The U.S. has had eight left-handed presidents; James Garfield, Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
August 13, 1942 -
Walt Disney's Bambi premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New York on this date.
Unusual for the time, Walt Disney insisted on children providing the voices for the animals when they were young, instead of using adults mimicking youngsters.
August 13, 1947 -
The apex of technicolor film-making - Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's Black Narcissus, premiered in New York City on this date.
Director of Photography Jack Cardiff drew inspiration for his shots from the great painters; he experimented with the tones of Van Gogh, for example, or the reds and greens from Rembrandt.
August 13, 1966 -
Napoleon XIV's goofy breakup song They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-haaa peaks at #3 on Billboard's Hot 100 on this date. It quickly drops to the bottom of the Top 40, however, as several radio stations ban the tune, fearing its lyrics might be interpreted as being insensitive to the mentally ill.
When this novelty song became a surprise hit, the record company sent other people to perform it at live appearances while Jerry Samuels, a recording engineer from New York City, kept working at his day job.
(An interesting bit of trivia, at least to me,) Once a song was released, it fell into the realm of compulsory licensing, which means anyone could record it if they pay the statutory royalty rate. Since this has no discernable melody, the producers were able to copyright it as a lecture intended for oral delivery instead of as a song. This meant other record companies couldn't copy it without permission.
August 13, 1967 -
One of the defining movies of the 1960s, Bonnie and Clyde, starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, had its US premiere on this date.
A screening for Jack L. Warner went very badly for Warren Beatty and Arthur Penn, Warner got up three times to pee. Warner initially dumped the film into drive-in and second run theaters, and apparently went to his grave still hating the film.
August 13, 1976 -
AIP released the sci-fi film Futureworld, starring Peter Fonda, Blythe Danner, Arthur Hill and Yul Brynner, on this date.
This film was the first film sold to China for a large-scale release after President Jimmy Carter formalized relations with the country.
August 13, 1997 –
Trey Parker and Matt Stone decide to become millionaires many times over when their program South Park premiered for the first time on Comedy Central on this date.
To date, South Park still holds the Guiness World Record for "Most Swearing in animated series."
August 13, 2012 –
Taylor Swift released the first single, from her fourth studio album, Red, We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, on this date.
The song was written by the singer with the Swedish hitmaking duo of Shellback and Max Martin. Taylor told fans worldwide in a webchat on August 13, 2012 that the scornful yet fun song is about one of her former beaus and is what she refers to, in jest, as "a really romantic song... touching and sensitive… to my lovely ex-boyfriend." When asked whom the tune is about, she replied with a smile, "I'm trying not to be too cryptic with it, but I'm trying not to give it all away." My daughters, ardent Swifties tell me the song's subject is the actor Jake Gyllenhaal, who dated Swift in late 2010 and early 2011.
Today's moment of Zen
Today in History:
August 13, 1521 -
After a 75 day siege, Hernando Cortes captured and destroyed the capital of the Aztec Empire, Tenochtitlan (Aztec for "Mexico City") on this date.
When the Spaniards fail to discover Montezuma's treasure, they tortured Cuauhtemoc (the current Aztec king) by pouring hot oil over his feet. The emperor responds by asking, "Am I on a bed of roses?" (Who knew the Aztecs were such comedians?)
August 13, 1899 -
Luck is everything... My good luck in life was to be a really frightened person. I'm fortunate to be a coward, to have a low threshold of fear, because a hero couldn't make a good suspense film.
Arguably, the most famous film director in the 20th Century, Alfred Hitchcock was born on this date. Hitchcock, known as the master of suspense, is most renowned for his films Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest and Psycho.
August 13, 1907 -
The first (gasoline powered) taxicabs, the New York Taxicab Company fleet, appeared on NYC streets on this date (the actual date seems to be mired in controversy.) The first 65 taxis were imported from France by businessman Harry N. Allen, who adapted the French word taxi-mètre and coined the word "taxicab" to describe the vehicles he was importing.
August 13, 1918 -
Women were first allowed to enlist in the United States Marine Corps on this date.
August 13, 1926 -
Minor league Rat Bastard (depending on your point of view) Fidel Castro was born on his father's 23,000-acre sugar cane plantation near Biran, Cuba on this date.
I wonder if Castro has gotten that chance to play ball in the Major Leagues in the after life?
August 12, 1960 -
NASA launched the balloon satellite Echo 1 from Cape Canaveral Florida, using a Thor-Delta rocket, on this date.
Later that day, when Echo 1 was in range, the first satellite message was sent From Florida to Bell Labs in New Jersey.
August 13, 1961 -
The city of Berlin split itself right down the middle on this date.
Oddly enough, no West Germans tried to sneak in.
The soldiers, being evil socialist bastards with guns and therefore needing desperately to shoot at someone, therefore shot at East Germans.
About a year later, for example, on August 17, 1962, 18-year-old Peter Fechter was shot by East German guards as he tried to cross the Berlin Wall into West Germany. He bled to death in public view.
The guards (Rolf Friedrich and Erich Schreiber) who shot him were tracked down and convicted of manslaughter thirty-four years later.
Moral: you might think you can get away with shooting people just because you're a heavily-armed socialist bastard living in an evil socialist regime propped up by an evil socialist empire - You can run. But you can't hide. (It may seem like you can, but just wait.)
Eventually John F. Kennedy announced that he was a jelly-filled donut,
So they tore it down. (Karma does appear to bite one in the ass.)
August 13, 1969 -
The Apollo 11 astronauts, Neil A. Armstrong, Lt. Col. Michael Collins, and Col. Buzz Aldrin, were released from their three-week quarantine and are given a ticker-tape parade in New York.
It would be a hectic day for the astronauts. After the three and a half hour ticker-tape parade in NYC, the trio went on to Chicago for another parade. Their day ended with a state dinner hosted by President Richard Nixon in Los Angeles, where they were awarded them the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
August 13, 1990 -
While warming up for an outdoor concert at Wingate Field in Flatbush, Brooklyn on this date, Curtis Mayfield was paralyzed when a lighting tower falls from the stage and onto his back.
Despite this, he continued his career as a recording artist, releasing his final album New World Order in 1996.
August 13th, 2008 -
Michael Phelps won his 11th career gold medal on this date. With 11 gold medals, Phelps had officially won more gold medals than any other Olympic athlete in history. Between the 2004 Athens Olympics and the 2016 Rio Olympics, Phelps has 28 medals in total - 23 of them gold medals, more than double the count of his nearest rivals.
Surprisingly, Phelps’ 11th overall gold medal would not be his greatest accomplishment at the 2008 Olympic Games. By the end of the Beijing Games, Phelps had won a total of 8 gold medals, which broke the previous record of seven held by Mark Spitz. When asked about his accomplishment, Phelps shared, “Records are always made to be broken no matter what they are.”
And so it goes.
No comments:
Post a Comment