Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Hey, they could have called it Hornung

Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November.
February has twenty-eight alone,

All the rest have thirty-one.
Except Leap Year; that's the time
When February's days are twenty-nine.


According to the Gregorian calendar, February is the second month of the year, and also the shortest month. February has 28 days until Julius Caesar gave it 29, and 30 days every four years. According to tradition, Augustus, the Roman emperor, took one day off to add one day to August, the month named after him.

Those damn freakin' Romans.

We now have February with 28 days, and 29 on leap years. Sweden had a February 30 in 1712. They tried it but didn't didn't work out. February begins on the same day of the week as March and November in a common year, and on the same day of the week as August in a leap year.

In the northern half of the world, February is a very cold month. There are usually sunny days that show Spring is not too far off. The Southern hemisphere usually enjoy midsummer weather during February.

February Month Observances

* African American History Month (Black History Month)
Remember the joke that Black History Month occurs during the shortest month on the year
* AMD/Low Vision Awareness Month
Making it very difficult to read this posting
* American History Month
Which is sponsored by National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution (who probably did not vote to share the month with Black History Month.)
* Bird Feeding Month (Wild Bird Feeding Month)
(most cats prefer the taste of wild bird over domesticated bird)
* Cat Health Month (US National)
(which is caused by cats celebrating 'Bird Feeding Month' a little too much.)
* Candy and Chocolate Lovers Month
(Secretly sponsored by Hallmark and the American Dental Association.
* Children's Dental Health Month and Dental Month
(What did I tell you.)
* National Pet Dental Health Month
(a slightly scary thought that All the dentist are in collusion)
* Condom Month, Creative Romance Month and An Affair to Remember Month
(Also secretly sponsored by Hallmark and the American Dental Association.)

Remember kids - There will be a quiz.


February 1, 1953-
Private Secretary (Susie, in syndication), starring Ann Sothern, premiered on CBS-TVon this day.



The show ran during the regular TV seasons on CBS, and last show was September 10, 1957. It ran on NBC-TV in the summers of 1953 and 1954. The original title sequence has not been viewed since Private Secretary's original run.


Today in History -
February 1, 1861
-
Texas secedes from the Union, becoming independent once again. Since the articles of statehood passed by the U.S. Congress give Texas this right, it is perhaps the only state whose secession was legal.



I wonder what Gov. Rick Perry is going to do to celebrate? Hopefully figure out how to balance the Texas size budget shortfall.


February 1, 1893 -
Inventor Thomas A. Edison opened the world's first motion picture studio, his Black Maria, (on account of its resemblance to a police patrol wagon,) in West Orange, New Jersey. The studio had a roof that could be opened to admit sunlight for illumination, and the building itself was mounted on a revolving pivot so that the structure could be constantly repositioned to keep it aligned with the sun.



Edison built a glass-enclosed rooftop movie studio in New York City and the Black Maria was closed in January 1901. Edison demolished the building in 1903. The U. S. National Park Service maintains a reproduction of the Black Maria, built in 1954 at what is now the Edison National Historic Site in West Orange.


February 1, 1896 -



The opera La Boheme, written by Giacomo Puccini, premieres in Turin, Italy.



Who know all Cher had to do to win an Oscar 93 years later, was tweeze her eyebrows and cry while she watches this opera.


February 1, 1951 -
TV station KTLA broadcast of an atomic explosion was the first to be seen publicly on television.



The event was captured by an NBC camera on Mount Wilson, 300 miles away from the test blast at Frenchman Flats, Nevada.


February 1, 1964 -
John Huston's
elegy to the Western (scripted by Arthur Miller) The Misfits, starring Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift premiered on this date.



On the last day of filming, Clark Gable said, "Christ, I'm glad this picture's finished. She [Monroe] damn near gave me a heart attack." On the next day, Gable suffered a severe coronary thrombosis. He died in hospital from a heart attack just ten days later.


February 1, 1964 -
Governor Matthew Welsh of Indiana declares Louie, Louie by the Kingmen "pornographic".



And while the FCC couldn't figure out the lyrics, the governor's move backfires by making the song one of the most covered titles in existence.


February 1, 1968 -
In Saigon, South Vietnam's national police chief Brig. Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan summarily executes an accused Viet Cong spy with a bullet to the head.

Unfortunately for the general, he happens to shoot him right in front of NBC cameraman Vo Suu and Associated Press photographer Eddie Adams.

Oops


February 1, 1970 -
US Government report reveals that 31% of college students have tried pot.



Now even people with prescriptions do it too!!!


February 1, 1976 -
Irwin Shaw's Rich Man, Poor Man mini-series premiered on ABC, on this date .



The mini series is based on the novel by Shaw; it was originally published as a short story in Playboy Magazine.

Hey so some people actually read Playboy.


February 1, 1982 -
Late Night With David Letterman debuted on NBC, where it stayed for 11 years . Dave's first guests were Bill Murray and Don Herbert aka Mr. Wizard.







I wonder what ever happened to Dave?


February 1, 2003 -
The Space Shuttle Columbia blows up on re-entry, with its debris hitting homes and businesses in Nacogdoches Texas.



Oops


February 1, 2004 -
During the MTV-provided halftime show of the Superbowl, former boy band member Justin Timberlake conducts an obviously pre-scripted move to expose Janet Jackson's right tit, which oddly sports a ninjitsu-style throwing star as a pasty. The nation is shocked, simply shocked, that a pristine, noncommercial event such as the Superbowl could be ruined by a Jackson.



Has enough time passed that was can forgive Janet and stop noting this anniversary?



And so it goes.

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