Another birthday - more cake

Today is the Ninth Day of the Lunar New Year. It marks the birthday of the Jade Emperor, King of Heaven.

The Jade Emperor - also known as Yù Huáng or Yù Dì - is the ruler of all the Heavens (of which, in traditional belief, there are more than thirty), as well as Earth and the Underworld. He is regarded as the creator of the universe and, later, its supreme emperor. His many honorific titles include “Peace Absolving, Central August Spirit Exalted,” “Ancient Buddha,” “Most Pious and Honorable,” “His Highness the Jade Emperor,” and “Xuanling High Sovereign.”
(This will be on the test.)



According to Taoist legend, all the deities of Heaven and Earth celebrate this day, and grand ceremonies are held in Taoist temples in his honor. The Jade Emperor is also said to be the mythological architect of the Chinese Zodiac, which defines each lunar year. He organized a great race across a river for all the animals; the first twelve to finish were each granted a year in the zodiac cycle, in the order of their arrival.



The Jade Emperor is one busy ruler. I’d be exhausted if I had to celebrate a holiday for this long.


February 25, 1939 -
A Merrie Melodies cartoon, Gold Rush Daze, directed by Ben Hardaway and Cal Dalton opened on this date. The story follows a gold-hungry prospector who heads to the hills after hearing a gas station attendant's tall tales of the 1849 Gold Rush.



This short is seldom aired now. One of the issues is the caricature of the Asian camp cook who is stirring the gold bullion.


February 25, 1941 -
Another Preston Sturges' comic masterpiece, The Lady Eve, premiered in the US on this date.



Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda rarely retired to their dressing rooms between takes. Instead, they hung out with Preston Sturges, listening to his stories and reviewing - and often re-writing - their lines.


February 25, 1946 -
Part of Roberto Rossellini Neo-realist classic war trilogy, Roma, città aperta (Rome Open City) opened in the US on this date.



The film about the behavior of the Nazi military in Italy was not allowed to be shown in theaters in Germany until 1960, about 15 years later. The lengthy scene depicting the torture of a Communist activist was truncated.


February 25, 1950 -
The comedy-variety program Your Show of Shows, starring Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca and Carl Reiner, debuted on NBC-TV on this date.



Writers for the show included Mel Brooks, Neil Simon and Larry Gelbart. A common misconception is that Woody Allen wrote for Your Show of Shows; he in fact wrote for its successor program, Caesar's Hour, which ran from 1954 to 1957.


February 25, 1956 -
Elvis Presley had his first national hit when I Forgot To Remember To Forget went to No.1 on the Billboard Country & Western chart, on this date and stayed there for two weeks. This is one of just 10 songs Elvis recorded for Sun Records, where he got his start. (The B side of the record is Mystery Train.)



The Beatles covered this song once for the BBC radio show, From Us To You, on May 1, 1964, with George Harrison on lead vocals.


February 25, 1964 -
Bob Dylan appears on the Steve Allen Show, on this date, and performed The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll.



This song gives the account of the killing of 51-year-old barmaid Hattie Carroll by the wealthy young William Devereux "Billy" Zantzinger and his subsequent sentence of six months in jail. The actual incident took place February 9, 1963 at a ball at the Emerson Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland. Dylan's song accurately implies, but never states, that Carroll was black and Zantzinger is white.


February 25, 1970 -
Ernie sings his signature song, Rubber Duckie, on Sesame Street for the first time, on this date. It goes over so well that the song is released as a single, which in September reaches #16 on the Hot 100.



Rubber ducks were around since at least the 1940s, but they had a popular resurgence thanks to Rubber Duckie. Early versions came in different shapes, sizes and colors, but Ernie's small yellow duck became the standard. For parents, the toy could provide some relief at the dreaded bathtime (many families had to share bathwater, making it even less appealing to kids who were late in line). It was inexpensive, durable, and could float - really the perfect bath toy.


February 25, 1977 -
The cult classic comedy Slap Shot starring Paul Newman and Michael Ontkean, opened in the US on this date.



The swearing in the film, by 1977 standards, was considered so foul, advertisements contained an additional warning underneath the R-rating: "Certain language may be too strong for children."


February 25, 1980 -
The acclaimed British political satire, Yes Minister, written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, and starring Paul Eddington, Nigel Hawthorne, and Derek Fowlds, first aired on BBC Two on this date.



The first season of Yes Minister was ready to air in 1979, but the BBC opted to delay broadcast until well after the general election of that year to avoid any accusations of political commentary.


February 25, 1995 -
Madonna started a seven week run at No.1 with Take A Bow, on the US singles chart, which was co-written with Babyface.



This song is about a failed romance Madonna had with "a movie star," possibly Warren Beatty, whom she starred opposite in the movie Dick Tracy and had a 15-month relationship. Beatty, a notorious ladies' man, was also rumored to be the mysterious subject of Carly Simon's You're So Vain.


February 25, 2000 -
The crime comedy film, The Whole Nine Yards, starring Bruce Willis, Matthew Perry, Amanda Peet, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Natasha Henstridge, opened in theaters on this day.



Bruce Willis agreeing to guest appear on Friends for free because he lost a bet to Matthew Perry during filming is an urban legend. In People Magazine: Star Spotlight 2000, "Willis agreed to a guest stint on 'Friends' simply because he and Perry thought it would be fun". News outlets mistakenly reported on the rumor, and fans have been perpetuating it ever since. Willis was paid for the role, including syndication runs, but donated the money to various charities.


Another episode from ACME's Little Know Animal Facts


Today in History:
February 25, 1570 -
Pope Pius V issued a Papal Bull on this day excommunicating Queen Elizabeth I, whom he called "the pretended Queen of England and the servant of crime."



As Elizabeth was already the head of her own religion, Church of England, this Papal Bull did not make her break stride. She did however, respond by hanging and burning Jesuit priests.


February 25, 1601 -
Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex, was beheaded following a conviction of treason on this date. His plot to capture London and the Tower had failed.

He was the last person to be beheaded in the Tower of London. It was reported to have taken three strokes by the executioner to complete the beheading.



Ouch!

Let this be a lesson to all you playas - never try to steal you girlfriends' country.


February 25, 1836 -
Samuel Colt was granted his first patent for a multi-chamber gun on this date.

Please celebrate responsibly.


February 25, 1870 -
Hiram Rhodes Revels, a representative from Mississippi, became the first African-American congressman when he was sworn in to finish out Jefferson Davis' term.



The seat had been left vacant when Davis left to become the president of the Confederacy.


February 25, 1879 -
Charles Frederick Peace, infamous Victorian cat burglar and The Murderous Musician was executed by hanging on this date.

Peace's notoriety was such that he appeared as a character in short stories by both Arthur Conan Doyle and Mark Twain.


February 25, 1888 -

John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State to President Eisenhower, was born on this date.



Haven't we all made a fool of ourselves over John Foster Dulles.


February 25, 1899 -
The first test drive fatality occurs in Grove Hill Harrow, England on this date. The accident occurs while the car, a Daimler Wagonette, was being demonstrated for Major James Richer, Department Head of the Army & Navy Stores. The car apparently lost a wheel and both Mr E.R. Sewell, the driver, and Richer were thrown from the car onto the road.

Sewell was killed on the spot; he was fired by Daimler Motors five days later. The unfortunate Major Richer, died four days later, without regaining consciousness. The accident became a dubious double-first – the first death of a driver in Britain, followed by the first death of a passenger in a car


February 25, 1908 -
President Theodore Roosevelt, after a vigorous round of calisthenics, flipped a switch on his desk and signaled the start of service through the Hudson and Manhattan railway tunnels, (also known as The McAdoo Tunnel,) carrying passengers between Manhattan and Hoboken, New Jersey. If allowed, Roosevelt would have driven the first train though the tunnel himself.

The tunnel, completed on March 8, 1904, was the first railroad tunnel under a major river in the U.S.


February 25, 1922 -
Henri Landru, the notorious French serial killer known as "Bluebeard", was guillotined for murdering ten women, and one boy on this date. His motive was purely financial; by placing classified ads Landru lured selected women into his clutches, married them, and disposed of their bodies without a trace.

While denying guilt to the end, a drawing given to his attorney had written on the reverse, "I did it. I burned their bodies in my kitchen oven".



Charles Chaplin based his movie, Monsieur Verdoux on this case.


February 25, 1932 -
The German state government of Brunswick, in which the Nazi Party participated, appointed Adolph Hitler of Austria to a minor administrative post this month and on this day gave him German citizenship.

Hitler was thus able to stand against Hindenburg in the forthcoming Presidential election.

Oops


February 25, 1964 -
Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, became the heavyweight champion of the world for the first time on this day when he beat Sonny Liston.



Ali went on to become the first person to win the heavyweight champion title three times.


February 25, 1969 -
In Vietnam, a 25 year old Navy Lt., Bob Kerrey, took part in a SEAL raid in the Mekong Delta where over a dozen women, children and old men were killed in the village of Thanh Phong, on this date. Kerrey received a Bronze Star for the raid and later strongly regretted his actions.



Soon after the raid, Lt. Kerrey lost a leg at Hon Tam Island and was later awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor. In 2001, the former Governor and Senator from Nebraska, publicly discussed his participation in the raid of Thanh Phong, at length for the first time. "We fired because we were fired upon," Kerrey said at a news conference, "We did not go out on a mission to kill innocent people. I feel guilty about what happened." Governor Kerrey described the event in his 2002 memoir.



Bui Thi Luom, 12 at the time of the incident, the only survivor from her hut of 16, disputed Kerrey claim. saying, "Only civilians, women and children" were killed.


February 25, 1983 -
Playwright Tennessee Williams was found dead on this date, in his New York hotel room after he choked on a bottle cap during the night.



Once again, another victim of not reading the pill bottle label correctly.



And so it goes.

Looking for a good recipe

The eighth day of the Lunar New Year is believed to be the birthday of millet. As one of ancient China’s “Five Grains,” it has been a staple food for thousands of years and remains central to certain rituals during the 15-day Spring Festival. According to folk proverbs, if this day is bright and clear, the year will bring a plentiful harvest; however, if it is cloudy or rainy, the year will suffer poor crops. (It sounds more poetic in the original language.)

The eighth day of the Lunar New Year is also the birthday of Yen-Lo King (also known as Yanluo Wang), the fifth king of the legendary Hell, who presides over the fifth palace. This fifth palace of Hell is said to lie beneath the northeastern side of a great scorching stone in the sea. (Location, location, location.) He is typically depicted with a scowling red face, bulging eyes, and traditional judge’s robes. Despite his fearsome appearance, he is regarded as a just and fair judge rather than an evil deity, embodying the principle that every action has consequences.

The palace has 64,000 square miles long. It contains 16 divisions of the small hells. (Be thankful you don't have to clean it. That's what all those idle hands are for.)

Yen-Lo King was originally in charge of the first palace of Hell. He presides over the underworld (Diyu), maintaining the “Records of Life and Death” and determining a soul’s next reincarnation based on its earthly deeds. He was later demoted to the fifth palace of Hell. (At least he didn’t have to test rectal thermometers.)



The day is also referred to as Completion Day - a time when people return from the holiday and go back to work. All the meat and cakes prepared for the Lunar New Year should be finished by this day. Everything returns to normal.

On the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, some people release pet fish or birds into the wild in a ritual known as Fang Sheng (“Life Release”) to show respect for nature. Rooted in Buddhist and Taoist teachings, this practice is believed to generate good karma and spiritual merit. By saving a creature from captivity or potential slaughter, practitioners hope to gain blessings, health, and prosperity for their families in the coming year.


Raise your Frozen Margaritas tonight (but don't double dip,)



today is National Tortilla Chip day. Contrary to popular belief, Tortilla Chips are not from Mexico.



They were invented in Los Angeles in the late 1940s by Rebecca Webb Carranza.


February 24, 1951 -
The Looney Tunes cartoon, Putty Tat Trouble, directed by Friz Freleng and starring Tweety and Sylvester, debuted on this date.



After Sylvester beans the other cat, there's an upside-down box in the background for Friz: America's favorite gelatin dessert, a reference to director Friz Freleng.


February 24, 1951 -
The Looney Tunes cartoon, Rabbit Every Monday, directed by Friz Freleng and starring Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam, debuted on this date.



Yosemite Sam breaks the fourth wall before the audience member interruption, when he talks about smelling carrots cooking.


February 24, 1964 -
The World War II based anti-war movie, None But The Brave, directed and starring Frank Sinatra, Clint Walker, Tommy Sands, Tony Bill, Brad Dexter, Tatsuya Mihashi, and Takeshi Kato, opened onm this date.



During the shooting the picture, Brad Dexter saved Frank Sinatra from drowning when he dived into the ocean and rescued the floundering singer.


February 24, 1968 -
Fleetwood Mac (popularly known then as Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac) released their eponymous debut album on this date. At the time, the band (Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood, Jeremy Spencer, and John McVie) was a blues-rock group.



The album also marks the only Fleetwood Mac LP to not include keyboardist and vocalist Christine McVie (wife of John), who joined the group in 1970.


February 24, 1969 -
Twentieth Century-Fox adaptation of the novel and play, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, directed by Ronald Neame and starring Maggie Smith and Pamela Franklin, premiered in London on this date.



According to Pamela Franklin, even though they were eighteen, she and the other young girls were asked not to eat their lunch in the Pinewood cafeteria in their school uniform costumes for appearance's sake, as beer and wine was served there.


February 24, 1973 -
The song, Killing Me Softly with His Song by Roberta Flack topped the charts on this date.



Robert Flack heard Lori Lieberman original version of the song on an in-flight tape recorder while flying from Los Angeles to New York. She loved the title and lyrics and decided to record it herself.



The song was written by the songwriting team of Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel, and recorded by Lori Lieberman in 1972. The story goes that the song was inspired by Don McLean, a singer/songwriter famous for his hit American Pie. After being mesmerized by one of his concerts at the Troubadour theater in Los Angeles - and in particular McLean's song Empty Chairs - Lieberman described what she saw of McLean's performance to Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox, who were writing songs for her new album, and they wrote the song for her.



The Fugees did a hip-hop version featuring the vocals of Lauryn Hill. It was a hit for the Fugees in the US and went to #1 in the UK in 1996. The Fugees wanted to change the lyrics and make it a song about poverty and drug abuse in the inner city with the title Killing Him Softly, but Gimbel and Fox refused.


February 24, 1975 –
Led Zeppelin release their sixth album Physical Graffiti on this date. It’s a double album featuring eight new songs, and songs left over from their previous albums Led Zeppelin III, Led Zeppelin IV and Houses Of The Holy.



Featuring an intricate die-cut cover of a New York City brownstone, the album goes on to sell over eight million copies in the U.S.


February 24, 1996 -
The HBO original movie The Late Shift, documenting the late-night television conflict between Jay Leno and David Letterman, directed by Betty Thomas, and starring Kathy Bates, John Michael Higgins, Daniel Roebuck, Bob Balaban, Ed Begley Jr., and Treat Williams debuted on this date.



A few days after the film's premiere, John Michael Higgins was booked on Late Show with David Letterman to talk about the movie and what it was like to portray Letterman. Letterman's A-guest that night was Julia Roberts. During the commercial break, Letterman reportedly asked the star if she wouldn't mind staying longer as a favor to him. Higgins sat in the green room watching the show, hearing Letterman occasionally plug his "coming up" interview (at commercials breaks). At the end of the show Letterman apologized to Higgins for "running out of time", pointedly saying he hoped the actor could "come back again soon." According to producer Rob Burnett, Letterman fully intended on going through with the interview but his insecurities got the better of him; Burnett confirmed Higgins would not be invited back.


February 24, 2002 -
CBS-TV aired the bio-pix Ride to Freedom: The Rosa Parks Story starring Angela Bassett, on this date.



Angela Bassett won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special for her performance.


February 24, 2023 -
A dark comedy thriller, inspired by the true story of a bear that ingested a large amount of cocaine, Cocaine Bear, directed by Elizabeth Banks and starring Keri Russell, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Alden Ehrenreich, Brooklynn Prince, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and Ray Liotta opened on this date.



Ray Liotta's final completed film role before his death on May 26, 2022. Liotta died a week after he came to re-record his lines in post-production. Elizabeth Banks said that Liotta praised the look of the bear once he got a look at it.


Today's moment of Zen


Today in History:
On February 24, 1582, Pope Gregory XIII issued a proclamation that made everyone change their calendars from the Julian calendar to his own new and improved Gregorian calendar. (Obviously he was in cahoots with the calendar printing people, or he would have done it in November or December.)



It was this shameless act of self-promotion that led to subsequent Vatican proclamations being called Papal Bull.


February 24, 1807 -
It was not a good day for a hanging - In a crush to witness the hanging of John Holloway, Owen Heggerty and Elizabeth Godfrey in England on this date, 17 people died and 15 were injured.

People, please, remember that you can see the executions perfectly well, if you stand back.


February 24, 1838 -
Thomas Benton Smith, brigadier general in the Confederate States Army, was born in Mechanicsville, Tennessee, on this date. He was wounded at Stone’s River/Murfreesboro and again at Chickamauga. He was captured at the Battle of Nashville (December 16, 1864) where he was beaten over the head with a sword by Col. William Linn McMillen of the 95th Ohio Infantry. His brain was exposed and it was believed he would die.

He recovered partially, ran for a seat in the U. S. Congress in 1870, but lost and spent the last 47 years of his life in the State Asylum in Nashville, Tennessee, where he died on May 21, 1923.

Now you know


February 24, 1868 -
President Andrew Johnson was impeached for High Crimes and Misdemeanors on this date, which is fancy talk for his attempt to remove Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton from his job.



The Senate later acquitted Johnson. This remains an honor not bestowed again until the blowjob years of the Clinton Administration and (for the moment) the two non-witness trials of Cheeto.


On February 24, 1920, the spokesman of a radical political group in Germany announced that it would change its name to the National Socialist German Workers' Party. The group had previously been called the East Munich Crips. Rejected names had included The Genocidal Maniacs Party, The World Conquest Party and The Party of Smiley People Who'll Make Life a Happy Little Picnic for Everyone (but in German.)



This name change made all the difference in the world, and eventually led to Evil Nazi Bastards, who later teamed up with the Evil Fascist Bastards of Italy and became a Significant Problem. They did not kill quite as many people as the Evil Communist Bastards of the Soviet Union, however, and were therefore unable to scare posterity into producing apologists.



(The party spokesman who had announced the change was of course, Adolf Hitler, who did not change his own name and is therefore known to history as... you guessed it... Adolf Hitler.)


February 24, 1927 -
The Ouija board was developed by spiritualist businessman William Fuld in the late 1890s, and was named for the French and German words for yes - oui and ja.



William Fuld built a factory according to what the board told him.

On this date in 1927, Fuld climbed to the roof of his three-story factory to supervise the installation of a flagpole. When the rail against which he was leaning gave way, Fuld fell to the ground below and died.


February 24, 1942 -
Just over three months after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Unidentified Flying Objects were sighted over Los Angeles this evening. The Plane / Blimp / Weather Balloon / UFO was fired on with a massive anti-aircraft artillery barrage but is not hit. Air raid sirens were sounded throughout Los Angeles County at 2:25 a.m. and a total blackout was ordered. The events became known as the Battle of Los Angeles by the contemporary press.



While the military eventually attributed the incident to "war nerves" and the sighting of an errant weather balloon, many skeptics have speculated for years that our guns were actually firing at extraterrestrial spaceships—a theory that provided inspiration for the 2011 film Battle: Los Angeles (Steven Spielberg's film 1941 was also loosely based on the event).


February 24, 1990 -
Businessman Malcolm Forbes died of a heart attack, at his home in Far Hills, New Jersey on this date.

As the years pass, there are even fewer and fewer aging Chelsea leather boys still around who remember and mourn his passing.



And so it goes.

It's a party today

The seventh day of the first lunar month is known as Ren Ri, also called “People’s Day” or the “Birthday of Mankind.” It is celebrated as a key part of the Lunar New Year festivities and is traditionally regarded as the day when everyone grows one year older, effectively serving as a shared birthday for all humanity.

According to Chinese mythology, the mother goddess Nüwa created human beings on the seventh day.

Legend has it that Nüwa created mankind because she felt lonely. She molded humans from clay into different shapes and sizes. Handmaking humans became tiring, so Nüwa taught them about marriage, allowing them to reproduce on their own.



Many communities consume a dish made of seven different vegetables - such as mustard greens, celery, and leeks - each representing a specific blessing, such as wisdom or wealth. Eating long noodles on this day also symbolizes a wish for a long and healthy life. Because it is considered the “birthday” of various animals on the preceding days, people may avoid killing animals or punishing prisoners on Ren Ri as a show of respect for life.


Today is Curling Is Cool Day. I'm not sure how many millions of dollars will be lost with the number of people are taking the day off from work.

Do not make a rookie mistake; just encourage all those involved - Celebrate Responsibly.


February 23, 1940 -
The second animated feature film produced by Walt Disney Productions, Pinocchio, premiered in the US on this date.



During the musical number When You Wish Upon a Star, when a spotlight is seen on Jiminy Cricket, one is able to see two books to the left of the screen, which are Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland. Walt Disney started developing these two stories for the big screen at the time of this film's release, and they would be released respectively in 1953 and 1951.


February 23, 1945 -
The Merrie Melodies cartoon, The Unruly Hare, directed by Frank Tashlin and starring Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, debuted on this date.



This was the final cartoon in which Frank Tashlin received onscreen credit; he was uncredited in his final four cartoons Behind the Meat-Ball, Tale of Two Mice, Nasty Quacks and Hare Remover, which were released following his official departure from the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio.


February 23, 1950 -
A nearly forgotten Alfred Hitchcock film, Stage Fright starring Marlene Dietrich, Jane Wyman, Richard Todd, and Michael Wilding, premiered in New York City on this date.



In an extraordinary move for the normally controlling director,  Alfred Hitchcock provided Marlene Dietrich an exceptional amount of creative control for this movie, particularly in how she chose to light her scenes. Hitchcock knew that Dietrich had learned a great deal of the art of cinematography from Josef von Sternberg and Günther Rittau, and allowed her to work with Cinematographer Wilkie Cooper to light and set her scenes the way that she wished.


February 23, 1952 -
The Looney Tunes cartoon, Mouse-Warming, directed by Chuck Jones and featuring Claude Cat debuted on this date.



The rodent moving team bears a slight resemblance to the popular comedy sketch characters of Ralph and Ed from what would become the TV sitcom The Honeymooners a few years later.


February 23, 1964 -
The Beatles appear for the third consecutive appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on this date. They performed Twist and Shout and Please Please Me and closed the show once again with I Want to Hold Your Hand.



The third broadcast, February 23, showed a performance taped earlier in the day of the original February 9th appearance.


February 23, 1967 -
The Star Trek episode A Taste of Armageddon first airs on NBC, on this date. In it, the Enterprise visits a planet fighting a war with its neighboring planet via computers.



In his memoir, Beam Me Up, Scotty, James Doohan described Gene Lyons (Ambassador Robert Fox) as being "out of his element" and "completely discombobulated" during filming. He added that it took Lyons many takes to get his lines right and that they finally "went to having him speak off-screen." Doohan speculates that Lyons, who was an experienced actor, may have been thrown off by the science fiction element as such shows were relatively rare at the time.


February 23, 1969 -
The BBC2 documentary series, Civilisation, hosted by Kenneth Clark, guided us through the history of Western art, architecture and philosophy, debuted on this date.



While popular at the time of its release, the Civilisation series has been criticized over the decades for presenting a 19th-century worldview of history being shaped by relatively few "highly influential and unique individuals" with extraordinary abilities. This historical theory had originally been proposed by Thomas Carlyle in the 1840s, and remained fashionable until the 1920s. Both the original theory and the documentary series have been criticized for largely ignoring the impact of social history, economic history, and political history on art and art movements. The program also minimized the role of female writers and artists within the art movements covered in the show, because they did not fit in its main writer's "traditional choice" of great artists, a group which he viewed as exclusively male.


February 23, 1980 –
The Queen's song Crazy Little Thing Called Love hit the No. #1 spot on the Billboard Charts on this date.



This was the first song on which Freddie Mercury played rhythm guitar. He was keen to keep the song minimal, despite his limited guitar knowledge, and producer Mack claimed that he rushed into the studio to record it "before Brian could get there!"


February 23, 1985 -
The Smiths scored their first UK No.1 album with Meat Is Murder on this date. The album's sleeve uses a 1967 photograph of Marine Cpl. Michael Wynn in the Vietnam War, though with the wording on his helmet changed from "Make War Not Love" to "Meat Is Murder".



The Smiths produced Meat Is Murder themselves, assisted only by engineer Stephen Street, whom they had first met on the session for Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now.


February 23, 1991 -
Oliver Stone's bio-pix about Jim Morrison and his group, The Doors, starring Val Kilmer, Meg Ryan, Kyle MacLachlan, Frank Whaley, Kevin Dillon, and Kathleen Quinlan premiered in Los Angeles on this date.



The surviving members of The Doors claim that Val Kilmer did such a good job playing and singing as Jim Morrison that they could not distinguish his voice from the real Jim Morrison.


Word of the Day


Today in History:
February 23, 303 -
Roman Emperor Diocletian issues an edict to suppress Christianity, "to tear down the churches to the foundations and to destroy the Sacred Scriptures by fire". Further edicts require that church officials engage in animal sacrifice to appease traditional Roman gods.



One can only weep that they did not have the lubricant concessions given the kind of orgies that when on that night.


February 23, 1821 -
English poet John Keats died in Rome on this date. Mr. Keats was Romantic and therefore wrote an Ode to a Nightingale, an Ode to Psyche, and even an Ode to a Grecian Urn.



None of them would have him, so the poor man died alone.


February 23, 1861 -
President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrived secretly in Washington D.C. to take office after an assassination plot was foiled in Baltimore on this date. Allan Pinkerton, founder of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, may have saved Lincoln’s life by uncovering the plot to assassinate the president-elect in Baltimore, Md.



At the detective’s suggestion, Lincoln avoided the threat by secretly slipping through the city at night.


February 23, 1836 -
The Siege of the Alamo began on this date. It was quite an adventure. For years afterward people would sigh, Remember the Alamo?



And they'd kind of nod and smile, but eventually they forgot.


February 23, 1885 -
The British hangman at Exeter Gaol tried three times on this date, to hang John Lee of Devonshire, for the murder of Emma Keyse. The trap refused to open.



His sentence was commuted to life, and he was eventually released.


February 23, 1896 -
The Tootsie Roll was introduced by Leo Hirshfield an Austrian immigrant, in his small candy shop located in New York City on this date.



He was America's first candy maker to individually wrap penny candy. Current production is over 49 million pieces a day. For many, this day should be a Federal holiday.


February 23, 1903 -
Tomás Estrada Palma, the first president of Cuba, leased Guantanamo Bay to the US in perpetuity on this date. Guantanamo Bay was the only US military base in a country with which the US did not have diplomatic relations, until a few years ago.

Guantanamo Bay is also home to Cuba's first and only McDonald's restaurant. I'm guessing it's McDonald's fault that we're still in Gitmo.


February 23, 1915 -
Nevada enacts a law reducing the quickie divorce residency requirements down to six months,



a figure further reduced in 1931 to six weeks.


February 23, 1945 -
U. S. Marines raised the flag on Mt. Suribachi (Battle of Iwo Jima) on this date.



The photograph of the event was extremely popular, being reprinted in thousands of publications. Later, it became the only photograph to win the Pulitzer Prize for Photography in the same year as its publication, and ultimately came to be regarded as one of the most significant and recognizable images of the war, and possibly the most reproduced photograph of all time.


February 23, 1954 -
The students of Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania participated in the first mass vaccination of children against polio with the vaccine (using the dead virus to induce immunization) developed by Jonas Salk, on this date.



Poliomyelitis is a viral attack of the central nervous system and can cause paralysis and death by asphyxiation (I have nothing else to say.)


February 23, 1996 -
The Freeway Killer William G Bonin was executed at San Quentin on this date. He was the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the history of California.

For his last meal, Bonin requested two large pepperoni and sausage pizzas, three pints of coffee ice cream and three six-packs of regular Coca Cola.

That kind of diet will kill you.



And so it goes.