Read the ramblings of Dr. Caligari. Hopefully you will find that Time does wound all heels.
You no longer need to be sad that nowadays there is so little useless information.
The day honors Inventor Stephen Perry's receiving a patent for the rubber band on this date in 1845 (We've also seen it listed as March 17th but we can be sure, no one from ACME was there at the time.)
(The ACME Corporation is in no way endorsing the sort of behavior depicted below. But what these people do in the privacy of their own homes is their own constitutionally protected business.)
The U.S. Post Office is the largest consumer of rubber bands in the world – they order millions of pounds per year.
Here's another reason to legalize marijuana, stay with me - think of the savings if USPS switched to hemp rope (and the number of very mellow postal employees - Please hold your e-mails, I know you can't get high from smoking hemp.)
May 17, 1899 - Thomas Alva Edison copyrighted the first western film, The Cripple Creek Bar Room, which he had shot at his Black Maria studio in West Orange, New Jersey, on this date.
Although there was little, if any, plot to this short film (please note, the role of a barmaid was played by a man,) it was the first with a setting in the west.
May 17, 1940 - Garson Kanin's screwball comedy,My Favorite Wife, opened on this date.
Leo McCarey was supposed to direct the film, but shortly before the filming began, he was injured in an automobile accident and had to hand over the direction to Garson Kanin. Gail Patrick has stated that the severity of McCarey's injuries had an effect on the film's cast, and they found it very difficult to enter into the spirit of the comedy with the serious hospital bulletins they were hearing.
Cary Grant and Randolph Scott, who play rivals in this film, lived together for twelve years from 1932 to 1944 (The ACME Corporation has no comment on this sort of behavior. But what these two young men did in the privacy of their own home, beach house, or bath house was their own constitutionally protected business.)
May 17, 1950 - Nicholas Ray's excellent film noir, In a Lonely Place, starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame premiered on this date.
Gloria Grahame and husband and Director Nicholas Ray quietly separated during filming, keeping it a secret for fear that one of them would be replaced. Ray slept on the studio set, saying that he needed to work late on preparation for the remainder of the film. It worked, and nobody suspected that their marriage was on the rocks.
May 17, 1955 - Paramount Pictures put into general release, The Country Girl, starring Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and William Holden, based on the Clifford Odets play, on this date.
During filming, Grace Kelly managed to have affairs with Bing Crosby, Clark Gable and William Holden, simultaneously (but we assume not on the same date.) The ACME Corporation has been legally barred from commenting on this sort of behavior. But what the future Princess of Monaco did concurrently with three other dead Hollywood stars in the privacy of their own home or hotel room was their own constitutionally protected business.
May 17, 1969 -
The fourth studio album by The Who, Tommy, a double album, is released in the US on this date.
The song, Pinball Wizard, was the last one written for the album. Pete Townshend wrote it, in part, to impress a rock critic named Nik Cohn who was a pinball fanatic. The ploy worked: Cohn gave it a glowing review.
May 17, 1980 - Call Me by Blondie reached No. #1 on the Billboard charts on this date.
Call Me was the most successful of all Blondie singles in the USA, where it was the best-selling single of 1980.
Today in History: May 17, 1444 - Sandro Botticelli, renown Renaissance painter, best known for works such as The Birth Of Venus, was born on this date. (He didn't paint The Birth of Venus on this date, smarty pant.)
He died on this date except it was 66 years later.
May 17, 1673 - Louis Joliet, who unwittingly loaned his name to a prison, and Jacques Marquette, who loaned his name to an excellent BBQ joint in Minneapolis, first set out to explore the source of the Mississippi, which they believed would lead them to paradise on this date. (Again, according to a very devoted reader, the headwaters of Minneapolis are as close to paradise as you could hope to be.)
Unfortunately it only took them to New Orleans, and they were out of beads.
May 17, 1792 - 24 drunken stock brokers got together outside of 68 Wall Street in New York under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street which earlier was the site of a stockade fence and signed an agreement with two provisions:
1) the brokers were to deal only with each other. Thereby eliminating the auctioneers, and 2) the commissions were to be .25%.
Thus the New York Stock Exchange was born (and none of it involved a trade war with China.)
May 17, 1866 - Erik Alfred Leslie Satie, French composer, was born.
Satie’s music represents the first definite break with 19th-century French Romanticism; it also stands in opposition to the works of composer Claude Debussy. Feel free to drop that tidbit at your next cocktail party.
May 17, 1954 -
The U.S. Supreme Court on this date, in an unanimous decision ruled for school integration in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka.
The Brown v. Board of Education decision serves to greatly motivate the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and ultimately led to the abolishment of racial segregation in all public facilities and accommodations.
May 17, 1973 -
The US Senate began its televised hearings into the Watergate scandal and the role of President Richard Nixon played in it, on this date.
The Watergate affair was a disaster for Pres. Nixon and captivated the nation for over a year, until Nixon finally resigned to avoid being impeached.
May 17, 1974 -
During a gun battle with members of the Symbionese Liberation Army on this date, the LAPD fired tear gas into their Watts hideout. The canisters ignited a fire which soon consumed the house.
Three other SLA members, including kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst, watched the events unfold on TV in their motel room down the street from Disneyland.
Proving once again, it is the happiest place on earth.
May 17, 1992 -
The World Health Organization removed homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses on this date.
You go over there and play the accordion. I'll stay here and beat off the band.
The same day, bandleader, accordion player, and soap bubble junkie Lawrence Welk died of pneumonia in his beachfront condo in Santa Monica, California (not that there's any connection between the two events.)
May 17, 2004 -
Marcia Kadish and Tanya McCloskey were married at Cambridge City Hall in Massachusetts on this day as the first legally married same-sex couple in the US.
Over 70 other same-sex couples were married on this day as well, sparking a few protests but many more celebrations.
(Mr. Teeny has told me countless times that it was his uncle in the video and he came to a very bitter end. Mr Teeny has retired to Palm Springs, California, we try to talk every weekend - thanks for asking.)
So go out and enjoy the day thinking about these krill-like wonders. But don't think about their creator, Harold von Braunhut and the allegations that he financially supported white-supremacist groups.
May 16, 1936 -
The Merrie Melodies short, I'd Love to Take Orders from You, directed by Tex Avery, debuted on this date.
Among the agriculturally inspired home accessories seen in the scarecrow family dwelling are a cornstalk hat rack and a pumpkin based table lamp.
May 16, 1956 - Alfred Hitchcock's remake of his 1934 film, The Man Who Knew Too Much, starring James Stewart and Doris Day, premiered in Hollywood on this date.
Throughout the filming, Doris Day became increasingly concerned that Alfred Hitchcock paid more attention to camera set-ups, lighting, and technical matters than he did to her performance. Convinced that he was displeased with her work, she finally confronted him. His reply was, "My dear Miss Day, if you weren't giving me what I wanted, then I would have to direct you!"
May 16, 1957 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Tweety and the Beanstalk, directed by Friz Freleng, starring Sylvester and Tweety, debuted on this date.
Not only does Sylvester break the fourth wall, he refers to Tweety as a Tweety Bird.
May 16, 1966 - The Beach Boys released their 11th studio album, Pet Sounds on this date.
It has since been recognized as one of the most influential albums in the history of popular music and is widely regarded as one of the best albums of the 1960s.
All that beautiful music and barking dogs, too.
May 16, 1977 -
The sequel to the TV movie, Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway, Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn, starring Leigh McCloskey, Eve Plumb, Juliet Mills, Jean Hagen, and Earl Holliman, premiered on NBC TV, on this date.
This was Jean Hagen's final performance.
May 16, 1980 -
One of the classics of Australian film renaissance, Breaker Morant, premiered in Australia on this date.
Incredibly, despite this film's anti-British establishment sentiments and anti-Colonialism theme, a Royal Charity Film Premiere was held on October 23, 1980 in London, England. The event was attended by Prince Charles who after-wards arranged for a Buckingham Palace screening of the film for Queen Elizabeth II.
May 16, 1983 –
The concert special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever was broadcast by NBC on this date.
Michael Jackson performed his ‘moonwalk’ dance for the first time on television.
May 16, 1984 - Prince's single, (written at the behest of the director of the film, Purple Rain, Albert Magnoli, to cover a sequence in the film,) When Doves Cry became his first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit, on this date.
This was the second US chart-topper with a kind of bird in the title, following on the feathers of the 1975 disco hit Fly, Robin, Fly. (The novelty song Disco Duck by Rick Dees & His Cast of Idiots hit #1 in 1976, but "duck" does not refer to a specific species.)
May 16, 1986 - Paramount released the film Top Gun, on this date.
Riding on the back of this film's success, the U.S. Navy set up recruiting booths in the major cinemas to try and catch some of the adrenaline charged guys leaving the screenings. They had the highest applications rate for years as a result.
May 16, 1986 -
In one of the most notorious cheats in the history of television, Pam Ewing woke up to find her husband Bobby in the shower -- no small feat, considering he's been dead for a whole season.
In order to revivify Bobby's character, the Dallas writers resorted to dismissing the entire preceding year as nothing more than Pam's protracted dream.
May 16, 2005 -
Everyone got to love Raymond one last time when the last episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, The Finale aired on this date.
Filming of the series finale was delayed twice when Patricia Heaton and then Doris Roberts were ill and couldn't speak well on the filming days.
May 16, 2009 -
The Walt Disney/ Pixar animated film Up (with the most heartfelt sequence about life, marriage and growing old,) voiced by Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, and Jordan Nagai, premiered in Hollywood on this date.
In order to revivify Bobby's character, the Dallas writers resorted to dismissing the entire preceding year as nothing more than Pam's protracted dream.
Today in History:
May 16, 1763 - James Boswell first met Samuel Johnson in Tom Davie's London bookshop on this date. Due to the lax stalking laws of the period, Mr. Boswell followed Mr. Johnson around for several decades. On May 19, 1795, Mr. Boswell died.
(This was cold comfort to Mr. Johnson, who had already been dead for some time and was probably relishing the privacy.)
May 16, 1801 –
In honor of all doctoral students -
William Seward was born on this date in New York.
An astute reader pointed out this - according to the Alaska Historical Society website, "... The original pole at Tongass was a shame pole, erected in the 1880s to ridicule Secretary of State William H. Seward for failing to repay the gifts he had received from Chief Ebbits, clan leader of the Taant’a kwáan Teikweidí and one of the most high-ranking men at Tongass Village." According to oral histories among the Taant’a kwáan Tlingit, Seward stopped at Tongass Village on a trip to Alaska in 1869 and was welcomed by Chief Ebbits with all the gravitas and gifts befitting a fellow high-ranking leader. But after several years went by and Seward “did not repay either the courtesy or the generosity of his hosts, the Seward shame pole [was erected] to remind the Tongass people of this fact.” In, 2017, a replacement shame pole was erected.
May 16, 1879 - Wallace Wilkerson was condemned to death by firing squad in Utah, for the killing of a man in an argument about a card game. The execution did go quite as planned on this date. The 'sharp shooters' missed the 3-inch patch over the condemned man's heart.
Wilkerson fell from of his chair, writhing and screaming in pain, in front of the 20 or so horrified spectators. Four doctors rushed to Wilkerson, who was struggling and gasping on the ground. Officials were concerned at one point that they would have to shoot him again, but he was pronounced dead 27 minutes later, having bled to death.
This must have been one hell of a day.
When the first Academy Awards were handed out on May 16, 1929, movies had just begun to talk. That first ceremony took place during an Academy banquet in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. There were 270 people in attendance and guest tickets cost $5.
Though this was the first time these awards were to be given, the attendees were not anxious. Unlike the secrecy that surrounds the winners of today's ceremonies, the winners of the first Academy Award ceremony were announced three months early.
May 16, 1940 - What always made me proud - almost blushing with pride - is that Francis Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg all told me that 'The Conformist' is their first modern influence.
Bernardo Bertolucci, film director, was born in Parma, Italy on this date.
May 16, 1942 -
Born on this date at the Sherman Boner farm, a young pig called Parker Neptune was destined for nothing more than the slaughterhouse and a rasher of bacon or two. But through several bizarre machinations, Parker became known as King Neptune and went on war bond tours, raising an astonishing $19 million dollars for the war effort.
After the war, King Neptune retired, living in a farm and enjoying himself. He died just two days shy of his 8th birthday, on May 14th 1950, from pneumonia. He was given the rare honor of a military funeral.
Raise a glass or two to this Porcine wartime benefactor.
May 16, 1945 -
A Nazi submarine surrendered to US forces at Portsmouth, NH, on this date. It had been bound for Tokyo with 10 containers of uranium oxide for the Japanese secret nuclear tests.
In a very ironic twist, the atomic material ended up in the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
May 16, 1953 - Jazz attracted me because in it I found a formal perfection and instrumental precision that I admire in classical music, but which popular music doesn't have.
Jean Django Reinhardt, one the the greatest jazz guitarist, died in France on this date.
May 16, 1965 -
"The neat round spaghetti you can eat with a spoon", Spaghetti-O's first went on sale, on this date.
Oh happy day, the squirrel meat brand has stuck around.
May 16, 1977 - Five people were killed on this date, when a New York Airways helicopter, idling atop the Pan Am Building in midtown Manhattan, toppled over, sending a huge rotor blade flying.
Three men were killed instantly and another man died later in a hospital. The blade sailed over the side of the building and killed a pedestrian on the corner of Madison Avenue and 43rd Street.
That will definitely put a crimp in your day.
May 16, 1984 -
Intergender wrestling champion and conceptual comic Andy Kaufman pretended to die of lung cancer on this date. In order to make it really convincing, Andy underwent months of radiation therapy and six weeks of psychic surgery in the Philippines.
And he's never made another public appearance. You must admire someone who can stick with a joke for this long.
May 16, 1990 - Sammy Davis, Jr. died of throat cancer in Beverly Hills on this date. After the legendary Rat pack singer/entertainer was buried with $70,000 in jewelry, the family discovers that Mr. Bojangles was broke and left millions of dollars in unpaid back taxes.
His widow then orders the body exhumed so they can repo the jewelry.
Imagine the look on Sammy's face when they opened his casket.
May 16, 1990 -
Attached to a ventilator and swimming in antibiotics, Muppet creator Jim Henson died of a severe case of pneumonia in a New York hospital on this date.
In keeping with his express wishes, no one is permitted to wear black at Henson's funeral service, which features 5,000 fans waving painted butterflies and a live band playing When the Saints Go Marching In.
Celebrate the day by enjoying the sweet morsels in every bite of a chocolate chip cookie. (Do not confuse today though with National Chip Cookie Day which is August 4th.)
Go out and eat some raw cookie dough to celebrate (ignore the feelings of shame and worries of salmonella poisoning due to the raw cookie dough.)
May 15, 1928 - Plane Crazy was the first animated cartoon to feature Mickey Mouse as well as Minnie Mouse (Mickey's girlfriend). The short was co-directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks.
Iwerks was also the main animator for this short and reportedly spent six weeks working on it. Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising were credited for assisting him; these two had already signed their contracts with Charles Mintz, but he was still in the process of forming his new studio and so for the time being they were still employed by Disney.
The cartoon was pretty much produced in secret, as Walt Disney was still contracted to the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit series for Universal.
May 15, 1937 -
The Looney Tunes short, Porky and Gabby, directed by Ub Iwerks, starry Porky Pig and Gabby the Goat (in his first appearance,) debuted on this date.
This is the first time Bob Clampett and Chuck Jones are assistant directors. Eventually after Ub Iwerks left Warner Bros. Cartoons, Clampett took his place as director and eventually would work for the studio to direct more Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts up until his departure in 1945, while Jones stayed as an assistant director after Clampett took over Iwerks' unit until Porky's Poppa in 1938 and eventually became a director himself later on in 1938 after Frank Tashlin's departure.
May 15, 1943 -
The Looney Tunes short, Tokio Jokio, (a propaganda short during World War II,) directed by Norman McCabe, debuted on this date. The cartoon is no longer shown due to its offensive racist depictions.
The character "Lord Haw Haw" was a caricature of a real person. William Joyce, an American-born Nazi propagandist who had moved to Ireland and then to England before moving on to Nazi Germany in order to support the fascist Nazi Government.
May 15, 1943 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Greetings Bait, directed by Friz Freleng, debuted on this date.
This short was nominated for an Academy Award in 1944, but lost to the Tom and Jerry cartoon The Yankee Doodle Mouse.
May 15, 1953 -
Another Luchino Visconti neorealism classic, Bellissima, starring Anna Magnani opened in New York City on this date.
In the final scene of the film, Anna Magnani hears the film playing outside her room and remarks that she hears Burt Lancaster. Magnani would win an Oscar four years later for The Rose Tattoo, in which she would costar with Lancaster.
May 15, 1958 - Vincente Minnelli's lush valentine to the La Belle Époque era, Gigi premiered in NYC on this date. (Just try not thinking the whole teen-age prostitution angle of the film and you'll enjoy it.)
Leslie Caron enjoyed working with Louis Jourdan, though he could sometimes be a challenge. She recalled, "Louis Jourdan, one of the handsomest men in Hollywood, was not comfortable with his image, yet his wit and self-deprecating humour were rare and unique.... He tended to express his angst with constant negative comments about Minnelli's staging, but instead of having it out with Vincente, he poured his grudges out on me. I was quite exhausted to hear, every time the camera stopped, his litany of grievances."
May 15, 1976 - The Rolling Stones' 13th British and 15th American studio album, Black and Blue, goes to No. 1 on the Billboard Albums Chart on this date.
The working title for the album was Hot Stuff until they decided on Black And Blue.
May 15, 1979 -
Fans wept their bitter tears when ABC TV aired the last episode of Starkey and Hutch: Sweet Revenge on this date.
Both David Soul and Paul-Michael Glaser were affected by the "life imitates art" phenomenon. Years after Soul would find himself living in France just like Hutch was living sandwiched between French businesses, Glaser would marry a second wife, whose name, Tracy Barone, sounded exactly like (or rhymed with) the name of Starsky's first love, Rosey Malone.
May 15, 1981 -
Look, there was no real reason for this but The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island premiered on NBC on this date.
According to both Sherwood Schwartz and Dawn Wells, It was a very emotional day on set when Jim Backus filmed his brief scene. He was thin and very shaky, but he still dominated his character and few lines, as before. After Backus finished filming, he asked Dawn if he was funny, and she assured him that he was, but it broke her heart to see how poor his condition was to not be able to tell.
May 15, 1982 – Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney started a seven week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with their single Ebony And Ivory, on this date.
While it was a big hit in the US, listeners quickly tired of the song, and it got very little radio play after it dropped off the charts. In the following years, the song was often mocked as superficial and maudlin, a stark contrast to the many McCartney and Wonder songs that have stood the test of time. In 2004, Blender magazine ranked it #10 on their list of the worst songs of all time.
May 15, 1987 -
The road movie which polarized critics, Ishtar, directed by Elaine May and starring Dustin Hoffman, Warren Beatty, Isabelle Adjani, Charles Grodin, and Jack Weston, opened on this date.
Warren Beatty and Elaine May quarreled and argued quite a bit off camera and especially in the editing room. Dustin Hoffman would serve as the mediator between the two of them. Beatty would also take sides against May in disagreements between her and director of photography Vittorio Storaro. At one point, Beatty and May had an argument with May telling Beatty, "You want this scene your way? You shoot it!", and May would abandon the set for long periods of time. Beatty then reported the incident to the Columbia Pictures production representative, who then offered to fire May as director of the film on Beatty's behalf as producer of the film, but Beatty did not want to take on responsibilities of directing the rest of the film himself had May been fired.
May 15, 1993 - Janet Jackson's (Miss Jackson, if you're nasty,) single, That's The Way Love Goes, goes to #1 on this date. It remains No. 1 for eight weeks - longer than any other single by either Janet or her famous brother.
James Brown demanded approval of the lyrics before he would allow Janet to sample his hit Papa Don't Take No Mess because he was angry at rap groups for splicing his songs with foul language. He didn't raise any fuss over Janet's sweet and seductive lyrics, though, and swiftly gave his permission.
May 15, 2011 - Michel Hazanavicius' amazing salute to the passing of the silent film era, The Artist, starring Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, John Goodman, and James Cromwell, premiered at the Cannes Film festival, on this date.
The character of George Valentin is based on two silent movie stars, Douglas Fairbanks and John Gilbert. Both actors starred in silent movie swashbucklers, and both saw their careers decline with the introduction of sound films.
Today in History: May 15, 1886 - Emily Dickinson finally heard the buzzing of that damn fly and gave up the ghost on this date.
Miss Dickinson died in Amherst, Mass. in the same house, where she had lived in seclusion for the previous 24 years.
This day is little remembered and yet of great import. It was on May 15, 1916, that Sir Mark Sykes of Britain and François Georges-Picot of France, with Russia's assent, confirmed their agreement to carve up the tottering Ottoman Empire between them.
Most of the mess that was the 20th Century can be traced back to the accord. In brief, here are some of the some of the issues these knuckleheads were trying to sort out -
Russia vs Turkey vs Greece over Constantinople, the Straits and Thrace: Russia sought control of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles, a strategic desire going back to the Tsars. The Allies had promised Russia Constantinople — but that fell apart with the Bolshevik Revolution.
France vs the Arabs vs Turkey over Syria: France eyed Syria and Lebanon (their "Zone of Influence"), clashing with Arab nationalist aspirations, especially after the short-lived Arab Kingdom of Syria under Faisal was crushed by the French in 1920.
Britain vs France vs the Arabs vs the Zionists over Palestine: Palestine became a tangle of competing promises—the Sykes-Picot framework, the Balfour Declaration (1917, promising a Jewish homeland), and vague pledges to Arab leaders.
Greece vs Turkey vs Italy over Smyrna and southwest Asia Minor: Postwar, Greece landed troops in Smyrna with Allied backing, leading to the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922). Mustafa Kemal's nationalists pushed them out in a brutal reversal.
Britain vs France vs the Arabs vs Turkey over Kurdish northern Iraq: The area around Mosul was contested not only for its strategic location and oil but also because of the Kurdish question, which remains unresolved.
France vs Turkey over southeastern Asia Minor and Alexandretta: A French mandate area that eventually went to Turkey in 1939, sowing lasting resentment in Syria.
Russia vs Turkey over Armenia and the southeast Black Sea coast: The Armenian Genocide, Turkish-Russian conflicts, and the later Soviet-Armenian tensions all converged here.
America, for once, had no dog in this fight.
The Sykes-Picot Agreement remains infamous not just for what it did but for how it did it: in secrecy, over the heads of the people who actually lived there, setting the stage for a century of mistrust, rebellion, and border disputes.
May 15, 1918 -
The US Post Office Department (later renamed the USPS) begins the first regular airmail service in the world (between New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.).
Of course this new service was a rousing success - the plane got lost and the mail finally had to be sent via train days later.
The Postal Service had already begun running in the red and it has not improved much since then
May 15, 1930 - Ellen Church, a young nurse from San Francisco, became one of the first airplane stewardess on this day. She was actually certified as a pilot, but she and seven other nurses began flying on a US Airways flight from Oakland, California, to Chicago, Illinois. Miss Church was on the job for 18 months.
Early stewardesses did much more than pass out drinks though — they also acted as luggage loaders, made small repairs to the plane, and even helped push the plane back into the hangar at the end of flights.
In December 1942, she took to the air again -- this time as a captain in the Army Nurse Corps, Air Evacuation Service. For distinguished work in North Africa, Sicily, England and France, she was presented with the Air Medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with seven bronze service stars, the American Theatre Campaign Medal, and the Victory Medal.
May 15, 1942 -
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed legislation, that when into effect on this date, establishing the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps.
The act, signed into law some five months after the United States entered World War II, created a voluntary enrollment program for up to 150,000 women to join the war effort in noncombat roles.
May 15, 1960 -
The Soviet Union launches Sputnik IV, a three-ton spacecraft containing a "dummy cosmonaut," (There is a consistent rumor that there was an actual cosmonaut on-board but the Soviets have denied this.) The mission goes fine until they attempt to retrofire.
A bug in the guidance system had pointed the capsule in the wrong direction, so instead of dropping into the atmosphere the satellite moves into a higher orbit.
May 15, 1972 -
On February 16, 1972, Arthur Bremer quit his job as a janitor. Two weeks later, he began his diary on March 1 with the words, "It is my personal plan to assassinate by pistol either Richard Nixon or George Wallace". His purpose was "to do SOMETHING BOLD AND DRAMATIC, FORCEFUL & DYNAMIC, A STATEMENT of my manhood for the world to see".
In his haste, the gunman forgets to yell his carefully-chosen catchphrase, "Penny for your thoughts!" And when Gov. George Wallace survived the assassination attempt, albeit confined to a wheelchair, Bremer's name was soon forgotten.
