As always, we here at ACME wish to quote that great theologian, my mother, during this holiday season:
A vaccine that prevented tuberculosis would merit a Nobel Prize, but it's just very difficult to develop. - Tom Frieden
Today is World Tuberculosis Day, commemorating the day in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch announced that he had discovered the cause of Tuberculosis, the TB bacillus.
(also it is supposed to remind people that we must step up efforts to end the global TB epidemic. A total of 10.6 million people fell ill with TB in 2022 )
It's National Cocktail Day (World Cocktail Day is on the 13th of May,)
Geez!
Today is also National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day - a day to enjoy this tasty combination of chocolate and fruit. Chocolate lovers who like raisins, find the combination simply irresistible. Kids find them irresistible, too.
Just make sure nobody owns a rabbit (or a guinea pig, believe me, we know from personal experience) at the home where you are enjoying those Raisinets (TM).
March 24, 1939 -
... Murder, my dear Watson. Refined, cold-blooded murder. ...
While not entirely passive, Watson's original role was mostly as an observer of Holmes and the chronicler of his cases. With this film a new tradition began where Watson enjoyed equal billing with Holmes. In Nigel Bruce's hands the character became a comedic foil and a bit of a bumbler. Later interpretations would vary, but the character remained greater than literature's original enigma.
March 24, 1939 -
William Wyler's adaptation of Emily Brontë's classic tragic romance, Wuthering Heights, starring Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier, premieres in Los Angeles on this date.
Producer Samuel Goldwyn felt that script was too dark for a romance movie, so he asked several people to do a re-write on the script, including a young John Huston, who said that the script needed no re-write, it was perfect as it was.
March 24, 1946 -
The first cartoon to feature Sylvester the Cat, Life with Feathers, directed by Friz Freleng was released on this date.
Carefully rendered background details are shown, as was the norm for cartoons of this era. Lace doilies, wallpaper, baseboards, a radio, even the cookbook, are all drawn as these objects appeared at the time.
March 24, 1951 -
Scent-Imental Romeo, another funny Looney Tunes short starring (the soon to be banned) Pepé Le Pew, was released on this date.
This is the only Golden Age Pepe Le Pew cartoon in which Pepe does not continue chasing the cat (nor catches her) in the end.
March 24, 1973 -
The O'Jays' single Love Train (considered to be one of the first disco songs,) went to No. #1 on the Billboard Charts on this date.
The song was written by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, producers for the O'Jays. The team of Gamble & Huff would go on to write and produce over 170 gold and platinum records - and they also wrote Back Stabbers and For The Love Of Money, two more key songs in the O'Jays' career.
March 24, 1979 -
The Bee Gees's single, Tragedy started a two week run at No. 1 on the US singles chart, the group's eighth US No. 1, on this date. (Really sorry for the ear worm.)
The Gibb brothers wrote both Tragedy and Too Much Heaven (another American #1), in an afternoon off from making the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band movie in which they were starring. Then in the evening they wrote another American #1 single, Shadow Dancing for their brother Andy Gibb.
March 24, 1990 -
Sinead O’Connor album I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got was No.1 on the UK and US album charts, on this date.
The album was released in March of 1990, by April, the single Nothing Compares 2 U from the album went to #1 in America and many other countries, thrusting 23-year-old Sinéad into the spotlight. The attention had some deleterious effects on the singer. O'Connor claimed she hated the fame the song brought her, and she struggled with the commercialization of her music.
March 24, 1993 -
TV executives at ABC finally woke up and realized how ridiculous the Steven Bochco/ David E. Kelley series premise was and aired the final episode of Doogie Howser M.D. on this date.
Steven Bochco wanted to to finish the series and write a "final" season, as opposed to ABC's abrupt cancellation of the show in its fourth season. In it he would have depicted a season-long story arc in which Doogie becomes disillusioned with medicine and in the end, becomes a writer.
March 24, 1999 -
The Blue Pill or the Red Pill ???
The Wachowskis harbored their vision for five and a half years, working through fourteen drafts of the screenplay. Although most studio executives who read the script loved their ideas, they had extreme difficulty imagining how this would translate onto the screen. The Wachowskis then hired leading illustrators Steve Skroce and Geofrey Darrow, who created over 600 storyboards. Executives were reportedly sold immediately after seeing the bold vision on display, and green-lit the film.
March 24, 2005 -
NBC-TV allowed us to follow the goings on at Dunder Mifflin when The Office, starring Steve Carell, Rainn Wilson, John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer, Mindy Kaling, and B.J. Novak premiered on this date.
John Krasinski and B.J. Novak went to high school together. They went to Newton South High School in Newton, Massachusetts, and they both graduated in 1997. They were even on the same little league baseball team.
Another book from the back shelves of The ACME Library
Today in History:
March 24, 1401 -
Tamerlane conquered Damascus on this date. Tamerlane (Timur the Lane) was a descendant of Ghenghis Khan, and one of the greatest Tater leaders ever, expanding the Mongol empire from the Pacific to the Mediterranean.
March 24, 1603 -
Tudor Queen Elizabeth I, the "Virgin Queen," died on this date. She had reigned from 1558-1603 and claimed never to have had a date. Her last words were apparently, "All my possessions for one moment of life."
Scottish King James VI, son of Mary, Queen of Scots and great-grandson of Margaret Tudor, who was Henry VIII's oldest sister, became King James I of England in the union of the crowns.
March 24, 1874 -
Harry Houdini, Erik Weisz (Ehrich Weiss) magician, escape artist, performed his first trick when he escaped from his mother's womb in Budapest on this date.
He is still working on perfecting his final trick of coming back from the dead.
March 24, 1895 -
Arthur Murray, American dancer who founded dance schools, was born on this date.
He proved to millions of Americans that they have no innate sense of rhythm.
March 24, 1944 -
76 Allied officers escaped Stalag Luft 3 on this date. In 1949, Paul Brickall wrote The Great Escape. The story of Jackson Barrett Mahon, an American fighter pilot, and the Allied POW escape from Stalag Luft III in Germany during WW II.
The 1963 film The Great Escape starred Steve McQueen, directed by John Sturges, was based on the true story.
March 24, 1958 - (Please note, you are about to see Elvis, stripped to the waist, in his skivvies. Should you need healing of any sort, please press one of your sweaty hand upon the screen and the other ever dampening palm upon your afflicted region.)
Elvis Aron Presley entered the United States Army at Memphis, Tennessee (serial number 53 310 761), on this date, and then spent three days at the Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, Reception Station.
March 24, 1975 -
Alex Mitchell, a 50-year-old bricklayer from King's Lynn, England, died laughing while watching an episode of The Goodies, featuring a Scotsman in a kilt attempting kung fu with his bagpipes on this date.
After 25 minutes of continuous laughter Mitchell finally slumped on the sofa and expired from heart failure. His widow later sent The Goodies a letter thanking them for making Mitchell's final moments so pleasant. (And the address where they can send her check.)
March 24, 1989 -
Cold Fusion was announced 32 years ago yesterday.
To celebrate this amazing advancement in energy, Captain Joseph Hazelwood downed, in rapid succession, five double vodka on the rocks and piloted the Exxon tanker Valdez.
He ran the Valdez into a well-charted reef at Prince William Sound, spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil. An estimated 250,000 seabirds were killed.
Oops
And so it goes.
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