The top canine hero of World War II was Chips, a German Shepherd who served with the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division. Trained as a sentry dog, Chips broke away from his handlers and attacked an enemy machine gun nest in Italy, forcing the entire crew to surrender.
March 13, 1949 -
Donald Fauntleroy Duck's birthday is officially recognized as June 9, 1934, the day his debut film was released, but in The Three Caballeros, his birthday is given as simply Friday the 13th. In Donald's Happy Birthday, the cartoon gives his birthday as March 13. (The best guess is this would be Donald's 110th birthday.)
Things that make you go hmmmm - Donald doesn’t wear pants but when he comes out of the shower, covers himself with a towel.
March 13, 1954 -
It's Rocky's third appearance in a Bugs Bunny cartoon (and the funniest) - Bugs and Thugs, premiered on this date.
Near the end of the film, Bugs' office has a sign that says - "Member- Detective Guild, Local 839". Local 839 of the IATSE was the Animation Guild, whose members made the cartoon.
March 13, 1956 -
One of John Ford's greatest westerns, The Searchers, starring John Wayne (giving his finest performance) premiered on this date.
While on the desert locale, John Ford was stung by a scorpion. Worried about his investment, financial backer C.V. Whitney asked John Wayne, "What if we lose him? What are we going to do?" Wayne offered to check in on the "stricken" director. A few minutes later he came out of Ford's trailer and said to Whitney, "It's OK. John's fine, it's the scorpion that died."
March 13, 1968 -
The Beatles release the single Lady Madonna in the UK on this date.
John Lennon and Paul McCartney took imitation to a high level, often going into character as some of their favorite musicians when they crafted songs. When McCartney started playing the boogie-woogie piano on this track, he thought of Fats Domino, specifically his 1956 song Blue Monday, and crafted the song in Domino's style.
March 13, 1979 -
A spin-off from the Three's Company series, The Ropers, starring Norman Fell and Audra Lindley premiered on ABC TV, on this date.
When the network proposed the spin-off of Three's Company, focusing on the Ropers, Audra Lindley was excited and wanted to go ahead, but Norman Fell wasn't too keen on the idea. Fell felt that you couldn't do a series with 'only' the running gag of Mrs. Roper being undersexed. The network assured him the show would have more substance than that, and furthermore, if the show didn't make it a full season, he and Audra could come back full time to Three's Company as the Ropers. So it was after six months of convincing, Norman Fell finally gave in. The Ropers made it a season and a half before it was canceled, As a result, ABC Network was not obligated to take them back to Three's Company, because their contract had passed the one year mark, so Norman Fell and Audra Lindley were out of work. However, despite their hard feelings they did reprise their roles as guest stars on Three's Company as Mr and Mrs Roper one last time before their characters were retired for good.
March 13, 1982 -
William Shatner, donned his man girdle once again when T.J. Hooker, costarring Adrian Zmed, premiered on ABC-TV, on this date.
The series was originally to be titled The Protectors, which would be the title of the show's pilot. Creator Rick Husky originally developed the show as a newer version of his previous series The Rookies, and intended the show as an ensemble series. Noting William Shatner's prominence in the pilot, it was decided to make Hooker the focus of the show, and title the series after the character.
March 13, 1992 -
Merchant Ivory Productions release of the adaptation of E. M. Forster's novel, Howards End, directed by James Ivory, from a screenplay written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, and starring Emma Thompson, Anthony Hopkins, Helena Bonham Carter, Vanessa Redgrave, Jemma Redgrave and Prunella Scales, opened in the US on this date.
The country house used as the location for Howards End is over twice as large as seen from the front and partial side views used in this movie. It is H-shaped with a large back portion, into which its owners moved during filming, while the front portion was emptied and refinished. (The landscaping was also redone, with flowers and plants truer to the story's period.) The house is owned by friends of production designer Luciana Arrighi, and it occurred to her it would make a good stand-in for Howards End, while she was a houseguest there.
March 13, 1993 -
Eric Clapton’s LP Unplugged hit No.1 on the Billboard charts — and stayed there — becoming the most successful and best-selling live album of all time.
It was nominated for nine Grammy Awards in 1993 and won six, including Record of the Year, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year.
March 13, 1995 -
Parlophone Records released Radiohead's second studio album, The Bends, in the UK on this date.
John Leckie, the producer of The Bends, recalled to Q magazine April 2008 the recording of the album: "I love the album but by the end of the sessions I felt devastated. Without telling me, the band sent copies of the master tapes to the States to be mixed by the Americans who produced Pablo Honey. It was the first time it had happened to me. After 100 days' work I felt like I'd given birth to a dozen babies and had them all taken away. I wasn't even invited to the final playback. The band chose me as producer because I did the first Magazine album Real Life, which they were all big fans of. I suggested we use the Manor studio in Oxfordshire but they said it was 'too rock 'n' roll' and went for Mickie Most's RAK studio in London, where they worked solidly for nine weeks. Thom would be there when the studio opened at 9 o'clock, working on his own at the piano before the others turned up at 12. After that the band went off on a tour of the Far East. When they came back they weren't happy with a lot of what we'd done at RAK so they decided they would use the Manor after all. After that I went to Abbey Road to start mixing. I heard later the band said it was like the schoolteacher had left the room. Maybe it was an age thing, I was 20 years older than them. They felt more comfortable with RAK's assistant engineer, this young guy, Nigel Godrich."
March 12, 1999 -
Cher's single Believe hit No. #1 on the Billboard singles chart on this date and stayed there for four weeks, make Cher the oldest woman to top the Hot 100, (it's very rude to ask how old.)
The song reached No.1 in almost every country it charted, including the UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland, Spain, France, Germany and Italy. The song was “auto-tuned”, made by audio processing software, a relatively new process that became known as the “Cher effect”.
Another job posting from The ACME Employment Agency
Today in History:
March 13, 1639 -
A recently founded school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, New School, renamed itself Harvard College on this date in honor of clergyman John Harvard, who'd bequeathed £780 and his 400 volume library to the educational establishment.
From 1780 onwards it was referred to as Harvard University.
March 13, 1781 -
Scottish astronomer Sir William Herschel discovered Uranus (which he named 'Georgium Sidus,' in honor of George III,) on this date, which he first mistook for a comet
It is the first planet discovered with the aid of a telescope. Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun and is named after the Greek god Uranus, who was a god of sky.
(Twice in one week, I've mentioned Uranus, feel free to guffaw like a small child.)
March 13, 1852 —
The character's name is attributed to Samuel Wilson, a meat packer who supplied food to the troops during the War of 1812.
March 13, 1881 -
An anarchist Nikolai Rysakov, from the radical group People's Will threw a bomb which disrupts Czar Alexander II's motorcade. Startled but unharmed, Alexander thanked God for his deliverance, another anarchist Ignacy Hryniewiecki, yelled "It is too early to thank God" and throws a second bomb, causing severe injuries from which Alexander bled to death several hours later.
(Nicholas II, Alexander's grandson, was one of the unfortunate witnesses to Czar's gruesome death.)
March 13, 1877 –
The first US Patent (#188,292) for earmuffs was issued to teen-aged Chester Greenwood of Farmington, Maine on this date.
March 13, 1911 -
Today is the birthday of L. Ron Hubbard (the "L" is for Lafayette.) Mr. Hubbard invented Dianetics, which eventually led to Scientology, causing Scientologists and Personality Tests.
Today on Oh That Wacky Russian Revolution:
March 13, 1917 -
The imperial guard, acting on the orders of the dissolved Duma, which had not been dissolved, took the Tsarina and her children (who had measles) into custody. A day later, England and France acknowledged the Executive Committee of the Duma as the official government of Russia.
March 13, 1964 -
A young woman, Kitty Genovese was murdered in front of multiple witnesses, all of whom fail to help her, in an incident which shocks the world and prompts investigation into the bystander effect. (This story have been proven a lie; many of her neighbors in fact did attempt to help. Only two people, who actually witnessed the attack did nothing.)
Winston Moseley was found guilty of Genovese’s murder. He was initially sentenced to death, but that was commuted several years later and changed to life in prison, where he died in 2016. At the time of his death, Moseley has spent more time in the New York prison system than any other prisoner.
Pope Francis has been on the job for eleven years now.
The Pope does not appear to be in the greatest health and probably could you a prayer or two.
And so it goes.
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