Columbus Day originated as a celebration of Italian-American heritage and was first held in San Francisco in 1869. The first state-wide celebration was held in Colorado in 1907. Franklin Delano Roosevelt pronounced Columbus Day in 1937, a celebration of the “promise which Columbus’s discovery gave to the world.” Since 1971, it has been celebrated on the second Monday in October. The date on which Columbus arrived in the Americas is also celebrated as the Dia de la Raza (Day of the Race) in Latin America and some Latino communities in the USA. However, it is a controversial holiday in some countries and has been re-named in others. A growing number of people in the US are pushing to change the date into a celebration of Indigenous Peoples' Day.
And for all of this has nothing to do with the fact that it's Canadian Thanksgiving.
Bald as the bare mountain tops are bald, with a baldness full of grandeur. -
Today is Be Bald and Free day!
October 14, 1888 -
French inventor Louis Le Prince shot a brief film which lasted for about two seconds, in Leeds, England, he called Roundhay Garden Scene, on this date.
The footage is thought to be the oldest surviving film footage in world history.
October 14, 1953 -
Possibly the ultimate film noir, Fritz Lang's The Big Heat opens in NYC on this date.
Columbia wanted to borrow Marilyn Monroe from 20th Century-Fox to play the role of Debby Marsh, but Fox's asking price was too high. Gloria Grahame was cast instead.
October 14, 1954 -
Michael Curtiz’s holiday musical White Christmas starring Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Vera Ellen, and Danny Kaye premiered in New York City on this date.
Rosemary Clooney once quipped that this could have been a near-perfect movie if only they could have "dubbed" her dancing.
October 14, 1972 -
Last Tango in Paris, starring Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider and that infamous stick of butter premiered in New York City, on this date.
According to his autobiography Brando: Songs My Mother Taught Me, the reason why Marlon Brando refused to do a full frontal nude scene was because his "penis shrank to the size of a peanut on set."
October 14, 1972 -
The TV-series Kung Fu, starring David Carridine, debuted on ABC-TV on this date.
The only reason this show went off the air was because David Carradine quit the series. He had sustained so many injuries, he felt he could not go on. The show got high ratings for all three seasons that it aired.
October 14, 1978 -
The gang finally got off the damn island (sort of) when the first TV movie from a TV series, Rescue from Gilligan's Island, premiered on CBS-TV with all of the original cast except Tina Louise (who wanted too much money,) on this date.
The scene in which the rescued castaways are towed into harbor to a hero's welcome was filmed in Los Angeles' Marina Del Rey. According to Sherwood Schwartz, the extras hired to play the crowd were soon joined by countless onlookers, all of them ecstatic to see the familiar characters finally rescued. The crowd's enthusiasm was so overwhelming that the cast members were moved to tears.
October 14, 1979 -
NBC premiered a new TV adaptation of Helen Keller's life story The Miracle Worker, starring Melissa Gilbert, Patty Duke, Charles Siebert, Stanley Wells, and Diana Muldaur, on this date.
Melissa Gilbert originally wanted to offer the part of Annie Sullivan to Meredith Baxter, but the adults working on the project suggested offering the part to Patty Duke, who had played Helen Keller in the film version of The Miracle Worker. Patty Duke won an Oscar as young Helen Keller in the 1962 version, played Anne Sullivan in this TV version and won an Emmy for it.
October 14, 1983 -
Cyndi Lauper, formerly a member of the group Blue Angel, issues her first solo album, She's So Unusual. With the MTV hits Girls Just Want To Have Fun and Time After Time, the album becomes an '80s touchstone.
On the strength of her breakout solo album She's So Unusual, Lauper won the Grammy for Best New Artist in 1984. She won four more Grammy Awards in 1986, including one for her work on the collaboration fundraiser song We Are The World. In total, her recordings have garnered six wins and 13 nominations at the Grammy Awards.
October 14, 1994 -
Quentin Tarantino's brilliant crime drama, Pulp Fiction, starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Ving Rhames, and Uma Thurman, opened in the US on this date.
The word "fuck" is used two hundred sixty-five times.
Word of the Day
Today in History:
October 14, 430 BC -
The ancient philosopher Empedocles believed he was not human, but a Greek god. To prove this fact to skeptics, he vowed to jump into a volcano and return unscathed.
He made good on his first promise but never followed though on the second. He was an early Darwin award winner
October 14, 1066 -
As bad as King Harold's day yesterday; today was worse, much worse. The King and his army were locked in a massive battle and faced Duke William, William the Conqueror, and his mounted knights near the town of Hastings.
Duke William planned a three point attack plan that included a) heavy archery b) attack by foot soldiers c) attack by mounted knights at any weak point of defense. The Normans routed the Saxons and won out after Harold was killed by a stray arrow. This placed William on the throne of England. There is nothing worse than losing the throne of England to a stray arrow which appears to have happened far more frequently than thought.
October 14, 1651 -
Massachusetts passed laws prohibiting the poor from dressing excessively, on this date.
It was felt that persons of limited means should save their money and learn to get by with simple vinaigrettes.
October 14, 1893 -
The older I get, the more I believe in what I can't explain or understand, even more than the things that are explainable and understandable.
Lillian Diana Gish, was born on this date. Although she was the archetypal silent film heroine, she was a star of movies, television, radio, and the stage for nearly all of the 20th century. She closed her career in the 1987 film The Whales of August.
October 14, 1912 -
Former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, campaigning for a return to office, was shot in Milwaukee by a saloon keeper named John Schrank on this date.
Schrank was captured and uttered the now famous words "any man looking for a third term ought to be shot."
Teddy Roosevelt, one of America's First Superheroes.
October 14, 1944 -
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (James Mason) of Germany was visited by two of Hitler's personal staff on this date in history.
They informed him that he was suspected of involvement in the July 20th plot to assassinate the Fuhrer and that he would therefore be required either to: (a) stand trial and die, or (b) just die. They brought some poison along to facilitate his decision.
Hitler always liked him.
October 14, 1947 -
American pilot Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in a rocket-powered airplane, on this date. Yeager insisted it was already broken and consequently refused to repair it despite repeated admonitions by his mother.
It remains broken to this day. (The sound barrier should not be confused with the Long Island Sound barrier, sometimes referred to as the Throg's Neck Bridge.)
October 14, 1959 -
Omni-sexual actor and Nazi sympathizer Errol Flynn, dubbed "the most despicable human being yet born" (and that was by a friend), died of a heart attack in Vancouver on this date. Flynn reported didn't have a sexual preference, he merely slept with anything with an orifice (and possibly a pulse) including (but not limited to) Truman Capote, Howard Hughes, as well as countless Hollywood starlets.
Presumably, not at the same time.
October 14, 1962 -
The US collected photographic evidence that the Soviet Union had positioned missiles about 90 miles off the US coast, in Cuba. The missiles were capable of transporting nuclear warheads.
The tense situation that arose in the next two weeks would bring the US and Soviet Union the closest the two countries had ever been to nuclear war.
October 14, 1968 -
Captain Walter Schirra, Jr., Major Donn Eisele and Major Walt Cunningham, gave the American public a tour of the spacecraft and showed the view through their craft’s windows on this date.
The crew on NASA's Apollo 7 mission, the first successful manned mission to the Moon, broadcast the first live transmission from their spacecraft.
October 14, 1968 -
Sprinter Jim Hines became the first human to run a 100-meter race in under 10 seconds (9.95). What was once thought to be impossible suddenly became possible - and soon it became routine - because the psychological barrier of unattainability was dissolved.
Jim held the 100-meter world record for 15 years after breaking the 10-second milestone at the US national championships, and later won two gold medals in the ’68 Olympics. In later years Hines worked with inner-city youth in Houston.
October 14, 1977 -
Linda Ronstadt sang The National Anthem prior to World Series Game Three at Dodger Stadium, on this date.
She was heavily criticized at the time, for casual attire - (the ever solid Dodger fan, Linda only requested a Dodger jacket as her fee for singing the anthem.) Many consider her rendition of the anthem one of the best ever at a sporting event.
And so it goes
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