Read the ramblings of Dr. Caligari. Hopefully you will find that Time does wound all heels.
You no longer need to be sad that nowadays there is so little useless information.
March 15, 1941 -
The first of three appearances of Cecil Turtle, Tortoise Beats Hare, premiered on this date.
Cecil is one of the very few characters who was actually able to beat, Bugs Bunny and the only one to do so three times in a row and at the rabbit's own game.
March 15, 1946 - Columbia Pictures released Charles Vidor's film-noir classic, Gilda, starring Rita Hayworth and Glen Ford on this date.
When Gilda is brought back to Argentina by Tom, she slaps Johnny hard across both sides of his face. In reality, Rita Hayworth's smacks broke two of Glenn Ford's teeth. He held his place until the take was finished.
March 15, 1956 -
The landmark science-fiction film, Forbidden Planet (think The Tempest in Outer Space) , premiered on this date.
The film marked one of the first times a science-fiction project had received a large budget. The genre had rarely been taken seriously by studio executives, and sci-fi films generally received the most meager of budgets.
March 15, 1972 -
The greatest film ever about pasta sauce making and risk aversion management, The Godfather, premiered in New York City on this date.
The only comment Robert Duvall made about his performance was that he wished "they would have made a better hairpiece" for his character.
Today in History: March 15, 44 BC - Julius Caesar, already warned to be wary on this the Ides of March by the astrologer Spurinna, was assassinated with pointy knives by a group of Senators, including Brutus and Cassius, at the Pompey theater.
They were angry at him because he had crossed the Rubicon. Later Marc Antony borrowed everyone's ears and told them that Brutus was an honorable man, which upset them so much they had a Civil War.
Sixteen centuries later, more or less, William Shakespeare immortalized the story and eventually Marlon Brando got to play Marc Antony, so everyone was happy in the end.
Caesar is also celebrated because he wrote a famous book called The Garlic Wars, which begins with the famous line, All garlic is divided into three cloves. It also includes the line - veni, vidi, vinci, the exact meaning of which is still a matter of debate but, if my own Latin studies are worth anything, probably involves Druids and hollandaise sauce.
March 15, 1812 - Luddites attack Frank Vickerman's wool processing factory at Taylor Hill in West Yorkshire,on this date, resulting in general destruction and attempted arson.
The rampaging Luddites were incensed because his machines replaced workers, but Vickerman was primarily targeted because of involvement in an Anti-Luddite committee.
So now you know more about Luddites than you thought you ever would (remember, smash the iWatches.)
Today's episode of Oh, that Wacky Russian Revolution:
At two o'clock in the morning on March 15, 1917 the Tsar sent word to Petrograd that he was awfully sorry about the war and starvation and everything, but that he had some really good ideas about what they could do now, was looking forward to working with them, believed that healthy debate was a symptom of good government, and so on.
The new government (which had recently moved to Moscow) told him to blow it out his ass.
And so at three o'clock in the afternoon, Nicholas abdicated in favor of his son (who had measles).
The new government told him and his son to blow it out their asses.
At 11:15 pm, Nicholas signed a proclamation that both he and his son (who had measles) would abdicate in favor of his brother, the Grand Duke Mikhail.
The next day, the new government told Nicholas, his son (who had measles), and the Grand Duke Mikhail to blow it out their asses. (It seems that they were anally fixated.)
March 15, 1950 - New York City suffering through a persistent drought, hired for $100 a day - a very large sum in those times, particularly for a scientist - Dr. Wallace E. Howell, a meteorologist to make rain, on this date. Dr. Howell, who had participated in early scientific research into cloud seeding, set up shop at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, using a police airplane to sprinkle silver iodide crystals into clouds over the Catskill watershed.
The rains came and the reservoirs began to rise. There was even a mid-April snowstorm, referred to in the papers as ''Howell's snow.'' By 1951, the crisis had passed and Dr. Howell was laid off in February of 1951.
And so it goes.
Before you go - I'm not sure if this is funny or horrifying
Pi Day is celebrated by math enthusiasts ( read - lonely shut-ins) around the world on March 14th. Pi was first used as a mathematical symbol in 1706 by William Jones.
Albert Einstein's parents conveniently arranged for him to be born on Pi Day in 1879.
March 14, 1940 -
The first of the seven Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour "Road" films, The Road to Singapore, premiered in NYC on this date.
After Fred MacMurray and George Burns turned down the chance to make this film, producer Harlan Thompson offered it to Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, whom he'd seen clowning on the Paramount lot and who it seemed to him got along well.
March 14, 1969 -
The Walt Disney studio put the film, The Love Bug, starring 'Herbie,' a loveable Volkswagen bug with a personality, into general release on this date.
Herbie got his name when the crew of the film was watching one of Buddy Hackett's skits about a ski instructor with a funny accent. Then Hackett said, "If you ain't got a herbie [pronounced hoy-bie], I ain't goin'." The name stuck.
(I'm out celebrating Pi Day today, so it's an abbreviated posting today) Today in History: March 14, 1794 - Eli Whitney was granted a patent for the cotton gin on this date
While it is potable, gin flavored with juniper berries is still a better choice for a very dry martini.
March 14, 1883 - The rich will do anything for the poor but get off their backs.
Karl Marx died of pleurisy in London on this date. While his original grave had only a nondescript stone, the Communist Party of Great Britain erected a large tombstone, including a bust of Marx, in 1954.
His premature death prevented him from seeing the global impact of his progeny: Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Gummo and Zeppo. Karl Marx was born in Trier, Prussia May 5, 1818. He went to school at a time of severe repression. Pianos had to have skirts on for fear young men would become aroused by the sight of their bare legs. The Prussian government kept the teachers under police surveillance to make sure they wouldn't teach anything too radical like 2 + 2= 4 and so the students, including Marx, became extremely radical.
(There are no know photos of Karl and Gummo together: they never got along)
As a result of his beliefs, Marx was not able to get a job as a chicken inspector after he got his doctorate in philosophy. And without a job, he spent his time analyzing history and stealing tips left for waiters at the coffeehouses he frequented and came to the conclusion that all historical events were caused by economic forces.
He got involved in Communism - the belief that all private property should be abolished, men and women should not bathe or shave and pickled herring should be used as a cologne. Marx moved around Europe, writing for newspapers and pornographic pamphlet, studying, wanting to write a book about his economic ideas. But Marx was an obsessive researcher, and never knew when to stop reading and start writing. He only became productive after he met Friedrich Engels, a socialist who was also wealthy—the heir to a textile business and primitive whoopee cushion novelty item.
Their main theory was that the economic system was a perpetual conflict between those who controlled the capital and those who provided the labor, that the conflict would never be resolved peacefully, that in a free market, workers would continue periodically to lose their jobs, their standard of living would fall, and this would inevitably lead to violent revolution. He believed that giant corporations would dominate the world's industries, that globalism in trade would make markets even more unstable. He also believed that you could hard boil an egg by holding it under one's armpit for a week thus saving money by not paying the gas bill.
Marx and Engels published their Communist Manifesto and What the Butler Saw Whilst Polishing the Knob in 1848, and revolution did break out afterward in France, Italy, and Austria. Marx's newspaper was shut down. He had to flee the country. He moved to London, worked for years on his last book, Das Kapital. His family in poverty, Marx said, "I don't suppose anyone has ever written about 'money' when so short of the stuff." A spy from Prussia was keeping tabs on him and wrote, "Washing, grooming and changing his clothes are things he does rarely. He does not shave at all. But he does have an unnatural obsession watching Amenian women clip their toenails!"
He fed his family on bread and potatoes, and when one of his children died, his wife had to borrow money from a neighbor to buy a coffin.
When Marx died in 1883, only 11 persons came to his funeral. And they were all charged a mourners tax!
March 14, 1889 -
German Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents his Navigable Balloon on this date.
He did not speak with Paul von Hindenburg about it at the time.
March 14, 1912 -
A young anarchist, Antonio Dalba, shot at King Victor Emmanuel III and queen Elena (of Montenegro) of Italy on this date, but missed, hitting a bodyguard and his horse instead. Their majesties were attending the annual memorial service for the previous king, Umberto I, who was assassinated by an anarchist in 1900 (whose assassination inspired Leon Czolgosz to shoot President McKinley).
Since Dalba was a legal minor (20) at the time, he could not be executed. He was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment, but, perhaps because of his increasing mental instability, was pardoned in 1921, only to be committed two months later to a mental hospital, where he died in 1953.
Today on March 14 1932, one of the greatest notes was written: George Eastman, the founder of Kodak Corporation, killed himself after a long illness on this date.
His suicide note states "To my friends: My work is done. Why wait?"
All in all, terse but to the point.
March 14, 1942 -
Mrs. Anne Miller was near death at New Haven Hospital, suffering from a streptococcal infection, before doctors Orvan Hess and John Bumsfield decided to use an experimental treatment - Penicillin, on this date. This was the first time penicillin was successfully used to treat a patient.
Although Dr. Alexander Fleming had proven that penicillin was an effective antibacterial in 1928, few doctors seemed interested in using the common mold as a medicinal tool. Supplies were limited at the time, nearly half of the total supply produced were used on Mrs. Miller. She survived, living to be 90 years old and penicillin became widely used.
As I am deathly allergic to the drug, this medical advancement is almost meaningless to me.
We haven't had a Sesame Street mashup in awhile, so here is the latest one featuring Bone Thugs-n-Harmony -
Did you forgot to set the clock ahead - we'll wait. Here's a short film explaining Daylight Savings Time -
Do you need some more time (did you get the clock on the microwave? None of you still have a VCR?) Here's another short film -
Alright, you can either continue reading or go back to bed for an hour.
you'll have one less hour for drinking today - start earlier.
Downton Abbey ended last week. If you need just one more fix, last week John Legend gave you one more taste.
Funny but he was a little harsh on Edith though
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 102th birthday.)
Things that make you go hmmmm - Donald doesn’t wear pants with his sailor shirt, but does wear swimming trunks when he goes for a swim.
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.
Natalie Wood was still a student in high school when this film was being made, and on several occasions both John Wayne and Jeffrey Hunter had to pick her up at school on days when she was required on the set. This caused a good deal of excitement among Wood's female classmates.
March 13, 1968 - The Beatles release the single Lady Madonna in the UK on this date.
This was the last Beatles release on Capitol Records (US), or Parlophone (UK). All future releases were on Apple Records, the label The Beatles created.
(BTW - for those of you keeping score, this is my 3000th posting on this site. I need to get a hobby.) Today in History: March 13, 1781 -
Scottish astronomer Sir William Herschel discovered Uranus on this date, which he first mistook for a comet.
It is the first planet discovered with the aid of a telescope.
(If you are alone, once again, feel free to twitter like a small child.)
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 grandson, was one of the unfortunate witnesses to Czar's gruesome death.)
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.
Scientologists are easily distinguished from Jehovah's Witnesses in that they don't ask you subscribe to The Watchtower and they can often be seen in major motion pictures.
March 13, 1917 - Today on Oh That Wacky Russian Revolution:
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.
Meanwhile, Nicholas II had taken a train to Pskov. He knew the revolutionaries would be unlikely to pursue him somewhere so difficult to pronounce.
That evening in St. Petersburg, the Executive Committee of the Duma met with the Petrograd Soviet and agreed that the Russian Cabinet should be dissolved, and also the Tsar.
They established a joint government, with Prince Grigori Lvov at its head, nicely countering the Czar's difficult pronunciation ploy. They put the Russian Cabinet in prison, next to the Russian Credenza.
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 remains today. At 81, no living inmate has spent more time in the New York prison system.
Pope Francis has been on the job for three years now.
So far, the Pope's been given them a run for their money at the Vatican.
And so it goes.
Before you go - If you live in the Village, or Chelsea, or the Flatiron District, or just care about the ability to live in an affordable NYC -
We lose an hour of sleep tonight - daylight saving time starts at 2 AM tomorrow morning, so don't forget to turn all those clocks, microwaves, DVD players, etc. ahead.
Please do this work yourself:
the time you save may be your own.
The World Wide Web turns 27 today.
87% of all U.S. adult are sending e-mails. What are the other 13% using - semaphore flags?
March 12, 1953 - John Huston's very off-beat comedy starring Humphrey Bogart, Beat the Devil, premiered in New York City on this date.
This was the fifth and last movie that Humphrey Bogart would make with his very close friend Peter Lorre. The other four were, The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, All Through the Night, and Passage to Marseille.
March 12, 1971 - Robert Wise's taut Sci-Fi Thriller, The Andromeda Strain, opened on this date.
The Wildfire scientific lab sets cost more than $300,000 to build and were described at the time as "one of the most elaborately detailed interiors ever built."
March 12, 1971 - John Lennon released Power to the People in the United Kingdom on this date.
The song was released as a single credited to "John Lennon with the Plastic Ono Band." Phil Spector produced it with Lennon.
Today in History: March 12, 1888 -
The day before started off seemingly fine - the temperature was mild as a light rain began to fall on March 11th, 1888. And then the weather changed. The rain became heavier and by the next day, the rains changed to heavy snow and buried the unprepared city in drifts of up to thirty feet deep! The temperature plunged and winds reached over eighty miles per hour.
On the first day of 1888 blizzard, Roscoe Conkling, former congressman and US Senator (from NY) was at his law office at 10 Wall Street. Despite the severity of the storm, Conkling decided to walk from his office to his club on Madison Square, even though it was 6:00 PM and already dark, rather than pay the outrageous rate of $50 for a cab ride.
He made it up Broadway as far as Union Square where he (as he later put it): “got to the middle of the park and was up to my arms in a drift…. For nearly twenty minutes I was stuck there and I came as near giving right up and sinking down there to die as a man can and not do it.” But somehow Conkling freed himself and continued up Broadway to Madison Square, where the people at the New York Club could “scarcely believe” he had walked from Wall Street.
Conkling developed a slight cold a few day later and a few weeks later on April 18th, became one of most famous victims of the blizzard. Conkling friends immediately set about to memorialize him with a statue in Madison Square Park. (Apparently the city fathers balked at commemorating Conkling in Union Square amidst George Washington and Abraham Lincoln - he was not that well liked.) Aside from the statue, Roscoe Conkling's greatest legacy was perhaps silent film star Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, who was reportedly named for Conkling by Fatty's father, who thought that his son was the product of an affair between his wife and Conkling.
March 12, 1912 - Juliette Gordon Low organized the Girl Guides, which later became the Girl Scouts of America, at the 1848 Andrew Low House in Savannah, Ga. on this date.
Mrs. Low rented a carriage house for "club rooms" for the Girl Guides on the property of a prominent family in Georgia, the Nash family. Ogden Nash, 10 years old in 1912, grew up to be a well-known poet; he immortalized "Mrs. Low's House" in one of his poems. The Nash family continued to pay rent for the carriage house even after it was converted for use by the Girl Guides, becoming one of the first financial supporters for the fledgling movement.
On May 29, 2012, the centennial of the Girl Scouts was commemorated when Low was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
March 12, 1918 -
Today episode on the Wacky World of the Russian Revolution -
Russia's peasants and workers are still exhausted by the war and its attendant famine. The Tsar and Tsarina are past caring about their suffering - they were under arrest The Russian peasants and workers are still furious with the government, which had become two governments and therefore twice as bad. And they were tired of all this nonsense about March being February, St. Petersburg being Petrograd, the Czar being Tsar, and all those crazy, mixed-up fonts.
So what does the country do - move the capital from Petrograd to Moscow, as well as move the central headquarters of the Red Army there, on this date
March 12, 1922 -
At the end of the Second World War, America dropped two atomic bombs on Japan. Each bomb killed so many people so quickly and made the world so safe for peace-loving democracies that America began feeling pretty good about things and forgot all about being Depressed, etc. This caused the hula-hoop, the soda fountain, and the young Annette Funicello.
Not everyone could master the hula-hoop, however, and the alienation experienced by those who couldn't resulted in the development of an American counterculture.
Scoffing the traditional values of mainstream America, the counterculturalists experimented with bold new ideas. They forsook the established middle-class pleasures, such as wine, woman, and song, in favor of radical new ones, such as sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll.
Born 94 years ago today, Jack Kerouac was a child of the Depression and a veteran of the second world war. He was therefore torn between these competing value systems and roamed the country aimlessly in search of grammar and punctuation.
The adventures described in On the Road were based loosely on his real-life travels with the infamous Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters, whose insatiable appetite for borscht led Kerouac to dub them "The Beet Generation."
March 12, 1932 - Ivar Kreuger, the so-called Swedish Match King, (at one time, he controlled two thirds of the worldwide match production) committed suicide in Paris on this date, leaving behind a financial empire that turned out to be a massive Ponzi scheme.
The 'Kreuger crash’ shook Wall Street and led to a 1933 Securities Act, which strengthened disclosure requirements for all companies selling stock.
Madoff was a piker compared to Kreuger.
March 12, 1938 - Germany enters Austria in the Anschluss, to annex it as part of Grossdeutchland.
Oh those wacky Germans and their World Domination Tour.
March 12, 1945 -
...The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be....
Anne Frank is thought to have died at Auschwitz on this date.
March 12, 1955 - Bird Lives.
Charles Parker, Jr., one of the most influential jazz musicians, died on this date while while watching Tommy Dorsey on television.
Due to many years of drug and alcohol abuse, the coroner who performed his autopsy mistakenly estimated Parker's 34-year-old body to be between 50 and 60 years of age.
March 12, 1969 - Paul McCartney married Linda Eastman on this date.
George Harrison and Patti Boyd missed the ceremony because they had been arrested earlier that day when a very large amount of hashish was found in their home. I guess their wedding gift never got to the newlyweds.
March 12, 2000 -
Pope John Paul II asked God's forgiveness for the many wrongs committed by the Roman Catholic Church on this date. The pardon he requested divided into seven categories of Church sin, including sins against the Jews, against native peoples of the world, the crimes of the Inquisition, and general crimes against humanity.
This pardon was requested only for past sins, and apparently did not ask for it to apply to the Church's many, many, many ongoing sins. Let us pray that Pope Francis has the strength to continue asking for all of that forgiveness.
Today is World Plumbing Day. It is an international event, initiated by the World Plumbing Council, held on March 11 each year to recognize the important role plumbing plays in societal health and amenity.
I now need to go lay down with a cold compress
March 11, 1950 -
... After all, a man's home is his castle.
A very funny Bugs Bunny cartoon, directed by Chuck Jones, Homeless Hare, was released on this date.
March 11, 1956 - Laurence Olivier's version of William Shakespeare's Richard IIIbecame the first film to have its U.S. premiere in theaters and on TV simultaneously, when NBC-TV broadcast the film on the same day it had its U.S. premiere in New York, on this date.
Olivier based his characterization of Richard on a much-despised theatrical director named Jed Harris. Years later he learned that the animators at Disney used Harris for the basis of the Big Bad Wolf.
March 11, 1967 - Pink Floyd released one of the best songs about underwear stealing transvestites, Arnold Layne on this date.
Some believe that Arnold Layne was actually based on a real person, and that he routinely stole underwear from the mothers of Syd Barrett and bassist Roger Waters during their childhood days in Cambridge.
Speaking of transvestites - March 11, 1970 - Federico Fellini's take on ancient Rome, Fellini - Satyricon (Another movie had registered the title Satyricon first. Federico Fellini fought to use the title for his movie but lost the case. Subsequently the title was changed to Fellini - Satyricon) premiered in the US on this date.
Look closely, future fitness guru Richard Simmons is in this film. An American student living in Rome in the late 1960s, he was cast as an obese nobleman in the banquet scene.
Today in History: March 11, 222 -
Most of you with teenagers think that yours are the worst, but no, Ancient Rome had the worst by far, the Emperor Elagabalus.
His real name was Varius Avitus Bassianus but as he developed an intense interest in worshipping the Syrian god Elagabal, became High Priest of the cult and so had his name changed to Elagabalus. After the death of his grandfather, father and cousin within a year, Elagabalus, all of 14, found himself the Emperor of the known world (this is not to say, the millions of people living in Asia, Africa, Australia and the New World, even had a clue who this snarky teen was.) Rather than even thinking of governing, Elagabalus immersed himself in heavy drinking and self-worship (very intense sodomy - it is rumored that he had engaged in a sexual act ever hour he was awake for the entire four years he was Emperor - think about it - he had sex over 23,000 times in four years), leaving the affairs of the state mostly in the hands of his grandmother Julia Maesa.
Elagabalus was probably the first famous transsexual, rumored to have consulted his physicians about an early version of a sex-change operation. Having found this impossible, he took a series of male lovers, chosen by the enormous size of their private parts. When Elagabalus was enjoyably getting buggered, he also was getting drunk. Legend has it that he and his friends had gotten so drunk that when Elagabalus had a shower of rose pedals dropped on his dinner guest, many of them had suffocated under the weigh of the flowers.
Finally the Pretorian guard had enough of Elagabalus notorious excesses (but let's be clear about this; like most of the GOP, the Roman elite professed a disgust of homosexuality yet vigorously engaged in it,) and on this date, hunted down the young reprobate in a private bathroom and executed him on this date, as he tenaciously clung to his mother.
March 11, 1302 -
This is Romeo and Juliet's wedding day, according to Shakespeare.
I've seen all of these websites that can offer to help you plan a romantic wedding 'just like Romeo and Juliet', does that mean you have to kill yourself shortly after the honeymoon?
March 11, 1669 -
After a series of premonitional earthquakes near Mount Etna, the largest volcano in Europe spectacularly erupted, destroying the Sicilian town of Nicolosi and killing 20,000 people.
Were there no virgins to toss into the volcano to appease the gods back in 1669?
March 11, 1811 - Ned Ludd (not a real person) led a group of workers in a wild protest against mechanization on this date. Members of the organized bands of craftsmen who rioted against automation in 19th century England were known as Luddites and also Ludds. The movement, began near Nottingham as craftsman destroyed textile machinery that was eliminating their jobs. By the following year, Luddites were active in Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Lancashire and Leicestershire.
Although the Luddites opposed violence towards people (a position which allowed for a modicum of public support), government crackdowns included mass shootings, hangings and deportation to the colonies. It took 14,000 British soldiers to quell the rebellion. The movement effectively died in 1813 apart from a brief resurgence of Luddite sentiment in 1816 following the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
I'm still waiting for the anti-Apple movement - Smash the I-watches!
March 11, 1818 - Frankenstein, "The Modern Prometheus," was published on this date. The book started out as basically a scary story told on a rainy night. That is, if you are telling scary stories to England's greatest romantic poet and his best friend, Europe's most notorious clubfooted, bisexual poet.
The book, by 21-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, is frequently called the world's first science fiction novel.
More on the Wacky Russian Revolution:
On March 11, 1917 the Russian Cabinet finally became indignant and tried to dissolve the Duma, but the Duma refused to dissolve. The Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies also refused to dissolve, even though the Cabinet had not asked them to dissolve.
(The Cabinet could not ask them to, because the Cabinet had determined that The Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies did not exist.)
March 11, 1927 - Samuel Roxy Rothafel opened The Roxy Theatre in New York City, a 6,214 seat movie theater at 153 West 50th Street at 7th Avenue, on this date. It was designed by Chicago architect Walter W. Ahlschlager.
The opening night film was The Love of Sunya produced by and starring Gloria Swanson. The Roxy was overshadowed by the opening of Radio City Music Hall in the Rockefeller Center in NYC in 1932.
The Roxy closed and was demolished in 1960, and Swanson was famously photographed on October 14, 1960 by Time-Life photographer Eliot Elisofon in the midst of the ruins during the theater's demolition.
March 11, 1931 - F. W. Murnau (born Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe,) one of the most influential German film directors of the silent era, was out for a relaxing drive with his fourteen-year old Filipino valet Garcia Stevenson, when Mr. Murnau failed to heed one of the basic tenets of auto safety - it was rumored that Murnau decided to perform fellatio on the young driver.
Mr. Murnau and Mr Stevenson were involved in a car crash and both died on this date.
Kids, let this be a lesson to us all - for heaven's sake, please pull over if you decide to polish the knob of the driver of your automobile.
March 11, 1957 - Charles Van Doren, darling of the American public, lost to Vivienne Nearing on the rigged TV quiz show Twenty One when both are asked to name the kings of Norway (Olav V) , Denmark (Frederick IX) , Sweden (Gustaf VI Adolf), Jordan (Hussein) , Iraq (Faisal II) , and Belgium (Baudouin).
Doren "missed" - the king of Belgium.
March 11, 1958 -
A B-47 bomber drops a nuclear bomb in the town of Mars Bluff in South Carolina. While it did not detonate a nuclear explosion, conventional explosives within the bomb left a 75 foot crater, destroying one house and damaging five others.
The government has to send out hundreds of 'oops' letters to the town's residents.
March 11, 1969 - Levi Jeans added Bell Bottoms to their line of Jeans which had become fashionable as part of the hippie counterculture movement.
Though the actual creation of the first pair of bell-bottoms is unknown, the first mention of bell-bottom pants was in 1813 in reference to the uniforms of U.S. Navy sailors.
March 11, 2004 -
In Madrid, Spain, a series of 10 bombs hidden in backpacks exploded in quick succession at 3 stations, blowing apart four commuter trains on this date. 191 people were killed and over 1,450 were wounded. Spanish leaders were quick to accuse Basque terrorists but a shadowy group claimed responsibility in the name of al-Qaeda.
On October 31, 2007, three lead defendants were convicted of murder. Four other top suspects were acquitted of murder but convicted of lesser charges. In all 21 of the 28 defendants were convicted. On July 17, 2008, a Spanish court cleared four of the 21 people charged for crimes related to the train bombings. In 2009, seven people were indicted for helping the bombers flee.
March 11, 2011 - Five years ago today, an earthquake and a tsunami sparked one the most severe atomic accident since Chernobyl at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan.
Over 81,000 jobs were lost due to the tsunami and four years later, 315,000 refugees of the tsunami still remain in limbo.
And so it goes.
Before you go - Raise you glass the last time to World's Most Interesting Man as he blasts off to Mars -
Remember, his only regret is not knowing what regret feels like.
Today is the International Day Of Awesomeness - a day for celebrating all things awesome, and everything awesome that you, your friends, and everybody else does.
Anyway that's what I read on the interweb.
March 10, 1938 - Bette Davis won her second Academy Award and re-ignited her sagging career when Jezebel, premiered in New York City on this date.
Some scenes were filmed around Henry Fonda, to allow him to be with his wife as she gave birth to their daughter Jane Fonda, including scenes with the sometimes-prickly star, Bette Davis. As the star of the film Davis was within her rights to insist that Fonda remain until their scenes were finished, but she allowed him to complete his shots and leave.
March 10, 1940 - Carlos Ray Norris, the world's greatest living human being was born on this date.
Chuck Norris can hear a tree fall in the woods!
March 10, 1972 - Universal Pictures released the science fiction film Silent Running, directed by Douglas Trumbull and starring Bruce Dern, on this date.
Joel Hodgson, creator of Mystery Science Theater 3000, credits Silent Running as a major inspiration for his show.
Today in History: March 10, 1876 -
It was on this date in 1876 that Alexander Graham Bell (Don Ameche) conducted the first successful experiment on a radical new technology. He put a "transmitter" in one room of his home and a "receiver" in another. He connected them with wire. He then shouted into the mouthpiece of the transmitter, "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you."
A moment later, his assistant, who had been waiting in the room with the receiver, came into Bell's room and said he had heard and understood everything.
When Alexander Graham Bell finished his invention of the telephone, he noticed he had two missed calls from Chuck Norris.
The invention didn't enjoy much commercial success because the market for persons with out-of-earshot assistants named Watson was not as large as Bell had hoped, but it did serve as a major stepping-stone to one of Bell's most significant inventions, the Watson Detonator.
March 10, 1948 -
The State owned Communist newspaper reported that the Czech foreign minister Jan Masaryk was thrown from a window at his apartment in Prague under mysterious circumstances on this date.
Authorities rule his death was a "suicide" and then decide to rule the death as accidentally because he seems to have "fallen while sitting in a yoga position on a window sill to combat insomnia". But most likely he was suffocated first, judging from the fact that he had lost control of his bowels and the deep nail marks on the window sill.
I hate when that happens.
March 10, 1948 -
...Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold......
Author and artist, Zelda Fitzgerald died in a fire at Highland Hospital, NC, along with eight other inmates on this date.
She was locked in on the 3rd floor while undergoing insulin-induced coma therapy.
I really hate when that happens.
March 10, 1951 - FBI director J. Edgar Hoover announces that he has turned down an offer to become commissioner of baseball on this date.
The governor of California, Earl Warren, (and soon to be proponent of 'The Magic Single Bullet Theory',) had previously rejected an offer to become baseball's leader. Think how the nation would be different if baseball was able to fit Hoover with a pair of high heel cleats.
March 10, 1974 -
Second Lt. Hiroo Onoda of the Imperial Japanese Army surrenders to Philippine authorities on this date. He believed World War II was still underway and continued a 30 year guerrilla battle with other islanders. His final capitulation came when his senior officer, Maj. Taniguchi, ordered his surrender.
Upon return to the Japanese homeland, Onoda was treated as a hero, but had difficulty coping with his "postwar" life. Mr. Omoda died on January 16, 2014.
March 10, 1977 - Roman Polanski gave a 13 year old girl Quaaludes and has sex with her during a photo shoot at Jack Nicholson's home on this date. He later fled the country to avoid statutory rape charges.
He would currently be living in Los Angeles (and probably having more fun) if he just went into the bathroom and auditioned his hand puppet alone.
March 10, 1977 -
Astronomers James L. Elliot, Edward W. Dunham and Douglas J. Mink discover rings around Uranus on this date.
Allow yourself to titter and guffaw like a school girl.
March 10, 1980 - Jean Harris shot and killed her unfaithful lover, cardiologist Herman Tarnower, co-author of The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet in his Purchase N.Y. home on this date.
She was granted clemency on December 31, 1992 by Governor Mario Cuomo after she served 12 years of a 15 year sentence. Harris was released in January 1993. Mrs Harris died in December 2013.
Sometimes, diets make you a little cranky
And so it goes.
Before you go - In honor of the 33nd anniversary of the release of New Orders' Blue Monday (March 7, 1983,) BBC Arts put a video together of Orkestra Obsolete's strange but wonderful cover version of the song, performed with only instruments available during the 1930s. Go with it, it's really good.
March 9, 1948 -
The first of John Ford's famed 'Cavalry Trilogy', Fort Apache (a thinly veiled retelling of Custer's Last Stand), premiered on this date. This film was followed by She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Rio Grande, though it was not originally intended as a trilogy.
The Fort Apache fort, built for this production, stood for years. It was reused in dozens of productions, most notably the TV series The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin (1954). It was located at the Corriganville Movie Ranch in Simi Valley, California. Today it is possible to visit this location, as it is now administered as a City Park in Simi Valley.
March 9, 1954 -
... No one familiar with the history of his country can deny that Congressional committees are useful. It is necessary to investigate before legislating. But the line between investigating and persecuting is a very fine one, and the junior senator from Wisconsin has stepped over it repeatedly.
Edward R. Murrow, cigarette smoking, gin guzzling reporter took on the cigarette smoking, whiskey drinking junior senator and demagogue from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy and the Red Scare hysteria on his program, See It Now, on this date.
Besides being arguably television's finest hour, it clearly demonstrates the powers of gin over whiskey.
March 9, 1954 -
The first local color television commercial was aired on WNBT television, now WNBC television, in New York on this date, for Castro Decorators of New York City. Castro were the folks who made the Castro convertible sofa beds.
The television commercial featured Bernadette Castro opening a big couch into a bed (only the B & W kinescope exists.)
March 9, 1959 -
The Barbie doll went on display at the American Toy Fair in New York City for the first time. Barbie was the first mass-produced toy doll in the United States with adult features.
With its sponsorship of the Mickey Mouse Club TV program in 1959, Mattel became the first toy company to broadcast commercials to children. They used this medium to promote their new toy, and by 1961, the enormous consumer demand for the doll led Mattel to release a boyfriend for Barbie. Ruth Handler named him Ken, after her son. Barbie's best friend, Midge, came out in 1963; her little sister, Skipper, debuted the following year.
March 9, 1966 - The Beach Boys began recording God Only Knows on this date. (Paul McCartney once called God Only Knows, "The greatest song ever written.")
The song is considered a Beach Boys classic, but it only managed to scrape the Top-40 in the United States. It was released as the B-side of Wouldn't It Be Nice in the US, partly because of fear that radio stations would refuse to play a song with "God" in the title.
March 9, 1979 - ABC-TV aired the documentary Heroes of Rock & Roll, on this date.
This was one of the first comprehensive documentaries to be made about rock music
Today in History: March 9, 1170 -
In Essex, a UFO is spotted over St. Ostwyth, manifesting itself as a "wonderfully large dragon ... borne up from the Earth through the air". The craft kindled the air and destroyed a house.
And all of that was before LSD.
March 9, 1454 - Amerigo Vespucci was born on this date. He was an Italian explorer who made many voyages to the new world at about the same time as Columbus.
The two continents of the new world were therefore named for him, and it wasn't until the seventeenth century (Greenwich time) that North and South Vespucci were renamed the Americas.
March 9, 1556 - David Rizzio, the secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots, was stabbed 56 times by a gaggle of Scottish nobles on this date.
Her husband Henry Lord Darnley had orchestrated the murder with Mary witnessing, hoping to precipitate a miscarriage.
Isn't love among the royalty grand?
March 11, 1562 -
It lasts for about a day before the local nobleman is forced to rescind it .
March 9, 1858 –
Philadelphia iron products manufacturer Albert Potts patented his design for a lamppost mounted collection mailbox.
His box was designed to be mounted to a lamppost so people could drop their letters into the box instead of making a special trip to the post office to mail their letters.
March 9, 1961 - Korabl-Sputnik-4, also known as Sputnik 9, was launched with a dog named Chernushka (Blackie) on a one orbit mission. Also onboard the spacecraft was a cosmonaut dummy (whom Russian officials nicknamed "Ivan Ivanovich"), mice and a Guinea pig.
The dummy was ejected out of the capsule during re-entry and made a soft landing using a parachute. The animals were recovered unharmed inside the capsule. Chernushka went on to a successful career as the provincial governor of the Kazakhian region. The Cosmonaut dummy could not be used again as 'Blackie' had spent the entire flight having a 'brief but intense' relationship with the leg of Ivan Ivanovich.
March 9, 1967 - Josef Stalin's daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, walks into the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi and asks to defect (some reports have it that she defected on March 6th - does it really matter - you don't give a damn.)
Her defection was one of a series of high-profile defections throughout the Cold War.
March 9, 1981 - Dan Rather succeeded Walter Cronkite as anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News.
He was the third person to occupy that seat since the program's 1948 launch. His last broadcast was March 9, 2005.
March 9, 1996 - Nathan Birnbaum, the comedian Gracie Allen carried around for years, forgot to have his daily martini and died on this date.
Kids, let this be a lesson to us all - not only does alcohol taste good, it's good for you - even if you are 100 years old.
March 9, 1997 - Notorious B.I.G. (Christopher Wallace) was killed in a drive-by outside the Soul Train Music Awards in Los Angeles on this date. The murder has never been officially solved, though an ongoing feud with Death Row Records may have had something to do with it.
Today marks the observance of International Women’s Day, celebrating the achievements of inspiring women around the world. (This year, International Women’s Day will recognize the economic, political and social achievements of women.)
The earliest Women’s Day observance was held on February 28, 1909, in New York; it was organized by the Socialist Party of America in remembrance of the 1908 strike of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. An annual "international women's day" was first organized by the German socialist and theorist Clara Zetkin along with 100 delegates from 17 countries in March 1911.
March 8, 1933 -
The quintessential backstage musical, 42nd Street, premiered in New York City on this date.
Both Harry Warren and Al Dubin are credited onscreen for both music and lyrics, but no songs are credited onscreen. However, Warren wrote the music for all the songs recognized and listed in the soundtrack, and Dubin the lyrics for those songs which were sung.
March 8, 1959 -
The apex of the golden age of Television was achieved on this date when Groucho, Chico and Harpo make their final TV appearance together.
It was all down hill from here.
March 8, 1967 - Mad Monster Party was released by Embassy Pictures for Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc on this date.
In her stand-up comedy routines, Phyllis Diller (The voice of The Monster's Mate,) referred to her husband as "Fang". She decided to use that name when referring to the character of Frankenstein's Monster whom her character is married to in this film because that is what she is used to. The producers decided to allow that since the name "Frankenstein's Monster" was copyrighted and use of it would have required them to pay for its use.
March 8, 1964 -
The first of three film adaptions of Richard Matheson novel, I am Legend, The Last Man on Earth, starring Vincent Price, premiered on this date.
The script was written in part by Richard Matheson, but he was dissatisfied with the result and was therefore credited as Logan Swanson. Richard Matheson as felt Vincent Price was miscast as Robert Morgan.
March 8, 1991 -
The highest grossing independent film of 1991, New Jack City, directed by Mario Van Peebles was released on this date.
The film is largely based on a real-life Detroit gang known as The Chambers Brothers. Writer Barry Michael Cooper got the idea for the film after visiting Detroit and learning about the gang's exploits.
March 8, 1996 -
The film that put the Coen Bros. into the mainstream consciousness, Fargo, went into limited release on this date.
William H. Macy stated in an interview that, despite evidence to the contrary, he did hardly any ad-libbing at all. Most of his character's stuttering mannerisms were written in the script exactly the way he does them in the film.
Today in History: March 8, 1941 - Sherwood Anderson and his fourth wife, Eleanor, were enjoying a well deserved vacation on a ocean liner bound from from New York to Valparaiso, Chile. During a cocktail party on the ship, Anderson was enjoying his olive from a well chilled martini: it would be his last.
Anderson soon became very ill and he and his wife had to disembarked at Colon in Panama and headed to a local hospital. He died in agony, two days later on this date. An autopsy revealed that he had accidentally swallowed a small piece of a toothpick (presumably in the martini olive), which had perforated his colon and caused a fatal case of peritonitis.
Not a great way to go.
March 8, 1950 -
Marshal Voroshilov announces the existence of the Soviet atomic bomb.
This baffled the western powers, who were sure they had left it somewhere safe.
33 years later, on this date, the ever swift President Ronald Reagan gets around to calling the Soviets, "an evil empire."
March 8, 1968 -
The Soviet submarine, K-129, sank in the Pacific Ocean, killing all 97 crew members aboard. Later in the year a U.S. submarine secretly retrieves an encryption machine, codebooks, and nuclear warheads from the Soviet vessel.
A further bold attempt is made in 1974 to bring up the entire submarine using the CIA ship Glomar Explorer, built by Howard Hughes. That mission supposedly fails, and was made public by the Los Angeles Times to the great embarrassment of the Agency.
March 8, 1999 - Joseph Paul "Joe" DiMaggio passed away in his Florida home on this date in 1999.
We actually know where he's gone? And since he's been dead for 17 years, we should take our lonely eyes off of him.
Our court appointed guardians reminded us that we haven't run a Public Service Announcement in awhile. So, in order to fulfill our court ordered community service -
So kids remember, if you dream about peeing - WAKE UP!
March 7, 1936 - Walt Disney's Mickey's Grand Opera, premiered on this date.
I'm not a big Disney fan (especially Mickey Mouse) but this one is pretty funny. Donald Duck underwent a major face lift after this cartoon.
I'll tell you the plot - a man meets a woman at a European spa and tries to convince her (and himself) that they met one year ago. According to screenwriter Alain Robbe-Grillet, the movie is a pure construction, without a frame of reference outside of its own existence - just watch it.
March 7, 1955 - Peter Pan, the first full-length Broadway production broadcast in color, (starring Mary Martin and the show's original cast) was broadcast on this date.
It was so well received that the musical was restaged again live for television on January 9, 1956. Both of these broadcasts were produced in color, but only black-and-white kinescope recordings survive.
March 7, 1964 - John Frankenheimer's under- appreciated almost documentary-like thriller set set during WWII, The Train, premiered on this date.
Burt Lancaster took a day off during shooting to play golf when the shooting was about half completed. On the links he stepped in a hole and re-aggravated an old knee injury. In order to compensate for the injury, John Frankenheimer had Lancaster's character shot in the leg, thus enabling him to limp through the rest of the shooting.
March 7, 1986 -
This was a Red Letter Day for Daniel Day Lewis.
The stars somehow aligned for him and both My Beautiful Laundrette and A Room With A View, opened in NYC on this date.
Lewis was relatively unknown in the US at that time and critics raved about how great the range of his talent was to play such vastly different characters. (It's called acting)
Today in History: March 7, 1923 -
The popular poem by Robert Frost, Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening, was first published on this day in The New Republic.
It was an instant classic, and many a student can recite the lines:
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep but I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep and miles to go before I sleep."
March 7, 1933 - Charles Darrow, for some reason claims that he invented The Monopoly board game on this date. Thank your rich Uncle Pennybags.
(Quite truthfully, the history of the Monopoly game is so complicated, for legal reasons, just go with this date, don't ask about Elizabeth Magie's 'The Landlord Game' and her patent of March 23, 1903.)
March 7, 1945 -
Gen. George Patton urinated in the Rhine after the U.S. Third Army takes the bridge at Remagen on this date.
So remember, you can't slap a soldier for cowardice but you can piss in your enemy's river.
March 7, 1988 -
Transvestite actress Divine (Harris Glenn Milstead,) who appeared in several John Waters films, died from sleep apnea on this date. Divine was about to join the cast of Married with Children when she unexpected stopped breathing.
The producers of Married With Children sent flowers to the funeral, along with a humorous card that read, If you didn't want to do the show, you could have just SAID something!
The Crazy Mixed-Up Russian Revolution March 7, 1917 - Russia's 1917 February Revolution began on March 7, which was then the middle of February, in the city of St. Petersburg, which was then Petrograd, in what was then Russia, but would soon be the Soviet Union.
Tsar (or Czar) Nicholas II of the Romanov (or Romanoff) line had been away from St. Petersburg (or Petrograd) most of the winter, leading his army against the German Empire's Eastern Front (or Russia's Western Front).
Russia's peasants and workers had become exhausted by the war and its attendant famine and were exasperated by the Tsarina's indifference to their suffering. They were furious with the government, which had become two governments and therefore twice as bad. And they were tired of all this nonsense about March being February, St. Petersburg being Petrograd, the Czar being Tsar, and all those crazy, mixed-up fronts.
In short, the peasants were revolting. And so these poor bastards began a series of riots and strikes that eventually led to what is now known as the February Revolution.
With her usual delicate touch, the Tsarina tried to assuage the rioters by having them shot, but her soldiers refused to fire on the crowds. She therefore ordered the soldiers to shoot themselves and was disobeyed again.
It was a bleak moment for the House of Romanov, which like most monarchies had endured through the centuries largely as a result of its soldiers' willingness to shoot people.
One Year later:
On March 7, 1918 the Bolsheviks changed their name to the Russian Communist Party.
Bolsheviks is Russian for majority, as opposed to Mensheviks, which means minority. The Mensheviks, however, were in fact the majority party in 1918, and the Bolsheviks the minority, so the name change helped ease the work of journalists, who had become so confused they'd begun writing stories about children and ducks.
March 7, 1965 -
Protesting the shooting death of Jimmie Lee Jackson (a 26-year-old church deacon from Marion,) by an Alabama State Trooper, a group of more than 600 Civil Rights marchers trying to get to the state capitol in Montgomery, was broken up in Selma, Alabama, on this date.
Coverage of the riot, which was broken up by state troopers with teargas and whips, was one of the first to get major coverage in the Civil Rights movement and put the national spotlight on the issue.
