Today is Play Your Ukulele Day!
Today is National Teacher Appreciation Day. National Teacher Appreciation Day is observed on the Tuesday of the first full week in May. Today day is part of Teacher Appreciation Week, which is the first full week in May of each year.
In 1944, an Arkansas teacher named Mattie Whyte Woodridge began a campaign to establish a national day that would honor teachers.
May 2, 1932 -
Walt Disney released another animated-cartoon, Mickey's Revue, on this date.
Goofy (then known as Dippy Dawg) makes his debut in this cartoon.
May 2, 1936 -
Sergei Prokofiev was commissioned by The Central Children's Theatre of Moscow to create a symphonic tale for children. Peter and the Wolf had its world premiere in Moscow on this date.
Prokofiev felt, in his own words, the work had an inauspicious opening at best: "...[attendance] was poor and failed to attract much attention."
If you listen very carefully you'd hear the duck quacking inside the wolf's belly, because the wolf in his hurry had swallowed her alive.
May 2, 1946 -
James M. Cain's excellent crime thriller, The Postman Always Rings Twice, opened on this date.
The on-set sexual tension between John Garfield and Lana Turner was clear to all involved with the film. Their first day together, he called out to her, "Hey, Lana, how's about a little quickie?" to which she replied "You bastard!"
I guess the postman does really ring twice.
May 2, 1957 -
The first color film from the Hammer studio, The Curse of Frankenstein, opened on this date.
For many years this held the distinction of being the most profitable film to be produced in England by a British studio
May 2, 1965 -
The Rolling Stones made their second appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show on this date.
The Stones performed three songs: The Last Time, Little Red Rooster, and Everybody Need Somebody To Love.
May 2, 1979 -
The film Quadrophenia, based on The Who's album and featuring Sting, premiered in London on this date
John Lydon (the former Johnny Rotten) was originally approached for the role of Jimmy and even screen-tested for the role. However the distributors refused to insure him for the part and he was replaced.
May 2, 1997 -
New Line Cinema released Jay Roach's mega-hit Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery starring Mike Myers, Elizabeth Hurley, and Michael York, on this date.
Mike Myers originally wanted Jim Carrey to play Dr. Evil, but Carrey eventually passed, due to scheduling conflicts with the film, Liar Liar. Myers then took the iconic role himself.
May 2, 2008 -
Jon Favreau's first dip into the marvel universe, Iron Man, starring Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, Shaun Toub, Gwyneth Paltrow and a cameo by Stan Lee premiered in the US on this date.
Jon Favreau wanted Robert Downey Jr. because he felt the actor's past was right for the part. He commented: "The best and worst moments of Robert's life have been in the public eye. He had to find an inner balance to overcome obstacles that went far beyond his career. That's Tony Stark. Robert brings a depth that goes beyond a comic book character having trouble in high school, or can't get the girl." Favreau also felt Downey could make Stark "a likable asshole," but also depict an authentic emotional journey once he won over the audience.
Today's moment of Zen
(I'm behind schedule on some personal things, so today will be an abbreviated posting)
Today in History:
On May 2, 1729, Catherine the Great was born. More than any Russian head of state before her, she embraced a closer union with Europe.
And please people, let's stop it with all this talk about the horses - she died of a stroke while sitting on the toilet.
Let's give the woman some dignity.
May 2 1863 -
At the Battle of Chancellorsville, Confederate general Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson was accidentally shot three times by his own men. Jackson's left arm is amputated and Jackson died of complications of pneumonia on May 10, 1863. In his delirium, his dying words were, "Let us cross over the river and rest in the shade of the trees." His body was moved to the Governor's Mansion in Richmond for the public to mourn, and he was then moved to be buried in the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery, Lexington, Virginia. However, the arm that was amputated on May 2 was buried separately by Jackson's chaplain, at the J. Horace Lacy house, "Ellwood", in the Wilderness of Spotsylvania County, near the field hospital.
Upon hearing of Jackson's death, Robert E. Lee mourned the loss of both a friend and a trusted commander. The night Lee learned of Jackson's death, he told his cook, "William, I have lost my right arm" (deliberately in contrast to Jackson's left arm) and "I'm bleeding at the heart."
Baron Manfred von Richtofen was born on May 2, but in 1892. The World War I flying ace, better known to students of military history as the Red Baron, shot down over 80 enemy aircraft in World War I, sending dozens of handsome young men to fiery, terrible deaths and thereby earning himself a place in the Peanuts comic strip.
(Which hardly excuses Snoopy's reprehensible bloodlust. But then again, I've said this before, Snoopy was a sociopath with a multiple personality disorder.)
May 2, 1915 -
Clara Immerwahr, in 1900, was the first woman to ever receive a doctorate in Chemistry in Germany.
Her opposition of the war in Germany led her to clash with her chemist husband and German war supporter Fritz Haber. Clara took her life following an argument with her husband about his work on poison gases for the German war effort.
May 2, 1921 -
There's always some room for improvisation..
The eminent Indian film director, Satyajit Ray, was born on this date.
May 2 1946 -
Six prisoners attempt to escape the federal prison on Alcatraz island. They take over their cellblock but fail to gain access to the outside. One guard held hostage is executed by prisoners, and another dies in the attempt to retake the cellblock.
The Battle of Alcatraz ended only after the deaths of three prisoners, and two others are subsequently executed at San Quentin.
I bet there was a lot of angry after-riot prison sex that night.
May 2, 1957 -
Senator Joseph McCarthy died of hepatitis on this date, brought about by unabated alcoholism. Two and a half years prior he had been censured by the Senate for his "inexcusable" and "reprehensible" conduct during his highly-publicized Communist witch-hunt.
McCarthy eventually discovered that it was far more effective to have private industry oppress its workforce, rather than the government oppress its citizenry.
May 2 1957 -
Vincent 'the Chin' Gigante approached Mob Figure Frank Costello and shot him in the head, first shouting “This is for you, Frank,” on this date. Instead of killing him, the bullet circumnavigates between his skin and cranium, exiting through the original wound.
Costello retires from the Mafia soon thereafter.
The Mafia was practicing using 'magic' bullets.
May 2, 1972 -
World famous old paranoid drag queen and longtime G-man died in his sleep at the age of 77 on this date.
Most of Washington insiders breathe a huge sigh of relief. (During the Watergate hearings, it was subsequently revealed that the FBI had illegally protected President Richard Nixon from investigation.)
It's my friend Sharon's birthday today. And there is no truth to the rumor that she personally loaned Divine Mr. Hoover's cha-cha heels that she had purchased at a Baltimore Flea Market.
And so it goes.
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