If that doesn't float your boat, it's National Irish Coffee Day
January 25, 1921 -
The play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) by Karel Capek premieres at the National Theater in Prague, Czechoslovakia, on this date. The play marks the first use of the term “robot,” which Capek coined from the Czech word “robota,” which is the word for the labor serfs were required to perform on their masters’ land.
January 25, 1949 -
The first Emmy Awards, which were devoted solely to local Los Angeles programming, were held on this date, at the Hollywood Athletic Club.
January 25, 1961 -
Walt Disney's 101 Dalmatians, premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on this date.
The birth of the puppies actually happened to the author Dodie Smith. Her dalmatians had 15 puppies, one was born lifeless and her husband revived it. However, they sold most of them, and kept only a small number.
January 25, 1970 -
Robert Altman's Oscar winning film starring Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould, M*A*S*H, premiered in NYC on this date.
The film's famous theme song was intended to be the "stupidest song ever written". After attempting to write the lyrics himself, Altman said he found it too difficult to write "dumb enough", and instead gave to the task to his fourteen-year-old son. Mike Altman allegedly wrote the lyrics in five minutes, not even expecting to be paid, since he was the director's son. Altman was paid $75,000 for directing, but his son eventually made about $2 million in song royalties, including the residuals from the TV series.
January 25, 1985 -
John Schlesinger's spy drama, The Falcon and the Snowman, starring, Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn, premiered on this date.
In 1986, this movie became associated with one of the most famous hacking incidents in television history. On the night of April 27, 1986, a Florida satellite TV dealer named John MacDougall was working late at Central Florida Teleport which up-links pay cable services to satellites. Before his shift ended, he pointed the dish directly upwards toward the location of HBO's Galaxy 1 satellite and for four and a half minutes, East Coast subscribers who has been watching The Falcon and the Snowman saw a message on a colored test pattern which read: GOOD EVENING HBO FROM CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT $12.95/MONTH? NO WAY! [SHOWTIME/MOVIE CHANNEL BEWARE!]. MacDougall had performed the stunt as a protest of satellite subscribers being forced to pay higher fees than regular cable subscribers. He turned himself in, was charged a $5,000 fine and placed on one year probation.
Word of the Day
Today in History:
January 25, 1759 -
It's Robert Burns' birthday and people will be celebrating with a Burns Supper.
The Burns Supper is eaten all across Scotland each year on the anniversary of the national poet's birth. It consists of haggis and whiskey. It is customary for the host to read Burns' Ode to a Haggis at the dinner table, presumably as a diversionary tactic.
January 25, 1924 -
The first Winter Olympics opened on this date in Chamonix, France.
Prior to this event, figure skating and ice hockey had been events at the Summer Olympics. Few, if any, of the athletes survived those winter sports during the Summer Olympics, as the rinks continually melted. And you don't want to know about the injuries sustained during nude hockey games.
January 25, 1927 -
Benjamin Kubelsky married Sadye Marks (Marcowitz) on this day.
January 25, 1927 -
Antonio Carlos Jobim, composer and primary force behind the creation of the bossa nova style, was born on this date.
If you are in your 50's or 60's, you probably wouldn't have been born without the help of this guy - go ask your parents.
January 25, 1938 -
Etta James, blues, soul, R&B, rock 'n roll, gospel and jazz singer and songwriter, was born on this date.
Pour yourself a stiff double and remember this great singer.
January 25, 1947 -
Anita Pallenberg, model, actress, fashion designer,
bathtub companion to Mick Jagger and bed mate companion to Keith Richards, was born on this date.
January 25, 1947 -
Mobster Al Capone died in Florida on this date, having only recently been released from Alcatraz, due to his declining health (his mind gone from long untreated syphilis.)
For the wages of sin is death
January 25, 1960 -
Go out and rent The Bad and the Beautiful (the Lana Turner character is based on Diana.)
January 25, 1961 –
President Kennedy held the first live presidential press conference on this date. It was viewed by an estimated 65 million people.
By the time of his death in November 1963, Kennedy had held 64 news conferences, an average of one every 16 days.
January 25, 1964 -
Echo 2, a big balloon satellite designed for collaborative communications experiments with the Soviet Union, was launched on this day. The 13-story satellite was positioned about 800 miles above South Africa. Echo 2 was the second busiest and the heaviest of all satellites created up until this time.
It was constructed of mostly plastic with an aluminum foil skin and weight about 535 pounds. Echo 2 would be spotted every so often, as announced by NASA, who encouraged people to look out for it.
January 25, 1971 -
Charles Manson and three of his followers were convicted in Los Angeles of the Tate and LaBianca murders on this date.
January 25, 1971 -
Idi Amin Dada, everybody's favorite tyrant, comes to power in Uganda on this date.
January 25, 1980 -
Ex-Beatle and pothead, Paul McCartney, after being detained for smuggling approximately 8 ounces (200 g) of pot into Japan, was released from Tokyo jail and deported without charge, on this date.
Kids let this be a lesson to you all - Pot is bad and you should never be carrying your stash on you if you are that wealthy.
January 25, 1990 -
Avianca Flight 52 ran out of fuel and crashed in Cove Neck, N.Y. on this date.
73 of the 161 people aboard were killed.
January 25, 1995 -
Hey, the world almost ended on this date and you probably didn't even know it: Russia almost launched a nuclear missile at a Norwegian research rocket after mistaking it for a US missile.
The event, known as the Norwegian Rocket Incident, highlighted remaining Cold War tensions, despite the fact that the war had officially ended four years earlier.
January 25, 2017 -
I think I can take responsibility for that in that I was the audience. I was the voice of sanity around whom all these crazies did their dance. And I reacted in the same way that a member of the audience would have reacted.
Mary Tyler Moore, TV icon passed away on this date.
Before you go - And now a sad clown singing a sad song:
I'm glad Puddles waited until now to release this - Puddles brought a real emotional wallop to his cover of REM's Everybody Hurts that might have been too hard to take towards the end of 2020.
And so it goes
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