sniped at his former bandmates in the press, wondering how they could make anything of value without him.


September 7, 1991 -
The pilot episode of the sequel to the series WKRP In Cinninati, The New WKRP in Cincinnati, starring Gordon Jump, Richard Sanders, Frank Bonner, Mykelti Williamson, Tawny Kitaen, and French Stewart, premiered on CBS TV on this date.



Gordon Jump, Frank Bonner, and Richard Sanders reprised their roles from the original show, while Howard Hesseman reprised the role of Dr. Johnny Fever on a recurring basis. Other original cast members came in for guest spots, with Loni Anderson returning for two episodes and Tim Reid for one episode. Several more minor characters from the original series, such as Mrs. Carlson, Lucille Tarlek, Bucky Dornster, and Johnny's ex-girlfriend Buffy, make appearances throughout the series.


September 7, 1993 –
The Chevy Chase Show landed with a thud, out of the gate, when it premiered on Fox, on this date. The show was cancelled six weeks later.



Fox originally asked Dolly Parton to host a new late night program; the network's first since The Late Show, originally hosted by Joan Rivers, and later hosted by both Arsenio Hall and Ross Shafer, was cancelled in October 1988. Parton turned the network down, and suggested Chase for the job. Richard Lewis, Greg Kinnear, and Howard Stern were considered to replace Chevy Chase after the show was cancelled.


Word of the Day.


Today in History:
September 7, 1533 -
Elizabeth I was born on on this date. She was crowned at 25 and remained on the throne for 44 years, which helps explain why she remained a virgin all her life.



She is best known for having ordered the destruction of the Spanish Armadillo and the invention of Shakespeare.


September 7, 1915 -
Former-cartoonist Johnny Gruelle received a patent (US patent #47,789) his Raggedy Ann doll on this date.

Gruelle created Raggedy Ann for his daughter, Marcella, when she brought him an old hand-made rag doll and he drew a face on it. From his bookshelf, he pulled a book of poems by James Whitcomb Riley, and combined the names of two poems, The Raggedy Man and Little Orphant Annie. He said, "Why don’t we call her Raggedy Ann?"


September 7, 1927 -
Philo T. Farnsworth (all of 21 years old) succeeded in transmitting an image through purely electronic means by using an image dissector on this date.
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He used an "image dissector" (the first television camera tube) to convert the image into a current, and an "image oscillite" (picture tube) to receive it.



When the simple image of a straight line was placed between the image dissector and a carbon arc lamp, it showed up clearly on the receiver in another room. His first tele-electronic image was transmitted on a glass slide at his laboratory at 202 Green Street in San Francisco. He went on to have his first public demonstrate of his invention to the press a year later, on September 3, 1928.


It's the birthday of singer and songwriter Charles Hardin "Buddy" Holly, born in Lubbock, Texas, on this date in 1936. By the age of 13, Holly was playing what he called "Western Bop" at local clubs. He was 19 when an agent discovered him and signed him to a contract with Decca Records.



The following year, Holly returned to Lubbock and, with three friends, formed The Crickets, who then released That' ll Be The Day, which sold over a million copies. Buddy Holly's career was short: He died in February of 1959 in a plane crash in northern Iowa. Soon after, an English band that admired The Crickets decided to call themselves The Beatles.


September 7, 1936 -
The last Tasmanian Tiger, the Thylacine was the largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern times, died at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania, Australia, on this date.



This dog-like marsupial was systematically exterminated as an undesirable predator of farm animals.


September 7, 1940 -
Nazi Germany began its initial blitz on London during the World War II Battle of Britain on this date. The German Luftwaffe blitzed London for the first of 57 consecutive nights on this date. Germany launched the aerial bombing of London that Adolf Hitler believed would soften Britain for an invasion.



The invasion, "Operation Sea Lion," never materialized. The Luftwaffe lost 41 bombers over England. The blitz only strengthened Britain's resistance. The defense of London was for the Royal Air Force what Churchill called "their finest hour."


September 7, 1978 -
Keith Moon, drummer for The Who, died in his London residence from an overdose of chlormethiazole edisylate, a prescription drug used to treat alcoholism.



Moon's flat, #12 Curzon Place, was the same spot where Cass Elliot died of a heart attack in 1974 (and not from choking on a ham sandwich, smarty pants.)


September 7, 1978 -
Walking to the bus stop, BBC journalist Georgi Markov suddenly felt a sharp pain in his right calf. A KGB assassin had jabbed him with an umbrella tip, rigged to inject a tiny platinum sphere. The pellet is laden with ricin, a castor-based toxin with no known antidote. Markov died in the hospital four agonizing days later.



Oh those wacky KGB agents.


September 7, 1996 -
Standing up through the open sunroof of a BMW 750 sedan, rap artist Tupac Shakur was talking to some women at a Las Vegas street intersection when a white Cadillac pulls alongside. Gunfire erupts, and Shakur was shot four times. He died in the hospital a week later.



Although quite dead, or so we are led to believe, he still has quite impression record sales.


September 7, 2003 -
... I missed jazz, kind of. And by the time I came to it in life, it was too intimidating to enjoy thoroughly.



Warren Zevon, Grammy Award-winning American rock singer-songwriter and musician, died at age 56, on this date.



And so it goes.

Books are a uniquely portable magic

Today is Read a Book Day, which should not be confused with National Book Lovers Day, celebrated on August 9th.



I'm currently reading Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage: The Titanic's First-Class Passengers and Their World by Hugh Brewster.


September 6, 1925 -
The silent-film The Phantom of the Opera, starring, Lon Chaney (who considered it his crowning achievement) premiered in NYC on this date.



Lon Chaney's horrific, self-applied make-up was kept secret right up until the film's premiere. Not a single photograph of Chaney as The Phantom was published in a newspaper or magazine or seen anywhere before the film opened in theaters. Universal Pictures wanted The Phantom's face to be a complete surprise when his mask was ripped off.


September 6, 1936 -
The classic screwball comedy, My Man Godfrey, premiered on this date.



Jane Wyman has an uncredited role. She can be seen standing at the back of the crowd in the Waldorf Ritz Hotel as Godfrey makes his speech condemning them all as "nitwits".


September 6, 1940 -
Part of the Charlie Chan detective series, Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum, directed by Lynn Shores and starring Sidney Toler, Victor Sen Yung, C. Henry Gordon, and Marc Lawrence, was released on this date.



This was the 25th of 47 Charlie Chan movies.


September 6, 1944 -
Billy Wilder's film-noir classic, Double Indemnity, starring Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck and Edward G. Robinson, opened in NYC on this date.



Author James M. Cain later admitted that if he had come up with some of the solutions to the plot that screenwriters Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler did, he would have employed them in his original novel.


September 6, 1947 -
The Merrie Melodies short, House Hunting Mice, directed by Chuck Jones, and featuring Hubie and Bertie, was released on this date.



This short was a follow up to the 1939 short Dog Gone Modern, which featured two dogs exploring an "automatic house"


September 6, 1958 -
Steve McQueen debuted in the western series, Wanted: Dead or Alive, on CBS-TV on this date.



Steve McQueen was hired after Jack H. Harris, who was producing The Blob gave him a glowing reference to Dick Powell (the head of Four Star Productions). Powell also asked for, and was granted, the opportunity to view a rough cut of that film.


September 6, 1967 -
One of the seminal documentaries of the 60s, Don't Look Back directed by D. A. Pennebaker was released in NYC on this date.



The scene where Donovan visits Dylan in his hotel was generally viewed as Dylan putting the young singer-songwriter in his place when he grabs the guitar and performs It's All Over Now, Baby Blue. But a 2015 Criterion Collection remaster, with improved sound, revealed that Donovan actually requested Dylan play that song for him. That gave the entire scene a new meaning and revealed Dylan and Donovan as more friends than rivals.


September 6, 1975 -
After 13 Top 40 hits, Glen Campbell finally had his first No.1 hit with his song, Rhinestone Cowboy, on this date.



The song had a lot of meaning for Glen Campbell, and one he would call "maybe the best song I've ever sung." It came at a time when his career had gone flat: His popular TV show had been canceled, acting gigs dried up, and he hadn't had a hit since 1971. The story of the faded star who perseveres in the song held a lot of meaning for Campbell.


September 6, 1976 -
Fleetwood Mac's tenth studio album , Fleetwood Mac, went to No. 1 on the Billboard Charts on this date. It was their second eponymous album, (which was also known as their White Album); their first being the band's debut from 1968.



This was the first Fleetwood Mac album to feature Lindsey Buckingham as guitarist and Stevie Nicks as vocalist.


September 6, 1984 -
Milos Forman's adaptation of Peter Shaffer's play, Amadeus, starring Tom Hulce, F. Murray Abraham, and Elizabeth Berridge premieres in Los Angeles on this date



When shooting the scene in which Salieri is writing down the death mass under Mozart's dictation, Tom Hulce was deliberately skipping lines to confuse F. Murray Abraham, in order to achieve the impression that Salieri wasn't able to fully understand the music being dictated.


September 6, 1986 –
Bananarama's cover of the Shocking Blue single, Venus hit no. 1 on this date



Bananarama's version was produced by the team of Stock, Aitken and Waterman, who worked on hits by Rick Astley (Never Gonna Give You Up), Dead or Alive (You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)) and Kylie Minogue (I Should Be So Lucky).


Another album from the discount bid at The ACME Record Shoppe.


Today in History:
September 6, 1776 -
America's first submersible, David Bushnell's egg-shaped Turtle, piloted by Erza Lee (after Ezra Bushnell, David's brother, the submarine's initial captain, died the night before) unsuccessfully attacked the British-vessel HMS Eagle in New York harbor on this date.



The bomb was released into the water and resulted in a frightening explosion. While the American Turtle failed to destroy its target, the British recognized the threat and moved the fleet. Royal Navy logged and reported from this period make no mention of this incident, and it is possible that the Turtle's attack may be more submarine legend than historical event.


September 6, 1803 -
British scientist John Dalton (born on September 6, 1766,) begins using symbols to represent the atoms of different elements, which he considered to be the smallest parts of matter.

The idea of atoms was already known at the time, but not widely accepted. Dalton's theory of atoms was based on actual observation. Before this, ideas about atoms were based more on philosophy.


September 6, 1901 -
While shaking hands at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, President William McKinley was shot twice in the abdomen at point-blank range with a .32 caliber revolver, on this date. He, unintentionally, became the first President to ride in an automobile as a motorized ambulance takes him to a hospital.



The assassin, an anarchist by the name of Leon Frank Czolgosz, concealed his gun within a handkerchief, actually was a lone gunman (for once). McKinley died a week later and became the third American president assassinated.


September 6, 1916 -
Clarence Saunders opened the Piggly Wiggly® grocery store (the first self-service market,) at 79 Jefferson Street in Memphis, Tennessee, 105 years ago on this date. Piggly Wiggly's introduction of self-service grocery shopping truly revolutionized the grocery industry.



There were shopping baskets, open shelves and no clerks to shop for the customer – all unheard of at the time. There are still more than 600 Piggly Wiggly stores in the US today.


Although there can be no royalty in the United States, one young woman, is crowned each year as Miss America. The first such coronation was held for Margaret Gorman, on September 6, 1921.

Miss America reigns for one year, at which point she must retire-unless she removes her clothing, in which case she's deposed. (Or is that denuded?)


September 6, 1946 -
Almost everybody thinks that the fight is about ideology. Everybody will tell you, 'Well, the fighting is all about the Middle East.' 'Well, it's about Muslims starting jihad.' 'It's about terrorism.' 'It's about this or that.' And no, it's not. It's about money.



Roger Waters, singer, bassist, co-founded Pink Floyd, and holder of some very controversial political opinions, was born on this date.


September 6, 1951 -
During a drinking party in Mexico City, author William S. Burroughs instructed his wife Joan Vollmer to balance a glass of gin on her head. He then takes careful aim with his new .38 pistol, and unintentionally blows her brains out in front of their friends. The Mexican authorities later charge Burroughs with criminal imprudence.

So kids remember, when a drunken Beat drug addict writer asks you to play "William Tell" - Just Say No!!!


September 6, 1966 -
Parliamentary messenger Demetrios Tsafendas assassinated Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, considered to be the primary architect of Apartheid, by stabbing him in his chest on the floor of the South African legislature.



While Verwoerd died shortly thereafter, Apartheid tenaciously clung to life until 1994.


September 6, 1976 -
Years after their well-publicized break-up, Frank Sinatra privately orchestrated a surprise appearance of Dean Martin on Jerry Lewis' annual Labor Day telethon for the MDA. The two privately reconciled and maintained a relationship throughout the rest of their lives.



If only Sinatra could have knock off broads and booze long enough to deal with the whole Iranian situation.


September 6, 1997 -
Princess Diana's funeral was held on this date. Over a million people lined the streets and the world-wide TV audience for the funeral ceremonies was estimated at over two billion.



Elton John sung a new version of his hit single Candle In The Wind at the funeral. The new version, which replaced "Goodbye Norma Jean" with "Goodbye England's Rose," became the best-selling single of all time. Diana was buried on an island at her ancestral home at Althorp.



Before you go: Kids, if it gives you any comfort, there are only 110 days until Christmas -



And 58 days until the Midterm election

Remember, you have time, make good choices



And so it goes.

Do good. Be nice. Order pizza. Repeat.

Although it may seem like a cruel holiday to celebrate this time of year, September 5th is Be Late For Something Day. So forget the calendar and be late for something, except school.



Remember that things can go on without you, and maybe it’s not all quite as important as you thought.


Today is also National Cheese Pizza Day.



While you do not have to don tight fitting polyester pants and strut down 86th Street in Bensonhurst to celebrate, please remember that you have to fold your pizza in half to eat it, and for god's sake, don't use a fork and a knife.


September 5, 1916 -
D. W. Griffith classic silent-film masterpiece, Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages, premiered on this date.



The Babylonian orgy sequence alone cost $200,000 when it was shot. That's nearly twice the overall budget of The Birth of a Nation, another D.W. Griffith film and, at the time, the record holder for most expensive picture ever made.


September 5, 1927 -
Walt Disney's Trolley Troubles, first appearance of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons, premiered on this date.



Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks worked for Universal Pictures on this cartoon. Universal showed their appreciation for the two for making Oswald a star by threatening to cut their salaries. As a result, the two walked...and soon created Mickey Mouse and the rest is history.


September 5, 1942 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Fox Pop, directed by Chuck Jones, was released on this date.



The Sterling Silver Fox Farm farmer has a French-accented voice similar to that of Chuck Jones' famous creation Pepé Le Pew, who would debut later in 1945.


September 5, 1953 -
The Looney Tunes short, A Street Cat Named Sylvester, directed by Friz Freleng and starring Tweenty Bird and Sylvester the Cat, was released on this date.



The premise of this cartoon is very reminiscent to that of Hiss and Make Up which Friz Freleng directed ten years earlier, as both cartoons center on Granny dealing with a feuding cat and dog as her house pets, with a yellow canary caught in the middle, as well as both cartoons being set in a suburban home in a snowy winter as well.


September 5, 1959 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Bonanza Bunny, directed by Bob McKimson, and starring Bugs Bunny, was released on this date.



Blacque Jacques Shellacque was wanted for claim jumping, pogo sticking, and square dance calling, according to the poster. Pogo sticks were a popular postwar children's toy, along with the hula hoop and the yo-yo.


September 5, 1976 –
The first regularly scheduled episode of The Muppet Show, starring guest host Joel Grey, premiered in the UK on this date.



Kermit the Frog and Waldorf are the only characters to appear in all 120 episodes of the series.


September 5, 1981 -
Soft Cell's single Tainted Love was at No.1 on the UK singles chart on this date.



This is a cover of a 1964 song by the American soul singer Gloria Jones, whose original version was released as the B-side of her single My Bad Boy's Comin' Home. A club DJ named Richard Searling picked up a copy in Philadelphia and in 1973 started playing it in his sets at Va Va's, a popular club in Bolton, England that was very influential on the UK northern soul circuit. The song found new life, and Jones recorded a new version in 1976 that was released on her album Vixen.


September 5, 1981 -
Stevie Nicks’s solo debut, Bella Donna, goes to No. 1 on the Billboard Charts, on this date. The album featured such hits as Edge of Seventeen, Leather and Lace with Don Henley, and Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.



The multi-platinum record, which remained on the US album charts for nearly three years.


September 5, 1986 -
The documentary film, Sherman's March: A Meditation on the Possibility of Romantic Love In the South During an Era of Nuclear Weapons Proliferation directed by Ross McElwee, opened in the US on this date.



The Burt Reynolds film seen being shot in Georgia was Cannonball Run.


September 5, 2006 -
Katie Couric made her first appearance as anchor on CBS Evening News.



Her introduction normally would have been read by an announcer, but in this case, viewers heard the voice of CBS News legend Walter Cronkite make the introduction.

Don't forget to tune in to The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour Today


Today in History:
September 5, 1638 -
King Louis XIV of France was born on this date.



Like Elizabeth I in England, Louis inherited a struggling kingdom and built it into a major power. Unlike Elizabeth, Louis did not remain a virgin. On the contrary, he produced so many little bastards that he came to be known as the "Son King," which led him to conclude famously L'etat, c'est moi. ("Kid, I'm your father.")


September 5, 1698 -
Russian Tsar Peter the Great imposed the first millionaire's tax when he began taxing beards on this date.



The new taxation was an attempt to modernize his citizens from what he felt were archaic traditions. On several occasions he cut off the beards of noblemen himself. Beards were still allowed for clergy, monks and peasants.


September 5, 1870 -
It's bizarre to think you can know this but, the first woman ever to vote legally in the U.S. marked her ballot in Laramie, Wyoming, on this date.

Louisa Swain made history by casting an electoral ballot under a new law giving women full civil and political equality with men. Described as “a gentle white-haired housewife” of 69 years old, she arose early that day and arrived early to the poll, where election workers invited her inside to mark a ballot.


September 5, 1877 -
The great Sioux Chief Crazy Horse, a cousin of Kicking Bear, was fatally bayoneted at age 36 by a soldier at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, on this date.



His final resting place remains unknown.


September 5, 1882 -
The first Labor Day parade in the United States was held on this date in New York. Except it was not held on a Monday but a Tuesday. And it wasn't really a parade but a protest.

Matthew Maguire, secretary of a machinists and blacksmiths local union, pushed for the idea with the New York Central Labor Union as a way to promote the adoption of the 8-hour work day.


September 5, 1921 -
Undiscovered actress Virginia Rappe somehow ruptures her bladder during actor-comedian Fatty Arbuckle's party at the Saint Francis Hotel in San Francisco, on this date.



Three days later, the feverish woman is checked into a maternity hospital, where she dies from peritonitis. Arbuckle is tried for her murder but ultimately acquitted of any wrongdoing by a jury, his brilliant film acting career was destroyed. He had been one of the most popular (and highest-paid) film comedians of the silent era, second only to Chaplin.


September 5, 1930 -
Charles Creighton and James Hargis completed the drive from New York City to Los Angeles and back to New York City all in reverse gear, on this date.



The trip took 42 days in their 1929 Ford Model A.


September 5, 1942 -
You must live life in its very elementary forms. The Mexicans have a very nice word for it: pura vida. It doesn't mean just purity of life, but the raw, stark-naked quality of life. And that's what makes young people more into a filmmaker than academia.



Werner Herzog, German actor, director, producer, and screenwriter was born on this date.


September 5, 1946 -
Farrokh Bulsara, British musician, singer and songwriter, was born on this date.



Freddie Mercury has been called one of Rock's greatest performers of all time.


September 5, 1972 -
Five Palestinians armed with machine guns sneak into the Olympic Village in Munich. There they take nine Israeli athletes hostage, killing two others in the process, on this date.



Later, they demand safe passage out of the country and the release of 200 Palestinians from prison in Israel. Ultimately, none of the athletes made it out alive.


September 5, 1975 -
Manson Family member Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme almost assassinated President Gerald Ford with a .45 automatic in Sacramento, California on this date.



But Fromme was tackled by a Secret Service agent before she can remember to rack a round into the firing chamber.


September 5, 1990 -
In his testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, LAPD chief Daryl Gates opined: "Casual drug users should be taken out and shot."

Note to self: remember not to invite Mr. Gates to any social events. What a minute, he's dead.

New note to self: remember not to invite Zombie Gates to any social events.


September 5, 1991 -
Disgraced children's television star Pee-wee Herman returned to the public eye for the first time after his masturbation arrest, appearing on the MTV Video Music Awards.



He opens with the line: "Heard any good jokes lately?"


September 5, 1997 -
If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.



New (and surprisingly controversal) saint and Nobel Peace Prize winner Mother Teresa, born Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, died at 87 after a heart attack on this date.


September 5, 2003 -
It wasn't so happy at the happiest place in the world on this date, when Marcelo Torres, 22, was killed and 10 others injured when the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad coaster, at Disneyland, jumped the tracks in Frontierland.

Did they get their money back?



And so it goes.