Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Not to get all biblical

I read something this morning that another unexpected result of hurricane Irene was that erosion and runoff from upstate NY has turned the Hudson River a reddish brown, the color of blood.

We might want to get worried when the toads or locust start falling from the skies. And for Pete's sake, don't tell Michele Bachmann or Rick Perry.


September 7, 1967
-
The Flying Nun, starring Sally Field as a nun who finds that she can fly, debuted on ABC.



We liked her even then.


September 7, 2003 -
Warren Zevon, Grammy Award-winning American rock singer-songwriter and musician, died at age 56, on this date.





Enjoy every sandwich


Today in History:
September 7, 1533 -
Elizabeth I was born on on this date. She was coronated at twenty-five and remained on the throne for 44 years, which helps explain why she remained a virgin all her life.



She is best known for having ordered the destruction of the Spanish Armadillo and the invention of Shakespeare.


September 7, 1915 -
Former-cartoonist Johnny Gruelle received a patent his Raggedy Ann doll.



Gruelle created Raggedy Ann for his daughter, Marcella, when she brought him an old hand-made rag doll and he drew a face on it. From his bookshelf, he pulled a book of poems by James Whitcomb Riley, and combined the names of two poems, "The Raggedy Man" and "Little Orphant Annie." He said, "Why don’t we call her Raggedy Ann?"


September 7, 1927 -



Philo T. Farnsworth (all of 21 years old) succeeded in transmitting an image through purely electronic means by using an image dissector on this date. He used an "image dissector" (the first television camera tube) to convert the image into a current, and an "image oscillite" (picture tube) to receive it.



When the simple image of a straight line was placed between the image dissector and a carbon arc lamp, it showed up clearly on the receiver in another room. His first tele-electronic image was transmitted on a glass slide at his laboratory at 202 Green Street in San Francisco.


It's the birthday of singer and songwriter Charles Hardin "Buddy" Holly, born in Lubbock, Texas, in 1936 on this date. By the age of 13, Holly was playing what he called "Western Bop" at local clubs. He was 19 when an agent discovered him and signed him to a contract with Decca records.



The following year, Holly returned to Lubbock and, with three friends, formed The Crickets, who then released That'll Be The Day, which sold over a million copies. Buddy Holly's career was short: He died in February of 1959 in a plane crash in northern Iowa. Soon after, an English band that admired The Crickets decided to call themselves The Beatles.


September 7, 1940 -
Nazi Germany began its initial blitz on London during the World War II Battle of Britain. The German Luftwaffe blitzed London for the 1st of 57 consecutive nights on this date. Nazi Germany launched the aerial bombing of London that Adolf Hitler believed would soften Britain for an invasion.



The invasion, "Operation Sea Lion," never materialized. The Luftwaffe lost 41 bombers over England. The blitz only strengthened Britain's resistance. The defense of London was for the Royal Air Force what Churchill called "their finest hour."


September 7, 1978 -
Keith Moon, drummer for The Who, died in his London residence from an overdose of chlormethiazole edisylate, a prescription drug used to treat alcoholism.



Moon's flat, #12 Curzon Place, was the same spot where Mama Cass died of a heart attack in 1974



(and not from choking on a ham sandwich, smarty pants.)


September 7, 1978 -
Walking to the bus stop, BBC journalist Georgi Markov suddenly feels a sharp pain in his right calf. A KGB assassin had jabbed him with an umbrella tip, rigged to inject a tiny platinum sphere. The pellet is laden with ricin, a castor-based toxin with no known antidote. Markov dies in the hospital four agonizing days later.



Oh those wacky KGB agents.


September 7, 1996 -
Standing up through the open sunroof of a BMW 750 sedan, rap artist Tupac Shakur is talking to some women at a Las Vegas street intersection when a white Cadillac pulls alongside. Gunfire erupts, and Shakur is shot four times. He dies in the hospital a week later.



Although quite dead, he continued releasing new albums for many years.



And so it goes

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