It refers to deer skins from male deer, or bucks as they’re commonly known. This is because during these early times, deer skins were used as an informal currency. In fact, a diplomat in 1948 noted that 5 Bucks would buy you a cask of whiskey.
Every year from the 8th to the 12th of October, International Cephalopod Awareness Days come around to teach the world about Cephalopods.
Today is Octopus Day, celebrating all the eight-armed fellows.
Today is also Fluffernutter day. Celebrate by bringing fresh white bread, peanut butter, and marshmallow cream together.
While this may be a childhood favorite for some - it's causing me to gag to even think about.
October 8, 1925 -
One of the most expensive movie made, at the time (at $3.9 million,) Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ premiered on this date.
Producer Irving Thalberg was short of "hedonist slave girls", so he called up Hal Roach and Mack Sennett to ask a favor: to loan out their famous "Bathing Beauties". They were happy to oblige, as many girls were making their film debuts. Among the group of 20 or so girls who eventually appeared in the film: Janet Gaynor, Carole Lombard, Fay Wray and Joyzelle Joyner.
October 8, 1927 -
The Hal Roach studio released The Second Hundred Years short, starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy - the first Laurel and Hardy film with them appearing as a team on this date.
Laurel and Hardy's heads were shaved for their appearance in this film, and their hair had not yet grown back in their roles in Call of the Cuckoos, released a week after this film.
October 8, 1977 -
The final masterpiece of Luis Buñuel, That Obscure Object of Desire premiered on this date.
According to screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière, the reason Maria Schneider was dismissed from the film was her heavy drug use, which caused her to give a "lackluster" performance and caused tremendous friction between her and Buñuel.
October 8, 1966 -
The first Doctor Who episode to feature the Cybermen (the first episode of the Doctor Who serial The Tenth Planet) aired on this date.
The episode is the last episode to star William Hartnell as the First Doctor (and Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor).
October 8, 1980 -
Take a look at these hands. They're passing in-between us ...
Today is the 40th anniversary of Talking Heads' fourth studio Remain in Light was released on this date
Another court-ordered ACME PSA
Today in History:
October 8, 1582 -
Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day (and the four previous days) does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
This leads to mass confusion and most of the populace just go back to bed and wait for tomorrow.
October 8, 1869 -
Franklin Pierce, an American politician and the fourteenth President of the United States, serving from 1853 to 1857 is to date the only president from New Hampshire and was the first president born in the nineteenth century.
His good looks and inoffensive personality caused him to make many friends, but he suffered tragedy in his personal life (all three of his children died in childhood - don't ask how his third child died) and as president subsequently made decisions which were widely criticized and divisive in their effects, thus giving him the reputation as one of the worst presidents in U.S. history.
After losing the Democratic nomination for a second term, Pierce reportedly quipped "there's nothing left to do but get drunk" (quoted also as "after the White House what is there to do but drink?") which he apparently did frequently. He once ran over an elderly woman while driving a carriage drunk. Franklin Pierce died in Concord, New Hampshire on this date at 64 years old, from cirrhosis of the liver, thus ending his miserable life.
October 8, 1871 -
Mrs O'Leary's cow started The Great Chicago Fire that destroyed more than 17,000 buildings, killed more than 300 people and left 90,000 homeless, on this date.
Bad cow.
Catherine O'Leary seemed the perfect scapegoat: she was a woman, immigrant, and Catholic - a combination which did not fare well in the political climate of the time in Chicago. This story was circulating in Chicago even before the flames had died out and was noted in the Chicago Tribune's first post-fire issue. Michael Ahern, the reporter that came with the story would retract it in 1893, admitting that it was fabricated.
In 1997, the Chicago City Council passed a resolution exonerating Mrs. O'Leary - and her cow - from all blame.
Occurring the same day as the Great Chicago fire, a forest fire broke out at Peshtigo, Wisconsin, eventually killing about 2,500 people while burning some 850 square miles including, Holland, Michigan, and Manistee, Michigan (making it the largest lost of life by fire in the United States.)
October 8, 1918 -
Sgt. Alvin York (Gary Cooper) of Tennessee became a World War I hero by single-handedly capturing a hill in the Argonne Forest of France, killing more than 20 enemy soldiers and capturing 132 others on this date.
What makes this feat all the more amazing is that York original applied and was denied Conscientious Objector status because of his religious beliefs.
October 8, 1919 -
The first U.S. transcontinental air race began with 63 planes competing in the round-trip aerial derby between California and New York. Each way took about three days.
Seven men lost their lives during the race - flying was extremely hazardous at the time. Even the winner, Lieutenant Belvin W. Maynard, would meet his death three years later, while stunt flying at a county fair in Rutland, Vermont, on September 7, 1922.
October 8, 1928 -
Police raid 20 speakeasies in New York City in an effort to crack down on illegal liquor sales on this date.
New York City Police remain blind drunk, wandering the streets for three days afterward.
October 8, 1945 -
A patent for microwave oven was filed (US patent No. 2,495,429) by Percy LeBaron Spencer, who accidentally discovered that microwaves melted a chocolate bar in his pocket (the first item to be intentionally cooked in a microwave was popcorn.)
Spencer, an eighth-grade dropout and electronic wizard, worked for the Raytheon Manufacturing Corporation of Massachusetts developing a radar machine using microwave radiation. The first commercial microwave was produced nine years later and sold for $2,000.
October 8, 1948 -
When I was younger, I was ready to go off at any time. My wife, Linda, and I would go out to the Limelight in New York, and I would see people and be able to freeze them with a look. People were even too scared of me to tell me that people were scared of me.
Johnny Ramone (nee John William Cummings) the lead guitarist for The Ramones was born on this date.
October 8, 1956 -
New York Yankees pitcher Donald James Larsen pitches the first perfect game in a World Series - no walks, no hits, no runs.
His perfect game was the only no-hitter of any type ever pitched in postseason play until Doc Halladay pitched one on October 6th, 2010.
October 8, 1993 -
Ted Danson appeared in black face at a Friars Club roast for Whoopi Goldberg on this date.
His offensive comments amused Whoopi Goldberg but the incident becomes a great embarrassment.
And so it goes
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