The story of Saint Nicholas and the three daughters is one of his most famous acts of kindness. According to the legend, Saint Nicholas secretly provided dowries for the three daughters of a poor man, ensuring they could marry and avoid the fate of being sold into slavery or forced into prostitution. The three purses of gold he secretly threw through the window are said to have landed in stockings or shoes that were left to dry by the fire, giving rise to the tradition of hanging stockings for Saint Nicholas to fill.
Saint Nicholas' connection to pawnbrokers and merchants comes from this act of charity, as he helped people in need and, through his generosity. The three golden baubles hanging in pawn shops are a symbol of his generosity He is also the patron saint of children, sailors, fishermen, merchants, the falsely accused, prostitutes (Huh), repentant thieves, pharmacists and broadcasters.
December 6, 1940 -
MGM released the 10th Marx Brothers film, Go West, on this date.
In one scene Groucho asked an Indian, "Who swindled the Indians out of Manhattan for $24?" In 1957, Groucho would appear in The Story of Mankind playing Peter Minuit swindling the Indians out of Manhattan for $24.
December 6, 1964 -
One of the first neurotic holiday Christmas specials, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, premiered on this date
Hermey is the only elf without pointed ears. He's also the only male elf with hair on top of his head as well as eyes that dilate.
December 6, 1969 –
The group Steam hit No. 1 on the Billboard Charts with their song Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye on this date.
The song's lead singer Gary DeCarlo was asked not to reveal that it was him on the record, since there was a different singer performing it at live appearances. He says that his manager Paul Leka and record man Bob Reno placated him by promising to get him a hit as a solo artist, but that never happened.
December 6, 1969 -
Led Zeppelin made their debut on the US singles chart with Whole Lotta Love on this date, which eventually reached No.4 and was the first of six Top 40 singles for the group in the US.
During the bands career, Zeppelin never released any singles in the UK.
December 6, 1977 -
Jackson Browne releases Running On Empty on this date, a live album compiled from performances at various stops on his summer tour.
Live albums typically rely on songs that have already been released, but this one features all new songs, the first major rock album to do so.
December 6, 1986 –
Ringo Starr becomes the first Beatle to use his name in an advertisement, for Sun Country wine cooler.
He was reportedly paid “in the seven figures.”
December 6, 1990 -
Twentieth Century Fox production of Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands, starring Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest and Vincent Price (in his last role,) premiered in Los Angeles on this date.
Vincent Price's role was intended to be larger, but the veteran actor was very ill with emphysema and Parkinson's disease, so his scenes were cut to a minimum.
December 6, 1991 –
Nicholas Meyer's contribution to the Star Trek franchise, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, starring, well you know who was in it, premiered in the US on this date.
The film, Frankie and Johnny was being filmed in the same studio, and required Al Pacino to have a surprised expression on his face after opening a door. Garry Marshall arranged for Kirk (William Shatner) and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) be on the other side of the door that Pacino opened.
December 6, 1994 -
Bush released their debut album Sixteen Stone on this date, which takes off in America but is largely ignored in their native England.
Around the time of the release of the album, Britpop acts like Oasis and Blur were huge in their homeland but struggling to break through in America. It was the opposite for Bush, who got hardly a listen in their native England (Sixteen Stone peaked at #42 on the UK Albums chart), but was embraced in the US. Much of this has to do with a cut from the album, Everything Zen. Despite Gavin Rossdale's accent, the song is very American, with a heavy grunge sound and lyrics about being young and disaffected.
December 6, 2005 –
The more frank remake of Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, Brokeback Mountain, directed by Ang Lee and starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, premiered in NYC on this date.
Heath Ledger, uncertain about the role when he was first offered it, was encouraged by his then girlfriend, Naomi Watts, to take it, immediately after they both read the script. After reading the script, Ledger said he would have flown to Taiwan to meet with Ang Lee in order to be hired for the role.
It must be Santa
Today in History:
December 6, 1768 -
The first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (Latin for “British Encyclopaedia”) is published under the title “Encyclopedia Britannica, or, A dictionary of arts and sciences, compiled upon a new plan.”
The series will eventually become the oldest continuously published English-language encyclopedia. The first edition is published in one hundred installments, which will later be bound into three volumes.
December 6, 1877 -
Thomas Edison records his own recitation of Mary had a Little Lamb onto a cylinder wrapped with tin foil using his newly completed prototype hand-cranked phonograph at his Menlo Park Laboratory.
For all intents and purposes, it is the first recording of a human voice. (The audio is from a re-recording in 1927. The original 1877 recording was not saved and no longer exists.)
December 6, 1896 -
Ira Gershwin, lyricist (and major writer of the American Song Book) was born on this date.
But Not For Me -
The Man That Got Away -
I Got Rhythm -
(Our) Love Is Here To Stay -
If you're of an age, it part of the music you hear in your head as you walk down the street.
December 6, 1917 -
On the morning of December 6, the munitions ship Mont Blanc exploded in Halifax harbor after being struck by another ship, the Norwegian ship Imo.
It is the largest explosion before the atomic age. The ship was carrying 200 tons of TNT, 61 tons of gun cotton, 35 tons of Benzyl, and 2,300 tons of picric acid; the explosion destroys 325 acres of the city, leaving 1,900 people dead and injuring over 9,000.
A nicer remembrance of the days tragic events is the official Boston Christmas tree lighting, which sits in Boston Common, which occurred Thursday night. The tree is a gift from the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and has been sent every year since the 1970s. It is in recognition of the swift and sustained relief effort the people of Boston put together to aid Halifax after the explosion. (Nova Scotia doesn't complain anymore about the cost of their very generous gift - after all told the tree ends up costing the Nova Scotian government more than a quarter million dollars. The amount of positive international press Nova Scotia garners for its very magnanimous gift is priceless.)
December 6, 1955 -
N.Y. psychologist Dr. Joyce Brothers won the top prize on the TV quiz show The $64,000 Question by correctly answering questions on boxing.
Dr. Joyce Brothers is the only person to win both The $64,000 Question and The $64,000 Challenge.
December 6, 1957 –
It wasn't a good day for the space program. A Vanguard rocket (TV3) carrying the first US satellite blew up on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on this date.
It rose about four feet and collapsed. Its fuel tanks rupture as it fell against its firing structure, and the rocket topples to the ground on the northeast, ocean side of the structure in a roaring, rolling ball of flame.
Oops.
December 6, 1960 -
Domino's Pizza was founded by Thomas S. Monaghan on this date.
And the pizza still sucks.
December 6, 1969 -
A concert by the Rolling Stones at Altamont ends in the death of a fan at the hands of the Hells Angels, who were hired for security. He was a fat hippie anyway. (Pleased to meet you, hope you guessed my name...)
(Contrary to a popular urban legend, Sympathy for the Devil was not playing while Meredith Hunter was being stabbed, rather, the song was Under My Thumb.)
December 6, 1973 -
House minority leader Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as the first unelected Vice President, succeeding US Vice President Spiro T. Agnew (under President Richard M. Nixon.)
Agnew, the only VP to resign in disgrace, resigned on October 10, and pleaded no contest to one charge of income tax invasion in return for the dropping of all other charges, and was fined $10,000 and given three year's probation.
December 6, 1989 -
Andy, Opie, make Aunt Bee another Rum Toddy.
Frances Bavier - "Aunt Bee" on The Andy Griffith Show died of heart failure on this date.
Suffering from advance stages of senility, Ms. Bavier became convinced that she was "Aunt Bee" (a role her grew to despise,) towards the end of her life.
December 6, 2002 –
Winona Ryder whose six-day shoplifting trial drew national attention and stirred tabloid frenzy, was found guilty on November 7, 2002, of grand theft and vandalism in a Los Angeles courtroom.
She was sentenced on this date to 36 months of probation and 480 hours of community service after stealing more than $5,500 worth of merchandise from a Saks Fifth Avenue store in Beverly Hills, California. She also paid restitution and a fine.
Before you go - Here's a Christmas story from John Malkovich on this feast of St. Nicholas -
So Happy Holidays and remember to leave out that stick of butter.
And so it goes
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