Please celebrate sensibly.
April 24, 1939 -
The Warner Bros. bio-pix on the life of Benito Juarez, Juarez, starring Paul Muni, Bette Davis, Brian Aherne, Claude Rains, and John Garfield, premiered in the US on this date.
According to Brian Aherne, the film was to have been called Phantom Crown, after the novel by Bertita Harding which was one of the sources for the script. However Paul Muni had a clause in his contract that permitted him to insist that the name of his character appear in the title.
April 24, 1941 -
George Stevens' tearjerker classic, Penny Serenade, starring Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Beulah Bondi, and Edgar Buchanan, premiered in the US on this date.
At the time, California law restricted the time an infant could be present in a film studio to two hours per day; during that time, the infant could be kept on a sound stage for only one hour, and be filmed under the studio lights for only twenty minutes at a time. To double the amount of time he could film the character of Trina both as a baby and as a one-year-old, director George Stevens hired identical twin girls for Trina at each age. The baby was played by Judith and Dianna Fleetwood, and the one-year-old by Joan and Jane Biffle.
April 24, 1974 -
David Bowie released his iconic album, Diamond Dogs, on this date.
This song introduces us to Bowie's post-Ziggy Stardust persona, Halloween Jack: "The Halloween Jack is a real cool cat and he lives on top of Manhattan Chase." It has also been suggested this song was influenced by Dhalgren, a science fiction novel by Samuel R. Delany.
Don't forget to tune in to The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour Today
(I'm running around taking care of a bunch of things, so today will be an abbreviated posting.) Today in History: April 24, 1184 BC (this is an approximated date.)
... burnt the topless towers of Ilium...
It is traditionally held that city of Troy fell on this date after a ten year siege by the armies of Greece.
April 24, 1800 -
The Library of Congress, the oldest cultural institution in the nation's capital, was established by an act of Congress on this date.
Initially it was housed in the new Capitol in Washington, D.C., but British troops burned the Capitol building and stole the library materials. Retired president Thomas Jefferson then offered his personal library to the Congress.
April 24, 1913 -
The Cathedral of Commerce built one nickel at a time, the Woolworth building opened on this date.
The Five and Dimes are long gone but the skyscraper remains.
April 24, 1915 -
The Ottoman Turkish Empire began the brutal mass deportation of Armenians on this date. Turkey said Armenians had sided with Russia and issued deportation orders for the mass deportation of Armenians. Armenian organizations in Istanbul were closed and 235 members were arrested for treason. Turkish police arrested some 800 of the most prominent Armenians in Constantinople, took them into the hinterlands and shot them
It is generally agreed upon (except by the Turkish Government) that this was the beginning of the Armenian Genocide. And here I go, losing another whole demographic.
April 24, 1916 -
... And what if excess of love, Bewildered them till they died? - W. B. Yeats
Some 1,600 Irish nationalist, the Irish Volunteers, launched the Easter Rising by seizing several key sites in Dublin, including the General Post Office. Eemon de Valera was one of the commandants in the uprising. It was provoked by impatience with the lack of home rule and was put down by British forces several days later. Michael Collins, a member of Sinn Fein, led the guerrilla warfare.
April 24, 1953 -
Winston Churchill, the British leader who guided Great Britain and the Allies through the crisis of World War II, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II on this date.
Later, this same year he also won the Nobel peace prize for literature.
April 24, 1970 -
The first Chinese satellite, Dong Fang Hong I, was launched aboard a Long March rocket on this date. Upon reaching orbit, the satellite transmits the popular Communist Chinese song, The East is Red.
With the launch, China became the fifth country with a satellite in space.
April 24, 1986 -
'Her Royal Highness' The Duchess of Windsor, Bessie Warfield Spencer Simpson Windsor former maitresse en titre (official mistress), plain-faced, twice-divorced American, possible transvestite and Nazi sympathizer died on this date.
And the House of Windsor breathed a sigh of relief -
until Princess Diana.
April 24th, 1990 -
The Space Shuttle Discovery launched the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit. It is hoped that the Telescope will be able to see up to the edge of the known universe. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was one of the largest space telescopes ever used, at the time, and has contributed to many astrological astrological discoveries, notably in the area of supernovas and dark energy.
Hubble has sent back a series of stunning photographs of deep space, and revolutionized thinking about the universe. Unlike many other spacecraft, the HST is open for public use — anyone regardless of education level or nationality can apply for time to use it.
Here is your Oscar ballot for tomorrow night:
And so it goes.
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