Ecce homo que est faba

To celebrate the release of the 25th anniversary DVD boxset of the series Mr. Bean, Rowan Atkinson celebrated in a very special way.



He recreated a famous scene from the series and rode around the Mall in London, on the top of his lime green car in an armchair.


September 5th is Be Late For Something Day, so forget the calendar and be late for something.



Remember that things can go on without you, and maybe it’s not all quite as important as you thought; after all, you need some ‘me time’!


Today is National Cheese Pizza Day



Please control yourselves - they will deliver the damn pizzas.


September 5, 1916 -
D. W. Griffith classic silent-film masterpiece, Intolerance: Love's Struggle Through the Ages, premiered on this date.



The Babylonian orgy sequence alone cost $200,000 when it was shot. That's nearly twice the overall budget of The Birth of a Nation, another D.W. Griffith film and, at the time, the record holder for most expensive picture ever made.


September 5, 1927 -
Walt Disney's Trolley Troubles, first appearance of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons, premiered on this date.



Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks worked for Universal Pictures on this cartoon. Universal showed their appreciation for the two for making Oswald a star by threatening to cut their salaries. As a result, the two walked...and soon created Mickey Mouse and the rest is history.


September 5, 1946 -
Farrokh Bulsara, British musician, singer and songwriter, was born on this date.



Freddie Mercury has been called one of Rock's greatest performers of all time.


Today in History:
September 5, 1638 -
King Louis XIV of France was born on this date.



Like Elizabeth I in England, Louis inherited a struggling kingdom and built it into a major power. Unlike Elizabeth, Louis did not remain a virgin. On the contrary, he produced so many little bastards that he came to be known as the "Son King," which led him to conclude famously L'etat, c'est moi. ("Kid, I'm your father.")


September 5, 1698 -
Russian Tsar Peter the Great imposed the first millionaire's tax when he began taxing beards on this date.

The new taxation was an attempt to modernize his citizens from what he felt were archaic traditions. On several occasions he cut off the beards of noblemen himself.  Beards were still allowed for clergy, monks and peasants.


September 5, 1877 -
The great Sioux Chief Crazy Horse, a cousin of Kicking Bear, was fatally bayoneted at age 36 by a soldier at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, on this date.



His final resting place remains unknown.


September 5, 1882 -
The first Labor Day parade in the United States was held on this date in New York.  Except it was not held on a Monday but and Tuesday.  And it wasn't really a parade but a protest.

Matthew Maguire, secretary of a machinists and blacksmiths local union, pushed for the idea with the New York Central Labor Union as a way to promote the adoption of the 8-hour day.


September 5, 1921 -
Undiscovered actress Virginia Rappe somehow ruptures her bladder during actor-comedian Fatty Arbuckle's party at the Saint Francis Hotel in San Francisco, on this date.



Three days later, the feverish woman is checked into a maternity hospital, where she dies from peritonitis. Arbuckle is tried for her murder but ultimately acquitted of any wrongdoing by a jury, his brilliant film acting career was destroyed. He had been one of the most popular (and highest-paid) film comedians of the silent era, second only to Chaplin.


September 5, 1972 -
Five Palestinians armed with machine guns sneak into the Olympic Village in Munich. There they take nine Israeli athletes hostage, killing two others in the process.



Later, they demand safe passage out of the country and the release of 200 Palestinians from prison in Israel. Ultimately, none of the athletes made it out alive.


September 5, 1975 -
Manson Family member Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme almost assassinated President Gerald Ford with a .45 automatic in Sacramento, California on this date.



But Fromme was tackled by a Secret Service agent before she can remember to rack a round into the firing chamber.


September 5, 1990 -
In his testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, LAPD chief Daryl Gates opined: "Casual drug users should be taken out and shot."

Note to self: remember not to invite Mr. Gates to any social events. What a minute, he's dead. New note to self: remember not to invite Zombie Gates to any social events.


September 5, 1991 -
Disgraced children's television star Pee-wee Herman returns to the public eye for the first time after his masturbation arrest, appearing on the MTV Video Music Awards.



He opens with the line: "Heard any good jokes lately?"


September 5, 1997 -
We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.



Nobel Peace Prize winner Mother Teresa, born Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, died at 87 after a heart attack on this date.


September 5, 2003 -
It wasn't so happy at the happiest place in the world on this date, when Marcelo Torres, 22, was killed and 10 others injured when the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad coaster, at Disneyland,  jumped the tracks in Frontierland.

Did they get their money back?



And so it goes.