May 21, 1969 -
MGM released the science fiction B-movie The Green Slime to U.S. theaters on this date.
This was the first film ever to be featured on the TV series Mystery Science Theater 3000. An edited version of the film appeared on the show's never-aired pilot episode.
May 21, 1971 -
Regarded as one of the landmark recordings in pop music history, and one of the greatest albums of the 20th century, Marvin Gaye's eleventh studio album What's Going On, was released on this date.
A loosely connected concept album of songs from the point of view of a Vietnam veteran returning to the US, and seeing only hatred, suffering, and injustice. This was one of the first Motown albums to make a powerful political statement. Stevie Wonder and the Temptations were also recording more serious and challenging material, which was a radical departure from the Motown hits of the '60s. The album had a tremendous impact because listeners weren't used to hearing social commentary from Gaye. As Jackson Browne said in a 2008 interview with Rolling Stone: "No one was expecting an anti-war song from him. But it was a moment in time when people were willing to hear it from anybody, if it was heartfelt. And who better than the person who has talked to you about love and desire?"
May 21, 1980 -
George Lucas didn't have enough money (the first time). He produces a sequel to his highly successful Star Wars, which somehow is Part V (don't ask or someone will go to great lengths to explain it all to you.)
The Empire Strikes Back premiered on this date.
The film contains, arguably the most shocking revelation - right next to what Rosebud was or Who actually is Keyser Söze?
May 21, 1983 -
David Bowie, with guitar work courtesy of Stevie Ray Vaughan reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart with Let’s Dance, which stayed on top for one week.
Nile Rodgers recalled to The Guardian May 18, 2012: "When Bowie and I got together to do Let's Dance, we spent two weeks researching music and styles and Bowie suddenly said: 'I got it!' He held up a Little Richard album cover where he's wearing a red suit, getting into a red Cadillac, with a pompadour haircut, and said: 'That's rock'n'roll.' After doing all that research with him, I got it too. I knew instantly what he wanted. We switched the suit for a yellow one when we released our record."
May 21, 1987 -
The series, The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, starred Blair Brown premiered on NBC-TV on this date.
NBC Programming Executive Brandon Tartikoff pitched the idea to Jay Tarses of doing a series about a single woman in her thirties, living in a big city. Tarses immediately thought of his friend Blair Brown for the lead. Tarses and Brown discussed how not to make the series into a formulaic sitcom.
May 21, 1990 -
The last episode of Newhart aired on CBS-TV on this date.
After the 7th season, Bob Newhart decided the 8th season would be the final season for the show. When he told his wife Ginny Newhart of his decision, she suggested that for the final episode, his character should wake up in bed next to Suzanne Pleshette, and that the series should be a dream.
May 21, 1992 -
Bette Midler, the last scheduled guest, sang a touching impromptu duet with Johnny Carson, on the Tonight Show, on this date. (This was the apex of TV. It hasn't gotten any better than this.)
This penultimate show was immediately recognized as a television classic, and Midler would win an Emmy Award for her role in it.
May 21, 2011 -
Adele went to No.1 on the US singles chart with Rolling In The Deep, on this date, taken from her second studio album, 21.
Adele could have called this song We Could Have Had It All, but that would have been fairly typical and sound like something Whitney Houston would sing. Instead, she used another line in the chorus that is curious to American listeners, adding some intrigue to the song. So what does the phrase "Rolling In The Deep" mean? She described it to Rolling Stone as an, "adaptation of a kind of slang, slur phrase in the UK called 'roll deep,' which means to have someone, always have someone that has your back, and you're never on your own, if you're ever in trouble you've always got someone who's going to come and help you fight it or whatever like that. And that's how I felt in the relationship that the record's about, especially 'Rolling in the Deep.' That's how I felt, you know, I thought that's what I was always going to have, and um, it ended up not being the case."
Another unimportant moment in history
Today in History:
May 21, 427BC (Obviously is date is merely a best guess; the classical Greeks, at the time, were too busy improving the art of sodomy to bother with perfecting the calendar.)
The Greek philosopher Plato was born on this date.
It was on this date in 1471 that King Henry VI of England was murdered in the Tower of London, concluding Part III of his reign.
Edward IV assumed the throne as the world eagerly awaited Richard III and the dramatic conclusion of the War of the Roses.
May 21, 1805 -
A pharmacist’s apprentice, Friedrich Sertürner, discovered the valuable properties contained in opium. He named its active ingredient “morphium” after the Greek god of dreams, and later renamed it morphine.
This lifelong pharmacist in Paderborn, Germany was the first person to isolate an alkaloid as an active ingredient from a medicinal plant. When other chemists did not believe the initial report of Sertürner’s discovery of morphine he resorted to public experimentation on himself and three friends to prove that the substance he had isolated was indeed the one which was responsible for the actions of opium. By 1820 chemists had isolated other medically important substances such as quinine, strychnine and caffeine.
May 21, 1904 -
Grab your pig's feet, bread, and gin, there's plenty in the kitchen. ...
Thomas Wright (Fats) Waller, jazz pianist, organist, composer and entertainer, was born on this date.
May 21, 1917 -
One of the World's Greatest Actors, Raymond Burr was born on this date.
In celebration, may I suggest purchasing a small container of the fabulous nipple rouge bearing this man's name. This year, 'Ripe Figs'.
May 21, 1924 -
Two Chicago teenagers interrupted their daily sodomy practice and attempted to commit the perfect crime just for the thrill of it.
Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb kidnapped 14-year-old Bobby Franks, bludgeoned him to death in a rented car, and then dumped Franks' body in a distant drainage ditch.
They didn't get away with it.
May 21,1927 -
Charles Lindbergh, American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, racist, Neo-Nazi, Isolationist and serial philanderer became the first man to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean, on this date.
Exactly five years later Amelia Earhart became the first woman to do it, on this day as well.
This was an impressive step for feminism, and she did it without a bathroom break.
May 21, 1952 -
Mr. T was born in the ghetto, on this date.
And his mama cried.
May 21, 1972 -
A deranged Australian geologist took a hammer on this date, to Michelangelo's Pieta, shouting "I am Jesus Christ -- risen from the dead!"
Laszlo Toth was never charged with any crime, instead receiving a free trip to an Italian insane asylum. Toth's name is later adopted by comedian and former SNL regular Don Novello (Father Guido Sarducci) for a long series of pranks by mail.
Everybody's a critic.
May 21, 2011 –
Radio broadcaster/preacher Harold Camping predicted that the world would end on this day. As far as we can tell, it didn’t.
Ever since then, today has been known as Rapture Day, (so you may want to party like it's 1999.)
And so it goes.
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