It's also National Margarita Day. Margarita, in spanish it means Daisy
Remember, we've just come off a three-day weekend - celebrate responsibly.
February 22, 1934 -
Frank Capra's romantic comedy It Happened One Night, starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, premiered at Radio City Music Hall on this date.
Columbia Pictures was considered a "poverty row" studio at the time of the film's release. Both MGM and Warner Bros. would lend out temperamental actors to Columbia as a punishment for real, or imagined, wrongdoings. Columbia boss Harry Cohn, who loathed paying for his own roster of contract stars during the early '30s, would invariably assign them to work on Frank Capra's films. Although the studio had received Oscar nominations prior to this picture, its success virtually singlehandedly lifted Columbia out of the ranks of "Poverty Row".
February 22, 1935 -
The Fox Film Corporation film, The Little Colonel, starring Shirley Temple, Lionel Barrymore and Bill Robinson, premiered in the US on this date. The film featured the famous stair dance sequence, making Shirley Temple and Bill Robinson Hollywood's first interracial dance couple. This scene was cut when the film played in the southern United States.
Shirley Temple memorized every line of dialogue in this movie, and while filming a scene with Lionel Barrymore, the veteran actor forgot a line. When Temple prompted him, Barrymore flew into a such a rage that one crew member took Temple away for fear that Barrymore might harm her. He later apologized to her, and they remained friends for many years.
February 22, 1956 -
Elvis Presley's song Heartbreak Hotel debuted on the Billboard pop chart at No. 68, on this date.
The lyrics were written by a steel guitar player from Nashville named Tommy Durden, who was once a dishwasher repairman. Durden, who died in 1999, said he was inspired by a newspaper story about a man who killed himself and left behind a note saying only, "I walk a lonely street."
February 22, 1956 -
The film widely considered the worst film produced by a major studio in the 50s, The Conqueror, directed by Dick Powell and starring John Wayne as Genghis Khan, Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorehead, and Pedro Armendáriz, premiered in the US on this date.
The film was shot downwind from a nuclear test site and is considered the cause of cancer and death of many of the cast and crew.
February 22, 1977 -
The single New Kid in Town, the first release from the album Hotel California, was the Eagles' first to be certified gold for selling more than 1 million copies on this date.
Glen Frey mentioned in an interview at the time that the song was about Steely Dan whom the band saw as a new and upcoming group that was possibly taking over the spotlight from the Eagles (there has been some dispute as to whether or not Glen Frey was joking.) Given that the two bands shared a manager (Irving Azoff) and that the Eagles proclaimed their admiration for Steely Dan, this was more friendly rivalry than feud.
February 22, 2001 -
Mira Nair's wonderful Monsoon Wedding, opened in both Los Angeles and New York on this date.
A large portion of the original footage (including the wedding itself) was ruined by an airport x-ray machine. The scenes had to be re-shot, when additional funds had been raised to do so, some months later.
Today's moment of Zen
Today in History:
Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. - George Washington
Unfortunately for him, England had been tenaciously clinging onto the Julian calendar - they wanted none of that Papist Gregorian calendar crap. But England finally wanted to get with the times, so in 1752, Parliament adopted the Gregorian calendar. Many prominent colonists supported the new system; including Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. Washington updated his own birthday from the old February 11th to the Gregorian February 22.
But wait, there's more - the calendar switch of 1752 included another significant change. Under the Julian system, the year began on March 25. That means a colonist who went to bed on March 24, 1700, would wake up on March 25, 1701. The new Gregorian rules set the start of the year to January 1st. This created some confusion, since anyone who was born between January 1st and March 25th in the old system would have the wrong birth year in the new one - thus George's new birthday was February 22, 1732.
So you have to wish the Father of Our Country birthday greetings for the third time this month.
Much heavy drinking (or smoking) ensued.
On February 22, 1862, Jefferson Davis was officially inaugurated for a six-year term as the President of the Confederate States of America in Richmond, Virginia.
I guess his mother was proud of him.
February 22, 1902 -
Sen. Elizabeth Warren pours herself a cold one somewhere, opining the events that occurred on this date
“The chamber exploded in pandemonium as members struggled to separate both members of the South Carolina delegation,” it continues. The Senate later adopted Rule 19, after voting to censure both South Carolinians over the incident. The obscure rule has so infrequently been invoked that several media sources could only find two previous votes on this question in the history of the Senate -- on January 29, 1915, and April 21, 1952, until the good senator was herself censured on February 8, 2017, for impugned Jeff Session's character.
February 22, 1925 -
There are so many things we've been brought up to believe that it takes you an awfully long time to realize that they aren't you.
The gothic illustrator and professed 'child hater' Edward St. John Gorey was spawned on this date.
February 22, 1974 -
A failed assassination attempt on President Nixon took place on this date. Samuel Joseph Byck, an unemployed tire salesman, attempted to hijack a plane and crash it into the White House to kill President Nixon.
When police stormed the plane, he committed suicide. No one else was injured, and Nixon was unaffected, although he did resign several months later.
February 22, 1980 -
During the XIII Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York, the United States hockey team defeats the Soviet Union hockey team 4-3 on this date.
It is considered to be one of the greatest upsets in sports history (the Miracle on Ice.)
February 22, 1987 -
Andy Warhol died of complications after gallbladder surgery, though the details are hazy. The official cause was listed as cardiac arrhythmia, but speculation includes his fear of hospitals as well as possible Cefoxitin allergy. Mr. Warhol is best known for painting pictures of Campbell's Soup cans and Marilyn Monroe, although never together.
Warhol's death brings him a bonus 15 minutes of fame.
His work can be seen in museums and galleries around the world to this very day.
Campbell's Soup cans can still be found in the canned goods section of your favorite supermarket to this very day.
February 22, 1994 -
CIA agent Aldrich Ames and his wife were charged by the United States Department of Justice with spying for the Soviet Union on this date.
Somehow by 1989 Ames had acquired the unexplained wealth from his spying and did very little to conceal the spying, he somehow managed to evade being caught for five more years.
February 22, 1997 -
The first cloning of an advanced mammal, a sheep known as Dolly, was announced in the news media, on this date. Dolly, actually born on July 5, 1996, was cloned from a mammary cell -
Dolly was purportedly named after Dolly Parton.
I guess that's a compliment.
February 22, 2002 -
Charles Martin Chuck Jones, director of many of the classic short animated cartoons starring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, died on this date.
At 85, Chuck signed a long-term contract with Warner Bros. to supervise the animation department. His thoughts on the contract were: "At 85 you can only think ahead for the next 50 years or so."
And so it goes.
the worst film produced by a major studio, indeed
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