William Seward Burroughs II, junkie, novelist, murderer, painter and performer was born on this date.
Hey, he was a busy guy.
February 5, 1940 -
Hans Ruedi Giger, Swiss painter, sculptor, and set designer best known for his design work on the film Alien, was spawned on this date.
He had a very happy childhood.
February 5, 1816 -
Rossini's Opera "Barber of Seville" premieres in Rome
Today is chockablock with movie history
February 5, 1919
Four of the leading figures in early Hollywood: Mary Pickford, Charles Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith, incorporated to form their own company to better control their own work as well as their futures. The company was United Artist.
Their collective corpses have not stopped spinning in their graves when they heard that Tom Cruise wanted to revive the company in 2006.
February 5, 1927 -
Buster Keaton's movie "The General" premiered on this date. The film was a box-office disaster at its original release,
but is now considered by critics as one of the greatest films ever made.
February 5, 1936 -
Charlie Chaplin final silent-film appearance, Modern Times, is released.
The Little Tramp is shown struggling to survive in the modern, industrialized world.
February 5, 1953 -
"Peter Pan" by Walt Disney opens at Roxy Theater, NYC
Remember, it's the second star to the right.
February 5, 1967 -
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour premieres on CBS.
Mom actually liked both of them equally.
Today in History (it's brief)
Today is Liberation Day in San Marino. Americans remain woefully misinformed about San Marino.
(American remain woefully misinformed about most countries that aren't located between Canada and Mexico, but today is only Liberation Day in San Marino so let's not get off-topic.)
About seventeen-hundred years go, during an epic game of hide and seek, Marinus the Stonemason ran up Mount Titano in Italy to hide from the Roman Emperor Diocletian. It was a good hiding spot and he was never found. He started his own country to pass the time, and the Republic of San Marino survives to this day, an island of foreign nationals in the middle of Italy.
Citizens of San Marino are not San Mariners. They are Sammarinese.
The population of San Marino is about 25,000. The population of San Marino, California, is about 13,000.
The California town was named in 1878 by James de Barth Shorb, who had built his home there and didn't think people would go for Shorbtown. Instead, he named it after the Maryland town in which he'd been born.
That was reportedly San Marino, Maryland, which the California town's website claims to have been named "for the tiny European republic."
There is no Maryland town named San Marino. (If there is, they haven't yet made their presence felt on Google.) Foul play is obviously afoot. Proceed with caution.
And so it goes.
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