it's National Drink Wine Day

This is opposed to National Wine Day, which is May 25th. Yeah, yeah, before you make the joke, I know, it's National Drink Wine Day every day in my home. I can make wine disappear. What’s your superpower?

While, I can't find the basis for the holiday, I have my suspicions: George, the English Duke of Clarence, was convicted of treason against his brother King Edward IV and murdered in the Tower of London on February 18, 1478.



The legend arose that he had been drowned in a barrel of Malmsey wine.


February 18, 1938 -
Bob Hope's film The Big Broadcast of 1938 debuted in New York on this date.



The movie introduced Hope's signature song, Thanks For The Memory.


February 18, 1938 -
Because I just went GAY all of a sudden! ...

The greatest screwball comedy, directed by Howard Hawks, Bringing Up Baby, starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant was released on this date.



The scene in which Susan's dress is ripped was inspired by something that happened to Cary Grant. He was at the Roxy Theater one night and his pants zipper was down when it caught on the back of a woman's dress. Grant impulsively followed her. When he told this story to Howard Hawks, Hawks loved it and put it into the film.


February 18, 1939 -
Universal Studios released the WC Fields' comedy You Can't Cheat an Honest Man, also starring Edgar Bergen, on this date.



Legend has it that on the set of this film a stagehand was cleaning out W.C. Fields' dressing room and accidentally bumped into a table on which Fields had placed a bottle of whiskey. He caught the bottle before it hit the floor, but the cork had popped out and he couldn't find it. He placed the bottle back on the table and left. Later Fields came back to the dressing room, and a few minutes afterwards stormed out, roaring "Who took the cork out of my lunch?" Whether this story is apocryphal or not, Fields actually uses that line at one point in the film.


February 18, 1962 -
On weekend leave from marine training, The Everly Brothers appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, in full uniform and with regulation cropped hair, singing their new single, Crying In The Rain, on this date.



The song was recorded shortly before Don and Phil Everly were inducted into the Marine Corps Reserves on November 25, 1961. On March 3, the song reached its peak of #6 on the US charts. Don and Phil got out of the Corps on May 24, after six months of service. It was the only Everly Brothers song released during their time in the military.


February 18, 1967 -
The Buckinghams' song Kind of a Drag hits #1 on the Billboard Charts on this date.



Kind of a Drag was written by Jim Holvay, who was a friend of the band's from Chicago. It is The Buckingham's only #1 hit, although they peeked into the Top 10 twice more and charted a couple more times after that. Holvay went on to write Don't You Care, Susan and Hey Baby They're Playing Our Song for The Buckinghams.


February 18, 1983 -
Martin Scorsese's black comedy, The King of Comedy, starring Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis and Sandra Bernhard premiered in the US on this date.



Martin Scorsese said later that making this film was an "unsettling" experience, in part because of the embarrassing, bitter material of the script. Scorsese said that he and Robert De Niro may have not worked together again for seven years because making The King of Comedy was so emotionally gruelling.


February 18, 1998 -
In the tradition of Godzilla Vs. Rodan battling it out over Tokyo, The Cure's Robert Smith beats Barbra Streisand on an episode of South Park on this date.



The episode was seen by 5.4 million viewers, a record high viewership for a South Park episode at the time. There was no real reason to note this but I thought you might want to see the clip.


Another unimportant moment in history


Today in History:
February 18, 1268 -
On this date, the Livonian Brothers of the Sword are defeated by Dovmont of Pskov in the Battle of Rakovor.

If you hurry, I believe you can still send flowers or candy to friends and family to commemorate the event.


February 18, 1405 -
Timur Lenk, (also known as Timur the Lame, Tamerlane, Tamerlaine or Mr. Tambourine man,) caught a cold and died on an expedition to China on this date.



While he was the inspiration for many a poet and playwright and known as The Scourge of God, Timur didn't listen to his mother and button his jacket while outside.

Let this be a lesson to us all.


February 18, 1564 -
Michelangelo (Buonarotti), Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet and engineer died on this date.



He may have gotten the last laugh as he thought about the number of penises he got to paint on the ceiling of any church.


February 18, 1856 -
The American Party (Know-Nothings) convenes in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on this date to nominate its first Presidential candidate, former President Millard Fillmore.

And yes, he does look exactly like Alec Baldwin; thanks for noticing.


Elm Farm Ollie (known as "Nellie Jay" and post-flight as "Sky Queen") was the first cow to fly in an airplane, doing so on February 18, 1930, as part of the International Air Exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri.

On the same trip, which covered 72 miles from Bismarck, Missouri, to St. Louis, she also became the first cow milked in flight. (Does that mean that she was the first cow to join the mile high club?) This was done ostensibly to allow scientists to observe midair effects on animals, as well as for publicity purposes. And somehow Charles Lindbergh was involved.



A St. Louis newspaper trumpeted her mission as being "to blaze a trail for the transportation of livestock by air."



Your life is better for knowing this.


February 18, 1930 -
Clyde Tombaugh liked to look at French Postcards. He like to look into his neighbors' windows. When he got tired of that, he started studying photos of the night sky where astronomers predicted a "Planet X" would show up.



Tombaugh ended up discovering the dwarf planet Pluto on this date. He also discovered more than 800 asteroids during his search for "Planet X."

Our Alien Overlords were very wily avoiding Clyde.


February 18, 1933 -
Yoko Ono was born on this date.

What else is there to say?


February 18, 1967 -
J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, died on this date.



His children never even send him flowers.


February 18, 1979 -
Snow fell in Sahara Desert, in Southern Algeria during a storm which lasts about half an hour on this date.

It didn't snow again until January 18, 2012. Perhaps, with all of the rain today, some of you may wish to move to the desert now.


February 18, 1977 -
The first experimental orbiter of the Space Shuttle System, Enterprise, was a high-altitude glider, launched from the back of a specially modified Boeing 747, on this date.



The first orbiter was originally planned to be named Constitution, but a massive write-in campaign from fans of Star Trek convinced the White House to change its name to Enterprise.


February 18, 2001 -
Race car driver Dale Earnhardt crashed into the wall at the Daytona 500, killing him instantly. His widow files a lawsuit to force the autopsy photos to be sealed, and a Florida law is subsequently passed to prevent them from ever being released.



Earnhardt was the most well known and most successful driver in the history of the sport.


And so it goes.


Also, on a personal note - Happy Birthday Matt.

I used to make fun of how old you are, but I've realized I'm just a few months behind you, so the joke seems to be on me.



And so it goes.