Just another day in Medieval Europe

In 1184, A feud between Louis III, Landgrave of Thuringia (an area in Central Germany) and Archbishop Conrad of Mainz also in Central Germany) which had existed since the defeat of Henry the Lion intensified to the point that King Henry VI (of Germany) was forced to intervene while he was traveling through the region during a military campaign against Poland. Henry decided to call a diet in Erfurt where he was staying to mediate the situation between the two and invited a number of other figures to the negotiations. On July 25, 1184, a number of European nobles from across the Holy Roman Empire were at the meeting in a room at the Church of St. Peter at Erfurt, when their combined weight caused the floor to collapse into the latrine beneath the cellar and led to about 60 of nobles drowning in liquid excrement.



Others were luckier, being only injured or even leaving with minor contusions. This was the case of Louis III, who, although he fell into the cesspool, was able to get out and overcome the imaginable infections he might have suffered from his wounds and scrapes. His opponent, Archbishop Conrad, also survived, sitting on a window sill and holding on to the stained glass frame until he was rescued. Henry VI himself was saved for the same reason, remaining there until they were able to lower him down a ladder. By the way, he left the city immediately.

It is referred to as the "Erfurt latrine disaster." This disproved the Monty Python axiom concerning the ability to discern who was royalty but I'm sure you could care less.


Today is International Workers' Memorial Day. The day is a day set aside to remember all of those people who have been injured or killed on the job.



Each year, more than two million women and men die as a result of work-related accidents and diseases.


April 28, 1939 -
Cecil B. DeMille brought the Western into a new realm when Union Pacific, premiered in Omaha, Nebraska on this date.



According to a news item in The Hollywood Reporter, Cecil B. DeMille directed much of the film from a stretcher, because of an operation he had months earlier. However, studio records indicate DeMille collapsed from the strain of directing three units simultaneously, and used a stretcher for about two weeks.


April 28, 1965 -
Barbra Streisand's first television special, My Name is Barbra, premiered on CBS-TV, on this date.



The audience segments were filmed in a small TV studio in New York City just down the street from where Barbra Streisand was performing in Funny Girl. The audience consisted of about 200 members of Streisand's fan club.


April 28, 1975 –
Tom Snyder interviewed ex-Beatle John Lennon on The Tomorrow Show.



At the time, no one knew then that John Lennon would be taking an extended hiatus from public life, taking time to raise his son and live a less public life. The interview Lennon gave Tom Snyder in 1975 revealed he had tremendous humility and an affecting sense of humor.


April 28, 1978 -
John A. Alonzo's film about a radio station with a motley collection of DJs, FM, starring Michael Brandon, Eileen Brennan, Alex Karras, Cleavon Little, Martin Mull and Cassie Yates went into general release in the US on this date. Linda Ronstadt, Jimmy Buffett and REO Speedwagon all make cameo appearances in the film.



The theme song from the movie, Steely Dan's FM (No Static at All) won engineers Al Schmitt and Roger Nichols the 1979 Grammy Award for Best Engineered Recording.


April 28, 1979 -
The first of their four chart-toppers, Blondie's Heart Of Glass hits #1 in the U.S. on this date.



According to Rolling Stone magazine's Top 500 Songs, Harry and Stein wrote the song in their dingy New York apartment and keyboardist Jimmy Destri provided the synthesizer hook. The result brought punk and disco together on the dance floor. Said Destri, "Chris always wanted to do disco. We used to do 'Heart Of Glass' to upset people."

April 28, 1985 -
The first single from Bryan Ferry's album Boys and Girls, Slave To Love, was released on this date.



The album, Boys and Girls, featured many brilliant guitarists, including Dire Straits' Mark Knopfler, Pink Floyd's David Gilmour, Chic's Nile Rodgers and Bryan Adams' guitarist Keith Scott.


April 28, 2009 -
A TV commercial for the UK car insurance company, Swiftcover featuring Iggy Pop was ruled as misleading by the Advertising Standards Authority. In the ad, Iggy was seen exclaiming that he had an insurance policy with Swiftcover but the company did not cover musicians at the time of the ad being shown.



Swiftcover had since started to offer policies to musicians, and Mr Osterberg, Jr. has continued to increase his retirement fund, I mean, endorse the company ever since.


April 28, 2011 -
Universal Pictures mega-hit comedy Bridesmaids, starring Kristin Wiig, Maya Rudolph. Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy, Chris O'Dowd, Rebel Wilson, Matt Lucas, Michael Hitchcock, Jon Hamm, and Jill Clayburgh, premiered in the US on this date. (This film is my daughters' favorite comedy.)



It was originally intended that Chris O'Dowd's cop would be American, but everyone was so enamored with O'Dowd's native Irish accent that it was decided that he keep it.


April 28, 2012 –
The Gotye song (featuring Kimbra), Somebody That I Used to Know hit No. 1 on the Billboard chart on this date.



The song features New Zealand singer-songwriter Kimbra, who won her country's Critics' Choice awards in 2011; the award is intended to recognize and nurture up-coming talent. Gotye didn't begin writing this song as a duet, but after he finished the first verse, he realized he had nowhere to go with the character he was writing about, and needed to introduce another voice.


Another failed ACME Product.


Today in History:
April 28, 1789 -
In the middle of the South Pacific, the crew of the HMS Bounty, led by either Clark Gable, Marlon Brando or Mel Gibson mutinied, setting Charles Laughton, Trevor Howard or Anthony Hopkins and 18 other crewmen adrift in an open boat, so they can hang out with topless Tahitian teens.



Sometimes history is very confusing.


April 28, 1881 -
Billy the Kid escaped from a New Mexico jail, killing jailer Bob Ollinger and a fellow prisoner in the process. Billy survived for another three months before Pat Garrett finally killed him.

Somehow Bob Dylan, Paul Newman, Dracula and Jane Russell's braless bodaeous ta-tas are involved in this story



Once again, history is exceedingly confusing.


April 28, 1910 -
In England, Claude Grahame-White became the first person to pilot a plane at night on this date.

The landmark flight came during the 1910 London to Manchester air race.


April 28, 1941 -
... I always think that age is a natural progression, and I'm ready for it. Whatever. I'm going to be the best 85-year-old that I can be if I'm still around.





Ann-Margret Olsson, actress, singer and dancer, was born on this date.


April 28, 1945 -
Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci were captured by partisan fighters and executed (castrated and hung upside down on a meat hook - well, Mussolini had his junk removed - Clara, well, she just got hung.)



Just because you can get the trains to run on time does not mean that the voters love you (it should be a motto every politician has tattooed to their ass.)


April 28, 1947 -
Sailing from Peru on the balsa-raft Kon Tiki, Thor Heyerdahl began his six-man, 101-day expedition across the Pacific Ocean to Polynesia.



Heyerdahl's expeditions were spectacular and caught the public imagination. Although much of his work remains unaccepted within the scientific community, Heyerdahl increased public interest in ancient history and anthropology.


April 28, 1967 -
Muhammad Ali refused to be inducted into the army because of religious reasons on this date, and was stripped of his boxing titles and sentenced to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine for draft evasion.



The conviction was eventually overturned by the Supreme Court



And so it goes.