The greatest gift your parents ever gave you are your siblings

It's National Siblings Day (AKA Brothers and Sisters Day) This US holiday was conceived by Claudia Evart in 1995 to honor the memory of her brother and sister, whom she lost at a young age

She sought to establishing a National Siblings Day on April 10, the anniversary of her sister Lisette's birthday.


April 10, 1937 -
Lloyd Bacon's crime melodrama from Warner Bros., Marked Woman, starring Bette Davis, and Humphrey Bogart, premiered on this date.



Dedicated to realism, Bette Davis left the set when the makeup department outfitted her with dainty bandages for the hospital scene following the physical attack on her character by mobsters. She drove to her own doctor and instructed him to bandage her as he would a badly beaten woman. When Davis returned to the studio lot, a gate guard saw her heavy bandages, and in a panic called Hal B. Wallis to inform him Davis has been in a serious accident. Returning to the set, she declared, "You shoot me this way, or not at all!" They did.


April 10, 1937 -
The Merrie Melodies short She Was an Acrobat's Daughter, directed by Friz Freleng., opened on this date



The list of "Cast Off Characters" for the movie The Petrified Florist, which goes by too fast to see, reads as so: The Hero... Lester Coward; The Shero... Bettie Savis; Rich Man... John P. Sockefeller; Poor Man... John Dough; Begger Man... Kismet; Thief... Oph Bagdad; Doctor... Jekyll; Lawyer... Ima Shyster (the last five names then repeat endlessly).


April 10, 1946 -
Joseph L. Mankiewicz's (directorial debut) period melodrama, Dragonwyck, starring Gene Tierney, Walter Huston, Vincent Price, Harry Morgan, and Jessica Tandy, premiered in NYC on this date.



Gregory Peck was the first choice to play Nicholas Van Ryn, but he bowed out when he learned Ernst Lubitsch was dropping out as director. When second choice Laird Cregar died, Vincent Price was assigned.


April 10, 1948 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Rabbit Punch, directed by Chuck Jones, and starring Bugs Bunny, opened on this day.



The gag where Bugs gets hit to the corner and comes back with encouragement for his adversary was last used in 1946s Baseball Bugs and would be used again in 1949's Knights Must Fall.


April 10, 1953 -
Warner Bros.' first 3-D movie, House of Wax, starring Vincent Price, premiered on this date. The director Andre DeToth was unable to see in 3D himself, having lost an eye at an early age. (The film revived Vincent Price’s career, positioning him as the go-to guy when you needed a mad scientist or fiendish psychopath.)



It must have been easy for Vincent Price to act alarmed in the sequence in which his museum burns down. Right before the shoot, André De Toth's crew set three "spot fires" in strategic locations. Then the cameras started rolling and everything went downhill. The team quickly lost control of their fires, which merged into a massive inferno that put a hole in the sound stage roof and singed Price's eyebrows. But because the rapidly melting wax mannequins would've been very hard to replace, de Toth kept on filming-even as firemen arrived to help extinguish the flames.


April 10, 1957 -
Ricky Nelson sang for first time on TV's Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.



He performed the song, I'm Walking.


April 10, 1957 -
Sidney Lumet courtroom drama, 12 Angry Men, starring Henry Fonda, Martin Balsam, E. G. Marshall, Jack Klugman, Jack Warden, Ed Begley, and Lee J. Cobb, premiered in Los Angeles on this date.



This film is commonly used in business schools and workshops to illustrate team dynamics and conflict resolution techniques.


April 10, 1970 -
Elton John released his self-titled second studio album which included the breakthrough single Your Song, on this date.



Grammy nominated for Album of the Year and certified 2x Platinum, it was Elton’s debut LP in the U.S. and established the singer–songwriter’s career.


April 10, 1981 -
The medieval fantasy film Excalibur directed by John Boorman, based loosely on the 15th-century classic Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory, and starring Nigel Terry , Helen Mirren, Nicholas Clay, Cherie Lunghi, Paul Geoffrey, and Nicol Williamson, opened on this date.



Helen Mirren and Nicol Williamson were initially reluctant to work with each other. They'd been in a disastrous production of Macbeth, and were not on speaking terms. John Boorman cast them because their natural animosity would be perfect. According to Mirren, she and Williamson "wound up becoming very good friends" during filming.


April 10, 1999 -
A charity tribute concert for the late Linda McCartney, Here There and Everywhere: A Concert For Linda, was held at the Royal Albert Hall, London. Among the performers were Paul McCartney, Chrissie Hynde, George Michael, Elvis Costello and Sinead O’Connor.



The concert was held to raise money for animal charities while remembering Linda McCartney, who has recently succumbed to breast cancer.


April 10, 1992 -
One of Robert Altman's most successful films, the biting comedy about Hollywood, The Player, starring Tim Robbins, Greta Scacch, Fred Ward, Whoopi Goldberg, Peter Gallagher, and Cynthia Stevenson (and just about every actor who happened to be in Hollywood that week), opened in NYC on this date.



The handwriting on the ominous death threat letters and postcards received by Griffin Mill belonged to Director Robert Altman, who took great pleasure in writing the notes.


Another unimportant moment in history


Today in History:
April 10, 1848 -
250 people died in a bridge collapse in Yarmouth, England. They had gathered on the suspension bridge to watch a clown boat be pulled by a flock of geese.

Nothing good comes from clowns.


April 10, 1849 -
Prolific inventor Walter Hunt patented the modern safety pin on this date.

Hunt sold the rights for less than $500 to pay a debt he owed of $15. He also invented the sewing machine in 1833 (which he patented in 1854) but that's another story.


April 10, 1866 -
Henry Bergh founded the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) in New York City, on this date.

Interesting enough, Bergh goes on, with a group of other like minded social reformers, to help found the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in 1874.


April 10, 1872 -
The first Arbor Day was celebrated in Nebraska City, on this date, and about one million trees were planted.



The holiday was actually founded by an editor and agriculturalist from Nebraska City, J. Sterling Morton, who also served as President Grover Cleveland's Secretary of Agriculture. (This year, Arbor Day is celebrated on April 26th.)


April 10, 1912 -
... I cannot imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that ... - Edward J. Smith (1907), the future captain of the RMS Titanic.



The RMS Titanic left port in Southampton, England for her first and last voyage on this date.


April 10, 1917 -
133 people were killed in an explosion at the Eddystone ammunition factory in Chester, PA on this date. Satan was immediately implicated, with one official declaring the blast to be "the result of a diabolical plot conceived in the degenerate brain of a demon in human guise." It later turns out to have been caused by poorly-maintained powder loading machinery.

Lucifer wrote a strongly worded Op-Ed piece for the Times complaining about his perceived negative image in the media.


April 10, 1919 -
Mexican Revolution leader Emiliano Zapata was ambushed and shot dead by government forces in Morelos, Mexico on this date.

Zapata and his bodyguards were lured to a meeting by army colonel Jesus Guajardo. For his deception, Guajardo collects a reward of 52,000 pesos and is promoted to the rank of general. Dubya's grandpappy did not attempt to steal his skull.


April 10, 1925 -
..."...So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past..."...

F. Scott Fitzgerald third book, The Great Gatsby, was published on this date. Among various titles considered were Among Ashheaps and Millionaires, Gold-Hatted Gatsby, The High-Bouncing Lover, On the Road to West Egg and Fitzgerald's favorite Trimalchio's Banquett based on a character Trimalchio in the Satyricon. At the last moment, Fitzgerald agreed with his editor Max Perkins on the title, The Great Gatsby and it was published on this date.



The novel was not popular upon initial printing and sold fewer than 25,000 copies during the remaining fifteen years of Fitzgerald's life. Fitzgerald was very disappointed about this happening.



As a result of his struggles with the book's reception and his own personal challenges, Fitzgerald sank further into a life marked by excessive alcohol consumption and dissipated behavior.

(Once again, I must recommend that if you are in the St. Paul, Minnesota area, you should stop by the Commodore Bar and Restaurant in his honor. Fitzgerald briefly lived at the hotel, which was once located on the site but has since been converted into a condominium. He frequented the hotel's bar, which is now the restaurant, making it a fitting tribute to the literary giant.)


April 10, 1956 -
Performing to an all-white audience at a segregated show in Birmingham, Alabama on this date, Nat King Cole was attacked by members of the Ku Klux Klan who rush the stage to assault him.



Cole suffers a back injury and was treated at the hospital, but returns that night to play his second show, this time to an all-black audience. The attackers receive the maximum sentence of 180 days in jail.


April 10, 1963 -
In the course of deep-diving tests, the USS Thresher nuclear-powered submarine failed to surface 220 miles east of Boston, Mass, on this date. The disaster claimed all 129 men aboard under 8,400 feet (2,560 meters) of water.



According to U.S. military reviews of the accident, the most likely explanation is that a piping joint in a sea water system in the engine room gave way. The resulting spray shorted out electronics and forced an automatic shutdown of the nuclear reactor.


April 10, 1964 -
The Polo Grounds was demolished on this date and a public housing project was erected on the site. Demolition of the Polo Grounds began with the same wrecking ball that had been used four years earlier on Ebbets Field.

The wrecking crew wore Giants jerseys and tipped their hard hats to the historic stadium as they began the dismantling. It took a crew of 60 workers more than four months to level the structure.


April 10, 1970 -
Answering questions concerning his upcoming debut solo album, Paul McCartney 'accidentally' announced on this date, that the Beatles were breaking up. Many were devastated when the legendary band announced that members were going their separate ways after more than 20 years of working together.



The breakup itself took over three years to become official because of numerous legal snafus.


April 10, 1971 -
In an effort to build better relations between the U.S. and China, a US table tennis team begins a week long visit to the People's Republic of China (PRC) at the invitation of China's communist government.



The visit was a major step forwards in relations between the two countries, and gave rise to the term "table-tennis diplomacy."


April 10, 1972 -
Charlie Chaplin returned to America, after a more than a 20 year self-imposed exile (having been accused of being a Communist) — to receive a lifetime achievement Oscar on this date.



It was his second academy award; the first he got in 1929 for The Circus.


April 10, 1976 -
On a visit to the Alamo in San Antonio, President Gerald Ford committed the no-no of picking up a plate of tamales and starting to bite into one still wrapped in a corn husk.



Lila Cockrell, the city’s mayor at the time, explained it this way: “The president didn’t know any better. It was obvious he didn’t get a briefing on the eating of tamales.” It has become known as the “Great Tamales Incident.”



And so it goes.

Cheaper than therapy

Today is National Gin and Tonic Day



Once again I will remind you gentle readers that I am not a spokesperson for Bombay Sapphire (yet), I find it is a waste to use it, given it's delicate botanicals in a G and T; but hey, what do I know.

International Gin and Tonic Day, for those who need to know, is celebrated on October 19th.



Either way, celebrate responsibly


April 9, 1949 -
The Merrie Melodies short Rebel Rabbit directed by Robert McKimson and starring Bugs Bunny was released on this date.



Bugs sawing Florida off the United States has become a popular Internet meme,

often used as a reaction.


April 9, 1950 -
Bob Hope made his network TV debut on this date, hosting the Star-Spangled Review extravaganza, on NBC. Among the guest stars were Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Dinah Shore, Beatrice Lillie and Carl Reiner.



Hope holds two entries in The Guinness Book of World Records. One is for having the distinction of being the entertainer with "the longest running contract with a single network - spanning sixty-one years". The second is for being the "most honored entertainer", with over 1500 awards.


April 9, 1964 -
Edward Dmytryk's version of Harold Robbin's The Carpetbaggers, starring George Peppard, Alan Ladd, and Carroll Baker premiered in the US on this date.



Once considered so racy it was advertised as being "for adults only", this film was re-released in 1972, and resubmitted to the MPAA for a rating. Indicating how much standards had changed in nearly a decade, it was given a PG (the PG-13 rating having not been created yet).


April 9, 1974 -
It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown!, the 12th prime-time animated Peanuts TV special debuted on CBS on this date.



When the Peanuts characters arrive at the mall at Easter time, the mall is decorated for the December holiday season with banners that proclaim: Only 246 shopping days until Christmas.


April 9, 1975 -
The very surreal comedy film concerning the Arthurian legend, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, written and performed by Monty Python, and directed by Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones, opened in London, on this date.



During one of the first screenings of this movie in front of a live audience, co-writer and co-director Terry Jones noticed that when music was played during the jokes, there was a marked reduction of laughter from the audience. He went back and edited the music out whenever a punchline was delivered. At subsequent screenings, he noticed a dramatic increase in the audiences' positive reactions to the jokes. From that point on, whenever he directed, he remembered to stop the music for the funny parts.


April 9, 1976 -
Alan J. Pakula's version of Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward's novel, All the President's Men, starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford, went into general release in the US on this date.



Hal Holbrook was the first and only choice to play the informant Deep Throat. During the casting process, Bob Woodward, while looking at various actors' head shots and resumes, but not revealing Deep Throat's true identity, insisted to director Alan J. Pakula that Holbrook was the best choice to play Deep Throat. Holbrook bears a strong resemblance to Mark Felt. In 2005, 91-year old Mark Felt, former the Deputy Director of the FBI during the Nixon administration, acknowledged publicly for the first time that he was Deep Throat.


April 9, 1976 -
The final film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Family Plot, starring Karen Black, Bruce Dern, Barbara Harris and William Devane premiered in the US on this date.



Bruce Dern had previously worked with Alfred Hitchcock on episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, as well as having had a small role in Marnie. Dern once said of working with Alfred Hitchcock on this movie: "He noticed everything, a shadow on a performer's face, a few seconds too long on a take. Just when we thought he had no idea what was going on, he'd snap us all to attention with the most incredible awareness of some small but disastrous detail that nobody would have noticed until it got on-screen, and then he'd be bored again."


April 9, 1977 –
ABBA had their only no. #1 US hit on the Billboard Charts - Dancing Queen, on this date.



ABBA recorded this about a year before it was released. It was written and recorded around the same time as Fernando, which was chosen as the single. They knew Dancing Queen would also be a hit, so they held it until the album was released before issuing it as a single.


April 9, 1990 -
The very short lived series Capital News, starring Lloyd Bridges, William Russ, Helen Slater, and Wendell Pierce, aired on ABC TV, on this date.



The series consisted of one TV movie (also considered as the pilot) and twelve regular episodes, of which only three were shown on its initial run in the US.


April 9, 2009 -
We got to meet Leslie Knope and her co-workers when Parks and Recreations premiered on NBC-TV on this date.



The original pilot received mixed responses from focus group screenings, leading to parts being rewritten and new scenes shot in order to make Leslie and Mark more likable. Originally, Mark was interested in Ann and asked Ron to green-light the park project purely so he could pursue her romantically. This was rewritten so Mark asks for Ron to help Leslie because he genuinely thought she deserved to succeed.


Another little known Monopoly card


Today in History:
April 9, 1241 -
In the Battle of Legnica, Silesia, Mongol armies defeated the Poles and Germans and the Mongols slaughtered the entire infantry. Mongols collected nine bags of ears* after the battle with Henry, Duke of Poland, on this date.

*In case you need to win a very bizarre bar bet, apparently you can fit 25,000 ears into nine bags.


April 9, 1492 -
Lorenzo de' Medici died, turning his face to the wall to avoid the verbal abuse from Savonarola, who commands Lorenzo to confess his sins, indecencies and pride and to give the Florentines back their liberty, on this date.



It's very annoying to have your confessor pester you while you lay dying.


April 9, 1830 -
It's the birthday of Eadweard Muybridge, born in Kingston-on-Thames, England. He emigrated to California in the 1850s, where he took up photography and quickly became one of the first internationally known photographers. Between 1867 and 1872, he took more than 2,000 photographs, many of them views of the Yosemite Valley.



It was Eadweard Muybridge who designed a new camera that could take a picture in one-thousandth of a second. To test his improvement, he set up twenty-four cameras along a racetrack, with trip wires to trigger the shutters. With those cameras, he managed to take a series of pictures of a horse galloping, proving for the first time that all four of a horse's hooves are sometimes off the ground at the same time - and winning his sponsor, soon-to-be governor of California Leland Stanford, a businessman and racehorse owner, a $25,000 bet. Muybridge's friendship with Stanford proved quite helpful.



In 1874, still living in the San Francisco Bay Area, Muybridge discovered that his wife had a lover, Major Harry Larkyns. On October 17, 1874, he sought out Larkyns, said, "Good evening, Major, my name is Muybridge, and here is the answer to the letter you sent my wife," and shot and killed him. One is left to wonder what the good Major wrote to warrant such a response.



Muybridge believed his wife's son had been fathered by Larkyns (although, as an adult, the young man bore a remarkable resemblance to Muybridge). He was put on trial for the killing but was acquitted on the grounds that it was "justifiable homicide." The inquiry interrupted the horse photography experiment, but not Stanford's support of Muybridge; Stanford paid for his criminal defense.


April 9, 1860 -
A short song was captured on by a phonautograph, a device created by a Parisian inventor, Edouard-Leon Scott deMartinville, on this date. The device etched representations of sound waves into paper covered in soot from a burning oil lamp. Lines were scratched into the soot by a needle moved by a diaphragm that responded to sound.



The recordings were never intended to be played. Technicians in 2008 were able convert the digital scan of the paper into an audio file. The recording consists of about ten seconds of a person singing Au Claire de Lune. The audio file is now recognized as the oldest audible recording of a human voice ever made.


April 9, 1865 -
General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the American Civil War, on this date. On April 5, Grant sent a message to his old college friend Lee that said, "General: The result of the last week must convince you of the hopelessness of further resistance on the part of the Army of Northern Virginia in this struggle. P.S. If you could help an old friend out, send more bourbon. I've finished all of the Union's supply of that fine sippin' whisky of yours, and I have a powerful thirst."



Lee wrote back to say, "Though not entirely of the opinion you express of the hopelessness of further resistance ... I reciprocate your desire to avoid useless effusion of blood and therefore, before considering your proposition, ask the terms you will offer on condition of its surrender. Also, expect a barrowful of the heavenly nectar with this dispatch. Please tip the delivery boy, you cheap so-and-so."



And so they met at the Appomattox Court House on April 9, Palm Sunday, just after noon. Afterward, Lee rode back to his camp, and crowds of Confederate soldiers along the road began to weep as he passed. Little did Grant know that less than a week later, he would have the sad honor of serving as a pallbearer at the funeral of his greatest champion, Abraham Lincoln.


April 9, 1928 -
... Life is like a sewer: what you get out of it depends on what you put into it.



Tom Lehrer, singer-songwriter, satirist, pianist, and mathematician,was born on this date. (Lehrer entered Harvard at age 15, having skipped several grades. Everyone applying for admission to Harvard was required to include an example of their written work. Lehrer submitted a long verse, in the style of W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. The poem ended with the lines:

I will leave movie thrillers
And watch caterpillars
Get born and pupated and larva'ed,
And I'll work like a slave
And always behave
And maybe I'll get into Harvard...



The poem in its entirety appeared in Scholastic Magazine in 1943. (It was Lehrer's first published work.)



Let's all throw open the windows of our homes and shout "Happy 98th birthday" then go read a smutty magazine in his honor.


April 9, 1939 -
In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused permission for Marian Anderson, an African-American contralto singer, to perform in front of an integrated audience in Constitution Hall.



With the aid of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Anderson performed a critically acclaimed open-air concert on this date, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. to a crowd of more than 75,000 people and a radio audience in the millions.


April 9, 1959 -
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) introduces America's first astronauts for Project Mercury to the press: Scott Carpenter, L. Gordon Cooper Jr., John H. Glenn Jr., Virgil 'Gus' Grissom, Walter Schirra Jr., Alan Shepard Jr. and Donald Slayton, on this date.



The seven men, all military test pilots, were carefully selected from a group of 32 candidates to take part in Project Mercury, America's first manned space program .


April 9, 1963 -
The first foreigner to receive honorary United States citizenship on this date, was Winston Churchill (whose mother had been American and may or may not have slept with the king of England, but I digress ...).



Only Sir Winston, Raoul Wallenberg, William Penn and Hannah Callowhill Penn, Mother Teresa, Casimir Pulaski, and the Marquis de LaFayette share this distinction. But it was the first time that Congress had actually resolved that honorary citizenship be bestowed, by the President of the United States, on a foreign national.


April 9, 1965 -
TIME magazine featured a cover with the entire Peanuts gang on this date.

After the Peanuts made the cover of TIME magazine, an advertising agent for the Coca-Cola company who had seen the Charles Schulz documentary produced by Lee Mendelson. The agent asked if Mendelson had thought about creating a Peanuts Christmas special. Mendelson fibbed that he had; the following day, he and Schulz came up with the story. A Charlie Brown Christmas is the longest-running cartoon special in history, airing every year since its debut in 1965.


April 9, 2021 -
When a man opens a car door for his wife, it's either a new car or a new wife. ...



As to all, death came to everyone's favorite itinerant Greek sailor Philip Mountbatten (nee Phílippos Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg) on this date.



And so it goes.

Happiness multiplies when shared

(If you're reading this in Japan and I'm sure I have many readers there) it may be the birthday of Siddhartha Gautama. ACME would like to wish you Namo Amituofo -

Otherwise, just calculate the first full moon day of the sixth month of the Buddhist lunar calendar, which would be the fourth month of the Chinese calendar, except in years in which there's an extra full moon, and then Buddha's birthday falls in the seventh month. Well, except where it starts a week earlier.

And in Tibet it's usually a month later.


April 8, 1939 -
The Merrie Melodies short Bars and Stripes Forever, directed by Ben Hardaway and Cal Dalton, debuted on this date.



The warden uses the same mannerisms as Hugh Herbert. His screen character was usually flustered and absent-minded. He would flutter his fingers together and talk to himself, repeating the same phrases: "Hoo-hoo-hoo, wonderful, wonderful, hoo hoo hoo!"


April 8, 1944 -
The Looney Tunes short , Tick Tock Tuckered, directed by Bob Clampett and starring Porky Pig and Daffy Duck, debuted on this date



The gag where Porky threw a book out the window only to have a sequel of that same book come in and hit Porky was previously used in Notes to You.


April 8, 1953 -
Columbia Pictures released the first 3-D feature by a major studio, Man in the Dark, directed by Lew Landers and starring Edmond O'Brien, Audrey Totter and Ted de Corsia, on this date.



Despite reaching theaters first, House of Wax, which will open the following day, will be heavily promoted by Warner Brothers as “the first feature produced by a major studio in 3-D.”


April 8, 1968 -
The TV special Petula airs on NBC on this date. Most people would not remember this special except at one point in the show, host Petula Clark grabs hold of Harry Belafonte's arm while they are singing a duet.





As bizarre as this may seem, the show marked the first time a man and a woman of different races had physical contact on American television.


April 8, 1970 -
The Universal Pictures nearly foprgotten sci-fi film, Colossus: The Forbin Project, directed by Joseph Sargent, starring Eric Braeden, Susan Clark, Gordon Pinsent, and William Schallert debuted on this date.



When the executives at Control Data Corporation found out that Universal was planning a major movie featuring a computer, they saw their chance for some public exposure, and they agreed to supply, free of charge, $4.8 million worth of computer equipment and the technicians to oversee its use. Each piece of equipment carried the CDC name in a prominent location. Since they were using real computers - not just big boxes with a lot of flashing lights - the sound stage underwent extensive modifications: seven gas heaters and five specially-constructed dehumidifiers kept any dampness away from the computers, a climate control system maintained the air around the computers at an even temperature, and the equipment was covered up at all times except when actually on camera. Brink's guards were always present on the set, even at night. The studio technicians were not allowed to smoke or drink coffee anywhere near the computers.


April 8, 1975 -
Aerosmith released their third album Toys In The Attic, on this date.



The album is their most commercially successful studio LP in the US, selling over eight million copies.


April 8, 1977 -
CBS Records released the debut studio eponymous named album by The Clash, on this date.



The group was signed by a CBS-affiliated record company for 100,000 British pounds, an unprecedented sum for a group who had little noteworthy performance history. Many of the punk establishment criticized the group for selling out, but the records were received well in the UK.


April 8, 1978 -
The TV comedy series, Another Day, starring David Groh and Joan Hackett aired on CBS TV on this date.



Apparently, audiences weren't into this show, as it was canceled after only four episodes.


April 8, 1979 -
The 204th and final episode of All in the Family, Too Good Edith, aired on this date.



The series would come back in the fall in the less successful offering, Archie's Place.


April 8, 1983 -
In front of a live audience of 20 tourists, David Copperfield makes the Statue of Liberty disappear. A large opaque screen appeared between two giant pillars. When the screen fell, the Statue of Liberty vanished. Then the screen went back up, and when it fell again, the statue was back.



The secret to the Lady Liberty illusion was nothing more than a rotating platform. Copperfield had seated his audience on a surface that turned via a hydraulics system. He then raised the curtain and kept the audience distracted with loud music and general showmanship, while the platform was slowly rotated a few degrees. Then, when the curtain was lowered, one of the pillars that had previously supported it now blocked the audience's view of the statue. In the area that the platform now faced, Copperfield and his team had set up a circle of lights identical to the ones that encircled the real Liberty.


April 8, 1990 -
It wasn't a very good day for Laura Palmer - The cult series Twin Peaks, the series about cherry pie and Damn fine cup o' coffee!, premiered on ABC-TV on this date.



The series was originally to be titled Northwest Passage. The character of Josie Packard (played by Joan Chen) was originally named Giovanna "Jo" Pasqualini Packard, and was intended to be played by Isabella Rossellini, who was dating David Lynch at the time.


April 8, 1991 -
English trip hop group Massive Attack released their debut studio album Blue Lines, on this date.



Massive Attack at the time was a three-man production team: Robert "3D" Del Naja, Grantley "Daddy G" Marshall and Andrew "Mushroom" Vowles. They used various vocalists on their song. It has been long rumored that the artist Banksy is Massive Attack singer Robert “3D” Del Naja.


April 8, 2000 -
In a Saturday Night Live skit where Blue Öyster Cult is recording (Don't Fear) The Reaper, Christopher Walken demands more cowbell from Will Ferrell, who complies.



A catch phrase is born


Another episode of ACME's Little Known Animal Facts


Today in History:
Once again, some days, it's NOT good to be the king -
April 8, 217 -
The very hygienically minded Caracalla (Marcus Aurelius Antoniius) Roman emperor (188 – 217) was murdered by one of his guards with a single sword stroke while defecating.



Not a pleasant way to go . . but don’t feel too sorry for him. He shared the empire with brother Geta until he had Geta’s throat cut as he lay in their mother’s arms.


April 8, 1143 -
John II Comnenus Emperor of Byzantium (1118-43), died when he was accidentally infected by a poisoned arrow while out hunting.

I hate when that happens


April 8, 1364 -
John II the Good, King of France (1350-64), died at 44 after a night of heavy drinking in London.

You may ask what the King of France was doing, drinking in London - well, that's another story.


April 8, 1498 -
Charles VIII the Affable, King of France (1483-98), died in a freak tennis accident -



striking himself on the head while passing through a doorway, leaving the tennis court. A few hours later, he fell into a sudden coma and died.

Tennis - it's an extreme sport.


April 8, 1820 -
The famous marble sculpture, the Venus de Milo, was discovered on the island of Milos by Yorgos Kentrotas and a French naval officer, Jules Dumont d'Urville on this date.



The Marquis de Rivière presented it to Louis XVIII, who donated it to the Louvre the following year. The complete arms were never found.


April 8, 1832 -
Some 300 American troops of the 6th Infantry, lead by Brigadier General Henry Atkinson left Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, to confront the Sauk Indians in what would become known as the Black Hawk War, on this date.



This is one of history's funny coincidences, in which Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis led troops on the same side - Lincoln as a captain of militia, Davis as a lieutenant of Regulars.

Impress the habitués of your local tavern.


April 8, 1904 -
Mayor George B. McClellan signed the resolution on this date, changing the name of Long Acre Square in Manhattan, New York, to Times Square.

New York Times publisher Adolph S. Ochs was preparing to move the newspaper's operations to a new skyscraper on 42nd Street at Longacre Square, hence Times Square.


April 8, 1950 -
Vaslav Fomich Nijinsky, one of the most gifted male dancers in history - celebrated for his virtuosity and for the depth and intensity of his characterizations, died on this date, in a psychiatric hospital in London.



No film exists of Nijinsky dancing. Sergei Diaghilev never allowed his ballet company, the Ballets Russes, to be filmed. He felt that the quality of film at the time could never capture the artistry of his dancers and that the reputation of the company would suffer if people saw it only in short jerky films.


April 8, 1973 -
...Drink to me, drink to my health, you know I can’t drink any more....



Pablo Ruiz Picasso, one of the most recognized figures in twentieth-century art, he is best known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the wide variety of styles embodied in his work and sleeping with almost anything that moved, died on this date.


April 8, 1974 -
The largest crowd in Atlanta Braves history (53,775) on this date, watched Hank Aaron break Babe Ruth's home run record on this date with a hit in the 4th inning off Los Angeles pitcher Al Downing. The ball landed in the Braves bullpen where reliever Tom House caught it.



While cannons were firing in celebration and Aaron rounded the bases, two college students appeared and ran alongside of him before security stepped in.


April 8, 1986 -
Clint Eastwood was elected on this date; with twice the voter turn out showing up, Clint got a whopping 72.5 % of the vote. He was the mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California for two years.



As mayor, Eastwood adopted a pro-business and tourism stance. He overturned, for instance, a local law banning the sale and consumption of ice cream on Carmel's streets.


April 8 1994 -
Kurt Cobain's body was found three days after committing suicide with a shotgun.



That was probably not a pretty sight (I won't even mention the smell - definitely not teen spirit.)


April 8, 1997 -
Singer-songwriter Laura Nyro died at age 49 of ovarian cancer, on this date.



Laura Nyro was discovered thanks to her father's persistence. Lou Nigro was a trumpeter and piano tuner and was working on a piano for A&R exec Artie Mogull when he just couldn't keep quiet about his daughter's songwriting talents. Exasperated, Mogull finally told Lou to bring Laura by sometime. "Next day, this little, short, unattractive girl comes up," Mogull recalled, "and the first three songs she plays are Wedding Bell Blues, Stoney End, and then When I Die. I almost fainted. I went crazy."



And so it goes.