It is not a Holy Days of Obligation

It's the Feast of the Annunciation (now a days known as The Solemnity of the Annunciation),



I'm not even going to try to explain this one to you.



While you're in church this afternoon, ask one of the old lady in the back saying her decades of rosary to explain it to you. (This is for extra credit,) today is also the feast of St. Dismas, the patron of undertakers and prisoners.

Dismas was the repentant thief crucified with Christ. (You can impress the old lady saying her rosaries with that fact.)


March 25, 1932 -
Olympic gold medal swimmer Johnny Weismuller first stripped down to his leopard skin loin cloth - Tarzan the Ape Man premiered in NYC on this date.



Some of the monkeys used in this film got away, and they are still breeding in the wilderness of Silver Springs (in Ocala, Florida).


March 25, 1955 -
Richard Brooks's adaptation of Evan Hunter's novel, Blackboard Jungle, starring Glenn Ford, Sidney Poitier, Vic Morrow, Anne Francis, and Louis Calhern, premieres in the US on this date.



Clare Boothe Luce, then U.S. Ambassador to Italy, prevented the film from being shown at the Venice Film Festival; and a Senate committee had decided that the film would not have beneficial effects on contemporary youth. Both incidents only served to increase publicity and ticket sales for the controversial movie.


March 25, 1967 –
The Turtles song Happy Together hit No. #1 on the Billboard charts on this date.





Despite what the title implies, this is not a song about a couple in love. According to Gary Bonner, who wrote the song with Alan Gordon, the song is about unrequited love. Our desperate singer wants the girl to "imagine how the world could be so very fine," proposing what would happen "if I should call you up." The line in the fadeout, "How is the weather?" is when he realizes they will never be more than passing acquaintances, as he resorts to small talk to keep from bursting into tears.


March 25, 1968 -
The 58th and final episode of The Monkees, Mijacogeo (also known as The Frodis Caper,) aired on this date.



The initial version of The Monkees: Here Come the Monkees set a new record at the time - for the lowest ratings for a pilot. A re-edited version that featured Davy Jones' and Michael Nesmith's original screen tests at the beginning scored one of the highest test ratings ever.


March 24, 1972 -
America's first single, A Horse With No Name, rides to No. #1 on the Billboard Charts, on this date.



America was formed in England by sons of US servicemen who were stationed there. Lead singer Dewey Bunnell wrote this when he was 19. Although the song is commonly misinterpreted about being on drugs, it is not: Bunnell based the images in the lyrics on things he saw while visiting the US.


March 25, 1972 -
ABC-TV aired the final episode of Bewitched, The Truth, Nothing But the Truth, So Help Me, Sam on this date.



This episode is actually a remake of episode #50 Speak the Truth that aired during the second season.


March 25, 1982 –
The police drama Cagney & Lacey premiered on CBS-TV on this date.



When the series was originally set up as a feature film, one studio was willing to back it if the producer cast Ann-Margret and Raquel Welch as the title characters.


March 25, 1986 -
We all got to meet Cousin Balki for the first time when Perfect Strangers, Knock Knock, Who's There? premiered for the first time.



Bronson Pinchot originally turned down the role because he felt that it was too similar to his role in Beverly Hills Cop. The producers did indeed want him because of his performance in that film. After a visit to Greece, Pinchot changed his mind and wanted to play the character inspired by the generosity of the Greek people.


March 25, 1988 -
Pedro Almodóvar film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, starring Carmen Maura and Antonio Banderas was released in Spain on this date.



Pepa Marcos (the character played by Carmen Maura) lives on Calle Montalbán, which is two blocks away from Calle Antonio Maura, named after Carmen Maura's great-great-uncle (a five-time prime minister of Spain)


meet the Staff


Today in History:
Anne Brontë was baptized on March 25, 1820. She and her sisters Charlotte and Emily were avid writers. Women were not supposed to write books at the time because novels were still being written in the formal style, and it was feared that women would corrupt that classic form with their penchant for multiple climaxes. The Brontës therefore wrote under the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell.

Charlotte got to be Currer, which made the other girls jealous, because Currer was the handsome and swarthy sailor: Ellis was the stuttering librarian, and Acton was the simpleminded shepherd.


March 25, 1821 - (Για τους Έλληνες φίλους μου)
Greece revolted against the Ottoman Empire on this day (starting the Greek War of Independence,) which had been occupying and ruling it since the mid-1400s.



The war for independence lasted nine years, and was only settled after significant intervention.

The Greek people were so exuberant that they proclaimed the country a republic on this day in 1924, and officially deposed King George II (of Greece) and stripped of his Greek nationality, and sent him packing. (As if I needed to remind you, our favorite itinerant Greek sailor, Philip Mountbatten is/was related to all the modern Kings of Greece as well as most of the remaining royal houses of Europe.)


March 25, 1911 -
It's the 110th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire, the largest industrial disaster in the history of the city of New York, causing the death of 148 garment workers who either died from the fire or jumped to their deaths. It was the worst workplace disaster in New York City until September 11th, 2001.



The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, which fought for better working conditions for sweatshop workers in that industry.


March 25, 1915 -
During submarine maneuvers off Honolulu, Hawaii, USS F-4 (SS-23) sank on this day. Despite all efforts of naval authorities, all 25 of the crew members were lost.

This was the first major submarine disaster. An investigation board will later speculate that the lead lining around the vessel’s battery tank had corroded, leading to a leak that caused the crew to loose control during a submerged run.


March 25, 1942 -
The late great Aretha Louise Franklin (The Queen of Soul,) born in Memphis, Tennessee, on this date, was a singer, songwriter and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings, Franklin is adept at jazz, blues, R&B and gospel music.









Franklin has won eighteen Grammy Awards in total during her nearly half-century long career and holds the record for most Best Female R&B Vocal Performance awards with eleven to her name.


March 25, 1947 -
Reginald Kenneth Dwight, singer-songwriter, composer and pianist was born on this date as well.









In 2008, Billboard magazine ranked him as the most successful male solo artist on "The Billboard Hot 100 Top All-Time Artists"


March 25, 1965 -
Today was the end of a march by 25,000 civil rights supporters from Selma to Montgomery, led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. after four days and nights on the road under the protection of Army troops and federalized Alabama National Guardsmen. They were refused permission to give a petition to Governor Wallace which said: "We have come not only five days and 50 miles but we have come from three centuries of suffering and hardship. We have come to you, the Governor of Alabama, to declare that we must have our freedom NOW. We must have the right to vote; we must have equal protection of the law and an end to police brutality."



During the rally that followed the refusal by the Governor of Alabama, George Wallace, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stated "We are not about to turn around. We, are on the move now. Yes, we are on the move and no wave of racism can stop us."


March 25, 1967 -
As part of Operation Green Mist, the U.S. Army detonated explosive warheads containing the deadly sarin nerve agent at Upper Waiakea Forest Reserve on the big island of Hawaii.

The open-air tests are kept secret for more than 30 years.

Oops.


March 25, 1975 -
King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was assassinated by his nephew during a reception at Ri'Assa Palace on this date.



The nephew was beheaded the following June: his head was displayed on a spike as a warning for all to see.

Kids don't let this happen to you - remember to immediately pass the Baba ghanoush when dining with your family.


March 25 1990 -
An intentionally set fire at the Happy Land Social Club in NYC killed 87 by smoke inhalation, on this date.



At the time, the fire set by a jealous ex-boyfriend, held the record for a mass murder in the U.S. (until, of course the World Trade Center disaster.)



And so it goes.

Not to bum people out, but ...

A vaccine that prevented tuberculosis would merit a Nobel Prize, but it's just very difficult to develop. - Tom Frieden



Today is World Tuberculosis Day, commemorating the day in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch announced that he had discovered the cause of Tuberculosis, the TB bacillus.



(also it is supposed to remind people that tuberculosis still remains an epidemic in much of the world.)


I understand that it's the middle of the week but it's National Cocktail Day (World Cocktail Day is on the 13th of May,)

And yes, I know, you think you're funny saying, 'Every day is National Cocktail Day in your house'.


Today is also National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day - a day to enjoy this tasty combination of chocolate and fruit. Chocolate lovers who like raisins, find the combination simply irresistible. Kids find them irresistible, too.



Just make sure nobody owns a rabbit (or a guinea pig, believe me, we know from personal experience) at the home where you are enjoying those Raisinets (TM).


March 24, 1939 -
... Murder, my dear Watson. Refined, cold-blooded murder. ...

Twentieth Century Fox's released on this date, the first of 14 films based on Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional consulting detective Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles.



While not entirely passive, Watson's original role was mostly as an observer of Holmes and the chronicler of his cases. With this film a new tradition began where Watson enjoyed equal billing with Holmes. In Nigel Bruce's hands the character became a comedic foil and a bit of a bumbler. Later interpretations would vary, but the character remained greater than literature's original enigma.

Oh Watson, the needle!


March 24, 1939 -
William Wyler's adaptation of Emily Brontë's classic tragic romance, Wuthering Heights, starring Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier, premieres in Los Angeles on this date.



Producer Samuel Goldwyn felt that script was too dark for a romance movie, so he asked several people to do a re-write on the script, including a young John Huston, who said that the script needed no re-write, it was perfect as it was.


March 24, 1951 -
Scent-Imental Romeo, another funny Looney Tunes short starring (the soon to disappear) Pepé Le Pew, was released on this date.

>

This is the only Golden Age Pepe Le Pew cartoon in which Pepe does not continue chasing the cat (nor catches her) in the end.


March 24, 1973 -
The O'Jays' single Love Train (considered to be one of the first disco songs,) went to No. #1 on the Billboard Charts on this date.



The song was written by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, producers for the O'Jays. The team of Gamble & Huff would go on to write and produce over 170 gold and platinum records - and they also wrote Back Stabbers and For The Love Of Money, two more key songs in the O'Jays' career.


March 24, 2005 -
NBC-TV allowed us to follow the goings on at Dunder Mifflin when The Office, starring Steve Carell, Rainn Wilson, John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer, Mindy Kaling, and B.J. Novak premiered on this date.



Jenna Fischer, who won the role of Pam Beesley, prepared for her audition by looking as boring as possible. The look that Fischer wore to her audition became her character's signature look.


Another failed ACME Product


Today in History:
March 24, 1401 -
Tamerlane conquered Damascus on this date. Tamerlane (Timur the Lane) was a descendant of Ghenghis Khan, and one of the greatest Tater leaders ever, expanding the Mongol empire from the Pacific to the Mediterranean.

Tamerlane is best remembered for having built pyramids out of human skulls, owing to a faulty understanding of architecture which no one ever had the courage to correct.

Feel free to bring this up at the next cocktail party you attend, perhaps tonight, while you are celebrating National Cocktail day.


March 24, 1603 -
Tudor Queen Elizabeth I, the "Virgin Queen," died on this date. She had reigned from 1558-1603 and claimed never to have had a date.



Scottish King James VI, son of Mary, Queen of Scots, became King James I of England in the union of the crowns.


March 24, 1874 -
Harry Houdini, Erik Weisz (Ehrich Weiss) magician, escape artist, performed his first trick when he escaped from his mother's womb in Budapest on this date.



He is still working on perfecting his final trick of coming back from the dead.


March 24, 1895 -
Arthur Murray, American dancer who founded dance schools, was born on this date.



He proved to millions of Americans that they have no innate sense of rhythm.


March 24, 1944 -
76 Allied officers escaped Stalag Luft 3 on this date. In 1949, Paul Brickall wrote The Great Escape. The story of Jackson Barrett Mahon, an American fighter pilot, and the Allied POW escape from Stalag Luft III in Germany during WW II.



The 1963 film The Great Escape starred Steve McQueen, directed by John Sturges, was based on the true story.


March 24, 1958 - (Please note, you are about to see Elvis, stripped to the waist, in his skivvies. Should you need healing of any sort, please press one of your sweaty hand upon the screen and the other ever dampening palm upon your afflicted region.)
Elvis Aron Presley entered the United States Army at Memphis, Tennessee (serial number 53 310 761), on this date, and then spent three days at the Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, Reception Station.

While in the army, Elvis met his future wife, Priscilla, at a party. He left active duty at Fort Dix, New Jersey, on March 5, 1960, and received his discharge from the Army Reserve on March 23, 1964.


March 24, 1975 -
Alex Mitchell, a 50-year-old bricklayer from King's Lynn, England, died laughing while watching an episode of The Goodies, featuring a Scotsman in a kilt battling a vicious black pudding with his bagpipes on this date.



After 25 minutes of continuous laughter Mitchell finally slumped on the sofa and expired from heart failure. His widow later sent The Goodies a letter thanking them for making Mitchell's final moments so pleasant. (And the address where they can send her check.)


March 24, 1989 -
Cold Fusion was announced 32 years ago yesterday.



To celebrate this amazing advancement in energy, Captain Joseph Hazelwood downed, in rapid succession, five double vodka on the rocks and piloted the Exxon tanker Valdez.



He ran the Valdez into a well-charted reef at Prince William Sound, spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil. An estimated 250,000 seabirds were killed.

Oops



And so it goes.

Toast is the start of the day

Huzzah, it's Melba Toast Day.



The toast so named for the the Australian Opera singer Nellie Melba by her great admirer (and world famous French chef Auguste Escoffier.)



but folks, get a grip, it's just toast.


March 23, 1910 -
Akira Kurosawa, Japanese film director (Rashomon, The Seven Samurai, Ran), was born in Tokyo, Japan on this date.



It is often said that Kurosawa always wanted to make a Godzilla film, but the executives at Toho Co., Ltd. (the Japanese studio responsible for both Kurosawa and Godzilla) wouldn't let him because they feared it would cost too much.


March 23, 1950 -
The nearly-forgotten B noir Anthony Mann film, Side Street, re-uniting actors Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell (who had appeared together in the 1948 film, They Live By Night,) premiered on this date.



Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell first appeared together in They Live by Night, filmed at RKO Pictures in 1947 but put on the shelf by new studio boss Howard Hughes. Former RKO Production Chief Dore Schary feared the picture would never be released, so he paired the actors again in Side Street at his new studio, M-G-M. Hughes learned of this and, wanting to beat Schary to the punch, finally released They Live by Night in the USA in November 1949, just a few weeks before Side Street opened nationwide.


March 23, 1963 –
Everyone get ready for a slow dance (remember to leave room for the Holy Spirit): Ruby and the Romantics' song Our Day Will Come hit No. #1 on the Billboard Charts on this date.



Dionne Warwick recorded the original demo of the song for songwriter Bob Hilliard and she told him how much she liked it. Dionne recalls, "It was written during that period of time when I met Bacharach and David. Bob Hilliard wrote the song also and he said: 'I've got a good little song here and there's a new group called 'Ruby and the Romantics' and will you do the demonstration record?' I said: 'Of course. I'd love to. And I did. And I told him then that it was a really pretty song." In 1982 Dionne Warwick included it as her only cover on her 1982 album Heartbreaker.


March 23, 1982 -
The spin-off of the very successful series Happy Days, Joanie Loves Chachi, starring Erin Moran (R.I.P.) and Scott Baio (no comment) premiered on ABC-TV on this date.



Nobody loved this musical disaster, and it was cancelled after 19 episodes.


March 23, 1990 –
Garry Marshall surprise comedy hit Pretty Woman (which at one time was called $3,000,) starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere premiered in US theatres on this date.



Richard Gere improvised the scene where Edward snaps the necklace case down on Vivian's (Julia Roberts) fingers, and Roberts's reaction (laughter) was totally natural. The filmmakers liked it so much, they decided to leave it in.


Today's moment of Zen


Today in History:
March 23, 1369 -
Pedro the Cruel, King and tyrant of Castile and Leon, was murdered on this date. Enrique, the illegitimate son of Alfonso XI of Castile, killed his half brother Pedro I in the Castilian civil war and became King Enrique I the Bastard of Castile.

Once again, I must ask, what the hell were people thinking when they named their children.


March 23, 1534 -
Pope Clement VII declared that the marriage between Henry VIII of England and Catherine of Aragon was still valid, even though they'd been divorced the previous year and Henry had already married Anne Boleyn.

Henry decides to trump Clement with his extra I and invents his own religion and appoints a more agreeable pope.


March 23, 1840 -
Englishman John William Draper becomes the first person to successfully photograph the Moon.

The image, a full moon, is a daguerreotype, precursor of the later photograph.


March 23, 1908 -
I never go outside unless I look like Joan Crawford the movie star. If you want to see the girl next door, go next door.



Joan Crawford, actress (both legitimate films and porn), executive and child beater was born on this date.


March 23, 1912 -
Wernher von Braun, German - born rocket pioneer who led the development of the V-2 rocket during World War II was born on this date.





He was deemed one of the The Good Germans we collected as a bonus prize at the end of the war. Von Braun was said to be the preeminent rocket engineer of the 20th Century.


March 23, 1919 -
Benito Mussolini founded his own party in Italy on this date. He had tried all the other parties, but he was an awkward young man and had a hard time getting to know people. His Fasci di Combattimento ("Evil Fascist Bastards Party") was extremely popular, however, and even the cool kids came.



It got so crowded that the neighbors started complaining, which ended up starting a big fight, and the rest is history.


March 23, 1925 -
Tennessee Governor Austin Peay signs the Butler Act into law, making illegal the teaching in public school "any theory that denies the story of divine creation of man as taught in the Bible", on this date.



Teacher John Scopes couldn't think of anywhere else to teach evolution, so he ignored the ban and was later prosecuted in what became known as the Scopes Monkey Trial, which resulted in an Oscar for Spencer Tracy.


March 23, 1956 -
The Islamic Republic of Pakistan became an independent republic within the British Commonwealth (from 1947 until 1956, it was referred to as the Dominion of Pakistan,) on this date. Following the fighting in Pakistan and India in 1947, Muslims moved to Pakistan, creating a country where 96% of the population are Muslim.



Pakistan was the first modern nation to call itself an Islamic republic in conjunction with a largely secular constitution. Currently Pakistan has the world's sixth largest population.


March 23, 1961 -
Valentin Bondarenko was a young cosmonaut who had been doing routine medical tests in a pressure chamber as part of an isolation exercise, on this date. He removed some biosensors from his body and used a cotton ball moistened with alcohol to wash the sticky stuff off his skin.

He tossed the cotton ball aside and it landed on an electric hot plate, where it caught fire. Because the chamber's atmosphere was pure oxygen, the fire spread quickly. Bondarenko was removed from the chamber alive, but he died soon after of shock. Bondarenko's death was kept secret for 25 years. The fatal Apollo 1 disaster could have been averted if NASA had been aware of the accident


March 23, 1965 -
NASA launched Gemini III, nicknamed the “Molly Brown,” from Cape Canaveral on this date. It was the United State’s first maneuverable two-man mission. The mission was crewed by astronauts Virgil Ivan “Gus” Grissom and John W. Young.



The flight was the first for Young, who breaks quarantine regulations by smuggling a sandwich into orbit to share with Grissom. Before the end of the mission, Young would become the first man to eat a corned beef sandwich in space. Crumbs from the "weightless" sandwich scattered throughout the Gemini 3 spacecraft, posing a potential, if unintentional, flight safety risk. This rules violation caused NASA to clamp down on what astronauts could and could not carry into space.


March 23, 1989 -
A 1000-foot diameter asteroid misses the Earth by only 500,000 miles on this date.

Astronomers did not see it until it passed. To commemorate the event, today has become known as Near Miss Day.

Oops


March 23, 1997 -
Five dead bodies were found arranged in a cross formation at the burned Quebec home of Didier Queze. They were members of the Solar Temple cult who in 1994 to 1996 had totaled 69 suicides in Europe and North America.

Interestingly, in San Diego, The Heaven's Gate suicides (completely different set of nuts) leave 39 dead, all wearing NIKE shoes and many of the male members of the pact had previously voluntarily removed their members.



I believe this is the corollary to Thoreau's 'beware of all enterprises that require new clothes' - NEVER join a cult that requires you to remove your genitals.


Before I forgot - here are the answers to yesterday's quiz



And so it goes.

Today is World Water Day.

The lack of potable water is the second leading cause of death in many Third World countries (and it could be a lot sooner than you think in several states in the US.) World Water Day was first formally proposed in Agenda 21 of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.



So remember, after your morning coffee (or tea,) please remember to recycle your 'precious bodily fluids' and then wash your hands.

March 22, 1895 -
Auguste and Louis Lumiere first demonstrated motion pictures in Paris using celluloid film. Unless it was March 19, 1895, or December 28, 1894, or cellulite instead of celluloid. And it may have been in Milan, or Warsaw, and it's possible it wasn't Louis and Auguste Lumiere, but Max and Emil Skladanowsky.





The first motion picture shown on a screen is presented by Auguste and Louis Lumière during a private screening for the Société d’Encouragement à l’Industrie Nationale on this date in 1895.



An invited audience of 45 spectators at the Rue de Rennes in Paris, France, viewed the silent documentary film La Sortie des ouvriers de l’usine Lumière (Employees Leaving the Lumière Factory and Exiting the Factory), a film they shot especially for the occasion.


Two leading lights of twentieth century musical theatre were born on March 22: Stephen Sondheim (1930), best known for his work on Gypsy, West Side Story, Company and Sweeney Todd and Andrew Lloyd Webber (1948), best known for Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats and Phantom of the Opera.













By some mysterious natural process of compensation, March 22 is also the birthday of Marcel Marceau (1923),



best known for Actor Trapped in a Role.


March 22, 1931 -
How do I stay so healthy and boyishly handsome? It's simple. I drink the blood of young runaways....



William Shatner, arguably the world's (or at least Canada's) greatest actor was born today on this date.


March 22, 1963 -
The Beatles' first album, Please Please Me, was released in the UK on this date. The album went to the top of the UK charts in two months and remained there for 30 weeks.



Please Please Me has been ranked in the top 50 of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" by Rolling Stone. In the US, most of the songs on Please Please Me were first issued on Vee-Jay Records' Introducing... The Beatles in 1964 and subsequently on Capitol Records' The Early Beatles in 1965.


March 22, 1978 –
The seminal mockumentary about The Pre-Fab Four, The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, directed by Eric Idle and Gary Weis and starring some people from Monty Python and some other people from SNL, premiered on NBC-TV on this date.



Neil Innes, Ricky Fataar and John Halsey regrouped in 1996 to record Archaeology, their satirical response to the Beatles' Anthology. It consisted of tunes not used in the movie, rearranged Innes solo songs and one song penned as a spoof of Free as a Bird. Eric Idle didn't take part; Dirk McQuickly, the album's press materials explained, had quit the music business to become a comedian.


March 22, 1984 -
Queen filmed the video for I Want To Break Free at Limehouse Studio in London, England. Directed by David Mallet, it was a parody of the northern British soap opera Coronation Street with the band members dressed in drag.



Guitarist Brian May later claimed that the video ruined the band in America, and was initially banned by MTV in the US.


Word of the Day


Today in History:
March 22, 1622 -
A band led by the Brothers of Powhatan slaughtered 347 settlers near Jamestown, a quarter of the population, in the first Native American massacre of European settlers on this date.

Just think if those indigenous people had just followed the thought all the way through ....


March 22, 1687 -
Classical music and vanity do not mix, if fact, they can really kill you.

In early January of 1687, Jean-Baptiste de Lully, court music and gossip to King Louis XIV of France and notorious buggerer (but that's another story ...) was conducting a musical piece, beating time on the floor with a long staff. This was the common practice at the time before hand-held batons became the norm. He slammed his big toe.



The wound abscessed and eventually turned gangrenous. He refused to have his toe amputated (as he first started as a court dancer) because he could not bear the thought of disfigurement. The wound turned gangrenous and the infection spread, killing him three months later, on this date.


March 22, 1958 -
Michael Todd (nee Avrom Hirsch Goldbogen,) movie producer, (and one of the myriad of husband's of Elizabeth Taylor) and three other people were killed in the crash of Todd's private plane Lucky Liz, near Grants, New Mexico, on this date. In his autobiography, Eddie Fisher, who considered himself to be Todd's best friend (and another one of the myriad of husbands of Elizabeth Taylor,) stated that no fragments of Todd had been found, and that his coffin contained only his ring.



The Los Angeles Times reported in 1977 that Fisher's story was false - remains of Todd were indeed found and buried. His remains were desecrated by robbers, who broke into his coffin looking for the ring. The bag containing Todd's remains was found under a tree near his plot.

How big was that bag?


March 22, 1960 –
The first laser was patented (US Patent #2,929,922) by Arthur Schawlow and Charles Hard Townes under the title Masers and Maser Communications System.

There is no mention of whether or not drugs were involved in the creation of the laser or what album they were listening to at the time.


March 22, 1972 -
National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse recommended ending criminal penalties for possession of marijuana on this date.



Follow along (this may be on a different test) - As of November 2020, in the United States, the non-medical use of cannabis is decriminalized in 16 states (Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Virginia plus the U.S. Virgin Islands), and legalized in another 14 states (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington plus Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the District of Columbia).


March 22, 1978 -
One of the Flying Wallendas, 73 year old Karl Wallenda, plunges to his death on a cable strung between two hotels in San Juan, PR on this date.



Oops!


Don't forget to check out today's quiz on the Russian Monarchy


Before you go - Today is the earliest day on which Easter Sunday (in the Roman Catholic faith) may occur,



not that it occurs on this date this year; Easter is April 4th this year.



And so it goes.

Things you should know

Not that we all are sitting around talking about Holland…or the Netherlands…or Holland? This European country struggles with a little personality conflict when it comes to the world understanding its geography.



But it is actually quite easy to understand once it is all laid out. The country itself in the Netherlands. The section around Amsterdam is known as Holland. It’s sort of like a state within the country.


Today is World Poetry Day - a time to appreciate and support poets and poetry around the world. It is held on March 21 each year and is an initiative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).



The Hill We Climb - Amanda Gorman


March 21, 1940 -
Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again ...

Alfred Hitchcock's first American production, the thriller Rebecca, starring Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson, George Sanders and Gladys Cooper premiered in Miami on this date.



Because Laurence Olivier wanted his then-girlfriend Vivien Leigh to play the lead role, he treated Joan Fontaine horribly. This shook Fontaine up quite a bit, so director Alfred Hitchcock decided to capitalize on this by telling her everyone on the set hated her, thus making her shy and uneasy, just what he wanted from her performance.


March 21, 1952 -
The first rock and roll concert was held in America on this date, when DJ Alan Freed (the man who coined the phrase "Rock and Roll") hosted The Moondog Coronation Ball in Cleveland, Ohio.

The first rock and roll concert was shut down after the first act, when it appeared that a riot might break out.





The reason the concert ended in disaster: a minor printing error. The mistake was caused by someone forgetting to add the date to tickets issued for a follow-up ball, which Leo Mintz, an early rock-n-roll promoter had set about organizing immediately after the initial one sold out. As a result, an estimated 20,000 people showed up on the same night for the first concert - at a venue which could hold half that number.


March 21, 1964 -
The Beatles' single She Loves You, went #1 and stayed #1 for two weeks on this date.



The Beatles released a German version translated as Sie Liebt Dich in the US in 1964. They learned some German when they became the house band in Hamburg in 1962, but needed a German speaker to help them with the lyrics. They recorded the German version in Paris - it was the only time they recorded outside of England.


March 21, 1980 -
Pink Floyd’s protest song against rigid British schooling, Another Brick in the Wall, reaches No.1 on Billboard charts, beginning an 11-week stay on the top of the charts on this date.



Called (Pt. 2), it became their only No.1 single in the U.S. and U.K., and many other countries—and it sold over four million copies worldwide.


March 21, 1980 –
On the season finale of Dallas, the infamous character J.R. Ewing was shot by an unknown individual - Who Shot JR?



Viewers had to wait all summer, and most of the autumn because of a Hollywood actors' strike (and Hagman's own holdout), to learn whether J.R. would survive, and which of his many enemies was responsible.


March 21, 1995 -
We all get to spend Dave Nelson's first day at WNYX when NewsRadio, starring Dave Foley, Phil Hartman, Maura Tierney and Andy Dick premiered on NBC-TV, on this date.



Jon Lovitz appeared as three different characters in the series: 1. A guest appearance as a mental patient who befriends Bill McNeal, 2. A guest appearance as a suicidal man perched on the ledge outside Dave's window, 3. As Max Lewis, a radio DJ who had several dozen jobs in his past, but who was hired to replace the late Bill McNeal, largely because he had once worked alongside him. Lovitz said that he took the role to honor the memory of his good friend, the late Phil Hartman.


March 21, 1990 -
The short-lived CBS sitcom, Sydney, starring Valerie Bertinelli and a pre-Friends Matthew Perry, premiered on this date.



Valerie Bertinelli and Craig Bierko would work together again years later on Hot in Cleveland.


Another Book from the ACME back library


Today in History:
March 21, 1556 -
Former Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer (who led the effort to help Henry VIII marry Anne Boleyn,) scheduled to denounce his errors and be burned at the stake (after Queen Mary, Henry's daughter, attained the throne), denounced his own confessions and was hustled off to be burned.



He then put forth his hand and declared: “For as much as my hand offended, writing contrary to my heart, my hand shall first be punished.”

Oh that wacky English Reformation.


March 21, 1843 -
According to confused Biblical scholar William Miller, Christ would return sometime in the year following this day in 1843. After Jesus failed to appear by the next March, Miller claimed it was the result of an arithmetic error and recalculated the deadline to be October 22, 1844.

The Lord had other plans on that date as well.


March 21, 1943 -
Cornelia Fort was flying with a student pilot on the morning of December 7, 1941, when they nearly collided with a Japanese aircraft leaving the scene at Pearl Harbor. Thus she became one of the few airborne eyewitnesses to the attack.



She was the second woman to volunteer for the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (the WAFS, which later merged into the WASPs, or Women Airforce Service Pilots), whose members logged millions of miles ferrying aircraft to points of embarkation and towing targets for training exercises. On a routine ferrying flight in 1943, Fort died at the controls of an aircraft when another plane struck hers. She was the first woman pilot to die in the line of duty for the U.S. military


March 21, 1947 -
In honor of the start of Spring, let us seriously consider spring cleaning and the unhappy ending of the Collyer brothers.

Homer and Langley Collyer were well-to-do New Yorkers who grew up in a fashionable brownstone in Harlem with their mother and father, just before the turn of the previous century. Unfortunately the brothers, both college graduates, over the years became eccentric hermits and literally walled themselves into their filthy brownstone, cramming it with junk Langley had found on the street (Homer had gone blind and crippled with severe rheumatism.)



On March 21, 1947, police received a tip that there was a dead body in their house. After several hours of trying to crawl their way through the ceiling high booby trapped corridors of newspapers and junk, the police found Homer, who had died apparently only a few hours previously. The problem was - where was Langley?



18 days later and almost 100 tons of trash removed later, the decomposing and rat gnawed corpse of Langley was discovered, crushed in one of his own booby trap warrens. Medical examiners concluded that Langley had died a week earlier than his brother and Homer, blind and crippled, died several days later of malnutrition, dehydration, and cardiac arrest. Not a happy way to go.



So kids, clean your room and get outside and play with your friends, but at least 6 feet apart. And wash your hands


March 21, 1962 -
A two-year old female black bear, named Yogi, was taken aboard a B-58 bomber out of Edwards Air Force Base in California, flown up to 35,000 feet at a supersonic speed of 850 miles per hour, and ejected from the bomber in a specially made capsule. She landed safely, and became the first living creature to survive a parachute jump from a plane flying faster than sound.



Imagine what PETA would have made of this test at the time.


March 21, 1963 -
Alcatraz Prison was closed at the order of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy on this date. (The same year, the United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois opened as the replacement facility for Alcatraz.)



Hardened criminals would have to go elsewhere to experience the joys of prison sex by the sea.


March 21, 1970 -
On this date, Vinko Bogataj crashes during a ski-jumping championship in Germany;



his image becomes that of the "agony of defeat" guy in the opening credits of ABC's Wide World of Sports.


March 21, 1976 -
David Bowie and Iggy Pop were arrested on suspicion of marijuana possession in New York. They were released on $2,000 bail. The charges were later dropped on 4/20/76.



Musicians using drugs - shocking, shocking, I tell you.


March 21, 1980 -
Mobster Angelo The Docile Don Bruno was killed with a shotgun blast to the head while he waits in his car after dinner. The order was probably ordered Anthony Tony Bananas Caponigro, Bruno's consigliere, so much for family loyalty. His replacement, one of Bruno's former capo Phil Chicken Man Testa, is short lived, as he is killed a year later by a nail bomb at his home.

One must assume that their parents knew something about their future careers when giving them middle names.


Today's episode of Oh, that Wacky Russian Revolution:

The Russian Royal family was having a really bad day. On March 21, 1917, Nicholas II and his family were arrested. It was a confused and confusing period, and the situation would only continue to deteriorate until the October Revolution (in November).

The eventual triumph of the proletariat, as everyone knows, finally put an end to all the suffering and oppression in Russia.

Since yesterday was Fred Rogers birthday, I believe an important comparison should be shown to help you better understand the Russian Imperial dynasty:

Hereditary heads of the Romanov Russian empire, 1613-1917: 19
Hosts of the long-running PBS series Mr Rogers’ Neighborhood: 1
Russian heads of state to have died by natural causes: 10
On-screen deaths on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood: 0
Average length of Russian reign, in years: 15.6
Years Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood ran: 31
Russian emperors to die of dropsy: 1
Dropsy deaths in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe: 0
Russian emperors assassinated: 5
Assassination attempts on the life of King Friday XIII: 0
Bolshevik Revolutions in the Neighborhood of Make Believe: 0

Please be prepared for a quiz tomorrow.



And so it goes.

O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?

Bunkies I know that this may seem hard to believe,

but Winter appears to be officially over.



While you are attempting to balance those eggs and brooms today, remember that the Vernal Equinox occurred at 5:37 AM (EDT) this morning.



That means it’s spring. This year, please don't take off your clothes. Stay at home and wash your hands.



And avoid opening up a 1,000 year old book while you're on a picnic (if you know what's good for you.)

Also, this is the last time this year that you can call in sick because of your New Year's Eve celebration from the night before; Happy Nowruz or Persian New Year as it is sometimes known as - hopefully this does not put me in the wrong with the NSA.


The United Nations now recognizes that 'progress' could be measured in the increase in human happiness and well being, not just growing the economy. March 20 has been established as the annual International Day of Happiness and all 193 United Nations member states have adopted a resolution calling for happiness to be given greater priority.





This campaign is a global celebration to mark the United Nations International Day of Happiness. It is coordinated by Action for Happiness, a non-profit movement of people from 160 countries, supported by a partnership of like-minded organizations.

So, I'm not sure, given all of the tumult in the political realm in the good Old U.S.A, where we land on the happiness scale?


March 20, 1971 –
Janis Joplin's hit Me and Bobby McGee reached no. #1 on the Billboard Charts on this date. It was her only solo number one single, released on the posthumous album Pearl.



The song was written by Kris Kristofferson, who has written hundreds of songs for a wide variety of artists. Kristofferson would become a successful solo artist and appear in several movies, but it was Janis Joplin's hit cover of this song that brought his career to the next level.


March 20, 1973 -
The TV movie pilot for the series The Police Story, Slow Boy, starring Vic Morrow, Edward Asner, Diane Baker, Chuck Connors, and Harry Guardino premiered on NBC TV on this date.



In the opening stakeout scene, the squad is watching Slow Boy (Chuck Connors) outside a theater showing the movie The New Centurions, which is the movie based on the novel by Joseph Wambaugh.


March 20, 1987 –
Robert Townsend's seminal satirical comedy Hollywood Shuffle, starring Robert Townsend and a whole bunch of the Wayan family premiered on this date.



Robert Townsend put $40,000 of the film's $100,000 budget on ten personal credit cards. He got free film stock by splicing together leftovers from the production of Odd Jobs and Ratboy. The 17 days of shooting were spread over two years, between Townsend's tours as a stand-up comedian.


March 20, 1992 -
Crossing one's legs would never be the same - Basic Instinct starring Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone, premiered on this date.



The character of Nick was originally supposed to be a young man, but after Michael Douglas was cast, his age was described in the script as forty-two (Douglas was actually forty-seven). Michael Douglas had a full facelift before filming began.

Don't forget to tune in to The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour today


Today in History:
March 20, 1345 –
According to some very drunk french scholars at the University of Paris, the Black Death was created on this date, from what they called “a triple conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars in the 40th degree of Aquarius", occurring on the 20th of March 1345.

Actually, the bubonic plague came from infected fleas from sickened and dead rats and at its peak, the disease wiped out over a third of Europe. (This will be on the test.)


March 20, 1413 -
During his lifetime it had been predicted that King Henry IV would die in Jerusalem. The king himself took this to mean that he would die on Crusade. Rather wisely he kept away from entering the holy city – wouldn’t you?

As it happened on this date, Henry visited the Abbot of Westminster's house and has a massive coronary as he entered the Jerusalem Chamber in Westminster Abbey.


On March 20, 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte entered Paris and began his "Hundred Days" rule (from March 20 to July 8, 1815 ), which lasted 111 days. Days were measures in the metric system back then.



Napoleon was accompanied by a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of around 200,000, Napoleon again became ruler of France. The period of Napoleon's last period of power in France, from March 20 to July 8, 1815 is often called the Hundred Days. It is in fact 111 days.


March 20, 1828 -
Let's drink a toast of Aquavit to the playwright Henrik Ibsen, born in Skien, Norway on this date. He was a small time cherry herring bootlegger and an assistant stage manager for a new theater, where it was his job to produce a new drama each year based on Norway's glorious past. He produced a number of plays, but none got any attention (owning much to the fact that while it was true that Norway did have a past - most of it was quite boring. None of it was glorious.) Overworked, under paid and very cold, he applied to the government for a stipend to study the fjords. The government decided to give him one to to travel abroad, and off he went. He spent the next 27 years living in Italy and Germany, pining for the fjords.



He found that by leaving his homeland, he could finally thaw out and see Norway clearly, and he began to work on creating a true Norwegian drama. At a time when most people were writing plays full of sword fights and murders, Ibsen started to write plays about relationships between ordinary people. The type of people that have terrible social diseases, suicidal tendencies, murderous intent in their heart, incestuous thoughts and old leches - the ordinary people of Norway.

He used dialogue rather than monologues to reveal his characters' emotions, and he stopped writing in verse. He said, "We are no longer living in the age of Shakespeare. ... What I desire to depict [are] human beings, and therefore I [will] not let them talk the language of the gods." Except he said that in Norwegian.



One of Ibsen's first important plays was A Doll's House (1879), about a woman named Nora who refuses to obey her husband and eventually leaves him, walking out of the house and slamming the door in the final scene. When it was first produced, European audiences were shocked, and it sparked debate about women's rights, divorce and home improvements across the continent. It also changed the style of acting. At the time, most actors were praised for their ability to deliver long poetic speeches and avoiding bumping into the furniture, but Ibsen emphasized small gestures, the inflection of certain words, and pauses, and he inspired a new generation of actors to begin embodying the characters they played.



A Doll's House made Ibsen a celebrity across Europe. His play Ghosts (1881) came out two years later. It's frank depiction of pottery making further scandalized the theatre going population.

Henrik Ibsen said, "You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth. You should also never wear them when mucking out the toilets of the theatre. Have you seen what these actors eat?"

There is only one known picture in which Ibsen smiles. And yes, he was passing gas at the time.


March 20, 1899 -
Martha M. Place, the first woman to be honored with a warm seat in the electric chair, for the bloody murder of her 17 year old stepdaughter Ida, died at Sing-Sing Prison on this date.

Having never executed a woman in the electric chair, those responsible for carrying out the death warrant devised a new way to place the electrodes upon her. They decided to slit her dress and place the electrode on her ankle. Edwin Davis was the executioner. According to the reports of witnesses, she died instantly (having a large amount of electric course through your body normally results in ones death).

The governor of the State of New York Theodore Roosevelt was asked to pardon Place, but he refused. "Bully!"

Martha Place was buried in the family cemetery plot in East Millstone, New Jersey without religious observances.


March 20, 1900 -
Nikola Tesla received a patent (US 645576 A) for the wireless transmission of electric power on this date.

Early radio antennas and telegraphy used the invention, but variations of the coil can also do things that are just plain cool - like shoot lightning bolts, send electric currents through the body and create electron winds.


March 20, 1917 -
Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn?



Dame Vera Lynn, actress and singer, who was enormously popular during World War II, was born on this date. A few years ago, she broke her own record as the oldest living artist to release an album on the British charts, at the age of 100.


March 20, 1928 -
Remarkably, Fred Rogers was born today in Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood,



and not some other place.

While you're home this weekend, why not check out A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. And wash your hands.


March 20, 1969 -
Small town musician (John Lennon) married unknown conceptual artist (Yoko Ono) on this date.



I wonder what ever happened to them.


March 20, 1985 -
Libby Riddles made history on this date when she became the first woman to win the grueling 1,049-mile Iditarod Sled Dog Race, after a daring move across Norton Sound in a deadly blizzard.



She was named 1985 Sports Woman of the Year by the Women’s Sports Foundation and honored by the Iditarod veterinarians with the 1985 Leonhard Seppala Humanitarian Award for her humane treatment of her dogs. In addition, her two lead dogs, Dugan and Sister, won the 1985 Golden Harness Award that year.


March 20, 1995 -
The last words of Thomas J. Grasso, executed in Oklahoma by lethal injection on this date: "I did not get my Spaghetti-O's, I got spaghetti. I want the press to know this."

Duly noted Mr. Grasso.


March 20, 1995 –
The Aum Shinrikyo (Supreme Truth) cult released Sarin gas into the Tokyo subway system, killing a dozen people and sickening thousands.



The attack was the worst in modern Japanese history, and prompted global concern about terrorist groups obtaining chemical weapons.



And so it goes.