Oranges are unknown in the wild. They are a hybrid of tangerines and the pomelo or “Chinese grapefruit” (which is pale green or yellow), and were first cultivated in south-east Asia. They weren't orange, but green, and Vietnamese oranges and Thai tangerines are still bright green on the outside and orange inside.
Today is National Beheading Day, one of the long list of make believe holidays that litter the internet. I'm sorry to say that the board of directors of ACME have rejected the suggestion to become the main corporate sponsor.
So remember to wish your friends and neighbors Happy National Beheading Day. Enjoy the odd look they give you.
September 2, 1949 -
Carol Reed's adaptation of Graham Greene's post war thriller, The Third Man, starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard, and Orson Welles, premiered in London of this date.
During the shooting of the film, the final scene was the subject of a dispute between Graham Greene, who wanted the happy ending of the novella, and Carol Reed and David O. Selznick, who stubbornly refused to end the film on what they felt was an artificially happy note. Greene later wrote: "One of the very few major disputes between Carol Reed and myself concerned the ending, and he has been proved triumphantly right."
September 2, 1950 -
If your eagle's hands are dirty, we'll wash them clean....
Here is one of my favorite non Bug Bunny Looney Tunes; the classic Daffy/ Porky outing, The Ducksters, was released on this date.
On the game show Porky Pig wins:
1. The Rocky Mountains
2. A 17 - Jewel half Nelson
3. The La Brea Tar Pits
4. The Rock of Gibraltar
5. 600 gallons of genuine Niagara Falls
6. $26,000,000.03
The identification of the Ajax Broadcasting Company was an unusual name for Warner Bros.; Ajax was a name more commonly used by rival studio Disney, whereas Warner Bros. would more commonly use Acme Corporation in its later productions.
September 2, 1965 -
The Rolling Stones appeared on the British TV show Ready Steady Go! on this date.
The boys all joined in a parody of Sonny and Cher's I Got You Babe.
Oh those scalawags!
September 2, 1995 -
On the shores of Lake Eerie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio the doors of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum were officially opened, promoting Rock and Roll history through art, exhibits, preserves, and collector’s items.
Since the cutting of the ribbon, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum has hosted over eight million visitors and 50,000 of them were students and teachers.
September 2, 2005 –
If you ever need the definition of 'deer in the headlights' moment, just watch Mike Meyers in this clip.
On NBC’s Concert for Hurricane Relief, Kanye West stated that “George Bush doesn’t care about black people”. The comment went out live on the US east coast, but was cut from a taped version seen on the west coast.
September 2, 2006 -
Stephen Frears brilliant portrayal of the royal family's reaction to the death of Princess Diana, The Queen, starring Helen Mirren, Michael Sheen, and James Cromwell premiered at the Venice Film Festival on this date.
Scenes within the Royal household were shot on 35mm film, so they would look lush and cinematic. Scenes within Blair's world were shot on 16mm, so they would look more like television, in order to give visual contrast between commoners and royalty.
Another failed ACME product
Today in History -
Pheidippides of Athens sets out on his famous run that inspired the Marathon on this date in 490 BC
September 2, 1666 -
Thomass Farrinor forgot to put out his oven at the end of his shift, on this date.
Unfortunately, the resulting fire cost him his job as official baker to King Charles II of England and started the Great Fire of London. (Quite surprisingly, only six people 'officially' were declared dead because of the fire. To remember the fire, the city of London erected a monument. Six people have committed suicide by jumping off of it, and two have fallen accidentally to their deaths. You might hear this fun fact repeated on tours or forums: more people have died from falling off the monument than died in the fire. But it's not true - more like several hundred and quite possibly several thousand; very poor people likely died in the fire, burnt so beyond recognition (and not on the 'official radar') that their remains were not counted.
On the plus side, it burned out of control and destroyed four-fifths of London, thereby ending the Black Plague.
Lydia Kamekeha Liliuokalani was born on this date in 1838.
She reminded them that Hawaii was not part of the United States. This was more than unconstitutional: it was cheeky.
She was immediately deposed, then wrote wrote Aloha Oe and retired; spending the rest of her life, unsuccessfully suing the United States for illegally ceasing her island nation.
(And you wonder why the former president may have hesitated showing his birth certificate.)
September 2, 1901 -
Twelve days before the assassination of President William McKinley, Vice President Theodore Roosevelt offered the advice, "Speak softly and carry a big stick," in a speech at the Minnesota State Fair on this date.
Roosevelt described his style of foreign policy as "the exercise of intelligent forethought and of decisive action sufficiently far in advance of any likely crisis."
USS Shenandoah was the first of four United States Navy rigid airships. She was built from 1922 to 1923 at Lakehurst Naval Air Station, and first flew in September, 1923. She developed the Navy's experience with rigid airships, even making the first crossing of the North American continent by airship.
While passing through an area of thunderstorms and turbulence over Ohio early in the morning of the 3rd, the airship was torn apart and crashed in several pieces near Caldwell, Ohio. Shenandoah's commanding officer, Commander Zachary Lansdowne and 13 other officers and men were killed.
September 2, 1930 -
Capt. Dieudonne Costes and Lt. Maurice Bellonte arrived in Valley Stream, N.Y. from Paris (3,852 miles) in 37 hours and 18 minutes, aboard the Question Mark - the first non-stop westbound fixed wing aircraft flight between Europe and America.
The flight was a commemorative return visit of Lindberg's historical flight to Paris in 1927.
Russ Columbo, was an American singer, violinist and actor, most famous for his signature tune, Prisoner of Love and the legend surrounding his early death.
On September 2, 1934, Columbo was shot under peculiar circumstances by his longtime friend, photographer Lansing Brown. Columbo was visiting him at the studio one day. In lighting a cigarette, Brown lit the match by striking it against the wooden stock of an antique French dueling pistol. The flame set off a long-forgotten charge in the gun, and a lead pistol ball was fired. The pistol ball ricocheted off a nearby table and hit Columbo in the left eye, killing him almost instantly.
Literally, with friends like this, who needs enemies.
September 2, 1945 -
In front of an assembled group of Allied sailors and officers, General Douglas MacArthur signed documents during the surrender ceremony aboard the USS Missouri on this date.
The unconditional surrender of the Japanese to the Allies officially ended the Second World War six years and a day since it began in Poland back in 1939. (Remember, those original Hitler World Tour T-Shirts are still quite valuable.)
September 2, 1969 -
Six weeks after landing men on the Moon, America's first automatic teller machine (ATM), at the time called the Docuteller, made its public debut on this date, dispensing cash to customers at Chemical Bank in Rockville Center, New York.
And so it goes.
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