The driving forces of all nature

Today is World Water Day. Nearly two billion people are living without access to safe water, (and it could be a lot sooner than you think in this country.) World Water Day was first formally proposed in Agenda 21 of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.



So remember, after your morning coffee (or tea,) please remember to recycle your 'precious bodily fluids' and then wash your hands.


March 22, 1895 -
Auguste and Louis Lumiere may have first demonstrated motion pictures in Paris using celluloid film. Unless it was March 19, 1895, or December 28, 1894, or cellulite instead of celluloid. And it may have been in Milan, or Warsaw, and it's possible it wasn't Louis and Auguste Lumiere, but Max and Emil Skladanowsky.





The first motion picture shown on a screen is presented by Auguste and Louis Lumière during a private screening for the Société d’Encouragement à l’Industrie Nationale on this date in 1895.



An invited audience of 45 spectators at the Rue de Rennes in Paris, France, viewed the silent documentary film La Sortie des ouvriers de l’usine Lumière (Employees Leaving the Lumière Factory and Exiting the Factory), a film they shot especially for the occasion.


March 22, 1937 -
The biopix of the showman Florenz Ziegfeld, The Great Ziegfeld, starring William Powell, Luise Rainer, Myrna Loy and Frank Morgan premiered in Los Angeles on this date.



Billie Burke never really rated the film much despite taking a personal interest in the writing of the script. She went to great lengths to make sure that writer William Anthony McGuire never besmirched the good name of Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., hence the playing down of his infidelities.


March 22, 1947 -
Another glimpse into the 'early' pre-celebrity life of Bugs, the Merrie Melodies short, A Hare Grows In Manhattan, directed by Friz Freleng, premiered on this date.



The bulldog in this short, though not directly identified, is Hector the Bulldog, a bulldog who appeared in a number of Sylvester and Tweety cartoons starting in 1945.


March 22, 1963 -
The Beatles' first album, Please Please Me, was released in the UK on this date. The album went to the top of the UK charts in two months and remained there for 30 weeks.



Please Please Me has been ranked in the top 50 of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" by Rolling Stone. In the US, most of the songs on Please Please Me were first issued on Vee-Jay Records' Introducing... The Beatles in 1964 and subsequently on Capitol Records' The Early Beatles in 1965.


March 22, 1975 -
B.J. Thomas' single, (Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song, was the no. 1 hit on the Adult Billboard Chart on this date.



(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song was B. J. Thomas' second #1 hit, his other being Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head. The song is the longest-titled #1 charting song to date. He also scored many #1s on the Adult Contemporary and Country charts, being something of a cross-genre sensation. Still, this hit came after a long period of waning (though still considerable) popularity.


March 22, 1977 –
Yet another John Denver television special, Thank God I’m a Country Boy, premiered on ABC-TV, on this date.



John Denver had already earned his country cred with the crossover hit Take Me Home Country Roads in 1971. While that song was inspired by a longing to settle in West Virginia (neither he or the songwriters had actually ever visited the state), Thank God I’m a Country Boy literally hit closer to home as it was influenced by the singer's beloved Colorado, where he made his home in Aspen.


March 22, 1978 –
The seminal mockumentary about The Pre-Fab Four, The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, directed by Eric Idle and Gary Weis and starring some people from Monty Python and some other people from SNL, premiered on NBC-TV on this date.



Neil Innes, Ricky Fataar and John Halsey regrouped in 1996 to record Archaeology, their satirical response to the Beatles' Anthology. It consisted of tunes not used in the movie, rearranged Innes solo songs and one song penned as a spoof of Free as a Bird. Eric Idle didn't take part; Dirk McQuickly, the album's press materials explained, had quit the music business to become a comedian.


March 22, 1980 -
The variety show The Tim Conway Show - Tim Conway’s second series with this title - produced by Joe Hamilton (husband of Carol Burnett), debuted on CBS on this date.



This happened to be one of the last variety shows produced. The concept, at this point, was mostly dated. Tim Conway himself stated that this was one of the reasons for the quick cancellation.


March 22, 1984 -
Queen filmed the video for I Want To Break Free at Limehouse Studio in London, England, on this date. Directed by David Mallet, it was a parody of the northern British soap opera Coronation Street with the band members dressed in drag.



The video for this song parodies a popular British television soap, Coronation Street. The opening sequence features all the band members in drag (Mercury as a housewife, Deacon as grandmother, Taylor as a schoolgirl, and May as a housewife). This confused many people who didn't catch the reference. Brian May was asked in an interview with Q magazine March 2011 whether each band member's character in the video was an accurate reflection of their personalities? He replied: "Of Course! Everybody thinks that was Freddie's idea because it looks like something that he would love to do but it actually came from Roger's girlfriend at the time, strangely enough. It was her idea to pastiche the Coronation Street women."


Another album from the discount bin atThe ACME Record Shoppe


Today in History:
March 22, 1622 -
A band led by the Brothers of Powhatan slaughtered 347 settlers near Jamestown, a quarter of the population, in the first Native American massacre of European settlers on this date.


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Just think if those indigenous people had just followed the thought all the way through ....


March 22, 1687 -
Classical music and vanity do not mix, if fact, they can really kill you.

In early January of 1687, Jean-Baptiste de Lully, court music and gossip to King Louis XIV of France and notorious buggerer (but that's another story ...) was conducting a musical piece, beating time on the floor with a long staff. This was the common practice at the time before hand-held batons became the norm. He slammed his big toe.



The wound abscessed and eventually turned gangrenous. He refused to have his toe amputated (as he first started as a court dancer) because he could not bear the thought of disfigurement. The wound turned gangrenous and the infection spread, killing him three months later, on this date.


Two leading lights of twentieth century musical theatre were born on March 22: Stephen Sondheim (1930), best known for his work on Gypsy, West Side Story, Company and Sweeney Todd and Andrew Lloyd Webber (1948), best known for Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats and Phantom of the Opera.













By some mysterious natural process of compensation, March 22 is also the birthday of Marcel Marceau (1923),



best known for Actor Trapped in a Role.


March 22, 1931 -
Success is different for everyone; everybody defines it in their own way, and that's part of what we do in 'Close Up', finding what it was each person wanted to achieve and what their willingness to sacrifice for that was.



William Shatner, arguably the world's (or at least Canada's) greatest actor was born today on this date.


March 22, 1958 -
Michael Todd (nee Avrom Hirsch Goldbogen,) movie producer, (and one of the myriad of husband's of Elizabeth Taylor) and three other people were killed in the crash of Todd's private plane Lucky Liz, near Grants, New Mexico, on this date. In his autobiography, Eddie Fisher, who considered himself to be Todd's best friend (and another one of the myriad of husbands of Elizabeth Taylor,) stated that no fragments of Todd had been found, and that his coffin contained only his ring.



The Los Angeles Times reported in 1977 that Fisher's story was false - remains of Todd were indeed found and buried. His remains were desecrated by robbers, who broke into his coffin looking for the ring. The bag containing Todd's remains was found under a tree near his plot.

How big was that bag?


March 22, 1960 –
The first laser was patented (US Patent #2,929,922) by Arthur Schawlow and Charles Hard Townes under the title Masers and Maser Communications System.

There is no mention of whether or not drugs were involved in the creation of the laser or what album they were listening to at the time.


March 22, 1972 -
National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse recommended ending criminal penalties for possession of marijuana on this date.



Follow along (this may be on a different test) -
x As of November 2025, non-medical cannabis use is legalized in 24 states, 3 U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia, while 7 other states have decriminalized its use.


March 22, 1978 -
One of the Flying Wallendas, 73 year old Karl Wallenda, plunges to his death on a cable strung between two hotels in San Juan, PR on this date.



Oops!


March 22, 1987-
The Mobro 4000 left New York with over 3000 tons of garbage looking for a port to take it, on this date.



No one would take the trash, so after 162 days, the barge returned, still fully loaded, to NYC. It seems, garbage out, garbage in.


March 22, 2006 -
Back in 1767, Lord Robert Clive of the East India Company, the first British Governor of the Bengal Presidency, was given a gift of four Aldabra tortoises from the Seychelle Islands. Three soon died, but the fourth, named Addwaita, which means ‘one and only’ in Bengali, survived. He survived his master, who died in 1774. He was moved to a Calcutta zoo in 1875 and survived the end of the British empire.



Addwaita, much like the Energizer Bunny, kept going. He even survived the 20th Century. Finally as to all, Addwaita bought the reptilian ranch on this date.

Talk about live long and prosper.


Don't forget to check out today's quiz on the Russian Monarchy


Before you go - Today is the earliest day on which Easter Sunday (in the Roman Catholic faith) may occur,



not that it occurs on this date this year; Easter is April 5th this year. (and Orthodox Easter occurs on the 12th of April.)



And so it goes.

Nearer to vital truth than history

Today is World Poetry Day. It's a time to appreciate and support poets and poetry around the world. It is held on March 21 each year and is an initiative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).



Don't You Wonder, Sometimes? - Emily Dickinson


March 21, 1940 -
Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again ...

Alfred Hitchcock's first American production, the thriller Rebecca, starring Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson, George Sanders and Gladys Cooper premiered in Miami on this date.



Mrs. Danvers is hardly ever seen walking, she seems to glide. Alfred Hitchcock wanted her to be seen solely from Joan Fontaine's character's anxious point of view, and this effect tied in with her fear about Mrs. Danvers appearing anytime unexpectedly.


March 21, 1952 -
The first rock and roll concert was held in America on this date, when DJ Alan Freed (the man who coined the phrase "Rock and Roll") hosted The Moondog Coronation Ball in Cleveland, Ohio.

The first rock and roll concert was shut down after the first act, when it appeared that a riot might break out.



The reason the concert ended in disaster: a minor printing error. The mistake was caused by someone forgetting to add the date to tickets issued for a follow-up ball, which Leo Mintz, an early rock-n-roll promoter had set about organizing immediately after the initial one sold out. As a result, an estimated 20,000 people showed up on the same night for the first concert - at a venue which could hold half that number.


March 21, 1964 -
The Beatles' single She Loves You, went #1 and stayed #1 for two weeks on this date.



The Beatles released a German version translated as Sie Liebt Dich in the US in 1964. They learned some German when they became the house band in Hamburg in 1962, but needed a German speaker to help them with the lyrics. They recorded the German version in Paris - it was the only time they recorded outside of England.


March 21, 1967 -
George Roy Hill's musical spoof of the Roaring 20's, Thoroughly Modern Millie, starring Julie Andrews, Mary Tyler Moore, James Fox, John Gavin, Carol Channing, and Beatrice Lillie, premiered in NYC, on this date.



The was the final theatrical movie of Beatrice Lillie. She was showing early signs of Alzheimer's disease, and had trouble memorizing her lines. During filming, Julie Andrews stood off-camera and repeated Lillie's lines to her, so Lillie could complete her scenes.


March 21, 1970 -
Simon & Garfunkel release the single The Boxer, from their fifth and final studio album, Bridge over Troubled Water, on this date.



This song took over 100 hours to record, with parts of it done at Columbia Records studios in both Nashville and New York City. The chorus vocals were recorded in a church: St. Paul's Chapel at Columbia University in New York. The church had a tiled dome that provided great acoustics. It was an interesting field trip for the recording crew who had to set up the equipment in the house of worship.


March 21, 1980 -
Pink Floyd’s powerful protest song Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2 reached the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, where it remained for 11 consecutive weeks. This track was part of their iconic rock opera album The Wall, which was released in 1979.



Called (Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2), it became their only No.1 single in the U.S. and U.K., and many other countries—and it sold over four million copies worldwide.


March 21, 1980 –
On the season finale of Dallas, the infamous character J.R. Ewing was shot by an unknown individual - Who Shot JR?



Viewers had to wait all summer, and most of the autumn because of a Hollywood actors' strike (and Hagman's own holdout), to learn whether J.R. would survive, and which of his many enemies was responsible.


March 21, 1983 -
Pink Floyd released The Final Cut, their twelfth studio album and the last to feature founding member Roger Waters. Subtitled A Requiem for the Post War Dream, the album stands as one of the band’s most politically charged and emotionally intense works.



When Pink Floyd began work on The Final Cut, Waters took the reins entirely. He wrote all the songs, handled nearly all the lead vocals, and guided the album's creative direction. Guitarist David Gilmour, drummer Nick Mason, and keyboardist Richard Wright (who had been fired during The Wall sessions) played minimal roles in the recording process. Gilmour contributed guitar solos, but the album was essentially a Roger Waters solo project released under the Pink Floyd name.


March 21, 1995 -
We all get to spend Dave Nelson's first day at WNYX when NewsRadio, starring Dave Foley, Phil Hartman, Maura Tierney and Andy Dick premiered on NBC-TV, on this date.



Jon Lovitz appeared as three different characters in the series: 1. A guest appearance as a mental patient who befriends Bill McNeal, 2. A guest appearance as a suicidal man perched on the ledge outside Dave's window, 3. As Max Lewis, a radio DJ who had several dozen jobs in his past, but who was hired to replace the late Bill McNeal, largely because he had once worked alongside him. Lovitz said that he took the role to honor the memory of his good friend, the late Phil Hartman.


March 21, 1990 -
The short-lived CBS sitcom, Sydney, starring Valerie Bertinelli and a pre-Friends Matthew Perry, premiered on this date.



The theme song for Sydney was Finish What Ya Started By Van Halen from their album OU812. Valerie was married to the guitarist Eddie Van Halen at the time.

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


Today in History:
March 21, 1556 -
Former Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer (who led the effort to help Henry VIII marry Anne Boleyn,) scheduled to denounce his errors and be burned at the stake (after Queen Mary, Henry's daughter, attained the throne), denounced his own confessions and was hustled off to be burned.



He then put forth his hand and declared: “For as much as my hand offended, writing contrary to my heart, my hand shall first be punished.”

Oh that wacky English Reformation.


March 21, 1843 -
According to confused Biblical scholar William Miller, Christ would return sometime in the year following this day in 1843. After Jesus failed to appear by the next March, Miller claimed it was the result of an arithmetic error and recalculated the deadline to be October 22, 1844.

The Lord had other plans on that date as well.


March 21, 1943 -
Cornelia Fort was flying with a student pilot on the morning of December 7, 1941, when they nearly collided with a Japanese aircraft leaving the scene at Pearl Harbor. Thus she became one of the few airborne eyewitnesses to the attack.



She was the second woman to volunteer for the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (the WAFS, which later merged into the WASPs, or Women Airforce Service Pilots), whose members logged millions of miles ferrying aircraft to points of embarkation and towing targets for training exercises. On a routine ferrying flight in 1943, Fort died at the controls of an aircraft when another plane struck hers. She was the first woman pilot to die in the line of duty for the U.S. military.


In honor of the start of spring, let us seriously consider spring cleaning - and the unfortunate fate of the Collyer brothers.

Homer and Langley Collyer were well-to-do New Yorkers who grew up in a fashionable Harlem brownstone with their parents just before the turn of the 20th century. Despite both being college graduates, the brothers became increasingly eccentric over the years, eventually turning into reclusive hermits. They quite literally walled themselves inside their filthy brownstone, filling it with junk that Langley had collected from the streets. Meanwhile, Homer, who had gone blind and was crippled by severe rheumatism, remained confined inside.



On March 21, 1947, police received a tip that there was a dead body in the Collyer home. After several hours of crawling through ceiling-high, booby-trapped corridors made of newspapers and debris, police found Homer - dead, apparently only a few hours earlier. But where was Langley?



Eighteen days and nearly 100 tons of trash later, police found Langley’s decomposing, rat-gnawed corpse. He had been crushed in one of his own booby-trapped passageways. Medical examiners concluded that Langley had died about a week before his brother. Homer, blind, crippled, and without assistance, succumbed several days later to malnutrition, dehydration, and cardiac arrest. Not exactly a happy ending.



So, kids: clean your room, get outside, and play with your friends. Oh - and don’t forget to wash your hands.


March 21, 1962 -
A two-year old female black bear, named Yogi, was taken aboard a B-58 bomber out of Edwards Air Force Base in California, flown up to 35,000 feet at a supersonic speed of 850 miles per hour, and ejected from the bomber in a specially made capsule. She landed safely, and became the first living creature to survive a parachute jump from a plane flying faster than sound.



Imagine what PETA would have made of this test at the time.


March 21, 1963 -
Alcatraz Prison was closed at the order of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy on this date. (The same year, the United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois opened as the replacement facility for Alcatraz.)



Hardened criminals would have to go elsewhere to experience the joys of prison sex by the sea.


March 21, 1965 -
NASA launches the Ranger 9 Lunar Lander on this date, the last in a series of unmanned lunar probes, on a mission to photograph the surface of the Moon.



It would return 5,814 pictures before impacting the surface of the lunar surface.


March 21, 1970 -
On this date, Vinko Bogataj crashes during a ski-jumping championship in Germany;



his image becomes that of the "agony of defeat" guy in the opening credits of ABC's Wide World of Sports.


March 21, 1976 -
David Bowie and Iggy Pop were arrested on suspicion of marijuana possession in New York. They were released on $2,000 bail. The charges were later dropped on 4/20/76.

Musicians using drugs - shocking, shocking, I tell you.


March 21, 1980 -
Mobster Angelo The Docile Don Bruno was killed with a shotgun blast to the head while he waits in his car after dinner. The order was probably ordered Anthony Tony Bananas Caponigro, Bruno's consigliere, so much for family loyalty. His replacement, one of Bruno's former capo Phil Chicken Man Testa, is short lived, as he is killed a year later by a nail bomb at his home.

One must assume that their parents knew something about their future careers when giving them middle names.


Today's episode of Oh, that Wacky Russian Revolution:

The Russian royal family was having a really bad day - in a month that was particularly bad. On March 21, 1917, Nicholas II and his family were officially placed under arrest. It was a confused and confusing period, and the situation would only continue to deteriorate until the October Revolution (which actually took place in November).

The eventual triumph of the proletariat, as everyone knows, finally put an end to all the suffering and oppression in Russia. (Or so they claimed.)

Since yesterday was Fred Rogers’ birthday, I believe an important comparison should be made to help you better understand the Russian imperial dynasty::

Hereditary heads of the Romanov Russian empire, 1613-1917: 19
Hosts of the long-running PBS series Mr Rogers’ Neighborhood: 1
Russian heads of state to have died by natural causes: 10
On-screen deaths on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood: 0
Average length of Russian reign, in years: 15.6
Years Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood ran: 31
Russian emperors to die of dropsy: 1
Dropsy deaths in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe: 0
Russian emperors assassinated: 5
Assassination attempts on the life of King Friday XIII: 0
Violent Bolshevik Revolutions in the Neighborhood of Make Believe: 0

Please be prepared for a pop quiz tomorrow.



And so it goes.

The earth laughs in flowers

Bunkies, believe it or not.

Winter appears to be officially over.



While you are attempting to balance those eggs and brooms today, remember that the Vernal Equinox occurred at 10:46 AM (EDT) this morning.



That means it’s spring. This year, please don't take off your clothes. Cautiously venture outside, come back in and have a nice cuppa.



And avoid opening up a 1,000 year old book while you're on a picnic (if you know what's good for you.)



Also, this is the last time this year that you can call in sick because of your New Year's Eve celebration from the night before; Happy Nowruz or Persian New Year as it is sometimes known as - I'm sure many Iranian Americans are marking this holiday with a mix of sadness and joy.


The United Nations now recognizes that 'progress' could be measured in the increase in human happiness and well being, not just growing the economy. March 20 has been established as the annual International Day of Happiness and all 193 United Nations member states have adopted a resolution calling for happiness to be given greater priority.





This campaign is a global celebration to mark the United Nations International Day of Happiness. It is coordinated by Action for Happiness, a non-profit movement of people from 160 countries, supported by a partnership of like-minded organizations.

So, given all of the tumult in the world, we land surprisingly 23rd on the happiness scale. Given what's happening this year and I don't think we'll break the top 40 next year.


March 20, 1971 –
Janis Joplin's hit Me and Bobby McGee reached no. #1 on the Billboard Charts on this date. It was her only solo number one single, released on the posthumous album Pearl.



The song was written by Kris Kristofferson, who has written hundreds of songs for a wide variety of artists. Kristofferson would become a successful solo artist and appear in several movies, but it was Janis Joplin's hit cover of this song that brought his career to the next level.


March 20, 1973 -
The TV movie pilot for the series The Police Story, Slow Boy, starring Vic Morrow, Edward Asner, Diane Baker, Chuck Connors, and Harry Guardino premiered on NBC TV on this date.



In the opening stakeout scene, the squad is watching Slow Boy (Chuck Connors) outside a theater showing the movie The New Centurions, which is the movie based on the novel by Joseph Wambaugh.


March 20, 1982 -
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts' single I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll begins a seven week run at #1 on this date.



Jett was touring England as a member of an all teenage girl group called The Runaways when she discovered this song, originally recorded by a British group called The Arrows in 1975. She wanted to record it with The Runaways, but the other members didn't like the song and made the mistake of passing it up. So, in 1979, Jett recorded it with Paul Cook and Steve Jones of The Sex Pistols and released it as a B-side. Finally, in 1981, Jett recorded the song with her band The Blackhearts, resulting in a monster hit.


March 20, 1985 -
For some unknown reason, CBS TV decided revive Betty Boop in a TV special, The Romance Of Betty Boop, which aired on this date. (Koko the Clown, Bimbo, Grampy, Pudgy nor any other recurring characters from the original Fleischer cartoons appeared in this TV special.)



According to the director Bill Melendez, the short was supposed to be a pilot for an animated series.


March 20, 1987 –
Robert Townsend's seminal satirical comedy Hollywood Shuffle, starring Robert Townsend and a whole bunch of the Wayan family premiered on this date.



At the end of the film, Robert Townsend plays a flying black superhero. Six years later, he would star in The Meteor Man, about a flying black superhero.


March 20, 1990 -
Chrysalis Records released Sinead O'Connor's second album, I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, on this date. The single Nothing Compares 2 U, off the album (written by Prince,) propelled her to stardom.



The title is a good representation of Sinéad's ethos; the album made her very famous thanks to the hit Nothing Compares 2 U, but she found that fame stifling and pushed back against it. All she really wanted was the autonomy to make music on her terms and the financial security to raise her family (she had her first child in 1987).


March 20, 1992 -
Crossing one's legs would never be the same - Basic Instinct starring Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone, premiered on this date.



Sharon Stone's infamous leg-uncrossing scene was not in Joe Eszterhas' original script. It was thought up by Paul Verhoeven while the movie was being shot. It was based on a memory of Verhoeven's college years, when a woman at a party had done the exact same thing to embarrass him.


Another unimportant moment in history.


Today in History:
March 20, 1345 –
According to some very drunk french scholars at the University of Paris, the Black Death was created on this date, from what they called “a triple conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars in the 40th degree of Aquarius", occurring on this date.

Actually, the bubonic plague came from infected fleas from sickened and dead rats and at its peak, the disease wiped out over a third of Europe. (This will be on the test.)


March 20, 1413 -
During his lifetime it had been predicted that King Henry IV would die in Jerusalem. The king himself took this to mean that he would die on Crusade. Rather wisely he kept away from entering the holy city – wouldn’t you?

As it happened on this date, Henry visited the Abbot of Westminster's house and has a massive coronary as he entered the Jerusalem Chamber in Westminster Abbey.


On March 20, 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte entered Paris and began his "Hundred Days" rule (from March 20 to July 8, 1815 ), which lasted 111 days. Days were measures in the metric system back then.



Napoleon was accompanied by a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of around 200,000, Napoleon again became ruler of France. The period of Napoleon's last period of power in France, from March 20 to July 8, 1815 is often called the Hundred Days. It is in fact 111 days.


March 20, 1828 –
Let’s raise a toast of aquavit to the playwright Henrik Ibsen, born in Skien on this date. He was, at one point, a small-time cherry herring bootlegger and an assistant stage manager for a new theater, where it was his job to produce a new drama each year based on Norway’s glorious past. He produced a number of plays, but none received much attention (owing largely to the fact that, while it was true that Norway did have a past, most of it was quite boring - none of it particularly glorious).

Overworked, underpaid, and very cold, he applied to the government for a stipend to study the fjords. The government decided instead to give him one to travel abroad, and off he went. He spent the next 27 years living in Italy and Germany, pining for those fjords.



He found that by leaving his homeland, he could finally thaw out and see Norway clearly, and he began to work on creating a truly Norwegian drama. At a time when most people were writing plays full of sword fights and murders, Ibsen began writing about relationships between ordinary people - the kind of people with terrible social diseases, suicidal tendencies, murderous intentions, incestuous thoughts, and the occasional old lech - the ordinary people of Norway.

He used dialogue rather than monologues to reveal his characters’ emotions, and he abandoned verse. As he put it: “We are no longer living in the age of William Shakespeare... What I desire to depict are human beings, and therefore I will not let them speak the language of the gods.” (Though, of course, he said it in Norwegian.)



One of Ibsen’s first major plays was A Doll's House (1879), about a woman named Nora who refuses to obey her husband and ultimately leaves him - famously slamming the door as she exits in the final scene. When it was first produced, European audiences were shocked, and it sparked debates about women’s rights, divorce, and domestic life across the continent. It also helped transform acting. At the time, actors were often praised for delivering long poetic speeches and avoiding collisions with the furniture, but Ibsen emphasized small gestures, vocal inflection, and meaningful pauses, inspiring a new generation of performers to truly embody their characters.



A Doll’s House made Ibsen a celebrity across Europe. His play Ghosts followed two years later. Its frank depiction of hereditary disease and moral hypocrisy further scandalized theater going audiences.

Henrik Ibsen once said, “You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.” (He may also have suggested avoiding them while mucking out the theater toilets—have you seen what actors eat?)

There is only one known picture in which Ibsen smiles. And yes, he was passing gas at the time.


March 20, 1899 -
Martha M. Place, the first woman to be honored with a warm seat in the electric chair, for the bloody murder of her 17 year old stepdaughter Ida, died at Sing-Sing Prison on this date.

Having never executed a woman in the electric chair, those responsible for carrying out the death warrant devised a new way to place the electrodes upon her. They decided to slit her dress and place the electrode on her ankle. Edwin Davis was the executioner. According to the reports of witnesses, she died instantly (having a large amount of electric course through your body normally results in ones death).

The governor of the State of New York Theodore Roosevelt was asked to pardon Place, but he refused. "Bully!"

Martha Place was buried in the family cemetery plot in East Millstone, New Jersey without religious observances.


March 20, 1900 -
Nikola Tesla received a patent (US 645576 A) for the wireless transmission of electric power on this date.

Early radio antennas and telegraphy used the invention, but variations of the coil can also do things that are just plain cool - like shoot lightning bolts, send electric currents through the body and create electron winds.


March 20, 1917 -
Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn?



Dame Vera Lynn, actress and singer, who was enormously popular during World War II, was born on this date. A few years ago, she broke her own record as the oldest living artist to release an album on the British charts, at the age of 100.


March 20, 1928 -
Remarkably, Fred Rogers was born today in Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood,





and not some other place.


March 20, 1969 -
Small town musician (John Lennon) married unknown conceptual artist (Yoko Ono) on this date.



I wonder what ever happened to them.


March 20, 1985 -
Libby Riddles made history on this date when she became the first woman to win the grueling 1,049-mile Iditarod Sled Dog Race, after a daring move across Norton Sound in a deadly blizzard.



She was named 1985 Sports Woman of the Year by the Women’s Sports Foundation and honored by the Iditarod veterinarians with the 1985 Leonhard Seppala Humanitarian Award for her humane treatment of her dogs. In addition, her two lead dogs, Dugan and Sister, won the 1985 Golden Harness Award that year.


March 20, 1995 -
The last words of Thomas J. Grasso, executed in Oklahoma by lethal injection on this date: "I did not get my Spaghetti-O's, I got spaghetti. I want the press to know this."

Duly noted Mr. Grasso.


March 20, 1995 –
The Aum Shinrikyo (Supreme Truth) cult released Sarin gas into the Tokyo subway system, killing a dozen people and sickening thousands.



The attack was the worst in modern Japanese history, and prompted global concern about terrorist groups obtaining chemical weapons.



And so it goes.