Kakistocracy

Look it up - we have been living under one for awhile. It a great day to look up words; today is Dictionary Day.



October 16, the birth of Noah Webster is commemorated as Dictionary Day. Celebrate the day by learning some new words, learning how dictionaries came to be, sprucing up your dictionary skills, or even creating your own dictionary!

OK, I'll calm down.


Today is Global Champagne Awareness Day (or International Champagne Day) - the third Friday in October. Most champagne-lovers will already know that, in order for the sparkling nectar to be classified as "champagne", the wine must come from the Champagne province in France. You may not know that to be termed "champagne" it must also be made by the traditional process of secondary fermentation in the bottle.





Bunkies, please be forewarned: The pressure in a bottle of champagne is 90 pounds per square inch, about three times that in your automobile tire.


October 16, 1937 -
The Merrie Melodies short, The Lyin' Mouse, directed by Friz Freleng was released on this date.



The lion traps all read Frank Cluck, a pun on the famous live animal collector of the time, Frank Buck. A fictionalized version of Buck was the subject of the TV series Bring 'Em Back Alive.


October 16, 1944 –
Universal Pictures released the 11th Walter Lantz Woody Woodpecker cartoon, The Beach Nut, on this date.



The cartoon marked the debut of Wally Walrus, Woody Woodpecker's first steady nemesis.


October 16, 1954 -
Elvis Presley made his first appearance on the radio on the program Louisiana Hayride, on this date.



Whether it was Elvis' stage fright or the originality of his act before a new audience, his performance was flat much like his Grand Ole Opry debut a few weeks previous.


October 16 1954 -
The Looney Tunes short, From A to Z-Z-Z-Z, directed by Chuck Jones and starring Ralph Phillips, was released on this date.



The addition equation on the chalkboard, that Ralph Phillips' imaginary character attacked, has 18 numbers to add. From top to bottom, they are 575 + 4 + 547 + 62 + 137 + 91 + 8 + 267 + 64 + 78 + 912 + 853 + 7 + 16 + 17 + 781 + 622 + 4, and their sum is 5,045.


October 16, 1966 -
The film adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, directed by Richard Lester and starring Zero Mostel, Jack Gilford, Phil Silvers, Buster Keaton, Michael Crawford, Michael Hordern, and Roy Kinnear premiered on this date.



Stephen Sondheim was reportedly so upset with the many liberties taken with the stage original for this movie adaptation that he was extremely reluctant thereafter to sell the film rights to any of his musicals; the failure of the 1977 film version of his A Little Night Music only strengthened his opposition, which lasted well into the twenty-first century. Tim Burton had great difficulty in persuading the composer to allow him to make a film of Sweeney Todd.


October 16, 1968 -
20th Century Fox released Richard Fleischer's crime drama, The Boston Strangler, starring Tony Curtis, Henry Fonda, George Kennedy, Sally Kellerman and William Hickey in the US on this date.



20th Century Fox originally hired Terence Rattigan to write the screenplay based on the book by Gerold Frank, but he wrote it as a comedy, and was replaced by Edward Anhalt. In Rattigan's version, the killer was revealed, by a computer, to be Darryl F. Zanuck.


October 16, 1974 -
The Rolling Stones release their the 12th British (and 14th American) studio album, It's Only Rock N' Roll, on this date.



It's Only Rock 'n Roll was an important transitional album for the Rolling Stones. Following the departure of long-time producer Jimmy Miller, the album was self-produced by guitarist Keith Richards and singer Mick Jagger under the pseudonym "The Glimmer Twins".


October 16, 1979 -
The comedy sketch show Not the Nine O'Clock News, starring Rowan Atkinson, Chris Langham, Pamela Stephenson and Mel Smith debuts on BBC 2, on this date.



The original pilot episode had a different cast: Rowan Atkinson and Chris Langham were joined by Chris Emmett, Christopher Godwin, John Gorman, Willoughby Goddard and Jonathan Hyde. The pilot was due to air on April 2, 1979, but was cancelled due to BBC fears over its political content just before a general election, and has never been broadcast.


October 16, 1992 -
The pilot for Gilligan's Island was finally aired - 28 years after the series began. Although the pilot was filmed in 1963, because of cast changes, it wasn't aired this date.

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The pilot's cast differed from the series with Kit Smythe as Ginger, John Gabriel as the high school science teacher/professor, and Nancy McCarthy as Bunny (Ginger's co-worker from Kansas that became Mary Ann in the series).


Another unimportant moment in history


Today in History:
On this date in 1792 (or 1799), there was baptized in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, a boy named Francisco Morazàn. He was young, like most newborns, and full of idealism. After a disappointing childhood, in which he turned out not to have been born to wealth and privilege, he decided first to educate himself and then to enlist in the fight against Mexican annexation of Honduras.

After a disappointing loss, in which Honduras turned out to be a part of Mexico even though neither of them was any longer a part of Spain, Morazàn joined the government of the United Provinces of Central America. Two years later he was the president of the Honduras State legislature and the following year he became president of the entire United Provinces by means of the traditional Central American electoral process ("civil war").

As president, he tried to limit the powers of the Roman Catholic Church, which eventually led to a new round of elections ("civil wars") that produced a new president, this time from the State of Guatemala. The new president exiled Morazàn, who returned several years later calling for electoral reform ("revolution") and was therefore impeached ("shot in the head") by one of his own troops.

It's a holiday in Honduras today.

But it is not a holiday in Guatemala. Or Mexico.


October 16, 1793 -
Deposed French queen Joséphe Jeanne Marie Antoinette sat in an open cart, enduring hours of public ridicule as she is slowly driven around the streets of Paris, on this day.

Finally, she was taken to the guillotine. On the scaffold she accidentally stepped on the executioner's foot, and her last words were, "Monsieur, I ask your pardon. I did not do it on purpose."



She wasn't having a good day.


October 16, 1846 -
The first successful demonstration of the inhalation of ether vapour as a means of overcoming pain of surgery by Henry Jacob Bigelow (following the use of ether by the dentist William Thomas Green Morton two weeks earlier) at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, on this date. Edward Abbot, the 20-year-old patient, had a congenital vascular formation removed from his neck. Afterwards Mr. Abbott told those assembled, “I did not experience pain at any time, though I knew that the operation was proceeding.”

Ether Day, the anniversary of that events is still celebrated today by the doctors and staff of Massachusetts General annually on October 16th. I can not verify if the drug is actually huffed by the staff or merely admired.


October 16, 1854 -
Today is the birthday of Oscar Wilde - known for his barbed wit, one of the most successful playwrights of late Victorian London, and among the greatest celebrities of his day.

Between bouts of sparkling repartee and posing for his Sodomite Trading Card photo, he somehow found time to write the following passage in The Picture of Dorian Gray: "Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world’s original sin. If the caveman had known how to laugh, History would have been different.” Unfortunately for Oscar, had he fled England in the spring of 1895, his history would indeed have been different.



I believe that cavemen did indeed know how to laugh, and that people who accuse humanity of being too serious obviously aren't paying attention. Voluminous scientific research has incontrovertibly proven that we are the only species to giggle at one other's farts.



I reminds you that our lives are haphazard accidents in an indifferent world and that the very absurdity of life is what gives it the most meaning. Burp. Laugh.

Ignore the serious bastards - and remember: the only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.


October 16, 1908 -
The first airplane flight in England was made at Farnborough, accomplished by Samuel Cody, a self-proclaimed American cowboy who built his own flying machines.

The machine had been damaged at the end of the October 16th flight.

After repairs and extensive modifications Cody flew it again early the following year.


October 16, 1916 -
Margaret Higgins Sanger opened the first birth control clinic at 46 Amboy St. in Brooklyn on this date. After opening her clinic in Brooklyn, she spent 30 days in jail for creating a public nuisance.

Sanger coined the term "birth control" and made the cause a worldwide movement.


October 16, 1934 -
Mao Tse-tung decided to abandon his base in Kiangsi due to attacks from Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists. With his pregnant wife and about 30,000 Red Army troops, he set out on the "Long March," - the longest march in the history of warfare.



The march lasted one year and four days, covering more than 6,000 miles (about 9,656 kilometers). In late 1935, with 8,000 survivors, he reached northwest China, and established Chinese Communist headquarters.

(Hey, I want the Chinese censors to note that I occasionally have good stories about the PRC.)


October 16, 1946 -
10 high-ranking Nazi officials were executed by hanging for World War II war crimes in Nuremberg, Germany, on this date.



Many of the hangings were badly botched as of the prisoners were slowly strangle to death. One would have thought we'd have perfected that whole 'hanging thing' - America had been hanging prisoners with pride for almost two centuries at that point.



Hermann Goering, founder of the Gestapo and chief of the German air force, was to have been among them but he committed suicide in his cell the night before.


October 16, 1964 -
China detonated its first atomic bomb (to commemorate the anniversary of the "Long March") and became the world's fifth nuclear power on this date.



If you know what's good for you, please tip the delivery guys a hell of a lot more.


October 16, 1968 -
American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos sparked controversy at the Mexico City Olympics by giving "black power" salutes during a victory ceremony after they'd won gold and bronze medals in the 200-meter race on this date. (And you think people are pissed at the 'kneeling during the anthem' thing.)



Little remembered is the third athlete on the podium with Smith and Carlos, Australian athlete Peter Norman, who joined the American athletes in solidarity and paid a huge price.



Take a moment to hear more about the story of this forgotten man in a major story of the Olympic Games history.


October 16, 1972 -
A light plane carrying House Democratic leader Thomas Hale Boggs of Louisiana (the most outspoken and critical member of the Warren Commission and late famed reporter Cokie Roberts' dad) and three other men was reported missing in Alaska. The plane was never found.



Perhaps if they had that famous bridge to nowhere, they would have found them.


October 16, 1978 -
The Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla became Pope John Paul II on this date, making him the first non-Italian pope in 455 years.



The previous non-Italian pope was the Dutch Pope Adrian VI, who served from 1522 to 1523.


October 16, 1984 -
... Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.



Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa won the Nobel Peace Prize on this date, for his struggle against apartheid.


Hey, BTW - Halloween is in 15 days. Get your costume together. Remember, you can always go as a sociopath - they look just like you and me



The General Election is in 18 days.



Diwali is in 23 days-



Thanksgiving is in 43 days



The start of Hanukkah starts in 49 days



and Christmas are 70 days away.



Check to see where you are located on the naughty/ nice list and make the appropriate adjustments.



And so it goes

It is love alone that gives worth to all things

It's the Feast Day of one of my favorite saints - Saint Teresa of Avila (I've mentioned her at least twice this year.)

She is also known as the Roving Nun (but should not be confused with the Wandering Nun, the Meandering Nun, or the Hopelessly Disoriented Nun). In case you still don't know who this Saint is - she's the one who was repeatedly pierced by God's golden shaft of light, again and again and again. She is the patron saint not only of Spain, but also bodily ills, headaches, laceworkers, opposition to Church Authorities and people ridiculed for their piety.



She died in the arms of her close friend Anne of Saint Bartholomew, allegedly from Transverberation ("the crossing of verbs"). Her pierced heart is on display at Alba de Tormes, so if you're the kind of person that's interested in 400-year-old pierced human hearts you'll probably want to pay a visit. (You'll probably find it in the "Pierced Internal Organ Room" of the "Three-to-Five Hundred Estactic Orgasm Wing.")

Saint Teresa famously said , "There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers", (Truman Capote took this quote very seriously.) "God," she famously prayed, "deliver me from sullen saints!"



Friedrich Nietzsche, who was born on this day in 1844, apparently shared her sentiments if not her tactics. Being Germanic in nature, he though God was dead so he could not experience his golden shaft of light, but that's another story.


We here at ACME love to remind people that today is Evacuation Day. They're celebrating it in Tunisia. It turns out that Evacuation Day recognizes the important contributions made to the world of science by Tunisian proctologists, (it actually commemorates the 1963 withdrawal of the last French troops from the naval port of Bizerte.)

The less said about the gastroenterological rituals performed on this holiday the better.

Which leads us to the fact that today is Global Handwashing Day. It is a campaign to motivate and mobilize millions around the world to wash their hands with soap, the campaign is dedicated to raising awareness of handwashing with soap as a key approach to disease prevention (now, more important than ever.) This years theme is - Clean hands are within reach..



Children suffer disproportionately from diarrheal diseases – with more than 3.5 million children under five dying every year from diarrhea and pneumonia-related diseases. The simple act of washing hands with soap can reduce the incidence of diarrhea rates among children under five by almost 50 %, and respiratory infections by nearly 25 %. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends washing for at least 20 seconds and suggests singing Happy Birthday twice to allow enough time to remove and rinse off germs.

Remind me not to shake hands with any children, people from Tunisia (or anyone, who has not gotten their boosters, for that matter.)


October 15, 1932 -
The Merrie Melodies short, I Wish I Had Wings, directed by Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising was released on this date.



The rooster barks orders in German to geese who march in a goose step. This film was released during Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany.


October 15, 1938 -
The Looney Tunes short, Porky's Naughty Nephew, directed by Bob Clampett and starring Porky Pig, was released on this date.



Introducing nephews and nieces of an established cartoon character was common at the time. It was a way around the Hayes Code, which required marriage to be shown before children appeared...even in animated features..


October 15, 1940 -
Two of the most famous men in the world, not only had superficially similar looks, most famously their mustaches, but were born only four days apart in April of 1889 and both grew up in relative poverty. One of them decides to take a huge risk and release a film taking advantage of this freakish similarity, The Great Dictator, on this date.



When Charles Chaplin first announced that he was going to make this film, the British government, whose policy at the time was one of appeasement towards Nazi Germany (remember peas in our time), announced that they would ban it. By the time of the film's release though, Britain was at war with Germany and in the midst of the blitz, so the government's attitude towards the film had completely changed toward a film with such obvious value as propaganda.


October 15, 1951 -
A former starlet convinced the alcoholic, womanizing head of a television network to run the TV version of her somewhat successful radio program.



I Love Lucy, the television situation comedy, starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, also featuring Vivian Vance and William Frawley, went on to run on CBS for 181 episodes (including the "lost" Christmas episode and original pilot).



Then, the show introduced three more seasons, running from 1957 to 1960, known as The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (while Ball and Arnaz go through an acrimonious divorce). I Love Lucy won five Emmy Awards and received numerous nominations. In 2002, it was ranked #2 on TV Guide's top 50 greatest shows of all time, behind Seinfeld and ahead of The Honeymooners. In 2007, it was placed on Time Magazine's (unranked) list of "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME".



I Love Lucy was the most-watched show in the United States in four of its six seasons, and was the first to end its run at the top of the ratings (to be matched only by The Andy Griffith Show and Seinfeld), although it did not have a formal series finale episode. Episodes of I Love Lucy are still syndicated in dozens of languages across the world.


October 15, 1959 -
(Speaking of Desilu,) The TV show The Untouchables with Robert Stack as Eliot Ness, premiered on ABC-TV on this date.



This series was (very loosely) based on the book Ness co-wrote with journalist Oscar Fraley (who, in turn, confessedly "embellished" Ness' role into the fall of Capone). In spite of Fraley's additions, in the book, Ness and his eleven agents are not reported as doing much more than busting alcohol shipments and depots, yet the series had Ness intervening in dozens of totally fictional events. As a witness of the time put it about the series, "not even two percent of it is true".


October 15, 1954 -
The eponymously named series The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin premiered on ABC-TV on this date.



A popular children's record titled Rinny and Rusty and Rip was released in the 1950's about the three lead characters. It was a 78 rpm Golden Records release, sung by Anne Lloyd and The Sandpipers, with Mitch Miller and his orchestra.


October 15, 1965 -
The poker playing version of The Hustler, The Cincinnati Kid, directed by Norman Jewison, and starring Steve McQueen, Ann-Margret, Karl Malden, Tuesday Weld, Edward G. Robinson, Joan Blondell, Rip Torn, and Cab Calloway premiered in New Orleans on this date.



This was Ring Lardner Jr.'s (one of the screen writers) first major studio work since his 1947 blacklisting as one of The Hollywood Ten.


October 15, 1974 -
Tom Waits releases his second album, The Heart of Saturday Night, on this date, written as a tribute to Beat novelist Jack Kerouac.



Speaking before the first-ever performance of the title song, which appeared on radio station KFPK, Waits said it was a tribute to "Kerouacians," meaning fans of American novelist Jack Kerouac. Kerouac's rambling, plain-language style, which sometimes incorporated elements of jazz improvisation, gave a mystical shine to the simplest aspects of American life. Other than Charles Bukowski, no other literary influence is more obvious to Waits' work, especially his earlier stuff.


October 15, 1981 -
New Line Cinema released the comedy horror film The Evil Dead, directed by Sam Raimi and starring Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, and Betsy Baker, on this date in the US.



Bruce Campbell put up his family's property in Northern Michigan as collateral so that Sam Raimi not only could finish the film, but also blow it up to 35 mm film which was required for theatrical release. Raimi was so grateful for his financial contribution, he credited him as co-producer.


October 15, 1988 –
UB40's cover of Neil Diamond's Red Red Wine reached the top of the Billboard Charts on this date.



UB40 recorded this as a cover of the Tony Tribe 1969 reggae version, which reached #46 in the UK charts. The band did not realize until after it topped the charts that Neil Diamond wrote it and originally recorded it.


October 15, 1994 -
R.E.M.'s ninth studio album, Monster, released by Warner Bros., went to No. 1 on the Billboard Charts, on this date.



After releasing two consecutive slow-paced albums, Out Of Time and Automatic For The People, R.E.M really wanted to rock out on their album Monster. They were also trying to find their place in the alternative landscape as the early '90s saw grunge explode out of Seattle, and U2 reinventing their sound with the theatrical Achtung Baby.


October 15, 1995 -
Paul McCartney and his wife Linda appear on an episode of The Simpsons where they help Lisa become a vegetarian.



Paul explains that if you play Maybe I'm Amazed backwards, you'll hear a recipe for lentil soup. (Now with less pork in it!)


October 15, 2006 -
Patti Smith closed down the celebrated Manhattan music club CBGB, playing the last show at the venue.



The club closes after an extended dispute between club owner Hilly Kristal and the Bowery Residents Committee. Rock fans try to preserve the building as a historical landmark, but those efforts fail and a men's clothing store moves in.


Another little known Monopoly card


Today in History:
October 15, 1582 -
Finally, with the formal implementation of the Gregorian calendar by Pope Gregory XIII, this day actually exists in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.

The calendar jumped from October 4 directly to October 15. People are generally relieved but never quite get over the feeling that they missed something during those 11 days.


October 15, 1783 -
Frenchman Jean Pilâtre de Rozier made a tethered, captive-balloon ascent, in the gardens of La Muette on this date. The Montgolfier (of Monty Python fame)-made balloon, Aerostat Reveillon, carrying Pilâtre, first man to leave the earth, rose to the end of its 250 ft tether.

It stayed aloft for 15 minutes, then landed safely nearby.


October 15, 1893 -
The New York Times declared Coney Island “Sodom-by-the-Sea" for the thrilling rides that let men and women clutch each other.



The Elephantine Colossus, a 200-foot-tall elephant-shaped hotel had a howdah on its back, topped with a gilded crescent was built on Surf Avenue, in 1885. It housed a concert hall and events bazaar in its belly, a museum in what would be its left lung. Its head was an observatory and its eyes were telescopes; you could climb up and peer out at the surrounding city. With 31 rooms and 12 stories, its front legs housed a cigar store and diorama, and its hind legs had spiral staircases leading to the rooms contained above. By 1893, though, tourists got tired of the gimmick, and prostitutes started moving in. It became a giant elephant-shaped brothel. “Seeing the elephant” became local parlance for picking up prostitutes.


October 15, 1917 -
The German spy Mata Hari, a Dutchwoman named Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, was executed by the French on this date. There wasn't much actual evidence of espionage, but she had been seen naked with German officers and the French considered this distasteful enough to kill her.



(I think finally this appears to be the actual date of her execution. Sorry about that, Margaretha.)


October 15, 1924 -
President Calvin Coolidge declared the Statue of Liberty to be a national monument on this date.

Previously, the statue had been considered merely a large French broad oxidizing in New York Harbor.


October 15, 1928 -
The airship LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin completed its first transatlantic crossing when it arrives in the United States at NAS Lakehurst, New Jersey four days after leaving Friedrichshafen, Germany on this date.



The Naval Air Station Lakehurst, located in Lakehurst, New Jersey, was the western terminus for the commercial transatlantic flights of the German dirigibles Graf Zeppelin and, later, the Hindenburg.


October 15, 1964 -
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was too busy pounding his shoe at every official meeting to realize that he was ousted

and replaced by Alexei N. Kosygin as premier and by Leonid I. Brezhnev as Communist Party secretary.


October 15, 1990 -
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev gave up the practice of shoe banging practices of the Soviet Premier all together



and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on this date.


October 15, 1991 -
Despite sexual harassment allegations by Anita Hill, The Senate confirmed Judge Clarence Thomas as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court by a vote of 52-48, the closest confirmation vote in court history (at the time.)

Given all that came down from the court this past calendar year - pray for the United States.


October 15, 2002 -
Former ImClone Chief Executive Officer Samuel Waksal pleaded guilty to insider trading as part of an ongoing investigation into the trading of shares from his biotech company on this date.

And this wasn't a good thing for his friend, home decor diva, Martha Stewart.



And so it goes

Experience is like a comb that life gives you when you are bald

A bald head is better than a bald mind



Today is Be Bald and Free day!


October 14, 1888 -
French inventor Louis Le Prince shot a brief film which lasted for about two seconds, in Leeds, England, he called Roundhay Garden Scene, on this date.



The footage is thought to be the oldest surviving film footage in world history.


October 14, 1944 -
The Looney Tunes short, Booby Hatched, directed by Frank Tashlin was released on this date.



The annual return of the swallows falls on the feast of St. Joseph, March 19th.


October 14, 1949 -
The Looney Tunes short, Swallow the Leader, directed by Bob McKimson and starring Porky Pig and Sylvester the Cat, was released on this date.



The unhatched egg manages to break the fourth wall in this short. And so does the hibernating bear, the skinny mean wolf, and the duck mom, all very cleverly done.


October 14, 1953 -
Possibly the ultimate film noir, Fritz Lang's The Big Heat opens in NYC on this date.



Typical of the heavily sanitized film making of the 40s and 50s, when Thomas Duncan shoots himself in the head with a .38 revolver there's no wound, no splattering of blood, and in death he simply leans over his desk as if he'd decided to take a nap.


October 14, 1954 -
Michael Curtiz’s holiday musical White Christmas starring Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Vera Ellen, and Danny Kaye premiered in New York City on this date.



According to Rosemary Clooney, Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye's "Sisters" performance was not originally in the script. They were clowning around on the set, and director Michael Curtiz thought it was so funny that he decided to film it. In the scene, Crosby's laughs are genuine and unscripted, as he was unable to hold a straight face due to Kaye's comedic dancing. Clooney said the filmmakers had a better take where Crosby didn't laugh, but when they ran them both, people liked the laughing version better.


October 14, 1972 -
Last Tango in Paris, starring Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider and that infamous stick of butter premiered in New York City, on this date.



According to his autobiography Brando: Songs My Mother Taught Me, the reason why Marlon Brando refused to do a full frontal nude scene was because his "penis shrank to the size of a peanut on set."


October 14, 1972 -
The TV-series Kung Fu, starring David Carridine, debuted on ABC-TV on this date.



The only reason this show went off the air was because David Carradine quit the series. He had sustained so many injuries, he felt he could not go on. The show got high ratings for all three seasons that it aired.


October 14, 1978 -
The gang finally got off the damn island (sort of) when the first TV movie from a TV series, Rescue from Gilligan's Island, premiered on CBS-TV with all of the original cast except Tina Louise (who wanted too much money,) on this date.



The scene in which the rescued castaways are towed into harbor to a hero's welcome was filmed in Los Angeles' Marina Del Rey. According to Sherwood Schwartz, the extras hired to play the crowd were soon joined by countless onlookers, all of them ecstatic to see the familiar characters finally rescued. The crowd's enthusiasm was so overwhelming that the cast members were moved to tears.


October 14, 1979 -
NBC premiered a new TV adaptation of Helen Keller's life story The Miracle Worker, starring Melissa Gilbert, Patty Duke, Charles Siebert, Stanley Wells, and Diana Muldaur, on this date.



Melissa Gilbert originally wanted to offer the part of Annie Sullivan to Meredith Baxter, but the adults working on the project suggested offering the part to Patty Duke, who had played Helen Keller in the film version of The Miracle Worker. Patty Duke won an Oscar as young Helen Keller in the 1962 version, played Anne Sullivan in this TV version and won an Emmy for it.


October 14, 1983 -
Cyndi Lauper, formerly a member of the group Blue Angel, issues her first solo album, She's So Unusual. With the MTV hits Girls Just Want To Have Fun and Time After Time, the album becomes an '80s touchstone.



On the strength of her breakout solo album She's So Unusual, Lauper won the Grammy for Best New Artist in 1984. She won four more Grammy Awards in 1986, including one for her work on the collaboration fundraiser song We Are The World. In total, her recordings have garnered six wins and 13 nominations at the Grammy Awards.


October 14, 1994 -
Quentin Tarantino's brilliant crime drama, Pulp Fiction, starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Ving Rhames, and Uma Thurman, opened in the US on this date.



The word "fuck" is used two hundred sixty-five times.

Another episode of ACME's Little Known Animal Facts


Today in History:
October 14, 430 BC -
The ancient philosopher Empedocles believed he was not human, but a Greek god. To prove this fact to skeptics, he vowed to jump into a volcano and return unscathed.



He made good on his first promise but never followed though on the second. He was an early Darwin award winner


October 14, 1066 -
As bad as King Harold's day yesterday; today was worse, much worse. The King and his army were locked in a massive battle and faced Duke William, William the Conqueror, and his mounted knights near the town of Hastings.

Taillefer, William of Normandy’s minstrel, asked for the honour of charging the Saxon lines first. His request duly granted, he rode towards the enemy singing The Song of Roland, a tale of bravery of a Frankish general in the service of Charlemagne. Taillefer cut down his first two opponents but was soon dashed to pieces by the Saxons.



Duke William planned a three point attack plan that included a) heavy archery b) attack by foot soldiers c) attack by mounted knights at any weak point of defense. The Normans routed the Saxons and won out after Harold was killed by a stray arrow. This placed William on the throne of England. There is nothing worse than losing the throne of England to a stray arrow which appears to have happened far more frequently than thought.


October 14, 1651 -
Massachusetts passed laws prohibiting the poor from dressing excessively, on this date.

It was felt that persons of limited means should save their money and learn to get by with simple vinaigrettes.


October 14, 1893 -
You can get through life with bad manners, but it's easier with good manners.



Lillian Diana Gish, was born on this date. Although she was the archetypal silent film heroine, she was a star of movies, television, radio, and the stage for nearly all of the 20th century. She closed her career in the 1987 film The Whales of August.


October 14, 1912 -
Former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, campaigning for a return to office, was shot in Milwaukee by a saloon keeper named John Schrank on this date.

What saves Teddy was the bullet lodged in Roosevelt's chest only after hitting both his steel eyeglass case and a copy of his speech he was carrying in his jacket. Roosevelt declined suggestions that he go to the hospital, and delivered his scheduled speech.

He spoke vigorously for ninety minutes. His opening comments to the gathered crowd were, "I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose." Afterwards, doctors determined that he was not seriously wounded and that it would be more dangerous to attempt to remove the bullet than to leave it in his chest. Roosevelt carried it with him until he died.



Schrank was captured and uttered the now famous words "any man looking for a third term ought to be shot."

Teddy Roosevelt, one of America's First Superheroes.


October 14, 1944 -
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (James Mason) of Germany was visited by two of Hitler's personal staff on this date in history.



They informed him that he was suspected of involvement in the July 20th plot to assassinate the Fuhrer and that he would therefore be required either to: (a) stand trial and die, or (b) just die. They brought some poison along to facilitate his decision.



Hitler always liked him.


October 14, 1947 -
American pilot Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in a rocket-powered airplane, on this date. Yeager insisted it was already broken and consequently refused to repair it despite repeated admonitions by his mother.



It remains broken to this day. (The sound barrier should not be confused with the Long Island Sound barrier, sometimes referred to as the Throg's Neck Bridge.)


October 14, 1959 -
Omni-sexual actor and Nazi sympathizer Errol Flynn, dubbed "the most despicable human being yet born" (and that was by a friend), died of a heart attack in Vancouver on this date. Flynn reported didn't have a sexual preference, he merely slept with anything with an orifice (and possibly a pulse) including (but not limited to) Truman Capote, Howard Hughes, as well as countless Hollywood starlets.



Presumably, not at the same time.


October 14, 1962 -
The US collected photographic evidence that the Soviet Union had positioned missiles about 90 miles off the US coast, in Cuba. The missiles were capable of transporting nuclear warheads.



The tense situation that arose in the next two weeks would bring the US and Soviet Union the closest the two countries had ever been to nuclear war.


October 14, 1968 -
Captain Walter Schirra, Jr., Major Donn Eisele and Major Walt Cunningham, gave the American public a tour of the spacecraft and showed the view through their craft’s windows on this date.



The crew on NASA's Apollo 7 mission, the first successful manned mission to the Moon, broadcast the first live transmission from their spacecraft.


October 14, 1968 -
Sprinter Jim Hines became the first human to run a 100-meter race in under 10 seconds (9.95). What was once thought to be impossible suddenly became possible - and soon it became routine - because the psychological barrier of unattainability was dissolved.



Jim held the 100-meter world record for 15 years after breaking the 10-second milestone at the US national championships, and later won two gold medals in the ’68 Olympics. In later years Hines worked with inner-city youth in Houston.


October 14, 1977 -
Linda Ronstadt sang The National Anthem prior to World Series Game Three at Dodger Stadium, on this date.



She was heavily criticized at the time, for casual attire - (the ever solid Dodger fan, Linda only requested a Dodger jacket as her fee for singing the anthem.) Many consider her rendition of the anthem one of the best ever at a sporting event.



And so it goes