Unfortunately, more people are dying of malaria than any specific cancer.

Today is Malaria Awareness Day. Malaria Awareness Day was designated on this date by President George W. Bush in 2007, to remind people that Malaria kills 3,000 children a day. He asked the world to join the fight to wipe out malaria on the African continent.



So I encourage all Americans to begin heavily drinking Gin and Tonics to honor the day



(While I'm sure you know, I'm a Bombay Sapphire man, I am not affiliated in anyway with that fine brand - not that I wouldn't consider any offers, I'd suggest using Tanqueray. I believe it goes better with the Tonic.)


Today is also Arbor Day. The holiday is celebrated on the last Friday of April  -



The first Arbor Day took place on April 10, 1872 in Nebraska. It was the brainchild of Julius Sterling Morton (1832-1902), a Nebraska journalist and politician originally from Michigan.  Throughout his long and productive career, Morton worked to improve agricultural techniques in his adopted state and throughout the United States when he served as President Grover Cleveland's Secretary of Agriculture.



But unless you plan on hugging or planting a tree, what do you care?


Today is also the holiday of Robigalia, honoring the god Robigus. The purpose of the holiday was to prevent mildew from ruining crops. Dog and sheep sacrifices were encouraged to honor Robigus. (I didn't suggest this, the ancient Romans did)

For some reason, it's also the holiday of celebrating male sex workers. I'm not sure how one was supposed to celebrate that portion of the holiday slaughtering livestock.

But maybe it's just me.


April 25, 1955 -
Captiol Records released the ninth studio album by American vocalist Frank Sinatra, In the Wee Small Hours, on this date.



The album is a collection of melancholy ballads, with arrangements by Nelson Riddle, was an early example of a concept album and helped popularize the 12-inch format for non-classical recordings.


April 25, 1959 -
The Fleetwoods hit No. 1 with their recording of Come Softly to Me on this date.



The original title of this song Come Softly, was changed because Dolphin (later Dolton) Records owner Bob Reisdorff feared that AM radio DJs would think it to be too suggestive. He was being extra-cautious, Dolphin Records was formed by the Seattle DJ for the sole purpose of distributing Fleetwoods records.

Remember kids, don't dance so close. Leave room for the Holy Spirit.


April 25, 1970 -
The Jackson Five started a two week run at No.1 on the Billboard singles chart with ABC, on this date.



The song is packed with hooks that put Michael Jackson's talents to good use. It opens with the call-and-response "buh buh buh buh buh buh" and has lots of little vocal interjections throughout ("Get up, girl!"). These vocal bits became one of Michael Jackson's hallmarks, both The Jackson 5 and as a solo artist.


April 25, 1974 -
Steely Dan's most successful single, (it charted at #4,) Rikki Don't Lose That Number, was released on this date.



The Rikki of the title is Rikki Ducornet, a New York writer and artist. Steely Dan co-front Donald Fagen met her while both were attending Bard College, a small liberal arts school located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Ducornet said they met at a college party, and even though she was both pregnant and married at the time, he gave her his number, although not in the same context as the song. Ducornet was intrigued by Fagen and tempted to call him, but she decided against it.


April 25, 1978 -
We all got to hang out on the strip with Dan Tanna, when the pilot of Vega$, starring Robert Urich, premiered on ABC TV on this date.



Robert Urich was 31 when the series premiered, but since he looked a decade younger than he was, they wanted to make the character of Dan Tanna, 20. But since he was a Vietnam veteran and that would be too young, they decided to make him 25, even though he still looked younger. In real life, Robert Urich was older than most of the actresses who played his girlfriends on the show, even though his character Dan Tanna was younger than most of his character's girlfriends.


April 25, 1992 -
ABC had the trifecta of finales this evening:

The final episodes of Who's the Boss, aired on this date on ABC-TV.



The original ending for the series, as proposed by the writers, was for Angela and Tony to get married. ABC executives, however, balked at this ending and were supported by Tony Danza, who was against having Tony and Angela get married in the series finale. So the series ended with Tony and Angela breaking up but with Tony appearing on Angela's doorstep to apply for the housekeeper job in a scene that is almost identical to the opening scene in the pilot episode.


The Seaver Family leave their home in Long Island and head to Washington DC in the final episode of Growing Pains - The Last Picture Show, starring Alan Thicke, Joanna Kerns, Kirk Cameron, Tracey Gold, Jeremy Miller, Ashley Johnson, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Chelsea Noble, which aired on ABC TV, on this date.



Mike proposes to Kate in this episode but in real life Mike (Kirk Cameron) and Kate (Chelsea Noble) got married July 20, 1991 before the final season of Growing Pains started. (The less said about Mr. Cameron, the better.)


April 25, 1992 -
Angus MacGyver quits the Phoenix foundation to travel with his son, Sam, when the original MacGyver aired it last original episode, The Stringer, on ABC TV, on this date.



It's very inconsistent for Mac to tell his son he's afraid of heights. In the episode about Eagles he landed a hang glider on a tiny rock formation hundreds of ft high. Not something someone afraid of heights could ever do.


April 25, 1997 -
The surprise comedy hit, Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, starring Lisa Kudrow, Mira Sorvino, Janeane Garofalo, Camryn Manheim and Alan Cumming, premiered in the US on this date.



Lisa Kudrow received a degree in Biology from Vassar College, and Mira Sorvino a degree in Asian Studies from Harvard University, so during production of Romy and Michele, they nicknamed each other "Smart" and "Smarter."


Another unimportant moment in history


Today in History:
April 25, 1507 -
At a small college in Eastern France, German geographer Martin Waldseemüller published a map with the region of the world commonly referred to as “the New World” labeled as “America” for the first time ever in a book entitled Cosmographiae Introductio on this date.

In the book, Waldseemüller is said to have mistakenly credited Amerigo Vespucci with discovering the continent. The amount of money that may have changed hand is uncertain but Columbus was said to be quite pissed.


April 25, 1792 -
French highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier was beheaded by the guillotine, after extensive testing during its development with corpses and sheep, making him its first victim on this date. The speed that the guillotine worked as quick as lightening and in the twinkling of an eye - it was over.

The outcome was not well received by the crowd who called for the return of the gallows.


April 25, 1856 -
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, mathematician and an Oxford professor, met a three year old girl named Alice Liddell on this date.



Charles had a penchant for making up stories to entertain the little girls he liked to photograph (many of them happened to be in the nude, at the time.) Alice had a penchant for consuming unknown (and apparently psychoactive) food, pills and liquids that she found while exploring a very large rabbit hole.

And 40 years later Oscar Wilde went to prison for the shoddy laundry services provided by the hotels he and several local young men frequented. I'm not sure that there s a connection, I'm just pointing it out.


April 25, 1896 -
Cripple Creek, Colorado, endured two catastrophic fires over a period of 96 hours, on this date. The first, began on this date, when a stove overturned during a fight at the Central Dance Hall on Myers Avenue, wiping out eight blocks of the city's central business district. The second fire happend on April 29 at the Portland Hotel and nearly wiped out everything else that remained standing.



The fires leveled the central business district, causing an estimated $3 million in damages, and left roughly 5,000 residents to seek refuge on the hills above town, with only tents and blankets for shelter.


April 25, 1917 –
Ella Jane Fitzgerald, the First Lady of Song, considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century, was born on this date.





Ella Fitzgerald’s life was the quintessential American success story. Through 58 years of performing, 13 Grammys and more than forty million records sold, she elevated swing, bebop, and ballads to their highest potential.


April 25, 1926 -
The premiere of Giacomo Puccini's opera, Turandot was at La Scala, Milan, on this date, one year and five months after Puccini's death. It was conducted by Arturo Toscanini.



Turandot was unfinished at the time of Puccini's death and was later completed by Franco Alfano.


April 25, 1928 -
Buddy, became the first Seeing Eye dog for the blind in the US, when she was was presented to Morris S. Frank on this date. Morris S. Frank was trained to work with the female German Shepherd at a dog-training school in Switzerland, called Fortunate Fields, and on the streets of nearby Vevey.



Frank and Buddy returned to New York City on June 11, 1928, and were together until her death on May 23, 1938; he named her replacement Buddy, as he would all his subsequent guide dogs.


April 25, 1939 - (there's some controversy about this date. I seen it listed as March 30 and April 24.)
DC Comics debuted what will become its second major superhero, Batman, in issue 27 of Detective Comics (the May issue) on this date.



The first book to feature Batman sold for 10 cents when it was published and one of the rare comics in pristine condition sold for $1,380,000 when it came up for auction.


April 25, 1947 -
Harry S. Truman officially opened the two-lane White House bowling alley on this day.



Though Truman himself wasn't much of a bowler, it became embarrassing for the staff to have to search local DC bowling alleys trying to find where the President was knocking back boiler makers every other night. The White House staff members formed a bowling team and even competed in national events.


April 25, 1953 –
Francis Crick and James D. Watson published Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid describing the double helix structure of DNA, in the scientific journal Nature, on this date.



In it, Crick and Watson reveal the double helix structure of DNA and explains how DNA transmits hereditary information between cells and generations, (the boys conveniently forgot to mention the work they 'cribbed' from Rosalind Franklin.) Their work will earn them a Nobel Prize in 1962.


April 25, 1963 -
The bronze statue of The Little Mermaid (Den Lille Havfrue) is Denmark's most visited tourist attraction. The statue was unveiled on August 23, 1913 at it's current location in Copenhagen Harbor. It gives hope to the Danes when they are not pining for the Fjords.

So imagine the horror, when Denmark woke up on this date to find that the unimaginable had happened, someone had sawed off the head of The Little Mermaid, the night before. The head was never recovered and a new head was made from the original cast.


April 25, 1972 -
... And if you covered him with garbage, George Sanders would still have style....



George Sanders, actor and husband of not one but two Gabor sisters, killed himself, leaving this great suicide note: "Dear World, I am leaving you because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool - good luck," on this date.

Short and to the point.


April 25, 1980 -
In Iran, a commando mission to rescue hostages was aborted after mechanical problems disabled three of the eight helicopters involved. During the evacuation, a helicopter and a transport plan collided and exploded. Eight U.S. servicemen were killed on this date.



The mission was aimed at freeing American hostages that had been taken at the U.S. embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979.


And on a personal note - still as lovely as ever,

Andrea once again is celebrating her 39th birthday.



And so it goes.

The appetizer of choice for many

Somehow it's Pig in a Blanket Day again, encouraging the consumption of ‘pigs in blankets’ – small pork sausages wrapped in bacon or pastry, and cooked until crispy (for those of you porcine adverse, choose your own ground meat filling.)



Please celebrate sensibly.


April 24, 1939 -
The Warner Bros. bio-pix on the life of Benito Juarez, Juarez, starring Paul Muni, Bette Davis, Brian Aherne, Claude Rains, and John Garfield, premiered in the US on this date.



Orry-Kelly designed costumes for Bette Davis which changed in tone as the film progressed: from white at the beginning, changing to gray in mid-film, and then to black at the end when she goes insane.


April 24, 1941 -
George Stevens' tearjerker classic, Penny Serenade, starring Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Beulah Bondi, and Edgar Buchanan, premiered in the US on this date.



In a flagrant disregard of the then Production Code, it would appear that Irene Dunne and Cary Grant share a marital bed instead of separate ones. Also, there's an implication that the two have sex on a train, something unheard of in the morally hidebound 1940s.


April 24, 1961 -
Del Shannon started a four week run at No.1 on the Billboard singles chart with Runaway, on this date.



Shannon and his keyboard player, Max Crook, came up with this while they were playing a club in their hometown of Battle Creek, Michigan. Crook played a keyboard called a "Musitron" on the song.


April 24, 1972 -
John Lennon's controversial single, Woman Is the N*gger of the World was released in the US, on this date. The song peaked at No.57, despite virtually every radio station in the country refusing to play it.



Yoko Ono said the phrase during a magazine interview in 1967 and Lennon later explained that he was making a point that women deserved higher status in society.


April 24, 1974 -
David Bowie released his iconic album, Diamond Dogs, on this date.



This song introduces us to Bowie's post-Ziggy Stardust persona, Halloween Jack: "The Halloween Jack is a real cool cat and he lives on top of Manhattan Chase." It has also been suggested this song was influenced by Dhalgren, a science fiction novel by Samuel R. Delany.


April 24, 1976 -
With rumors of a Beatles reunion swirling, Saturday Night Live executive producer Lorne Michaels goes on camera to offer the guys $3,000 (union scale) to reunite on the show, on this date.



Paul and Linda McCartney were spending the evening with John Lennon at his New York Dakota apartment and watched Saturday Night Live on TV. Lennon and McCartney thought about taking a cab to the studio, but decided they were too tired. This was the last time Lennon and McCartney were together.


April 24, 2000 -
In support of their first studio album after twenty years, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen appeared on an episode of The VH-1 series Storytellers, and spend an hour on the show, playing their songs, take requests from the audience, and in their typically cryptic fashion divulge some of the concepts behind their music.



The usually reclusive duo made a number of appearances in 2000, including a PBS In the Spotlight special, an outdoor street concert on Today and an appearance on the Late Show With David Letterman, Becker and Fagen discovered they actually enjoyed touring, erasing their early ’70s nightmares of the fledgling arena rock industry. Their ecstatic reception also eased Fagen’s stage fright and insecurities as a live performer.


April 24, 2000 -
The TV biopic The Three Stooges, starring Michael Chiklis, Paul Ben-Victor, John Kassir, Jim Lemley, and Evan Handler, premiered on ABC TV, on this date.



The movie made use of a Sydney landmark in an innovative way. New York's Coney Island amusement park used to have an attraction within its grounds called Luna Park. Sydney's amusement park, Luna Park, is of similar vintage. It has a still-functioning attraction inside its grounds named Coney Island. Even though the neon-lit facades of each park's rides are quite different, a temporary staging area was placed in front of Luna Park Sydney's main "face" entrance for night-time filming - and the movie's main characters appear that they are inside New York's amusement park, performing in front of an elaborate Luna Park attraction.


Another ACME Safety Film.


Today in History:
April 24, 1184 BC (this is an approximated date.)
... burnt the topless towers of Ilium...



It is traditionally held that city of Troy fell on this date after a ten year siege by the armies of Greece.


April 24, 1800 -
The Library of Congress, the oldest cultural institution in the nation's capital, was established by an act of Congress on this date.



Initially it was housed in the new Capitol in Washington, D.C., but British troops burned the Capitol building and stole the library materials. Retired president Thomas Jefferson then offered his personal library to the Congress.


April 24, 1895 -
Joshua Slocum set sail in The Spray from Boston, Massachusetts, on this date, and would return three years later as the first man to solo-sail the globe’s circumference.



His book, Sailing Alone Around the World, became an international best-seller, and a cornerstone of travel literature.


April 24, 1913 -
The Cathedral of Commerce built one nickel at a time, the Woolworth building opened on this date.



The Five and Dimes are long gone but the skyscraper remains.



April 24, 1915 -
The Ottoman Turkish Empire began the brutal mass deportation of Armenians on this date. Turkey said Armenians had sided with Russia and issued deportation orders for the mass deportation of Armenians. Armenian organizations in Istanbul were closed and 235 members were arrested for treason. Turkish police arrested some 800 of the most prominent Armenians in Constantinople, took them into the hinterlands and shot them



It is generally agreed upon (except by the Turkish Government) that this was the beginning of the Armenian Genocide. And here I go, losing another whole demographic.


April 24, 1916 -
... Now and in time to be, wherever green is worn, are changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born. - W. B. Yeats



Some 1,600 Irish nationalist, the Irish Volunteers, launched the Easter Rising by seizing several key sites in Dublin, including the General Post Office. Eemon de Valera was one of the commandants in the uprising. It was provoked by impatience with the lack of home rule and was put down by British forces several days later. Michael Collins, a member of Sinn Fein, led the guerrilla warfare.


April 24, 1942 -
I've been called many names like perfectionist, difficult and obsessive. I think it takes obsession, takes searching for the details for any artist to be good..



Barbara Joan Streisand, singer, actress and director, was born on this date


April 24, 1953 -
Winston Churchill, the British leader who guided Great Britain and the Allies through the crisis of World War II, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II on this date.



Later, this same year he also won the Nobel peace prize for literature.


April 24, 1970 -
The first Chinese satellite, Dong Fang Hong I, was launched aboard a Long March rocket on this date. Upon reaching orbit, the satellite transmits the popular Communist Chinese song, The East is Red.



With the launch, China became the fifth country with a satellite in space.


April 24, 1986 -
'Her Royal Highness' The Duchess of Windsor, Bessie Warfield Spencer Simpson Windsor former maitresse en titre (official mistress), plain-faced, twice-divorced American, possible transvestite and Nazi sympathizer died on this date.



And the House of Windsor breathed a sigh of relief -

until Princess Diana.


April 24th, 1990 -
The Space Shuttle Discovery launched the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit. It is hoped that the Telescope will be able to see up to the edge of the known universe. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was one of the largest space telescopes ever used, at the time, and has contributed to many astrological discoveries, notably in the area of supernovas and dark energy.



Hubble has sent back a series of stunning photographs of deep space, and revolutionized thinking about the universe. Unlike many other spacecraft, the HST is open for public use — anyone regardless of education level or nationality can apply for time to use it.



And so it goes

The world may be going to hell

but there's a reason to be cheerful -



Summer begins in 58 days!


April 23, 1896 -
Thomas Edison presented the first publically-projected Vitascope motion picture (with hand-tinting) in the US to a paying American audience on a screen, at Koster and Bial's Music Hall in New York City (at 34th Street and Broadway), with his latest invention - the projecting kinetoscope or Vitascope.



Customers watched the Edison Company's Vitascope project a ballet sequence in an amusement arcade during a vaudeville act.


April 23, 1931 -
William A. Wellman pre-code crime drama masterpiece, The Public Enemy, starring James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Mae Clarke, Edward Woods, Donald Cook, and Joan Blondell premiered in the NYC on this date.



Edward Woods was originally hired for the lead role of Tom Powers and James Cagney was hired to play Matt Doyle, his friend. However, once director William A. Wellman got to know both of them and saw Cagney in rehearsals, he realized that Cagney would be far more effective in the star role than Woods, so he switched them.


April 23, 1947 -
Carol Reed's IRA drama Odd Man Out starring James Mason, Robert Newton, and Cyril Cusack premiered in the US on this date.



Richard Burton recorded in his diary a story he had heard Stewart Granger tell frequently about the movie: offered the lead role, Granger skimmed through the script, saw how little dialogue he had and rejected it, realizing his mistake later when the film transformed James Mason's career.


April 23, 1953 -
George Stevens iconic western, Shane, starring Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin, Brandon De Wilde, and Jack Palance, premiered in New York City on this date.



The film was completed in 1951 but George Stevens' editing process was so rigorous that it wasn't released until 1953. This drove up the costs of what should have been a simple, straightforward Western; in fact, they spiraled so much that Paramount approached Howard Hughes about taking on the property, but he declined. He changed his mind when he saw a rough cut and offered to buy the film on the spot. This made Paramount rethink its strategy--originally it was going to release it as a "B" picture but then decided it should be one of the studio's flagship films of the year. This proved to be a good decision, as the film was a major success and easily recouped its inflated budget.


April 23, 1958 -
Orson Welles' noir thriller Touch of Evil, starring Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh, was released on this date.



Orson Welles said that this was the most fun he'd ever had filming a picture, unlike most of his Hollywood films, because he wasn't troubled by studio interference (until after he completed the picture, anyway). He was given a healthy budget, and he was working with some of his favorite actors on a script that didn't involve as much symbolism and all-out cinematic trickery as something like Citizen Kane .


April 23, 1971 -
The Rolling Stones, released their 9th British (and 11th American) studio album, Sticky Fingers on their brand new label, Rolling Stones Records, on this date.



The album cover was designed by Andy Warhol. It was a close-up photo of a man wearing tight jeans, and contained a real zipper. (It was rumored that the man wearing the tight jeans was Mick Jagger. It actual was Joe Dallesandro, one of Warhol's Superstars.) This caused considerable problems in shipping, but was the kind of added value that made the album much more desirable (you don't get this kind of stuff with CDs or downloads). Sticky Fingers also marked the first appearance of the famous tongue and lips logo, which was printed on the inner sleeve. The logo was designed by John Pasche, who was fresh out of art school (the Royal College of Art in London).

The Stones liked this date so much that Black and Blue, their 13th British and 15th American studio album was released on this date, in 1976.



Hot Stuff was the working title for the album until they decided on Black And Blue.


April 23, 1976 -
Sire Records released The Ramones eponymous debut album, which arguably ushered in the punk rock era, on this date.



The album took seven days to make and cost $6,400, while its iconic front cover – depicting the band standing against a brick wall – was taken by renowned punk photographer Roberta Bayley and cost the record company just $125.


April 23, 1977 -
Please get ready to shake your groove thang - Thelma Houston's remake of the song, Don’t Leave Me This Way reached no.1 on the Billboard charts on this date.



This song was originally recorded by Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes with a soulful lead vocal by Teddy Pendergrass. Released on their 1975 album Wake Up Everybody, it wasn't issued as a single in America.


April 23, 1988 -
... There is no dark side in the moon, really. Matter of fact, it's all dark....



Pink Floyd's album Dark Side Of The Moon, after spending the record total of 741 consecutive weeks (over 14 years) on the Billboard 200, left the charts for its first time ever.

How did they ever make ends meet?


April 23, 2001 -
Fatboy Slim releases single Weapon of Choice, music video directed by Spike Jonze starring Christopher Walken dancing.



The video was shot over two days in the lobby of a Marriott Hotel in Los Angeles shortly before Christmas in 2000. The video won six MTV Video Music awards: Breakthrough Video, Best Direction, Best Choreography, Best Art Direction, Best Editing, and Best Cinematography.


Today's episode of ACME's Little Known Animals Facts


Today in History:
April 23, 303 -
St George, the future patron saint of England, literally lost his head when he annoyed the Emperor Diocletian so much that the emperor had him separated from his head.



According to legend, George, saved a Libyan king's daughter (Cleodolinda) from a fiery dragon.

You'd think people would be more patient with a local dragon slayer.


William Shakespeare was born on this date in 1564 and wrote a lot of plays then died in the end—on April 23, 1616.



His accomplishments are all the more remarkable when you consider that he died on the same day. he’d been born.


April 23, 1616 -
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra died the very same day as Shakespeare. Mr. Cervantes was a brilliant Spanish humorist, best known for his novel Don Quixote, in which an old man suffering from acute mental illness rides around the Spanish countryside hallucinating, then dies.



Sometimes that's all there is.


April 23, 1867 -
The Zoetrope was patented (#64,117) by William E. Lincoln of Providence, Rhode Island on this date. The device was the first animated picture machine.



It provided an animation sequence of pictures lining the inside wall of a shallow cylinder, with vertical slits between the images. By spinning the cylinder and looking through the slits, a repeating loop of a moving image could be viewed .


April 23, 1899 -
Complacency is a state of mind that exists only in retrospective: it has to be shattered before being ascertained.



(This is some kind of trifecta for writers.) Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov, writer and avid butterfly collector, was born in Saint Petersburg on this date. His work included Lolita, Pnin and Pale Fire.


April 23, 1936 -
I may be a living legend, but that sure don't help when I've got to change a flat tire..



Roy Orbison, the coolest singer in sunglasses,was born on this date. (Luxuriate in the voluptuousness of despair.)


April 23, 1940 -
A fire broke out in the Rhythm Night Club in Natchez, Mississippi on this date. More than 200 people died, making it one of the worst fires in US history at the time.



News of the tragedy reverberated throughout the country, especially among the African American community, and blues performers have recorded memorial songs such as The Natchez Burning and The Mighty Fire ever since.


April 23, 1967 -
The USSR launched Soyuz One on this date.



The next day, forced to return to earth, cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov became the first casualty of space flight when his capsule's parachute opened improperly.



Oops.


April 23, 1968 -
Students at Columbia University in New York City begin a week long occupation of several campus buildings protesting the Universities affiliation with the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), a weapons research think-tank affiliated with the U.S. Department of Defense, on this date.



Students had been demonstrating earlier in March but the Columbia Administration had placed on probation six anti-war Columbia student activists for violating the ban on indoor demonstrations, which in turn caused the students to become more hard line in their protests.


April 23, 1975 -
At a speech at Tulane University, President Gerald Ford says the Vietnam War is finished as far as America is concerned, on this date. “Today, Americans can regain the sense of pride that existed before Vietnam. But it cannot be achieved by re-fighting a war.”



This was devastating news to the South Vietnamese, who were desperately pleading for U.S. support as the North Vietnamese surrounded Saigon for the final assault on the capital city. I don't think this worked out well, all around.


April 23, 1985 -
Coca-Cola changed its classic formula and released New Coke on this date.



The response was overwhelmingly negative, and the real thing was back on the market in less than three months. If only the public had the same response when they removed the cocaine from the formula!


April 23, 2005 -
The first video uploaded to YouTube, entitled Me at the zoo, made its online debut on this date. The 19-second video was shot by Yakov Lapitsky and shows YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo.



It racked up 19 million views in its first ten years online. It currently has over 90 million views.



And so it goes.

We are on Earth to take care of life.

On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive coast-to-coast rallies.



Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment.

Happy Earth Day!



Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values.



So perhaps you're ready to brave to great outdoors, with or withour your mask and hug a tree.



If you don't want to be this familiar with nature, give a deep bow to your house plants.


April 22, 1939 -
Warner Bros. released the film, Dark Victory, starring Bette Davis (in one of her favorite roles) and George Brent (her favorite actor with whom she had an affair) on this date.



Bette Davis pestered Warner Brothers to buy the rights to the story, thinking it a great vehicle for her. WB studio chief Jack L. Warner fought against it, arguing that no one wanted to see someone go blind. Of course, the film went on to become one of the studio's biggest successes of that year.


April 22, 1942 -
One of Hitchcock's brilliant World War II efforts (and with his first all-American cast), Saboteur, premiered in Washington D.C. on this date.



The shot of the ship on its side toward the end was an actual shot of the ocean liner S.S. Normandie, which had caught fire and capsized at its pier in New York. The fire was an accident, not sabotage (a cutting torch accidently set fire to some kapok life vests), though there were rumors of sabotage at the time.


April 22, 1953 -
Twentieth Century Fox releases the surrealistic science fiction film Invaders from Mars, directed by William Cameron Menzies on this date.



According to script supervisor Mary Yerke, director and production designer William Cameron Menzies filled 12 notebooks with charcoal sketches depicting every scene he planned to shoot. Just days before principal photography, all of these storyboard sketches disappeared from the production office.


April 22, 1966 -
The Troggs' (who were originally called The Troglodytes) song, Wild Thing was released in the U.S. on this date.



The song went on to reach No.1. Fronted by Reg Presley, Wild Thing became a major influence on garage rock and punk rock.


April 22, 1974 -
Maude and Walter finally leave Tuckahoe, New York and moves to Washington D.C. when she was elected as a congresswoman during the last episode of Maude, Maude's Big Move, aired on CBS TV on this date.



The producers of Maude liked the idea of a show centered around a new Congressional representative (even though they had watched a D.C.-politics show called All's Fair from their studio barely make it through the 1976-77 season) and remade this show three times. The first was the pilot for Onward and Upward, starring John Amos as the Congressman. Amos, who had quit Good Times after its third season, quit this series before any new shows could be made. The next try was called Mr. Dugan (after a couple of name changes) and scheduled for a limited run in 1979 with Cleavon Little in the title role. For third try the producers moved the whole show to a college campus, Hanging In, added a fifth character named Rita (Darrian Matthias) as a wide-eyed student assistant. They also picked up Bill Macy in the lead role and filmed four shows. They aired on CBS-TV in August 1979 and sank into obscurity.


April 22, 1978 -
The Blues Brothers (John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd) make their debut on Saturday Night Live, on this date, later becoming the first characters from the show to get their own movie.



Steve Martin performs King Tut on the same Saturday Night Live episode, popularizing goofy Egyptian dancing.



The song, which portrays the pharaoh as his "favorite honky," goes on to sell over 500,000 copies.


Today's moment of Word Zen


Today in History:
April 22, 1451 -
Isabella I, Queen of Castille, was born on this date. She also became the Queen of Aragon in 1479.



She was Christopher Columbus' patron, and must therefore share some of the responsibility for the many thousands of casinos across America.


April 22, 1500 -
Portuguese navigator Pedro Alvares Cabral, on a voyage to India, sails far to the southwest and discovers Brazil, claiming it for Portugal. The indigenous people of the area may have had something to say about it but as historian Eddie Izzard has observed, "...they didn't have a flag."



The land was first visited earlier in the year by a Spaniard, Vicente Yanes Pinzon, but in his rush to get two-for-one Caipirinhas, he left his flag on-board ship and failed to claim it for Spain.


April 22, 1870 -
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov was born on this date He later became Lenin, invented the Communist Party in Russia and made himself first Head Bastard of the Soviet Union.



It's interesting to note that Alexander Kerensky, the leader of Russia's provisional revolutionary government in 1917 until overthrown by Lenin, was born on the same day as Lenin, only eleven years later.



Well, it's interesting to some people.


April 22, 1886 -
Ohio passes a statute that makes seduction unlawful, on this date. Covering all men over the age of 18 who worked as teachers or instructors of women, this law even prohibited men from having consensual sex with women (of any age) whom they were instructing.



The penalty for disobeying this law ranged from two to 10 years in prison. So watch it, Bub!


April 22, 1904 -
Robert Oppenheimer was born on this date. Mr. Oppenheimer is known as the Father of the Atomic Bomb.



The bomb's mother has never been identified to anyone's satisfaction, which only underscores the lax security at Los Alamos.


April 22, 1923 -
For years I had my hair parted down the middle in a ponytail, tucked down around the sides... Well, I went and cut the bangs, and I've been wearing them ever since. They say it's my trademark..



Bettie Mae Page was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on this date.


April 22, 1946 -
I don't trust anyone that hasn't been to jail at least once in their life. You should have been, or something's the matter with you..



John Waters, film director, actor, raconteur, and the owner of the world's greatest pencil-thin mustache was born on this date.


April 22, 1950 -
Peter Frampton, musician, singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, was born on this date.



If you were a teenager in the mid 70s, you were issued your standard copy of Frampton Comes Alive to face your 'awkward' years. (Mr. Frampton appears doing well these days and has continued his farewell tour.)


April 22, 1952 -
About 200 reporters from across the country gathered on a mound of volcanic rock on the edge of Yucca Lake in Nevada, on this date, to witness the detonation of a nuclear bomb, Operation Big Shot, once again, on United States soil.



Such tests had been in operation for more than a year, but for the first time, the press had been invited to record and broadcast the nuclear explosion.


April 22, 1964 -
President Johnson opened the New York World's Fair in Flushing Meadow, Corona Park, New York, on this date.



The Fair also is remembered as the vehicle Walt Disney utilized to design and perfect the system of "audio-animatronics," in which a combination of sound and computers control the movement of life-like robots to act out scenes. In the It's a Small World attraction at the Pepsi pavilion, animated dolls and animals frolicked in a spirit of racially-insensitive unity on a boat-ride around the world.



Once the fair was over, Walt feverishly pushed his Imagineers to build him an 'actual' President. Historians argue that this was the beginning of Ronald Reagan campaign for the Presidency.


April 22, 1994 -
Richard M. Nixon suffered a fatal stroke on this date. His body was laid to rest in the unhallowed grounds of his Presidential Library.



His head was severed from his body and wooden stakes were driven through his heart to make sure he was dead.



And so it goes.

Today in Elephant History

April 21, 1526 -
Mongol Emperor Zahir-ud-din Babur annihilated Indian Army of Ibrahim Lodi at the Battle of Panipat.



Babur, King of Kabul, established in this year the Mughal dynasty at Delhi. Also, Babur's guns proved decisive in battle, firstly because Ibrahim lacked any field artillery, as well as, the sound of the cannon frightened Ibrahim's elephants, causing them to trample his own men.

But what the hell do you care, you don't own elephants.


April 21, 1930 -
Lewis Milestone's adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, starring Louis Wolheim, and Lew Ayres, premiered in Los Angeles on this date.



With the loss of limbs and gory deaths shown rather explicitly, this is undoubtedly the most violent American film of its time. This is because the Production Code was not strictly enforced until 1934, and also because Universal Pictures deemed the subject matter important enough to allow the violence to be seen.


April 21, 1951 -
Les Paul and Mary Ford topped the charts with their hit of the classic How High the Moon on this date.



Although it was written by lyricist Nancy Hamilton and composer Morgan Lewis for the 1940 musical Two For The Show, the definitive version of How High The Moon was recorded by the husband and wife team of Les Paul and Mary Ford. This recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1979.


April 21, 1974 -
Julie and Dick In Covent Garden, a music and comedy special starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, with Carl Reiner, premieres on ABC-TV on this date.



The program was directed by Blake Edwards, (Julie Andrews' husband). Edwards also directed Andrews in The Tamarind Seed that year.


April 21, 1975 -
Teenages everywhere have themselves a good cry when Eric Carmen's song, (a mash-up of his own song, Let's Pretend and Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Opus 18,) All By Myself entered the charts on this date.



When he wrote this, Carmen thought the Rachmaninoff music was in the public domain, meaning he could use it free of charge. After this song came out, he found out it wasn't and agreed to a settlement with the Rachmaninoff estate.


April 21, 1979 -
Amii Stewart cover of Eddie Floyd's song Knock on Wood went no. #1 on the Billboard chart on this date.



It was the only hit for Stewart, who was also a dancer and actress - she starred in the Broadway musical Bubbling Brown Sugar.


April 21, 1981 -
Weird Al Yankovic made his first national television appearance on The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder.



He never receives royalties from the single's initial release because the record company has gone bankrupt.


April 21, 1982 -
The DJs at WKRP spun their last platter when the final episode of the original WKRP in Cincinnati series, Up and Down the Dial aired on CBS TV on this date.



The show was famous for playing music of up-and-coming bands. Many artists have said that their music being on the show helped their popularity, including Blondie, U2, The Cars, TOTO, The Knack, and Devo. Blondie was so grateful for the show making their song, Heart of Glass, a hit that they gave their Gold Record to the producers. It's hanging in the WKRP bullpen in seasons 2 to 4.


April 21, 1986 –
Geraldo Rivera hosted a live, highly promoted two-hour syndicated special from the Lexington Hotel in Chicago, The Mystery of Al Capone’s Vault, on this date.



Internal Revenue Service agents and a medical examiner stood at the ready should any cash or corpse lay inside. When demolition crews finally made their way inside the only contents were a dirt pile and a bottle of bathtub gin. The hype generated a record rating of 57 with an estimated audience of 30,000,000. The term "Al Capone's Vault" has come to mean any over-hyped event that leads to nothing.


April 21, 1989 -
The film grown men openly wept watching - Field of Dreams, starring Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta, and Burt Lancaster, premiered on this date.



Burt Lancaster was unaware that Timothy Busfield was part of the cast and had him fetching water and chairs before realizing Busfield was going to be in the scene with him.


April 21, 1990 -
The day after all your 420 celebrations, the largest anti-drug PSA effort in history: the Saturday morning simulcast of Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue broadcast on the ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox networks respectively.



This monumental anti-drug (and, to a lesser extent, anti-alcohol) collaboration came at the apex of Nancy Reagan's "just say no!" era.


April 21, 1990 -
Sinead O'Connor's cover of Prince's Nothing Compares 2U, went to No 1 on the Billboard Charts, on this date.



The video was the first time most people saw what O'Connor looked like and were surprised that she was bald. She shaved her head when she first started recording because she wanted to make a statement and not be known for her beauty. Some people believe this is the saddest song ever recorded (but wait.)



Prince wrote and recorded this song in 1984, but didn't release it. He did release a live version with Rosie Gaines on his 1993 album The Hits/The B-Sides, but his original solo recording didn't appear until 2018, when his estate released it from the vault. His version is guitar-based, with more of a rock feel. (Unfortunately, Prince was found dead at his home in Minnesota at the age of 57, on this date in 2016.)







Stronger people than you could not make it through Jimmy Scott's version without crying.


April 21, 1995 -
Buena Vista released the rom-com, While You Were Sleeping, starring Sandra Bullock, Bill Pullman, Peter Gallagher, Peter Boyle, Glynis Johns, and Jack Warden on this date.



The original screenplay was about a woman in a coma and a man pretending to be her fiancé. Many studio executives thought this to be too predatory, but one suggested reversing the roles. Once the script was rewritten, the movie was picked up by Hollywood Pictures.


April 21, 2005 -
Paul Haggis' film Crash starring Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Jennifer Esposito, William Fichtner, Brendan Fraser, Terrence Howard, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Thandie Newton, and Ryan Phillippe premiered at the Newport Beach International Film Festival on this date.



With only a budget of $6 million for this film, director Paul Haggis had to cut the costs by using his own house for scenes and even his own car for other scenes.


Word of the Day


Today in History:
April 21, 753 BC -
Today is the traditional date of the foundation of Rome by Romulus and his brother, Remus, as a refuge for runaway slaves and murderers who captured the neighboring Sabine women for wives (they are hoping to finish building it any day now.)



But since the Gregorian Calendar was just a gleam in Pope Gregory eye - who knows. But by all means, please bring enough lubricant with you to the commemorative orgy tonight.


April 21,1792 -
Jose da Silva Xavier, Tiradentes, considered by many to be Brazil's George Washington, was having an extremely bad day. The Portuguese rulers of Brazil were not happy with his seditious talk of independence. Tiradentes was hung in Rio de Janeiro on this date. His body was broken into pieces.

With his blood, a document was written declaring his memory infamous. His head was exposed in Vila Rica. Pieces of his body were exposed in the cities between Vila Rica and Rio, in an attempt to scare the people who had listened to the independence ideas of Tiradentes.



He began to be considered a national hero by the republicans in the late 19th century, and after the republic was proclaimed in Brazil in 1889 the anniversary of his death (April 21) became a national holiday.


April 21, 1836 -
With the battle cry, 'Remember the Alamo!' Texan forces under Sam Houston defeated the army of Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, assuring Texas independence .



According to legend, Santa Anna was astride a mulatto, or "yellow" prostitute, Emily Morgan, who came to be celebrated in song as The Yellow Rose of Texas.

Now you know.


April 21, 1910 -
Halley's comet reappeared on this date. It had been last seen in 1835, the year Samuel Clemens was born.



The Earth passes safely through the comet's tail with no perceptible effect, of course, not counting the death of Mark Twain on this date. Twain wrote on his deathbed in Memorandum, "Death the only immortal who treats us all alike whose pity and whose peace and whose refuse are for all-the soiled and the pure, the rich and the poor, the loved and the unloved."



This time, the reports were not exaggerated.


April 21, 1918 -
German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, known as The Red Baron, was shot down and killed over Vaux sur Somme in France on this date.



There is no truth to the rumor that Snoopy fired the fatal shot.


The following people were born on this day:
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor (1926),




James Newell Osterberg (1947),




Patti Ann LuPone (1949),




Anthony Salvatore Iadanza (1951),




and Robert Smith (1959)



Make of this coincidence what you will


April 21, 1932 -
You know how sometimes you lie in bed at night and think, “What if the law of gravity just wears out and lets go and I drift into space?” Does that ever make you anxious?.



Elaine May, one of the funniest human being who ever lived, was born on this date.


April 21, 1962 -
President John F. Kennedy took time out of his busy schedule, of engaging in sexual congress with starlets and interns, two, three at a time, to push a button in Palm Beach, Florida and officially open the Top of the Needle (the first revolving restaurant in the United States,) atop the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington on this date.



The President was so high on pain killers that he did not realize that he wasn't in Seattle at the time.


April 21, 1997 -
The ashes of Timothy Leary and Gene Roddenberry were launched into orbit (this marked the beginning of the space funeral industry,) on this date.



I guess this is the highest Dr. Leary will ever get.


April 21, 2003 -
Nina Simone, dubbed the high priestess of soul, died in France on this date.



Kids go out and buy one of her CD's, your life will be better for it.



And so it goes.