Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Weddings must be in the air on this date.

February 10, 1956 -
St. Elvis, weeping the bitter tears of salvation, records Heartbreak Hotel





Dare to look upon his pelvic gyrations and be healed.


Today in History

February 10, 1840 -
Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, (whose first language was German, was taught English and French, and became virtually trilingual, though her mastery of English grammar remained incomplete), marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (her first cousin).



She arranged marriages for her nine children (mostly to their first cousins) and forty-two grandchildren (mostly to their own first cousins - they needed charts and grafts to make sure they didn't marry their own brothers and sisters) across the continent, tying Europe together; this earned her the nickname "the grandmother of Europe".

Oh those wacky inbred royals.




February 10, 1863 -
Midgets Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren married in a ceremony promoted and orchestrated by P.T. Barnum, reception tickets $75 (adjusted for inflation, $1250 in today's dollars).



Commodore Nutt served as best man.


February 10, 1920 -
Happy anniversary (no comment.)



Jozef Haller de Hallenburg, Polish general and politician, performs a symbolic wedding of Poland to the sea, celebrating restitution of Polish access to open sea.


February 10, 1967 -
The 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified on this date.



The Twenty-fifth Amendment (Amendment XXV) to the United States Constitution deals with succession to the Presidency and establishes procedures both for filling a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, as well as responding to Presidential disabilities. It supersedes the ambiguous wording of Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution, which doesn't explicitly state whether the Vice President becomes the President if the President died, resigned, was removed from office or was unable to discharge the Presidential powers.

Not that Joe Biden wishes anything bad should happen.

February 10, 1940
Puss Gets the Boot, the cartoon short is released by MGM. It's the first appearance of Tom and Jerry



Yeah, yeah, I know that the cat is called Jasper in this cartoon. But dammit, it's Tom, none the less.


February 10, 1945 -
The no. 1 in America, on this date, was "Rum & Coca Cola" by Andrews Sisters.



It's nice to think back in the more 'innocent' era of America, songs about mother and daughter prostitute rings in the Caribbean were all the rage.


February 10, 1981 -
Eight people were killed, 198 injured, when fire broke out at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino. (A
busboy was later found guilty of setting the fire.)


And so it goes.

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