So, was there a big bang?

On this day in 4977 B.C., the universe is created, according to German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler, considered a founder of modern science.



Kepler is best known for his theories explaining the motion of planets.


April 27, 1922 -
Fritz Lang's Dr Mabuse, der Spieler (some have called it the first film-noir,) premiered in Berlin, Germany on this date.



Fritz Lang originally wanted the actress portraying Venus to be completely nude. When the first take was completed, he didn't like how the woman's pubic hair looked, and ordered her to shave it off. The actress indignantly refused, sending Lang into a tantrum. Eventually, a compromise was reached when a small strip of cloth was draped over the offending hair. This scene was predictably removed from the revival versions that circulated throughout the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, and has only recently been part of the film in the rare showings of the Fritz Lang archives' complete copy of Dr. Mabuse.


A Star Is Born 1937 -
William A. Wellman's drama (which has been remade three times,) A Star Is Born, starring Janet Gaynor, Fredric March, Adolphe Menjou, May Robson, Andy Devine, Lionel Stander, and Owen Moore opened in the US on this date.



This is widely considered to be the first Technicolor film that was a bona-fide critical and box office success. Until A Star is Born and Nothing Sacred, color films had been garish, over-saturated and, as many critics complained, headache-inducing. Producer David O. Selznick insisted on muted, realistic color, and it was the success of these two films that paved the way for his Technicolor masterpiece Gone with the Wind.


April 27, 1940 -
The Merrie Melodies short, The Hardship of Miles Standish, directed by Friz Freleng, and starring Elmer Fudd, debuted on this date. This cartoon is seldom shown on television today due to Native American stereotyping.



This cartoon was originally planned to be an Egghead cartoon directed by Ben Hardaway and Cal Dalton, as with Confederate Honey. However, when Friz Freleng returned to the studio after a stint at MGM, the cartoon was taken over by him, who decided to use the Elmer Fudd character instead.


April 27, 1940 -
The Looney Tunes short, Porky's Poor Fish, directed by Robert Clampett, and starring Porky Pig, debuted on this date.



Three sequences from the storyboard got cut from the finished short, which include a view of a mama fish and three little fishes, a "dog fish" and "cat fishes," a dance number from a turtle, and an alternative scene in which the cat tries to steal a fish hiding behind a lobster, but the other fishes find out and the flying fishes attack using light bulbs as bombs.


April 27, 1948 -
Alexander Korda's lavish remake of Anna Karenina directed by Julien Duvivier and starring Vivien Leigh and Ralph Richarson premiered in NYC on this date.



Vivien Leigh's costumes were made in Paris by Barbara Karinska to Cecil Beaton's designs. She was in such pain wearing them that she even went to her doctor fearing she had broken her ribs. It was subsequently discovered that the dresser had been putting the corsets on upside down.


April 27, 1963 -
Allied Artists released the sci-fi thriller The Day of the Triffids, directed by Steve Sekely and starring Howard Keel, Nicole Maurey, Janette Scott, Kieron Moore, and Mervyn Johns in the US on this date.



Kieron Moore and Janette Scott were only added to the cast when it was discovered upon completion of filming that there was only 57 minutes of good usable footage available. The whole lighthouse sequence, directed by veteran Cinematographer Freddie Francis, was only added to help extend the movie's running time - even though these scenes contain the movie's surprise- twist denouement. Presumably this was a last-minute script change. Freddie Francis, when asked about his uncredited contribution to the film, implied strongly that the whole production had been chaos.


April 27, 1969 -
Joe Cocker made his first U.S. TV appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, on this date. Together with the Grease Band, Cocker performed a cover of Dave Mason's Feelin' Alright.



The song would end up being a two-time charting hit for Cocker -  in 1969 and again in 1972. Cocker included a version of the song on his 1970 double album, Mad Dogs & Englishmen.


April 27, 1971 -
CBS executives finally sobered up and the last episode of Green Acres aired on this date.



This was to have been the pilot for a proposed spin off featuring Elaine Joyce as Carol. Oliver and Lisa only appear briefly in the beginning as an excuse to introduce Carol and the pilot. Oliver appears later talking to Carol on the phone.


April 27, 1975 -
The cult action film Death Race 2000, directed by Paul Bartel, and starring David Carradine, Simone Griffeth, Sylvester Stallone, Mary Woronov, Martin Kove, and Don Steele, opened in the US on this date.



Both David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone did much of their own driving in this film. In addition, producer Roger Corman drove in scenes that were shot on public streets, since the custom-built cars that were used in the film were not street legal and the film's stunt drivers did not want to be caught driving them by the police.


April 27, 1990 -
The British film based on the lives and crimes of the English gangster twins Ronald and Reginald Kray, The Krays, starring Gary Kemp (of Spandau Ballet) and Martin Kemp, premiered in the UK on this date.



Roger Daltrey had originally intended to produce a film about the Kray twins life after acquiring the rights to John Pearson's book The Profession Of Violence. The idea was abandoned however once the Peter Medak version was announced.


April 27, 2001 -
And I fell out of bed, hurting my head from things that I'd said ...



The Bee Gees performed audience and viewer requests for tunes from their long career in a concert at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom on the A&E series, Live By Request, on this date.


Word of the Day


Today in History:
April 27, 1509 -
The entire state of Venice was excommunicated by Pope Julius II for an entirely secular reason:



the refusal to place parts of Romagna under the Pope's control.

Oh, those wacky Pre-counterreformation Popes.


April 27, 1521 -
In an hour long battle with Philippine Islanders, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan and his men were repeatedly jabbed with sharpened bamboo spears. After Magellan finally succumbs to his wounds, the natives hacked him to pieces with their swords, barbecued and consumed him on this date.



They were surprised that they were not hungry an hour after eating him as they had been after eating some Asian explorers previously.


April 27, 1822 -
Ulysses S. Grant, Civil War hero and 18th President of the United States, would have been 204 today.



And if the rumors are true, he is still buried in Grant's Tomb, which was dedicated on this date in 1897.


April 27, 1861 -
In a blatantly unconstitutional act, President Abraham Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus inside a zone between Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. The government could detain citizens indefinitely without ever filing charges. A year and a half later, Lincoln expanded the scope of his order to the entire nation.



I will grant you that President Obama might have read a little too much, but thank God that the previous resident of the White House didn't read much at all.


April 27, 1865 -
The worst steamship disaster in the history of the United States occurs on this date. The SS Sultana, carrying over 2,000 passengers, the majority being freed Union POWs from the notorious Andersonville and Cahaba Prisons, exploded on the Mississippi River, while en route to Cairo, Illinois.



Neither the cause of the explosion nor the final count of the dead (estimated at between 1,450 and 2,000) was ever determined. Today, the Sultana disaster remains the worst of its kind.

Talk about bad luck.


April 27, 1871 -
The American Museum of Natural History opened to the public in New York City, on this date. With a series of exhibits, the Museum’s collection went on view for the first time in the Central Park Arsenal, the Museum’s original home, on the eastern side of Central Park.

The museum began from the efforts of Albert Smith Bickmore, one-time student of Harvard zoologist Louis Agassiz, who was successful in his proposal to create a natural history museum in New York City with the support of William E. Dodge, Junior, Theodore Roosevelt, Senior, Joseph Choate and J. Pierpont Morgan. The Governor of New York, John Thompson Hoffman, signed a bill officially creating the American Museum of Natural History on April 6, 1869.


April 27, 1932 -
Writer Hart Crane was racked with self-doubt about his ability to write good poetry and agonizing over his sexuality, had been mentally unstable for some time. Crane stood on the railing of the ship Orizaba in his pajamas (en route to the United States from Mexico,) shouted, "Goodbye Everyone," to the other stunned passengers and jumped over the side of the ship on this date.



Life preservers were thrown to him, but he makes no effort to reach them and drowned. The ship halted in the water, ten miles off the Florida coast, but never recovers his body.


April 27, 1986 -
Someone interrupted the HBO satellite feed during the movie The Falcon and The Snowman on this date. For five minutes, two-thirds of their customer base receives the message: Good evening HBO from Captain Midnight. $12.95 a month?



(Showtime-Movie Channel Beware.) Captain Midnight turned out to be John R. MacDougall of Florida. After media pressure forces the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to act, MacDougall was charged and sentenced, per a plea bargain, to a $5,000 fine and one year’s probation.


April 27, 1987 -
After determining that Kurt Waldheim had "assisted or otherwise participated in the persecution of persons" during his Nazi years, the Department of Justice places him on a watch list of undesirable aliens on this date. As such, the sitting President of Austria was disallowed entry into the U.S. It is the first time that a foreign head of state is legally forbidden from visiting America.



I suppose that he suffered from Waldheimer's Disease - it's having difficulty recalling that you're a Nazi



And so it goes.

Knot your average snack.

National Pretzel Day celebrates pretzels of all shapes and sizes. Pretzels are believed to be the world's oldest snack. (This appears to be a legitimate celebration, there are many stores giving away free pretzels today.)

Wake me up when it's Very Dry Martini, straight up with Olives Day. And no that's not every day at my house, smarty pants.


April 26, 1935 -
The Tod Browning MGM comedy-horror film Mark of the Vampire, starring Lionel Barrymore, Elizabeth Allan, Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill, and Jean Hersholt, premiered in the US on this date.



Throughout the film, Count Mora (Bela Lugosi) has an unexplained bullet wound on his temple. In the original script Mora was supposed to have had an incestuous relationship with his daughter Luna, and to have committed suicide. After filming began, however, MGM deleted references to the crime (and any remaining references may have been deleted when 20 minutes of footage was removed after the film's preview).


April 26, 1941 -
The Merrie Melodies short, The Trial of Mr. Wolf, directed by Friz Freleng, debuted on this date.



The Wolf's compass has directions to Grandma's House, the Three Bears House, the House That Jack Built, and the Three Little Pigs.


April 26, 1945 -
United Artists wartime drama, Blood On The Sun, starring James Cagney and Sylvia Sidney, premiered in the US on this date.



The Tokyo Imperial Hotel bar seen at the start of the movie is apparently an exact replica of the actual bar situated in the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.


April 26, 1950 -
Twentieth Century-Fox released the Cold War drama, shot on location in Berlin, The Big Lift, starring, Montgomery Clift, and Paul Douglas, on this date.



With the exception of Montgomery Clift and Paul Douglas, all military personnel in the film were actual members of the US military on duty in Germany at the time.


April 26, 1954 -
72 years ago, one of the greatest films in world cinema, Akira Kurosawa's iconic Seven Samurai, starring Toshiro Mifune, was released in Japan on this date. A technical and creative marvel, it became Japan’s highest-grossing movie but also was highly influential among Hollywood filmmakers like Martin Scorsese and George Lucas.



This was the first film on which Akira Kurosawa used multiple cameras, so he wouldn't interrupt the flow of the scenes and could edit the film as he pleased in post-production. He used the multiple-camera set-up on every subsequent film.


April 26, 1956 -
Godzilla debuted in America on this date. (Gojira premiered in Japan on November 3, 1954.)



The American version of the film had 40 minutes of the original excised (mostly the content dealing with World War II or the anti-nuclear message,) and had 20 minutes of the masterful deadpan stylings of Raymond Burr. The American version was released in Japan with Japanese subtitles and did very well.


April 26, 1958 -
The Looney Tunes short, A Waggily Tale, directed by Friz Freleng, debuted on this date.



Rabies in dogs was still a health concern at the time of this short. Modern vaccines have reduced the threat, though the disease continues to be found in bats, skunks, squirrels and other creatures. The sight of a dog foaming at the mouth in 1958 would have created quite a calamitous scene.


April 26, 1967 -
CBS broadcast the documentary, Inside Pop - The Rock Revolution, with the host Leonard Bernstein, on this date.



The program marked the first time that television presented pop music as a legitimate art form.


April 26, 1975 -
B. J. Thomas' song, (Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song, was No. 1 on the charts on this date. It is the longest-titled #1 charting song to date.



(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song was B. J. Thomas' second #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, his other being Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head. I really apologize for this song being stuck in your head for the rest of the day.


April 26, 1978 -
The concert billed as The Band's "farewell concert appearance", was held on November 25, 1976, at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. The concert film, The Last Waltz, directed by Martin Scorsese, starring members of the band and many of their friends, premiered in the US on this date.



The Band's management had overbooked the show. Two days before the show, they tried to have Muddy Waters taken off the bill. Levon Helm, The Band's drummer, threatened not to play the show if Muddy Waters was asked to leave. Muddy Waters is in the final cut of the film. Every camera but one ran out of film during his performance of Mannish Boy. It resulted in the longest shot of the film, while Martin Scorsese scrambled to get the film cans reloaded.


April 26, 1978 –
NBC aired a a musical version of The Prince and the Pauper, Ringo, starring Ringo, Art Carney, Angie Dickinson, Carrie Fisher, Vincent Price, John Ritter, and George Harrison narrating, on this date.



Really, don't feel you have to watch the whole thing (it's not very good.)


April 26, 1988 -
We were back in Nam (again) when the pilot episode of China Beach, starring Dana Delaney, Nan Woods, Michael Boatman, and Marg Helgenberger, premiered on ABC TV on this date. (For some reason this series has almost faded into obscurity.)



Several of the storylines, and even some of the dialogue were taken directly from the experiences and recollections of actual Vietnam era military nurses.


April 26, 1991 -
For some reason ABC TV fulfilled Jim Henson dying wish of creating a TV series about puppet anthropomorphic dinosaurs when Dinosaurs aired on this date.



Jim Henson originally got the idea of a live-action show featuring animatronic dinosaurs after he was impressed by the technology his Creature Shop was developing for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. When this show went into production, the same technology was used to create the Dinosaurs. Many of the Ninja Turtle suit actors worked as various Dinosaur suit actors for the series.


Another album from the discount bin at The ACME Record Shoppe


Today in History:
April 26, 1865 -
Discovered hiding in a farmer's tobacco shed, John Wilkes Booth was shot in the neck by a complete lunatic. Dying and paralyzed from the neck down, he whispers: Tell my mother I did it for my country.



As his hands are held up to his face, Booth mutters "useless...useless..."



They were his last words.


On April 26, 1923 (almost 88 years previously to the date of his great-grandson's nuptials,) the Duke of York married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in Westminster Abbey.



This wedding might have slipped into the ephemera of time had the Duke's brother not wanted to marry a woman reported so ugly, many thought her a man in drag. And calling a woman ugly in England is really saying something, as many of the British upper crust often marry their horses out of confusion.

That's British royalty.

Count Basie died on April 26, 1984; Duke Ellington was born on April 29, 1899; Ella Fitzgerald, the "First Lady of Song," was born on April 25, 1917.

That's American royalty.


April 26, 1933 -
Hermann Goering founded the Geheime Staatspolizei, otherwise known as the Gestapo on this date.



The original purpose of this "Secret State Police" is to disrupt and harass opponents of National Socialism, but it will later come to adopt many additional responsibilities.


April 26, 1933 -
When I was in college at UCLA, I took a playwriting course. I was all set to be a writer. But I had to take this acting class as a theater arts major. I had to do this scene in a one-act comedy. I just said this line, and then... this laugh happened. I thought, 'Whoa. This is a really good feeling. What have I been missing?'





Carol Creighton Burnett, the funniest woman in America was born on this day - don't argue with me, I will come to your home and hurt you. I was forced to watch The Carol Burnett Show in my bedroom and not with my family because I laughed so loudly and so hard, no one could hear it.


April 26, 1937 -
It was a beautiful Monday afternoon in Guernica, Spain on this date. At about 3:30 pm the day took a tragic turn. For over three hours, twenty-five or more of Germany's best-equipped bombers, accompanied by at least 20 more Messerschmitt and Fiat Fighters, dumped one hundred thousand pounds of high-explosive and incendiary bombs on the village, slowly and systematically pounding it to rubble.



Guernica had served as the testing ground for a new Nazi military tactic - blanket-bombing a civilian population to demoralize the enemy. It was wanton, man-made holocaust.



The bombing was the subject of a famous anti-war painting by Pablo Picasso.


April 26, 1937 -
Due to a publishing error, LIFE magazine was printed without the word "LIFE" on the cover on this date.

It was the only time that LIFE was nameless.


April 26, 1962 -
The NASA Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon after sixty-four hours of flight, on this date.



The probe’s mission was to rough-land a seismometer capsule on the Moon, to collect gamma-ray data in flight, to study the radar reflectivity of the lunar surface, and to continue testing the Ranger program for development of lunar and interplanetary spacecraft.

So now you know, (this may be on the test.)


April 26, 1977 -
Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager open Studio 54 the world famous New York nightclub, renowned for being extremely difficult to get in unless you were famous / well known or considered one of the beautiful people over the years.



Studio 54 closed with a final party on February 4, 1980.


April 26, 1986 -
44 seconds into a late-night experiment at the Chernobyl nuclear power station, reactor number four sustains two large explosions. The exploded at Chernobyl burned for 10 days. About 70% of the fallout fell in Belarus. Damage was estimated to be up to $130 billion. The Soviet news agency TASS held off reporting the incident for almost 48 hours.



A 300-hundred-square-mile area was evacuated and 31 people died as unknown thousands were exposed to radioactive material that spread in the atmosphere throughout the world. By 1998, 10,000 Russian liquidators involved in the cleanup had died and thousands more became invalids. It was later estimated that the released radioactivity was 200 times the combined bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was later found that Soviet scientists were authorized to carry out experiments that required the reactor to be pushed to or beyond its limits, with safety features disabled.

Oops.



And so it goes.

Baseball and malaria keep coming back.

Today is Malaria Awareness Day. Malaria Awareness Day was designated on this date by President George W. Bush in 2007, to remind people that Malaria kills 3,000 children a day. He asked the world to join the fight to wipe out malaria on the African continent.



So I encourage all Americans to begin heavily drinking Gin and Tonics to honor the day



(While I'm sure you know, I'm a Bombay Sapphire man, I am not affiliated in anyway with that fine brand - not that I wouldn't consider any offers, I'd suggest using Tanqueray. I believe it goes better with the Tonic.)


Today is also the holiday of Robigalia, honoring the god Robigus. The purpose of the holiday was to prevent mildew from ruining crops. Dog and sheep sacrifices were encouraged to honor Robigus. (I didn't suggest this, the ancient Romans did)

For some reason, it's also the holiday of celebrating male sex workers. I'm not sure how one was supposed to celebrate that portion of the holiday slaughtering livestock.

But maybe it's just me.


April 25, 1936 -
The Looney Tunes short, Westward Whoa, directed by Jack King, and co-starring Porky Pig, debuted on this date. This cartoon no longer airs on television due to prominent Native American stereotypes.



This cartoon entered the public domain in 1964, as Seven Arts Productions forgot to renew its copyright in time.


April 25, 1942 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Dog Tired, directed by Chuck Jones, and co-starring The Two Curious Puppies, debuted on this date.



Stork scientific name: Infantus-Portus. Love Birds scientific name: L'amour Toujour L'amour. Kangaroo scientific name: Leapadopterus-Rex.


April 25, 1946 –
The clasic film noir, Gilda, directed by Charles Vidor, and starring Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, George Macready, and Joseph Calleia, opened in the US on this date.



There is a rumor that this film is the only time Rita Hayworth's real singing voice is heard, but that is not true. According to the bonus features from the DVD, Hayworth actually never recorded her own singing voice and was a talented lip-syncher. Anita Ellis dubbed almost all of her singing in this film. Hayworth always wanted to do her own singing, and Columbia Pictures chief Harry Cohn paid for her voice lessons, but she never developed a voice he considered strong enough to be used; Hayworth remained bitter about that for the rest of her life.


April 25, 1955 -
Captiol Records released the ninth studio album by American vocalist Frank Sinatra, In the Wee Small Hours, on this date.



The album is a collection of melancholy ballads, with arrangements by Nelson Riddle, was an early example of a concept album and helped popularize the 12-inch format for non-classical recordings.


April 25, 1959 -
The Fleetwoods hit No. 1 with their recording of Come Softly to Me on this date.



The original title of this song Come Softly, was changed because Dolphin (later Dolton) Records owner Bob Reisdorff feared that AM radio DJs would think it to be too suggestive. He was being extra-cautious, Dolphin Records was formed by the Seattle DJ for the sole purpose of distributing Fleetwoods records.

Remember kids, don't dance so close. Leave room for the Holy Spirit.


April 25, 1970 -
The Jackson Five started a two week run at No.1 on the Billboard singles chart with ABC, on this date.



The song is packed with hooks that put Michael Jackson's talents to good use. It opens with the call-and-response "buh buh buh buh buh buh" and has lots of little vocal interjections throughout ("Get up, girl!"). These vocal bits became one of Michael Jackson's hallmarks, both The Jackson 5 and as a solo artist.


April 25, 1974 -
Steely Dan's most successful single, (it charted at #4,) Rikki Don't Lose That Number, was released on this date.



The Rikki of the title is Rikki Ducornet, a New York writer and artist. Steely Dan co-front Donald Fagen met her while both were attending Bard College, a small liberal arts school located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Ducornet said they met at a college party, and even though she was both pregnant and married at the time, he gave her his number, although not in the same context as the song. Ducornet was intrigued by Fagen and tempted to call him, but she decided against it.


April 25, 1978 -
We all got to hang out on the strip with Dan Tanna, when the pilot of Vega$, starring Robert Urich, premiered on ABC TV on this date.



Robert Urich was 31 when the series premiered, but since he looked a decade younger than he was, they wanted to make the character of Dan Tanna, 20. But since he was a Vietnam veteran and that would be too young, they decided to make him 25, even though he still looked younger. In real life, Robert Urich was older than most of the actresses who played his girlfriends on the show, even though his character Dan Tanna was younger than most of his character's girlfriends.


April 25, 1980 –
The quasi-bio pix about the gonzo author Hunter S. Thompson, Where the Buffalo Roam, starring Bill Murray, Peter Boyle, Bruno Kirby, and René Auberjonois, opened in the US on this date.



To get into character, Bill Murray spent time with Hunter S. Thompson by drinking, shooting and generally having a great time at Thompson's Colorado ranch. After filming ended, Murray continued to act "Gonzo" through the beginning of the next season of Saturday Night Live, to the annoyance and consternation of cast and crew members.


April 25, 1992 -
ABC had the trifecta of finales this evening:

The final episodes of Who's the Boss, aired on this date on ABC-TV.



The original ending for the series, as proposed by the writers, was for Angela and Tony to get married. ABC executives, however, balked at this ending and were supported by Tony Danza, who was against having Tony and Angela get married in the series finale. So the series ended with Tony and Angela breaking up but with Tony appearing on Angela's doorstep to apply for the housekeeper job in a scene that is almost identical to the opening scene in the pilot episode.


The Seaver Family leave their home in Long Island and head to Washington DC in the final episode of Growing Pains - The Last Picture Show, starring Alan Thicke, Joanna Kerns, Kirk Cameron, Tracey Gold, Jeremy Miller, Ashley Johnson, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Chelsea Noble, which aired on ABC TV, on this date.



Mike proposes to Kate in this episode but in real life Mike (Kirk Cameron) and Kate (Chelsea Noble) got married July 20, 1991 before the final season of Growing Pains started. (The less said about Mr. Cameron, the better.)


April 25, 1992 -
Angus MacGyver quits the Phoenix foundation to travel with his son, Sam, when the original MacGyver aired it last original episode, The Stringer, on ABC TV, on this date.



It's very inconsistent for Mac to tell his son he's afraid of heights. In the episode about Eagles he landed a hang glider on a tiny rock formation hundreds of ft high. Not something someone afraid of heights could ever do.


April 25, 1997 -
The surprise comedy hit, Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, starring Lisa Kudrow, Mira Sorvino, Janeane Garofalo, Camryn Manheim and Alan Cumming, premiered in the US on this date.



Lisa Kudrow received a degree in Biology from Vassar College, and Mira Sorvino a degree in Asian Studies from Harvard University, so during production of Romy and Michele, they nicknamed each other "Smart" and "Smarter."

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


Today in History:
April 25, 1507 -
At a small college in Eastern France, German geographer Martin Waldseemüller published a map with the region of the world commonly referred to as “the New World” labeled as “America” for the first time ever in a book entitled Cosmographiae Introductio on this date.

In the book, Waldseemüller is said to have mistakenly credited Amerigo Vespucci with discovering the continent. The amount of money that may have changed hand is uncertain but Columbus was said to be quite pissed.


April 25, 1792 -
French highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier was beheaded by the guillotine, after extensive testing during its development with corpses and sheep, making him its first victim on this date. The speed that the guillotine worked as quick as lightening and in the twinkling of an eye - it was over.

The outcome was not well received by the crowd who called for the return of the gallows.


April 25, 1856 -
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, mathematician and an Oxford professor, met a three year old girl named Alice Liddell on this date.



Charles had a penchant for making up stories to entertain the little girls he liked to photograph (many of them happened to be in the nude, at the time.) Alice had a penchant for consuming unknown (and apparently psychoactive) food, pills and liquids that she found while exploring a very large rabbit hole.

And 40 years later Oscar Wilde went to prison for the shoddy laundry services provided by the hotels he and several local young men frequented. I'm not sure that there s a connection, I'm just pointing it out.


April 25, 1896 -
Cripple Creek, Colorado, endured two catastrophic fires over a period of 96 hours, on this date. The first, began on this date, when a stove overturned during a fight at the Central Dance Hall on Myers Avenue, wiping out eight blocks of the city's central business district. The second fire happend on April 29 at the Portland Hotel and nearly wiped out everything else that remained standing.



The fires leveled the central business district, causing an estimated $3 million in damages, and left roughly 5,000 residents to seek refuge on the hills above town, with only tents and blankets for shelter.


April 25, 1917 –
Ella Jane Fitzgerald, the First Lady of Song, considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century, was born on this date.





Ella Fitzgerald’s life was the quintessential American success story. Through 58 years of performing, 13 Grammys and more than forty million records sold, she elevated swing, bebop, and ballads to their highest potential.


April 25, 1926 -
The premiere of Giacomo Puccini's opera, Turandot was at La Scala, Milan, on this date, one year and five months after Puccini's death. It was conducted by Arturo Toscanini.



Turandot was unfinished at the time of Puccini's death and was later completed by Franco Alfano.


April 25, 1928 -
Buddy, became the first Seeing Eye dog for the blind in the US, when she was was presented to Morris S. Frank on this date. Morris S. Frank was trained to work with the female German Shepherd at a dog-training school in Switzerland, called Fortunate Fields, and on the streets of nearby Vevey.



Frank and Buddy returned to New York City on June 11, 1928, and were together until her death on May 23, 1938; he named her replacement Buddy, as he would all his subsequent guide dogs.


April 25, 1939 - (there's some controversy about this date. I seen it listed as March 30 and April 24.)
DC Comics debuted what will become its second major superhero, Batman, in issue 27 of Detective Comics (the May issue) on this date.



The first book to feature Batman sold for 10 cents when it was published and one of the rare comics in pristine condition sold for $1,380,000 when it came up for auction.


April 25, 1947 -
Harry S. Truman officially opened the two-lane White House bowling alley on this day.



Though Truman himself wasn't much of a bowler, it became embarrassing for the staff to have to search local DC bowling alleys trying to find where the President was knocking back boiler makers every other night. The White House staff members formed a bowling team and even competed in national events.


April 25, 1953 –
Francis Crick and James D. Watson published Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid describing the double helix structure of DNA, in the scientific journal Nature, on this date.



In it, Crick and Watson reveal the double helix structure of DNA and explains how DNA transmits hereditary information between cells and generations, (the boys conveniently forgot to mention the work they 'cribbed' from Rosalind Franklin.) Their work will earn them a Nobel Prize in 1962.


April 25, 1963 -
The bronze statue of The Little Mermaid (Den Lille Havfrue) is Denmark's most visited tourist attraction. The statue was unveiled on August 23, 1913 at it's current location in Copenhagen Harbor. It gives hope to the Danes when they are not pining for the Fjords.

So imagine the horror, when Denmark woke up on this date to find that the unimaginable had happened, someone had sawed off the head of The Little Mermaid, the night before. The head was never recovered and a new head was made from the original cast.


April 25, 1972 -
... And if you covered him with garbage, George Sanders would still have style....



George Sanders, actor and husband of not one but two Gabor sisters, killed himself, leaving this great suicide note: "Dear World, I am leaving you because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool - good luck," on this date.

Short and to the point.


April 25, 1980 -
In Iran, a commando mission to rescue hostages was aborted after mechanical problems disabled three of the eight helicopters involved. During the evacuation, a helicopter and a transport plan collided and exploded. Eight U.S. servicemen were killed on this date.



The mission was aimed at freeing American hostages that had been taken at the U.S. embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979.


And on a personal note - still as lovely as ever,

Andrea once again is celebrating her 39th birthday.



And so it goes.