It was a first for Disney

August 22, 1929 -
Walt Disney released the animated short film The Skeleton Dance (The first of Disney's Silly Symphony series,) animated by Ub Iwerks, on this date.



Worried that he would be too dependent on Mickey, Walt Disney wanted to diversify. Carl W. Stalling came up with the idea of producing "musical novelties" (which would later become Silly Symphonies). He even came up with the idea of the dancing skeletons for the first of the series (as a child he had seen an ad in The American Boy magazine for a dancing skeleton and the image stuck with him).


August 22, 1930 -
W.C. Fields' classic short, The Golf Specialist, premiered on this date.



The picture of Bellweather on the wanted poster shows W.C. Fields in costume for his "Fatal Glass of Beer" sketch. It obviously is taken from a stage presentation of the well-tried routine, as the comedian would not film it until 1933.


August 22, 1936 -
The Looney Tunes short, Porky's Poultry Plant, directed by Frank Tahlin, and starring Porky Pig, was released on this date.



Frank Tashlin's first film as director at Warner Bros. Also the first Warner Bros. cartoon for composer Carl W. Stalling.


August 20, 1942 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Fresh Hare, directed by Friz Freleng, and starring Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, was released on this date.



The end of this cartoon, where Bugs proclaims his last wish in a chorus of I Wish I Were in Dixie, which segues into Bugs, Elmer Fudd and the Mounties all in blackface singing Camptown Races has been edited on nearly every recent American airing,


August 22, 1942 -
The Looney Tunes short, Eatin' on the Cuff or The Moth Who Came to Dinner, directed by Bob Clampett, was released on this date.



The spider seductress styles herself after popular film star Veronica Lake, who was known for her peek-a-boo bang hairstyle. This characterization might well have helped inspire the cartoon character Jessica Rabbit almost 50 years later.


August 22, 1946 -
The last of Alfred Hitchcock's wartime thrillers, Notorious, premiered on this date.



After filming had ended, Cary Grant kept the famous UNICA key. A few years later he gave the key to his great friend and co-star Ingrid Bergman, saying that the key had given him luck and hoped it would do the same for her. Many years later, at a tribute to director Alfred Hitchcock, Bergman went off-script and presented the key to him, to his surprise and delight.


August 22, 1953 -
The Looney Tunes short, Plop Goes the Weasel!, directed by Bob McKimson, and starring Foghorn Leghorn and the Barnyard Dawg., was released on this date.



This is also the first cartoon to bill Foghorn Leghorn by name in the title card.


August 22, 1970 -
Bread's single Make It With You from their album, On the Waters, went to No. 1 on the Billboard Charts on this date.



When group leader David Gates returned home to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where his mother was throwing a big reception party to celebrate the return of the young chart-conquering hero, the newspaper, television and radio press turned up, hoping to play up the whole "local boy does good" PR angle. In a widely circulated interview, Mrs. Gates proudly told the world just how pleased as punch she was with her son's recent success. She then also told them - in complete candor - that she just couldn't understand why he had to call his new hit record, "Naked With You."


August 22, 1972 -
The movie that introduced Monty Python and its seminal brand of comedy to American audiences, And Now for Something Completely Different, premiered in the U.S. on this date.



This movie was filmed between the first and second seasons of Monty Python's Flying Circus. It contains several sketches that had been written for the second season, but not yet performed, including the Hungarian Phrasebook sketch.


August 22, 1981 -
Duran Duran had their breakthrough hit in Britain when their single Girls On Film, hits #5 in the UK, on this date. It does not chart on its US release, but surges in popularity after its music video goes into heavy rotation on MTV.



(Kids, ask your folks if you're allowed to watch this video)

This song is best known for its video, which was the first extended video ever made and was quite racy. Simon Le Bon has said in interviews that the controversy over the song's notoriously raunchy music video eclipsed the song's message of fashion model exploitation. The video was directed by Lol Creme and Kevin Godley, who were the leaders of the group 10cc and also recorded as Godley & Creme.


August 22, 1986 -
Rob Reiner adaptation of the novella by Stephen King, Stand By Me, starring Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell, and Kiefer Sutherland premiered in US Theatres on this date.



River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Wil Wheaton and Jerry O'Connell got into a lot of mischief in the hotel they were staying in during filming. This included throwing all the poolside furniture into the pool, Wheaton fixing video games in the lobby so they could play them for free and Phoenix (spurred on by the other boys) unknowingly covering Kiefer Sutherland's car in mud, only discovering whose car it was when Sutherland confronted a scared and nervous Phoenix about it later.


August 22, 1990 -
Allan Moyle's teen comedy-drama, Pump Up the Volume, starring Christian Slater and Samantha Mathis, premiered on this date.



Allan Moyle described the movie's protagonist and central character of Mark Hunter (played by Christian Slater) as an amalgam of Lenny Bruce and Holden Caulfield.


August 22, 2020 -
Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion single WAP, goes to the top of the charts on this date. The song has the destinction of being the most sexually explicit song ever to top the Billboard Charts.



(Kids, check with your folks if you're allowed to listen to this song.)

The Colin Tilley directed video finds Cardi and Megan exploring a luxurious mansion that features some of their celebrity friends dancing behind certain doors. They are, in order of appearance, Kylie Jenner, Normani, Rosalía, Mulatto, Sukihana and Rubi Rose.

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


Today in History:
August 22, 408 -
Flavius Stilicho, West Roman field leader was executed for his failure to decisively deal with Alaric, leader of the Visigoths.

Many historians argue that the death of Stilicho was the main catalyst leading to the Vandals sack of Rome in 410.

(This may be on the test)


August 22, 565 -
St. Columba, the man credited with introducing Christianity to Scotland, reported seeing a monster in Loch Ness on this date.

St. Columba made the sign of the cross and told the monster, "you will go no further," and it fled. There was no written report on how many drams of whiskey the saint had downed before his encounter.


August 22, 1485 -
At the Battle of Bosworth, England's King Richard III was terminated for having made a fiscally irresponsible bid on a horse.



For evermore, kingdoms went for a great deal more than small pieces of hardware.


August 22, 1770 -
Captain James Cook claimed Australia for the British crown when he landed on a small island off the coast of Queensland.

This must have come as a great shock to the indigenous inhabitants there. But then again, they didn't have a flag.


August 22, 1776 -
George Washington asked the Continental Congress for permission to burn New York City, to stop the city from being used to quarter troops arriving via the British fleet. It is declined, but his soldiers set 1/4th of the town ablaze on September 21.

There are still many in the government that would like to enact Washington's plan right now.


August 22, 1849 -
In the first air raid in history, Austria launched 200 pilotless balloons (these were not those 99 luftballons Nena sang about,) each attached with 30-pound bombs, against the city of Venice on this date.

The bombs don’t cause much damage (luftballoons indeed.) These unmanned balloons were also the first drones. But on this August day, exactly a hundred years later,

Japan dedicated the town of Hiroshima as a shrine of peace after a single nuclear bomb killed 130,000 people


It's Claude Debussy's birthday (You may feel piss proud of yourself for just listening.)



You may go back about your business


August 22, 1851 -
The American schooner America was allowed, through special dispensation of Queen Victoria, to enter the annual Royal Yacht Squadron's Regatta. The America won the race, beating out 15 competitors and the trophy was renamed the America's Cup after the yacht.



The race was a 53-mile (85-kilometer) regatta at the Isle of Wight. The Cup is the oldest trophy awarded in international sports.


August 22, 1864 -
12 nations sign the first Geneva Convention specifically calling for the protection of the wounded during times of active warfare on this date. This leads directly to formation of the Red Cross.



In 1882, U.S. President Chester Arthur signed the treaty, making the U.S. the 32nd nation to do so.


August 22, 1893 -
If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.





Dorothy Parker was born in New York City, to Henry and Eliza Rothschild (... My God, no, dear! We'd never even heard of those Rothschilds ....) on this date.



Her birth was two months premature, allowing her to say that it was the last time she was early for anything. She was quoted, when discussing her early years, "All those writers who write about their childhood! Gentle God, if I wrote about mine you wouldn’t sit in the same room with me."



While she was a successful writer, she was just plain lousy at committing suicide. Dorothy Parker attempted suicide four times herself before succumbing to a heart attack in 1967.


August 22, 1902 -
Henry Martyn Leland and others formed The Cadillac Company which was created from ashes of the Henry Ford Co, on this date, after Henry Ford left the company. Ford formed the Ford Motor Co. in 1903.



But you don't care.


August 22, 1902 -
President Theodore Roosevelt became the first U.S. chief executive to ride in an automobile (a purple-lined Columbia Electric Victoria) in Hartford, Ct. on this date. The police detail covering the event rode bicycles.

I'm sure he had a bully time, but the truth is a year earlier William McKinley rode in a car, although it was the electric ambulance that took him to the hospital after he was shot.


August 22, 1906 -
The Victor Talking Machine Company of Camden, New Jersey, manufactured its first Victrola record player on this date.

The devices, including the hand cranked unit and horn cabinet would sell for $200.


August 22, 1920 -
The late great Ray Bradbury, science fiction writer whose works include The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451, was born on this date.



Though considered by many to be the greatest science-fiction writer of the of the 20th century, he suffers from a fear of flying and driving. He has never learned to drive, and did not fly in an airplane until October 1982.


August 22, 1938 -
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, one of Hollywood's most famous dancing duos, appeared on the cover of Life Magazine.

There were on the cover to promote their current film, Carefree. The film is often remembered as the film in which Astaire and Rogers shared their first long on-screen kiss.


August 22, 1939 -
The first U.S. patent (US Patent #2170531 A) was issued for a disposable whipped cream aerosol container on this date.

Julius S. Kahn's patent was titled "An Apparatus for Mixing a Liquid with a Gas" and was specifically concerned with making whipped cream, using a ordinary soda bottle.

And so Whippets were born - I've got nothing else to say.


August 22, 1962 -
A group called the OAS (Secret Army Organization in English) plotted an assassination attempt on President Charles De Gaulle, who they believed had betrayed France by giving up Algeria (in northern Africa) to Algerian nationalists.





Frederick Forsyth dramatized the events of that August in his best-selling novel The Day of the Jackal, later made into a film.


August 22, 1973 -
Henry Kissinger, German-born American bureaucrat, succeeded William Rogers as Secretary of State under President Richard Nixon, on this date.

Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize in the same year, (he's also considered a war criminal by others.) He continued in office until 1977.



(I really don't care about the man but it gave me an excuse to play a clip of Gilda Radner and John Belushi.)


August 22, 1989 -
Nolan Ryan's fifth inning strike out of Rickey Henderson, on this date, made him the first Major League Baseball pitcher to record 5,000 strikeouts.



His 5,714 career strikeouts rank first in baseball history by a significant margin.


August 22, 2007 -
The Texas Rangers routed the Baltimore Orioles 30–3 on this date. The Rangers became the first and so far only team in MLB history to score 30 runs in a single game. They scored five runs in the fourth, nine in the sixth, 10 in the eighth, and six more in the ninth.



Believe it or not, Texas was scoreless through the first three innings of the game.



And so it goes.

Autumn... the year's last, loveliest smile.

Here's a point of information - The Autumnal Equinox occurs in 32 days.

The 2026 Midterm Election occurs in 74 days.


August 20, 1937 -
The Merrie Melodies short, A Sunbonnet Blue, directed by Tex Avery, was released on this date.



George and his girlfriend appear again in The Mice Will Play, which was also directed by Tex Avery.


August 21, 1941 -
The classic romantic comedy, Here Comes Mr. Jordan, directed by Alexander Hall, and starring Robert Montgomery, Claude Rains, Evelyn Keyes, James Gleason, Edward Everett Horton, Rita Johnson, and John Emery went into general release on this date.



Columbia chief Harry Cohn had serious misgivings about this adaptation of Harry Segall's minor stage play. He preferred to reserve his more lavish budgets for surefire successes (e.g., anything featuring the studio's biggest star, Rita Hayworth). However, Sidney Buchman eventually was able to talk Cohn into forking out for costly celestial sets and Farnsworth's elaborate mansion and also into hiring Robert Montgomery on loan-out from MGM. Buchman was also able to convince Cohn that he had a better appreciation of what the public would pay to see than the Wall Street bankers to whom Cohn answered.


August 21, 1943 -
The war time Looney Tunes short, Scrap Happy Daffy, directed by Frank Tahlin, and starring Daffy Duck, was released on this date.



This short is the final appearance of Daffy Duck in black-and-white.


August 20, 1948-
The Merrie Melodies short, Hot Cross Bunny, directed by Bob MvKimson, and starring Bugs Bunny, was released on this date.



The impersonation that Bugs Bunny does in the wheelchair is of Lionel Barrymore in character from his radio series Mayor of the Town.


August 21, 1952 -
The classic John Ford film, The Quiet Man was released on this date.



This was a significant departure for Republic Pictures, which specialized in low-budget westerns, comedies and war pictures. It was the company's first and only film to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.


August 21, 1965 -
The protest song Eve of Destruction, written by P. F. Sloan, was released by Barry McGuire, on this date.



This was originally recorded by The Turtles, who released it on their first album earlier in 1965. The Turtles did not release it as a single, and McGuire's version became the hit. As management problems and personnel changes plagued The Turtles, they finally decided to release this as a single in 1970, shortly before they broke up. It was their last song to chart, reaching #100.


August 21, 1965 -
The Lovin' Spoonful's released their first no. 1 hit, Do You Believe In Magic on this date.



The song was written by John Sebastian, who formed The Lovin' Spoonful with his friend, Zal Yanovsky. Sebastian and Yanovsky were in a group called The Mugwumps, and made a name for themselves playing clubs in Greenwich Village. When the other Mugwumps - Mama Cass Elliot and Denny Doherty - moved to California and formed The Mamas And The Papas, they formed the band and Sebastian began focusing on songwriting. The Lovin' Spoonful started playing electric instruments to get away from the folk music sound and attract a younger contemporary rock audience.


August 21, 1965 -
Out of Our Heads, the third British and fourth American studio album by the Rolling Stones went No. 1 on the Billboard Charts on this date.



In America, London Records released the first version of Out Of Our Heads on July 30, 1965. The UK version, issued by Decca Records, came out two months later, on September 24, and featured some significant differences in the tracklisting.


August 21, 1979 -
Gary Numan released his hit Cars from his album The Pleasure Principle, on this date.



This was Numan's only hit in the US, but he has had many others in England, where he has a large cult following. Numan specializes in electronic music, and was an influence on artists like Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails.


August 21, 1981 -
John Landis' classic comedy horror film, An American Werewolf in London, starring David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, and Griffin Dunne, premiered in the US on this date.



David Naughton, then known as Dr. Pepper's star of the "I'm A Pepper" commercials, was let go by Dr. Pepper because of his nude scenes in this film.


August 21, 1987 -
Columbia Pictures released the neo-noir film, The Big Easy, directed by Jim McBride, written by Daniel Petrie Jr, and starring Dennis Quaid, Ellen Barkin, John Goodman, and Ned Beatty, on this date.



It was reported that Robert Redford had to literally dragged producer David Puttnam, who was the CEO of Columbia Pictures at the time, to a screening of the film at the Sundance Film Festival. Afterwards, Puttnam then picked-up the picture for distribution.


August 21, 1987 -
The low-budget film, directed by Emile Ardolino, Dirty Dancing, starring Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grey, Cynthia Rhodes, and Jerry Orbach, premiered in the US on this date.



While the exteriors and cabin scenes were filmed at Mountain Lake in Virginia, the lake scene was filmed at Lake Lure in North Carolina in October. There are no close-ups because the cast members were so cold that their lips were blue.


August 21, 1991 -
The Coen Brothers take on 30s Hollywood, Barton Fink, starring John Turturro, John Goodman, Judy Davis, Michael Lerner, John Mahoney, and Jon Polito went into general release on this date.



The first film to win all three major awards (Palme D'or, Best Director, and Best Actor) at the Cannes Film Festival. Also, it was unanimously chosen for the Palme D'or.


August 21, 1994 -
HBO aired a concert special, Barbra: The Concert, featuring Barbara Streisand on her first public concert in 27 years. (She apparently suffers from severe stage fright.)



The special received a television audience of 11.2 million viewers, becoming the highest-rated musical event in HBO’s history.


Another unimportant moment in history


Today in History:
August 21, 1614 -
Erzsebet Bathory, ruler of Transylvania, died at 54, on this date. She had sought immortality by killing young virgins and bathing in their blood (or so they say.) It apparently didn't work.



The Elizabeth Arden's in Union Square closed a few of years ago; I wonder who is still offering this service and where are they finding enough virgins.


August 21, 1888 -
William Seward Burroughs of St. Louis, Missouri (grandfather of Beat Generation writer William S. Burroughs) was granted four patents for the first successful “Calculating-Machine,” sometimes referred to as an “adding and listing machine.” (US No. 388,116-388,119)

One year after making his first patent application on January 10, 1885, he incorporated his business as the American Arithmometer Corporation, with an investment of $100,000.


August 21, 1906 (or 1905?) -
Happy Birthday Friz



Isadore 'Friz' Freleng, one of the original tenants of Warner Bros. Termite Terrace, was born on this date.


August 21, 1911 –
Pablo Picasso was having a very bad day.

His so-called friend, French poet Guillaume Apollinaire - who had once declared that the Louvre should be “burned down" - came under suspicion when the Mona Lisa was stolen from the museum on this day. He was arrested and jailed. True to form, Apollinaire implicated his friend Pablo Picasso, who was also brought in for questioning. Both were later exonerated.

Very nice guy.

At the time, many feared the painting was lost forever. It would take two years before the real thief was identified: Louvre employee Vincenzo Peruggia. He had stolen the masterpiece by entering during regular hours, hiding in a broom closet, and walking out with it tucked under his coat after closing time..



Peruggia claimed patriotic motives - he believed da Vinci’s painting belonged in Italy, not in France. However, he may have also been encouraged by an accomplice who sold Mona Lisa forgeries, whose value would skyrocket after the original disappeared.

After keeping the painting hidden in his apartment for two years, Peruggia grew impatient. He was finally caught when he tried to sell it to the director of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. The Mona Lisa was displayed throughout Italy before being triumphantly returned to the Louvre in 1914.

Peruggia was celebrated as a patriot in Italy and served only a few months in jail for the theft.


August 21, 1912 -
Arthur R. Eldred was the first person to have achieved the rank of Eagle Scout, the highest in the Boy Scouts of America.

A few weeks after becoming the first Eagle Scout, Eldred helped to save another Scout from drowning and was awarded the Bronze Honor Medal for his actions.


August 21, 1921 -
One of the most famous teddy bears was an 18-inch-high one A. A. Milne and his wife brought from Harrods in London. It was a present for their son, Christopher Robin Milne, in honor of his first birthday on this date. Christopher called the toy bear "Winnie" after a Canadian black bear he often saw at London Zoo.



It was later immortalized in Milne's children's book Winnie-the-Pooh, (The other part of the name, "Pooh," was based on a swan Milne and his family met on holiday).


August 21, 1959 -
Hawaii became the 50th state to enter the Union when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the order, granting the stolen island nation, Hawaii statehood on this date.



Several bills for Hawaii had been presented to the US Congress, in 1919, 1935, 1947 and 1950, but none had passed until this day in 1959. (Nixon gleefully looking on. He was ensuring that little Barry Obama would be born on U.S. soil. Nixon was at the heart a many a conspiracy.)

Please keep the good folk of Maui in mind over the next few weeks.


August 21, 1965 -
Gemini 5, the 11th crewed American spaceflight, was launched with L. Gordon Cooper Jr. and Charles Conrad Jr., on this date.



Gemini 5 doubled the U.S. space-flight record of the Gemini 4 mission to eight days, the length of time it would take to fly to the Moon, land and return.


August 21, 1983 -
Longtime political opponent of Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, former Philippine senator Benigno S. Aquino Jr. was not having a very good day. As Benigno stepped off a airplane at the Manila airport (ending his three years of self-imposed exile in the US,) he was assassinated on this date.



He was returning home to run in the Philippine's next election. These kind of things tend to put people off of travel.


August 21, 1986 -
1,700 people were killed in Cameroon when Lake Nyos emitted a huge cloud of fast-moving fog, quickly enveloping the villages of Nyos, Kam, Cha and Subum on this date.



The lethal mist, consisting mainly of carbon dioxide and water vapor, displaces the oxygen in the low-lying zones, killing thousands of cattle and even more birds and wild animals. One eyewitness later describes the landscape as being "littered with human remains and animal carcasses."

That would have ruined a vacation.



And so it goes.

On the radio (for the first time)

August 20, 1920 -
The first commercial radio station begins operating in Detroit, Michigan with call sign 8MK (Now WWJ (Newsradio 950) ). (8MK went on the air without a license on this date. I understand that KDKA went on the air in Pittsburgh as the world’s first commercially licensed station on November 2, 1920.)



The radio station was started by The Detroit News newspaper and is now owned and run by CBS.



To celebrate the event, National Radio Day, UNESCO formally announced the formation of International Radio Day in February of 2012 (celebrated February 13th), after a suggestion put forward by Spain to celebrate this important means of communication. In some parts of the world, radio still remains an important lifeline to the outside world.


August 20, 1941 -
William Wyler's pitch-perfect adaptation of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes, starring Bette Davis, premiered on this date.



Bette Davis and William Wyler fought a great deal during filming. Disagreements ranged from Davis's interpretation of the character (Wyler thought she should be more sympathetic) to the appearance of the house (Davis thought it was far too opulent for a family struggling financially), to her appearance (Wyler thought her white makeup made her look like a Kabuki performer.) Davis eventually walked out of production, but returned when she heard rumors she was going to be replaced by Katharine Hepburn or Miriam Hopkins.


August 20, 1942 -
An almost forgotten comedy from Columbia Pictures, Talk of The Town, directed by George Stevens starring Cary Grant, Jean Arthur and Ronald Colman, premiered on this date.



This was the first time since the silent era that Ronald Colman was billed below another male lead.


August 20, 1944 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Dog Gone South, directed by Chuck Jones, and starring Charlie Dog, was released on this date.



This cartoon marks the second and final classic appearance of Colonel Shuffle.


August 20, 1955 -
The Merrie Melodies short, A Kiddies Kitty, directed by Friz Freleng, and starring Sylvester the Cat, was released on this date.



Sylvester's only lines of dialogue in this short is saying, "Yeah" four times.


August 20, 1960 -
The Looney Tunes short, Mice Follies, directed by Bob McKimson, was released on this date.



This cartoon was the third of three parodies of The Honeymooners, following The Honey-Mousers and Cheese It, the Cat!


August 20, 1969 -
The horror film, What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? directed by Lee H. Katzin and starring Geraldine Page, Ruth Gordon, Rosemary Forsyth, Robert Fuller and Mildred Dunnock, opened on this date.



The third film in Robert Aldrich's loose trilogy of psycho-biddy films (a subgenre of horror films featuring older women going insane), following What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte. Aldrich was the producer of this film, but unlike the previous two films, he did not also direct it.


August 20, 1972 -
Stax Records commemorates the seventh anniversary of the 1965 Watts riots with a star-studded benefit concert at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, on this date. More than 100,000 fans show up to hear Isaac Hayes, The Bar-Kays, The Staple Singers, and Kim Weston, among others, perform at what becomes known as Black Woodstock.



Among the artists who were scheduled to appear at the concert but couldn't due to various reasons were Little Milton, The Emotions, Johnnie Taylor and Luther Ingram. In fact, Ingram's performance was actually performed on a sound stage a few weeks later with various crowd shots interspersed throughout his performance and the other acts were filmed at various locations in Los Angeles in the weeks following the concert.


August 20, 1977 -
The Emotions hit #1 in the US with the single Best Of My Love for the first of five weeks, on this date. (Two years earlier, the Eagles hit #1 with a song with the same title.)



Songwriter Maurice White sued Mariah Carey and C+C Music Factory for plagiarizing this song for Mariah's 1991 #1 hit Emotions (C+C produced the song for Mariah). Said White, "Sampling is one thing, but she took the whole song." The lawsuit was settled out of court.


August 20, 1988 -
Steve Winwood's single Roll With It when to No. 1 on the Billboard Charts on this date.



The song was Winwood's biggest solo hit in the US, spending four weeks at #1 and also topped the pop chart in his native Britain. The album of the same title also topped the US albums chart.


August 20, 1991 -
Spin Doctors release their debut album, Pocket Full of Kryptonite on this date.



The album went on to sell over 5 million copies thanks to the hits Little Miss Can't Be Wrong and Two Princes.


Another little known Monopoly card


Today in History:
August 20, 1865 -
In the great tradition of the American presidency, President Andrew Johnson rouses himself from an alcoholic stupor,

and formally declared the Civil War over (months after Lee's surrender at Appomattox.)


August 20, 1885 -
Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta, The Mikado opened at the Fifth Street Theatre in New York on this date.



The production originally opened on March 14, 1885, in London, where it ran at the Savoy Theatre for 672 performances.


August 20, 1896 -
A patent application was filed (US Patent No. 597,062) by brothers John and Charles J. Erickson & Alexander E. Keith for the rotary dial telephone on this date.



The dial telephone made it possible for people to dial phone numbers on their own thereby making the communication process easier and more efficient. The patent issued January 11, 1898.



There is another clear, bright line on how old you are - have you ever had to dial a phone?


August 20, 1940 -
As the Battle of Britain, the aerial conflict between the Royal Air Force and the German Luftwaffe, reached its apex, Winston Churchill give another of his famous rousing speeches, on this date. Paying tribute to the fortitude of the Royal Air Force, he coined one of his most famous lines, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."



Churchill used the example of the success of the RAF to promote confidence in the British war effort, stressing that it was better equipped for modern warfare than in the Great War with the numerical strength of the army, the naval command of the sea and scientific superiority in weaponry and intelligence.


August 20, 1940 -
Soviet Professional Leon Trotsky liked his job, but the strain was wearing on him — dictatorial burnout. In the summer of 1940 he finally used some of the vacation time he'd accumulated to head down to Mexico and think through his options.



On this date, in Mexico City, Trotsky met with one of Stalin's human resources representatives, who suggested he take an early retirement.



The suggestion was accompanied by several persuasive blows to the head with an axe, which seriously impeded Trotsky's growth potential. Sadly, he died the next day before he could sue for damages.


August 20, 1948 -
... ... You feel quite distant by playing at huge stadiums year after year, where you only can see a great darkness in front of you....



Robert Anthony Plant CBE, button phobia rock singer and songwriter, was born on this date.


August 20, 1977 -
NASA bizarrely decided to go into the record business. Scientists, not quite understanding the record industry, press only one record but make it out of gold, believing that the unaffordable price will boost profit. The record is nearly unlistenable except for the recording of the Chuck Berry song, Johnny B Goode. NASA decided to hide this costly blunder by including the recording in the payload of the space probe Voyager 2, launched on this date, on a mission to Jupiter and beyond. (This will confused the aliens when they realize that NASA launched Voyager 1 on September 5, 1977.)



The contents of the record were selected for NASA by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan of Cornell University. Dr. Sagan and his associates assembled 115 images and a variety of natural sounds, such as those made by surf, wind, and thunder, and animal sounds, including the songs of birds and whales. To this they added musical selections from different cultures and eras, and spoken greetings from Earthlings in fifty-five languages, and printed messages from President Jimmy Carter and U.N. Secretary-General (and ex-Nazi) Kurt Waldheim. Remember these facts when the aliens come to invade the planet. It passed Jupiter in the summer of 1979, and is still traveling, probably right out of our solar system.

In a memorable Saturday Night Live segment, it was announced by Steve Martin that the first message from extraterrestrials was being received. Once decoded, the message stated, "Send more Chuck Berry."


August 20, 1986 -
US Postal worker Patrick Sherrill shot and killed 14 coworkers, and then himself, on this date.

The shooting, which happened in Edmond, Oklahoma, is generally accepted as the event that spawned the "going postal" phrase.


August 20, 1989 -
The two Menendez brothers, Lyle and Erik, shot their parents to death on this date and then went to the movies to establish an alibi. They called 911 when they returned home from the movies to report the murders.



Though they weren't initially suspected, the two brothers ultimately were convicted and sentenced to life in prison. And shockingly, we have lived long enough to see that they may be released from prison soon.


On August 20, 1991, the Estonian parliament declared independence from the Soviet Union.

The next day, Latvia declared its independence from the Soviet Union and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev declared he was back in full control after a 60-hour coup by old-school Communists finally crumbled.



Full control of exactly what?


Today's brief quiz: What did Vincenzo Peruggia steal on August 21, 1911?

a. The Shroud of Turin
b. Home plate
c. The Mona Lisa
d. documents from Mar-a-Lago
e. The Hope Diamond

Bonus: what was his day job? (Answer tomorrow)



And so it goes.