Today is the 12th day of the Lunar New Year. Since the Chinese New Year’s Eve, people have been attending feasts, with mostly greasy and rich food. So, starting from this day on, people start to take a light, vegetarian meal. Some family member may begin to show signs of intestinal distress, hence the day has become known as Diarrhea Day (I didn't make this up.)
February 8, 1910 -Today is Boy Scout Day.
February 8, 1936 -
Warner Brothers released the classic film The Petrified Forest starring Leslie Howard, Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart on this date.
Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart had played the same roles in the stage version. Warner Bros. wanted to put Howard in the film but replace Bogart with Edward G. Robinson. Howard insisted on Bogart, and Robinson was happy to step aside from yet another gangster role. Bogart would later name his second child with Lauren Bacall, Leslie, in honor of Howard, the man who gave him his first big break.
February 8, 1968 -
Planet of The Apes premiered in NYC on this date, confirming Charlton Heston's position as one of the greatest "One Note Actors" of his generation.
Charlton Heston was sick during much of the film with the flu. Rather than wait for him to get better, the producers felt that his hoarse voice added something to the character of Taylor. According to Heston's diary, after filming the scene where Taylor and Nova are forcibly separated, he wrote that he was feeling like hell while shooting because of his illness, and felt even worse "every time that damn fire hose hit me".
February 8, 1974 -
The spin-off from the sitcom Maude, that wasn't quite a spin-off, Good Times, premiered on CBS-TV on this date.
On Maude, Florida was employed as Maude Findlay's housekeeper in suburban New York and her husband Henry was employed as a firefighter. On Good Times, Florida and her husband James live in Chicago and there is no mention of their previous jobs, James ever going by the name Henry or them ever having lived in New York. In fact, Florida and neighbor Willona Woods are longtime friends and are believed to have lived in Chicago for several years.
February 8, 1976 -
Martin Scorsese's elegy to the swiftly disappearing squalid of 70's New York, Taxi Driver premiered on this date.
Between the time Robert De Niro signed a $35,000 contract to appear in this film and when it began filming, he won an Oscar for his role in The Godfather: Part II and his profile soared. The producers were terrified that De Niro would ask for a deserved large pay raise, since Columbia was not very happy with the project and was looking for excuses to pull the plug on it, but De Niro said he would honor his original deal so the film would get made.
Today in History:
February 8, 1587 -
After some 19 years in prison, Mary, Queen of Scots was beheaded on this date. She had spent the last hours of her life in prayer and also writing letters and her will. She expressed a request that her servants should be released. She also requested that she should be buried in France. The scaffold that was erected in the great hall was three feet tall and draped in black. It was reached by five steps and the only things on it were a disrobing stool, the block, a cushion for her to kneel on, and a bloody butcher's axe that had been previously used on animals. At her execution she removed a black cloak to reveal a deep red dress - the liturgical colour of martyrdom in the Catholic Church.
The execution was badly carried out. It is said to have taken three blows to hack off her head. The first blow struck the back of her head, the next struck her shoulder and severed her subclavian artery, spewing blood in all directions. She was alive and conscious after the first two blows. The next blow took off her head, save some gristle, which was cut using the axe as a saw.
Various improbable stories about the execution were later circulated. One which is thought to be true is that, when the executioner picked up the severed head to show it to those present, it was discovered that Mary was wearing a wig. The headsman was left holding the wig, while the late queen's head rolled on the floor. Another well-known execution story concerns a small dog owned by the queen, which is said to have been hiding among her skirts, unseen by the spectators. Following the beheading, the dog rushed out, terrified and covered in blood. It was taken away by her ladies-in-waiting and washed, but it did not survive the shock.
All of this must have been a pretty sight.
February 8, 1861 -
The southern states which had seceded from the United States agreed to reunite in The Confederate States of America.
This caused the Civil War, a period of unprecedented bloodshed in American history, which surely could have been avoided through a rigorous U.N. regimen of plantation inspections.
Co-incidentally, or not
February 8, 1915 -
D.W. Griffith's controversial film The Birth of a Nation (The Clansman) premiered in Los Angeles on this date.
It is widely believed that after viewing this film in the White House, President Woodrow Wilson remarked that it was "like writing history with lightning." However, the reality is that Wilson disapproved of the "unfortunate production". It is believed by some of Wilson's aides that the apparent endorsement and approbation was a ruse generated by Thomas F. Dixon Jr., the author of the original novel.
February 8, 1924 -
Breathe deeply.
The execution commenced at 9:30 a.m. when Gee Jong was led from a holding cell and secured to the chair within the chamber. He appeared to struggle a little after the gas was manually pumped in and then lapse into unconsciousness but as no external stethoscope had been used he was left in the chamber for 30 minutes to ensure death.
February 8, 1942 -
Robert Klein, comedian and actor, was born on this date.
Please stop writing him, Mr. Klein has run out of records starting with the letter B.
February 8, 1960 -
Beer heir Adolph Coors III (who was ironically allergic to beer), was killed after a failed kidnapping attempt in Colorado on this date. By October, Joseph Corbett Jr. was arrested in Canada after an national manhunt.
I guess Mr. Corbett didn't get his deposit back.
February 8, 1968 -
Gary Coleman, actor, security guard, perp and corpse was born on this date.
What else is there to say.
And so it goes.
1441
OK, France, safely after Germany had it's say, wants to go for the secondary slot
I think I'll go for a surprise video choice tomorrow
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