February 22, 1950 -
A nearly forgotten Alfred Hitchcock film, Stage Fright starring Marlene Dietrich, Jane Wyman, Richard Todd, and Michael Wilding, premiered in New York City on this date.
Part of the reason that Alfred Hitchcock wanted to make this movie, was so that he could spend time with his daughter, Patricia. Hitchcock had been based in California for several years, and his daughter had been enrolled as a drama student in the Royal Academy in London. By making this movie in London, he was able to spend time with his daughter, and even offered her a small part in the movie.
February 23, 1964 -
The Beatles appear for the third consecutive appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on this date. They performed Twist and Shout and Please Please Me and closed the show once again with I Want to Hold Your Hand.
The third broadcast, February 23, showed a performance taped earlier in the day of the original February 9th appearance.
February 23, 1980 –
The Queen's song Crazy Little Thing Called Love hit the No. #1 spot on the Billboard Charts on this date.
This was the first song on which Freddie Mercury played rhythm guitar. He was keen to keep the song minimal, despite his limited guitar knowledge, and producer Mack claimed that he rushed into the studio to record it "before Brian could get there!" He also played the guitar solo on the original recording, but the tapes were lost so Brian May played the solo instead, using a Fender Telecaster to achieve the period sound. May didn't seem to like playing another guitar, and even when playing live, after performing the solo on the Telecaster he would immediately switch back to his Red Special.
February 23, 1991 -
Oliver Stone's bio-pix about Jim Morrison and his group, The Doors, starring Val Kilmer, Meg Ryan, Kyle MacLachlan, Frank Whaley, Kevin Dillon, and Kathleen Quinlan premiered in Los Angeles on this date.
Because the film was shot out of sequence, Val Kilmer had to carefully gain weight for Jim Morrison's heavier, later years so the flab was only noticeable on his belly, and could be concealed when he played Morrison as a younger man.
Today in History:
February 23, 303 -
Roman Emperor Diocletian issues an edict to suppress Christianity, "to tear down the churches to the foundations and to destroy the Sacred Scriptures by fire". Further edicts require that church officials engage in animal sacrifice to appease traditional Roman gods.
One can only weep that they did not have the lubricant concessions given the kind of orgies that when on that night.
February 23, 1821 -
English poet John Keats died in Rome on this date. Mr. Keats was Romantic and therefore wrote an Ode to a Nightingale, an Ode to Psyche, and even an Ode to a Grecian Urn.
None of them would have him, so the poor man died alone.
February 23, 1861 -
President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrived secretly in Washington D.C. to take office after an assassination plot was foiled in Baltimore on this date. Allan Pinkerton, founder of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, may have saved Lincoln’s life by uncovering the plot to assassinate the president-elect in Baltimore, Md.
At the detective’s suggestion, Lincoln avoided the threat by secretly slipping through the city at night.
February 23, 1836 -
The Siege of the Alamo began on this date. It was quite an adventure. For years afterward people would sigh, Remember the Alamo?
And they'd kind of nod and smile, but eventually they forgot.
February 23, 1885 -
The British hangman at Exeter Gaol tried three times on this date, to hang John Lee of Devonshire, for the murder of Emma Keyse. The trap refused to open.
His sentence was commuted to life, and he was eventually released.
February 23, 1896 -
The Tootsie Roll was introduced by Leo Hirshfield an Austrian immigrant, in his small candy shop located in New York City on this date.
He was America's first candy maker to individually wrap penny candy. Current production is over 49 million pieces a day. For many, this day should be a Federal holiday.
February 23, 1903 -
Tomás Estrada Palma, the first president of Cuba, leased Guantanamo Bay to the US in perpetuity on this date. Guantanamo Bay was the only US military base in a country with which the US did not have diplomatic relations, until the year before last.
February 23, 1915 -
Nevada enacts a law reducing the quickie divorce residency requirements down to six months,
a figure further reduced in 1931 to six weeks.
February 23, 1945 -
U. S. Marines raised the flag on Mt. Suribachi (Battle of Iwo Jima) on this date.
The photograph of the event was extremely popular, being reprinted in thousands of publications. Later, it became the only photograph to win the Pulitzer Prize for Photography in the same year as its publication, and ultimately came to be regarded as one of the most significant and recognizable images of the war, and possibly the most reproduced photograph of all time.
February 23, 1954 -
The students of Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania participated in the first mass vaccination of children against polio with the vaccine (using the dead virus to induce immunization) developed by Jonas Salk, on this date.
Poliomyelitis is a viral attack of the central nervous system and can cause paralysis and death by asphyxiation (I have nothing else to say.)
February 23, 1996 -
The Freeway Killer William G Bonin was executed at San Quentin on this date. He was the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the history of California.
That kind of diet will kill you.
And so it goes.
Here is your 2018 Oscar ballot:
Please remember that betting on the Oscars is illegal in most states; it should be used for entertainment purposes only.
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