Monday, January 11, 2016

Personallized just for you!

No expense was spared in obtaining this highly specific horoscope

You may substitute your own zodiac sign for this message.


January 11, 1940 -
The classic newspaper comedy, His Girl Friday, starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, premiered in New York on this date.



One of the first, if not the first, films to have characters talk over the lines of other characters, for a more realistic sound. Prior to this, movie characters completed their lines before the next lines were started.


January 11, 1958 -
Lloyd Bridges
starred as Mike Nelson, not the janitor trapped on a satellite, forced to watch cheesy movies (and mad scientists probed his mind) but a trouble shooting ex-Navy frogman on Sea Hunt on CBS-TV. The show ran for four years.



Lloyd Bridges decided to leave the show after four seasons because the producers wanted to emphasize cops-and-robbers plots while Bridges wanted to focus more on environmental themes.


January 11, 1966 -
The children's adventure-series Daktari, debuted on CBS-TV on this date.



Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion and Judy the chimp won PATSY Awards for the Series.


January 11, 1971 -
It hurts when you have to smile and you don't want to smile, but the best thing to do is to smile.

Mary Jane Blige, eight-time Grammy Award-winning and Golden Globe-nominated American R&B singer-songwriter rapper, record producer, and actress, was born on this date.



Billboard ranked Blige as the most successful female R&B artist of the past 25 years.


January 11, 1972 -
The TV movie, Kolchak, The Night Stalker, starring Darren McGavin premiered on ABC-TV on this date.



The original script by Richard Matheson called for Carl Kolchak to be dressed in Bermuda shorts and wearing an Aloha shirt. Actor Darren McGavin said, "That doesn't sound like anyone I know," and elected to use a different wardrobe. While reading up on the character, McGavin noted that Kolchak had been fired from a New York newspaper years before, and thought, "That's it! He hasn't bought a new suit since!" So, Kolchak appeared in a circa 1950s suit.


The stars do look very different today -



R.I.P. David Bowie


Today in History -
Harry Gordon Selfridge was born on January 11, 1864. Though American-born, he is best known as the founder of the British store Selfridge and Co., Ltd (think Macy's, for those of you unfamiliar with the store). He receives little or no attention here in the United States. His name does not appear in any textbooks, he is not honored with any holidays, his image does not appear on any currency, and his biography has never aired on A&E (although on did air on Biography). And yet Mr. Selfridge's philosophy has had more impact on western civilization than a dozen Aristotles.

His great maxim is uttered carelessly by a million voices every day, is enshrined in the halls of commerce and government alike, and has permeated our culture to the point where it has become a cliche. Like most successful ideas, we can hardly imagine that his concept was ever new or controversial; we must strain our imaginations to conceive a world unilluminated by his wisdom.

It was Mr. Selfridge's philosophy that "the customer is always right."



Mr. Selfridge's birthday should be celebrated throughout western civilization as a holiday of emancipation, no less significant than the signing of the Magna Carta, the drafting of the U.S. Constitution, or the invention of microwave popcorn.


January 11, 1878 -
Milk was first delivered in bottles by milkman Alexander Campbell, in New York on this date.

Previously, one had to keep a cow in a spare room of their apartment, making taking out the trash a mandatory daily occurrence.


January 11, 1922 -
The first insulin injection was given to Leonard Thompson, a teenager in Canada, on this date. He weighed only 65 pounds and was about to slip into a coma and die. Drs. Frederick Banting and Charles Best worked on the insulin, then called Isletin. Unfortunately, the injection was so impure that Thompson had a severe allergic reaction.


Researchers worked around-the-clock for the next 12 days to refine the process, and with the help of Dr. James Collip, the next injection went off without a hitch. The availability of insulin turned diabetes from a fatal condition into a treatable one.


January 11, 1928 -
Thomas Hardy
, English novelist and all around curmudgeon, died near Dorchester, England on this date. In his will, Mr. Hardy specifically requested to be buried with his beloved first wife. His friends, however, didn’t think this was good enough for the author and lobbied to have him buried in Poet’s Corner at Westminster Abbey instead.



An ugly fight between Hardy fans and family ensued, until they reached a compromise. The author’s heart was removed and buried with his wife; his ashes were preserved in a bronze urn inside the Abbey. There’s also a long-running (but unsubstantiated) rumor that Hardy’s sister’s cat snatched the heart, somehow left on a table, and that a pig’s heart had to be substituted for the burial ceremony.


January 11, 1935 -
Amelia Earhart
took off from Honolulu on this date, to become the first person to fly solo between Hawaii and California.



She landed in Oakland the next day. Three years earlier, Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.


January 11, 1943 -
President Franklin D. Roosevelt flew to Morocco for a top-secret meeting with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. He had not flown since 1932, when he traveled from Albany, New York, to Chicago to accept his nomination at the Democratic national convention.



No U.S. president had previously flown while in office because the Secret Service regarded flying as a dangerous mode of transport.



And so it goes

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