Today is National Vice President's Day - It's the day to consider the succession plan of the President of the United States.
The day also acknowledges the one president who was neither elected vice president nor president –
Gerald Ford.
August 9, 1930 -
A forerunner of the cartoon character Betty Boop made her debut in Max Fleischer's animated short Dizzy Dishes on this date.
In later films she loses the dog ears and becomes the familiar human character we know today.
August 09, 1941 -
The Looney Tunes short, We, the Animals - Squeak!, directed by Bob Clampett, and starring Pork Pig, was released on this date.
"Kansas City Kitty" was the name given to a P-51D Mustang during World War II.
August 9, 1944 -
Another brilliant war-time effort by Preston Sturges, Hail the Conquering Hero, once again starring Eddie Bracken premiered on this date.
When the six Marines, led by Sgt. Heffelfinger (William Demarest) are in the nightclub and go to see who bought them a beer, the scene at the bar lasts for 5 minutes, 11 seconds in one continuous shot. Eddie Braken as Woodrow Truesmith impressively manages to include in his dialogue a long list of battles the Marines fought in from 1775 through 1944 when the film was in production.
August 09, 1952 -
The Looney Tunes short, Hoppy Go Lucky, directed by Bob McKimson, and starring Sylvester and Hippety Hopper, was released on this date.
A homage to the character's George and Lenny from George Steinbeck's 1937 book Of Mice and Men, they also appeared in an episode a year later, Cat-Tails for Two.
August 9, 1963 -
The first ever edition of Ready Steady Go! was shown on UK TV. Introduced by Keith Fordyce and 19 year-old Cathy McGowan. The first show featured The Searchers, Jet Harris, Pat Boone, Billy Fury and Brian Poole and The Tremeloes.
The final show was in December 1966 after 175 episodes. Originally 30 minutes long, it expanded to 50 minutes the following year, and soon attracted the most popular artists, including The Beatles, The Lovin' Spoonful, The Rolling Stones, The Four Tops, The Kinks and many others.
August 9, 1969 -
Three Dog Night released a cover version of the song Easy To Be Hard, on this date.
The song was from the 1967 rock musical Hair. It was written by Galt MacDermot, James Rado, and Gerome Ragni, who put the musical together in the mid-1960s.
August 9, 1969 -
Sly and the Family Stone released the single Hot Fun In The Summertime, on this date.
The song was released as a standalone single but has shown up on many compilations. It came at a time when Sly & the Family Stone were at their peak, shortly before Sly Stone slid into a drug-induced abyss, taking the band down with him. Sly became very unreliable and their music suffered. In 1972, key members Larry Graham and Gregg Errico left, and in 1975 the band broke up. Over the next 30 years, Stone made sporadic appearances but never staged a full-fledged comeback.
August 9, 1975 -
The Bee Gees single, Jive Talkin', reached No. #1 on the Billboard charts on this date.
This was the first big disco hit for The Bee Gees. They became icons of the era, singing in falsetto harmonies over dance beats. They had seven more #1 hits in the disco era, but the band went out of style at the same time as white leisure suits. The group, which had considerable success in the late '60s and early '70s, took a lot of heat in the press. This criticism - accusations of selling out and creating popular schlock - stung, and took a toll on the group. They would often point out that disco became homogenized in the years after they got to it, and that their sound was really an extension of R&B.
August 9, 1985 -
The Tim Burton comedy, Pee-wee's Big Adventure starring Paul Reubens, Elizabeth Daily, Mark Holton, Diane Salinger and Judd Omen, was released n this date.
Paul Reubens said that he, Phil Hartman, and Michael Varhol had never written a screenplay prior to this film. They purchased a book by Syd Field on how to write screenplays and did exactly what the book said. As a result, this movie is sometimes used in screenwriting classes because it fits the screenwriting paradigm perfectly - the film is 90 minutes long and the script is 90 pages long. The first act ends at Page 30 / 30-minute mark, the second act ends at Page 60 / 60-minute mark, etc.
August 9, 1988 -
Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians release their debut album, Shooting Rubberbands At The Stars, the title a reference to their longshot chances of making it big, on this date.
The first single is the easygoing, introspective What I Am, which stands out from the dance music and hair metal on the charts and becomes a surprise hit.
Another record from the discount bin at The ACME Shoppe.
Today in History:
August 9, 378 (Or what ever the hell the date was on the calendar they were using at the time) -
Valens, the Roman Emperor of the East, led an army of 30,000 men against a horde of Visigoths outside Adrianople, on this date. The Romans got off to a good start, but soon the Visigoth cavalry returned from its foraging mission. The Roman infantry was no match for the Visigoths on horseback and two-thirds of the Romans, including the Emperor, were slaughtered.
Military strategists were at last compelled to acknowledge that guys on horses were stronger than guys who weren't on horses. This was the most significant development in western warfare since the discovery of the big stick and European warfare was permanently and irreversibly altered in favor of guys on horses.
Construction began on Il campanile della Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta (Tower of Pisa) began on this date in 1173. Unfortunately it was still the Dark Age and without the proper illumination, tower started to lean almost immediately after construction began because of an improperly laid foundation (this was possibly the only thing improperly laid in Italy.)
Construction was delayed almost 200 years because the Pisans were almost constantly working on other projects like inventing Marinara sauce and The Renaissance.
August 9, 1492 -
Rodrigo Borgia allowed the Cardinals of Rome to inspect his genitals (a practice subsequently bequeathed to Bishops). Only after he had proved to the Cardinals' satisfaction that he was, indeed, a man, was Mr Borgia permitted to be Pope Alexander VI.
As the noted historian Orson Welles observed in The Third Man: "In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love -- they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."
Rodrigo Borgia had earned the papacy the old-fashioned way: through nepotism and bribery. Once he had it, he turned it into a family institution. His two legitimate children, Cesare and Lucrezia, were alternately married off to cement alliances, divorced or widowed to initiate hostilities, or dispatched with poison to conduct diplomacy.
When out of town on business, he left Lucrezia in charge of the Papacy. In gratitude, she bore him a son.
(Many scholars repudiate this charge, insisting that the Pope could not possibly have fathered his own daughter's child. They assign paternity to Lucrezia's brother Cesare.)
By 1503, Alexander VI had expanded Rome's powers considerably and was therefore poisoned. Three years later Cesare died while fighting as a mercenary in Spain. Lucrezia died in 1514 from complications of pregnancy. That was more or less the end of the Borgias, and the Papacy has become less and less interesting with the passing of every year since.
August 9, 1944 -
Smokey Bear debuted on this date, when the U.S. Forest Service and the Ad Council agreed that a fictional bear would be the symbol for their joint effort to promote forest fire prevention.
Artist Albert Staehle was asked to paint the first poster of Smokey Bear. It depicted a bear pouring a bucket of water on a campfire and saying “Care will prevent 9 out of 10 fires.”
August 9, 1945 -
Just three days after Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima, a second atomic bomb (a 22 kiloton Atomic Bomb) called Fat Man was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, population 270,000, by the U.S. B-29 bomber Bockscar. Though the amount of energy generated by the bomb was significantly larger than that of the Little Boy, the damage to the city was slighter than that inflicted upon Hiroshima due to the geographic structure of the city.
The blast kills 24,000 immediately, but another 46,000 perish from radiation-related illnesses over the next four months.
Interesting side note - One man survived both the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and then later Nagasaki.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi was a 29-year-old Naval Engineer on a three-month business trip to Hiroshima. On August the 6th 1945, the Enola Gay dropped its atomic payload on the city. Yamaguchi was less than 2 miles from ground zero and was thrown into a potato patch. He survived the blast and was able to make a perilous journey through the devastated city to the railway station.
From there, on August the 7th, he boarded a train on an overnight ride to his hometown of Nagasaki. On the morning of August 9th, he was with some colleagues in an office building when another boom split the sound barrier. A flash of white light filled the sky. Yamaguchi emerged from the wreckage with only minor injuries on top of his current injuries. He had survived two nuclear blasts in two days.
August 9, 1969 -
Charles Manson and his band of "children" committed the first in a series of grisly murders high in the Hollywood Hills on this date. The unfortunate victims, including Sharon Tate, were probably not the intended targets of this crime.
Rumors have it that Charlie was looking for record producer Terry Melchar (Doris Day's son) who turned him down for a record contract. Melchar was away and rented the house to Tate at the time.
August 9, 1974 -
After President Richard M. Nixon resigned from office,
Ford was the only person to hold the office of US Vice President and US President without being elected to either office; he also served on the Warren Commission.
Coincidence, you decide!
August 9, 1995 -
Jerry Garcia died of a heart attack at Serenity Knolls near Novato, California, on this date.
He had checked himself into the drug rehab center a few days prior, in hopes of kicking his longstanding heroin habit.
And so it goes.
Sunday, August 9, 2026
Saturday, August 8, 2026
Technicians are working hard to resolve this issue
For reasons unknown, today is Sneak Some Zucchini on Your Neighbor’s Porch Day:
You know thinking about it, somehow it seems somewhat dirty. (BTW, today is International Female Orgasm Day. Only you can figure out the connection between the two for yourself.)
August 08, 1936 -
One of the "Censored 11" banned from T.V. syndication by United Artists in 1968, the Merrie Melodies short, Sunday Go to Meetin' Time, directed by Friz Freleng, was released on this date.
The plot of this cartoon is similar to the earlier Goin' to Heaven on a Mule and the later Wholly Smoke. The former is so similar that this short could be considered a remake of it.
August 08, 1942 -
The Merrie Melodies short, The Squawkin' Hawk, directed by Chuck Jones, and starring Henery Hawk (in his first appearance,) was released on this date.
Henery is known as "Junior" in this short. It is not until Walky Talky Hawky that he is given an actual name.
August 8, 1953 -
The song Vaya con Dios recorded by Les Paul and his wife Mary Ford reached number one on the Billboard magazine Best Seller Chart and stayed there for 9 weeks.
In 2005, the 1953 Les Paul and Mary Ford recording was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame.
August 08, 1953 -
The Looney Tunes short, Bully for Bugs, directed by Chuck Jones, and starring Bugs Bunny, was released on this date.
The conception of this cartoon came about when Eddie Selzer, the head of Warner Bros. Cartoons at the time, randomly appeared in the writer's office to announce that there were to be no bullfighting cartoons made because he claimed bullfights weren't funny. Chuck Jones and Mike Maltese, dumbfounded from witnessing this, began to make a bullfight cartoon immediately.
August 8, 1960 -
Decca Records in England refuses to release Ray Peterson's latest single, Tell Laura I Love Her, going so far as to throw away 25,000 pressings of the teen-tragedy song, which they feel is "too tasteless and vulgar for the English sensibility."
A cover by Ricky Valance proves them wrong by going straight to #1. (The grisly song, in which a stock-car driver mutters the title words before he dies, ironically only reaches #7 in America.)
August 8, 1960 -
Brian Hyland's song Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini reached number one on the pop charts.
For most of his adult life, a man named Paul Van Valkenburgh claimed that he wrote this under the name Paul Vance, and that he sold the rights to it when he was young. Even his wife, who he was married to for 40 years, believed him. When Valkenburgh died in 2006, his obituary reported that he wrote the song, and relatives of the real Paul Vance received condolences, only to find out that Vance was very much alive and had the royalty checks to prove that he really did write the song. According to Vance, he has no ill feelings toward Valkenburgh, and claims that the song has made him several million dollars.
August 8, 1963 -
John Sturges' adventure film, The Great Escape, starring Steve McQueen, premiered on this date.
One day, the police in the German town where this movie was shot set up a speed trap near the set. Several members of the cast and crew were caught, including Steve McQueen. The Chief of Police told McQueen "Herr McQueen, we have caught several of your comrades today, but you have won the prize (for the highest speeding)." McQueen was arrested and briefly jailed.
August 8, 1975 –
AVCO Embassy Pictures released Farewell, My Lovely, a film adaptation of the classic Raymond Chandler novel of the same name. The film starred Robert Mitchum, Charlotte Rampling, John Ireland, Sylvia Miles, Harry Dean Stanton, Joe Spinell, Sylvester Stallone, Jack O'Halloran, and even featured a cameo by hardboiled crime novelist Jim Thompson.
The gambling boat Lido featured in the film is one of two described in Raymond Chandler’s original novel. These fictional boats were based on real-life vessels that operated just beyond the three-mile offshore limit, placing them outside California's legal jurisdiction. As a result, they functioned with near impunity as floating casinos. At the time, California Attorney General Earl Warren attempted to extend the jurisdiction to 12 miles in order to shut them down. However, the effort failed when attorneys for the boat owners successfully argued that the starting point for measuring a 12-mile limit was not clearly defined. A 12-mile limit would have effectively ended their operations, since a round-trip water taxi ride of that distance would be impractical for a night’s entertainment. Earl Warren would later become nationally prominent as the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and the head of the Warren Commission investigating the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
August 8, 1980 -
The fantasy musical Xanadu, starring Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly, debuts to scathing reviews ("In a word, Xana-don't.") on this date, and inspires the Golden Raspberry Awards for the worst films of the year.
The film was meant to launch Olivia Newton-John's career as a solo star. Due to its complete failure at the American box office, it became the one and only time she received top billing without a co-star in a theatrical release.
August 8, 1987 -
U2 scored their second US No.1 single from their Joshua Tree album with I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For on this date.
This was influenced by gospel music. Bono wanted The Joshua Tree to explore various forms of American music they had encountered while touring there. The album's co-producer Daniel Lanois said he nudged Bono in the gospel direction on tracks like this one.
August 8, 1988 -
N.W.A released their debut album Straight Outta Compton on this date, which has been certified triple platinum and became the first rap album inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Not merely depicting Compton’s street violence, the track F#*% tha Police drew an FBI agent’s warning letter, which aided N.W.A’s notoriety, with N.W.A calling itself “the world’s most dangerous group.”
Don't forget to tune in to a classic airing of The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour today
Today in History:
August 8, 1908 -
Wilbur Wright made his first public flight demonstration for the first time to a very skeptical audience in Le Mans, France, at the Hunaudières horse racing track, on this date.
Wilbur Wright made his first public flight demonstration for the first time to a very skeptical audience in Le Mans, France, at the Hunaudières horse racing track, on this date.
Wilber's ability to effortlessly make banking turns and fly a circle amazed and stunned onlookers, including several pioneer French aviators, among them Louis Bleriot.
August 8 1925 -
(Please note, this is not footage of the January 6th insurrection.) 40,000 robed Klansmen march down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. -- a bit less than 1% of total Klan membership (and the Klan membership included about 15% of the nation's eligible voting population.)
Very scary, boys and girls, very scary (Please don't let a certain indicted former government official see this clip.)
August 8, 1929 -
Taking off from Lakehurst N.J., heading east, the German airship Graf Zeppelin began its 21-day, around-the-world flight.
The flight was partly sponsored by American newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, who paid for about half the cost of the flight in return for exclusive media rights in the United States and Britain.
August 8, 1942 -
Eight Germans secretly entered the US during World War II with plans to attack the US civil infrastructure. They were captured due to information provided by two of the Nazis, George Dasch and Ernest Burger.
Dasch and Burger were imprisoned and the other six Nazi saboteurs were executed on this date. In 1948, President Harry S. Truman released Dasch and Burger, allowing them to return to Germany.
August 8, 1945 -
Wanting to help their allies, USSR declared war against Japan in WW II on this date, after confirming the situation in Hiroshima. Soviet troops launched a massive surprise attack (August Storm) against Japanese occupation forces in northern China and Korea. Within days, Tokyo's million-man army in the region had collapsed in one of the greatest military defeats in history.
A large nuclear explosion is a great way to clear one's mind.
August 8, 1963 -
By tampering with railway signals, a 15 man team halted the Glasgow-to-Euston Royal Mail train in Buckinghamshire on this date. The criminals make off with 120 sacks containing £2.6 million in cash. The incident goes down in history as "The Great Train Robbery."
For some bizarre reason, Phil Collins starred in a movie based on one of the men involved in the robbery.
August 8, 1968 -
The first successful heart transplant in Japan occurred when Dr. Juri Wada removed a beating heart from a teenager whom he had declared brain dead, and transplanted it into another teenager with congenital heart disease on this date.
The boy who received the transplant lived for another three months and Dr. Wada was arrested for murder. His trial dragged on for six years before it was finally dropped.
August 8, 1968 -
Someone should have said "beware the 8th of August" to Richard Nixon!
Richard M. Nixon was nominated for president at the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach. Later that day, Nixon chose Maryland Gov. Spiro T. Agnew to be his running mate. (Read on, if you dare.)
August 8, 1969 –
At a ‘zebra crossing’ in London,
four bitterly fractious friends are forced to take a picture on this date.
Photographer Iain Macmillan took one of the most famous photographs of all time - the cover of the Beatles album, Abbey Road.
August 8, 1973 -
VP Spiro T Agnew branded as "damned lies" reports he took kickbacks from government contracts in Maryland on this date.
He vowed not to resign (Right!)
August 8, 1974 -
Richard M. Nixon resigned the office of the presidency on this date, the first American president in history to do so (actually Millard Fillmore had resigned from office several times but as no one in the country took any notice of him, he had no one to turn his resignation in to, so he remained in office). His policies as president had been rather liberal. He began arms control agreements with the Soviet Union. He eased relations with China. He established the Environmental Protection Agency, expanded Social Security and state welfare programs and tried to create a national health insurance system. He was also a chronic alcoholic, suffered from a raging persecution complex and had overly active sweat glands.
He won re-election in 1972 in a landslide, but in that same year a group of men broke into the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate Hotel, and in that break-in were the seeds of his downfall.
August 8, 1987 -
Lynne Cox became the first person to swim across the icy-cold waters of the Bering Strait from Alaska to the Soviet Union.
Her accomplishment eased Cold War tensions as Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev both praised her success.
August 8, 1988 -
Wrigley Field in Chicago was the last Major League Baseball venue to begin holding night games when they turned on its lights for the first time on this date.
The first major league night game happened in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1935 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt famously switched on the lights.
August 8, 1988 -
Believe it or not, NYC hit a record high of 88 on 8/8/88.
And on 8/8/2018 in NYC, they hit a high of 88, as well.
August 8, 1989 -
The space shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a secret, five-day military mission to deploy a new Pentagon spy satellite.
But you didn't hear that from me.
August 8, 2017 -
Glen Campbell died at 81 after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. Campbell released more than 70 studio albums and sold 45 million records worldwide. His hits include: By the Time I Get to Phoenix, Wichita Lineman, Galveston and Rhinestone Cowboy.
His guitar playing can be heard on Strangers in the Night by Frank Sinatra, You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' by The Righteous Brothers and I'm a Believer by The Monkees.
And so it goes.
You know thinking about it, somehow it seems somewhat dirty. (BTW, today is International Female Orgasm Day. Only you can figure out the connection between the two for yourself.)
August 08, 1936 -
One of the "Censored 11" banned from T.V. syndication by United Artists in 1968, the Merrie Melodies short, Sunday Go to Meetin' Time, directed by Friz Freleng, was released on this date.
The plot of this cartoon is similar to the earlier Goin' to Heaven on a Mule and the later Wholly Smoke. The former is so similar that this short could be considered a remake of it.
August 08, 1942 -
The Merrie Melodies short, The Squawkin' Hawk, directed by Chuck Jones, and starring Henery Hawk (in his first appearance,) was released on this date.
Henery is known as "Junior" in this short. It is not until Walky Talky Hawky that he is given an actual name.
August 8, 1953 -
The song Vaya con Dios recorded by Les Paul and his wife Mary Ford reached number one on the Billboard magazine Best Seller Chart and stayed there for 9 weeks.
In 2005, the 1953 Les Paul and Mary Ford recording was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame.
August 08, 1953 -
The Looney Tunes short, Bully for Bugs, directed by Chuck Jones, and starring Bugs Bunny, was released on this date.
The conception of this cartoon came about when Eddie Selzer, the head of Warner Bros. Cartoons at the time, randomly appeared in the writer's office to announce that there were to be no bullfighting cartoons made because he claimed bullfights weren't funny. Chuck Jones and Mike Maltese, dumbfounded from witnessing this, began to make a bullfight cartoon immediately.
August 8, 1960 -
Decca Records in England refuses to release Ray Peterson's latest single, Tell Laura I Love Her, going so far as to throw away 25,000 pressings of the teen-tragedy song, which they feel is "too tasteless and vulgar for the English sensibility."
A cover by Ricky Valance proves them wrong by going straight to #1. (The grisly song, in which a stock-car driver mutters the title words before he dies, ironically only reaches #7 in America.)
August 8, 1960 -
Brian Hyland's song Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini reached number one on the pop charts.
For most of his adult life, a man named Paul Van Valkenburgh claimed that he wrote this under the name Paul Vance, and that he sold the rights to it when he was young. Even his wife, who he was married to for 40 years, believed him. When Valkenburgh died in 2006, his obituary reported that he wrote the song, and relatives of the real Paul Vance received condolences, only to find out that Vance was very much alive and had the royalty checks to prove that he really did write the song. According to Vance, he has no ill feelings toward Valkenburgh, and claims that the song has made him several million dollars.
August 8, 1963 -
John Sturges' adventure film, The Great Escape, starring Steve McQueen, premiered on this date.
One day, the police in the German town where this movie was shot set up a speed trap near the set. Several members of the cast and crew were caught, including Steve McQueen. The Chief of Police told McQueen "Herr McQueen, we have caught several of your comrades today, but you have won the prize (for the highest speeding)." McQueen was arrested and briefly jailed.
August 8, 1975 –
AVCO Embassy Pictures released Farewell, My Lovely, a film adaptation of the classic Raymond Chandler novel of the same name. The film starred Robert Mitchum, Charlotte Rampling, John Ireland, Sylvia Miles, Harry Dean Stanton, Joe Spinell, Sylvester Stallone, Jack O'Halloran, and even featured a cameo by hardboiled crime novelist Jim Thompson.
The gambling boat Lido featured in the film is one of two described in Raymond Chandler’s original novel. These fictional boats were based on real-life vessels that operated just beyond the three-mile offshore limit, placing them outside California's legal jurisdiction. As a result, they functioned with near impunity as floating casinos. At the time, California Attorney General Earl Warren attempted to extend the jurisdiction to 12 miles in order to shut them down. However, the effort failed when attorneys for the boat owners successfully argued that the starting point for measuring a 12-mile limit was not clearly defined. A 12-mile limit would have effectively ended their operations, since a round-trip water taxi ride of that distance would be impractical for a night’s entertainment. Earl Warren would later become nationally prominent as the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and the head of the Warren Commission investigating the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
August 8, 1980 -
The fantasy musical Xanadu, starring Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly, debuts to scathing reviews ("In a word, Xana-don't.") on this date, and inspires the Golden Raspberry Awards for the worst films of the year.
The film was meant to launch Olivia Newton-John's career as a solo star. Due to its complete failure at the American box office, it became the one and only time she received top billing without a co-star in a theatrical release.
August 8, 1987 -
U2 scored their second US No.1 single from their Joshua Tree album with I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For on this date.
This was influenced by gospel music. Bono wanted The Joshua Tree to explore various forms of American music they had encountered while touring there. The album's co-producer Daniel Lanois said he nudged Bono in the gospel direction on tracks like this one.
August 8, 1988 -
N.W.A released their debut album Straight Outta Compton on this date, which has been certified triple platinum and became the first rap album inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Not merely depicting Compton’s street violence, the track F#*% tha Police drew an FBI agent’s warning letter, which aided N.W.A’s notoriety, with N.W.A calling itself “the world’s most dangerous group.”
Today in History:
August 8, 1908 -
Wilbur Wright made his first public flight demonstration for the first time to a very skeptical audience in Le Mans, France, at the Hunaudières horse racing track, on this date.
Wilbur Wright made his first public flight demonstration for the first time to a very skeptical audience in Le Mans, France, at the Hunaudières horse racing track, on this date.
Wilber's ability to effortlessly make banking turns and fly a circle amazed and stunned onlookers, including several pioneer French aviators, among them Louis Bleriot.
August 8 1925 -
(Please note, this is not footage of the January 6th insurrection.) 40,000 robed Klansmen march down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. -- a bit less than 1% of total Klan membership (and the Klan membership included about 15% of the nation's eligible voting population.)
Very scary, boys and girls, very scary (Please don't let a certain indicted former government official see this clip.)
August 8, 1929 -
Taking off from Lakehurst N.J., heading east, the German airship Graf Zeppelin began its 21-day, around-the-world flight.
The flight was partly sponsored by American newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, who paid for about half the cost of the flight in return for exclusive media rights in the United States and Britain.
August 8, 1942 -
Eight Germans secretly entered the US during World War II with plans to attack the US civil infrastructure. They were captured due to information provided by two of the Nazis, George Dasch and Ernest Burger.
Dasch and Burger were imprisoned and the other six Nazi saboteurs were executed on this date. In 1948, President Harry S. Truman released Dasch and Burger, allowing them to return to Germany.
August 8, 1945 -
Wanting to help their allies, USSR declared war against Japan in WW II on this date, after confirming the situation in Hiroshima. Soviet troops launched a massive surprise attack (August Storm) against Japanese occupation forces in northern China and Korea. Within days, Tokyo's million-man army in the region had collapsed in one of the greatest military defeats in history.
A large nuclear explosion is a great way to clear one's mind.
August 8, 1963 -
By tampering with railway signals, a 15 man team halted the Glasgow-to-Euston Royal Mail train in Buckinghamshire on this date. The criminals make off with 120 sacks containing £2.6 million in cash. The incident goes down in history as "The Great Train Robbery."
For some bizarre reason, Phil Collins starred in a movie based on one of the men involved in the robbery.
August 8, 1968 -
The first successful heart transplant in Japan occurred when Dr. Juri Wada removed a beating heart from a teenager whom he had declared brain dead, and transplanted it into another teenager with congenital heart disease on this date.
August 8, 1968 -
Someone should have said "beware the 8th of August" to Richard Nixon!
Richard M. Nixon was nominated for president at the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach. Later that day, Nixon chose Maryland Gov. Spiro T. Agnew to be his running mate. (Read on, if you dare.)
August 8, 1969 –
At a ‘zebra crossing’ in London,
Photographer Iain Macmillan took one of the most famous photographs of all time - the cover of the Beatles album, Abbey Road.
August 8, 1973 -
VP Spiro T Agnew branded as "damned lies" reports he took kickbacks from government contracts in Maryland on this date.
August 8, 1974 -
Richard M. Nixon resigned the office of the presidency on this date, the first American president in history to do so (actually Millard Fillmore had resigned from office several times but as no one in the country took any notice of him, he had no one to turn his resignation in to, so he remained in office). His policies as president had been rather liberal. He began arms control agreements with the Soviet Union. He eased relations with China. He established the Environmental Protection Agency, expanded Social Security and state welfare programs and tried to create a national health insurance system. He was also a chronic alcoholic, suffered from a raging persecution complex and had overly active sweat glands.
He won re-election in 1972 in a landslide, but in that same year a group of men broke into the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate Hotel, and in that break-in were the seeds of his downfall.
August 8, 1987 -
Lynne Cox became the first person to swim across the icy-cold waters of the Bering Strait from Alaska to the Soviet Union.
Her accomplishment eased Cold War tensions as Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev both praised her success.
August 8, 1988 -
Wrigley Field in Chicago was the last Major League Baseball venue to begin holding night games when they turned on its lights for the first time on this date.
The first major league night game happened in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1935 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt famously switched on the lights.
August 8, 1988 -
Believe it or not, NYC hit a record high of 88 on 8/8/88.
And on 8/8/2018 in NYC, they hit a high of 88, as well.
August 8, 1989 -
The space shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a secret, five-day military mission to deploy a new Pentagon spy satellite.
But you didn't hear that from me.
August 8, 2017 -
Glen Campbell died at 81 after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. Campbell released more than 70 studio albums and sold 45 million records worldwide. His hits include: By the Time I Get to Phoenix, Wichita Lineman, Galveston and Rhinestone Cowboy.
His guitar playing can be heard on Strangers in the Night by Frank Sinatra, You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' by The Righteous Brothers and I'm a Believer by The Monkees.
And so it goes.
Friday, August 7, 2026
So sorry for the delay
I, for one, will be breaking out the hats and hooters again to celebrate National Sea Serpent Day.
August 7 is annually recognizes a famous sea serpent sighting. This sighting was made by the men and officers of HMS Daedalus in August 1848 during a voyage to Saint Helena in the South Atlantic. The 60 foot long creature that they saw held a peculiar maned head above the ocean water.
Let us also remember that in 1752, Erik Pontoppidan, the Bishop of Bergen, wrote a published report of seeing the Kraken, a horned creature so large that when it surfaced, most of its body remained underwater.
(We should always celebrate Cecil the sea sick sea serpent. )
Get out there and go to the beach and celebrate Sea Serpent Day!
Bunkies, as we tell you every summer - avoid mosquitoes at all cost, they're not good!
Dengue Fever or West Nile Virus cases has not been as front of mind as it has been in the past, yet these mosquito-borne diseases are once again on the rise in New York City. Beyond being itch-provoking summer pests, mosquitoes kill more that an an estimated million people around the world each year. That makes them more deadly than any animal on Earth, humans included. The World Health Organization estimates that between 300 and 500 million cases of malaria occur each year, which are transmitted person to person in a one-celled parasite that female mosquitoes pass around when they suck our blood.
ACME takes some pride in this (not the deaths, mind you, but reporting on this.) and once again we would like to publish this importance health update:
It's not always easy to discern whether or not a given mosquito is carrying the Malaria parasite, so the prudent move is to avoid all mosquitoes.
This may be unfair to innocent mosquitoes who mean you no harm--the so-called "moderate" mosquitoes - but political niceties must be subordinated to threats to your survival.
It's important to remember that mosquitoes are masters of disguise. With a little makeup or a fancy hat, any mosquito can take on the appearance of several other species. They cannot, however, conceal their stingers.
Avoid all insects with stingers. If you encounter one that claims its stinger is merely a golf-club wedged into its rectum, do not believe it: insects don't golf.
Do not open your doors or windows to strangers before ascertaining whether or not they're mosquitoes. If they acknowledge being mosquitoes but deny carrying the Malaria parasite, do not trust them. Some mosquitoes may even offer to show you a doctor's certificate, but such evidence is meaningless: they may have picked up the Malaria parasite in the time elapsed since their doctor tested them.
Upon your ole doctor's advice: Continue to drink large quantities of Gin and Tonics during these summer months.
August 07, 1937 -
The Looney Tunes short, Porky's Railroad, directed by Frank Tashlin, and starring Pork Pig, was released on this date.
The Morse code heard in this cartoon translates as QST QSL 'LEON SCHLESINGER' HOLLYWOOD FOR PICTURE OF PORKY'.
August 7, 1948 -
... Five dollars for the best duck? You mean I came all the way from Dubuque for a measly five bucks?.
Chuck Jones guided Daffy Duck's personality change from a "screwball" character, to a greedy, self-centered one in You Were Never Duckier which premiered on this date.
August 7, 1953 -
The best musical of the Golden Age of Hollywood Musicals (unless you consider Singing in the Rain the best), The Band Wagon, premiered on this date.
Betty Comden and Adolph Green made the characters played by Nanette Fabray and Oscar Levant a married couple because they felt that the audiences would not accept a male/female writing team who weren't married to each other, even though the characters were based on Comden and Green, who were themselves not married to each other.
August 07, 1954 -
The Looney Tunes short, Satan's Waitin', directed by Friz Freleng, and starring Tweety Bird and Sylvester the Cat, was released on this date.
Some TV broadcasts omits the entire ending, in which Sylvester moves into a bank safe and soon loses his ninth and final life..
August 7, 1963 -
American International released the first "beach-blanket" film, Beach Party, on this date.
Although "old fogey" Professor Sutwell knew nothing about beach life, actor Robert Cummings was a competent surfer himself, as documented in personal home movies shot in Hawaii by Hollywood's television host and author Ken Murray.
August 7, 1971 -
The Bee Gees early hit How Can You Mend a Broken Heart? topped the charts on this date. It became their first US #1 hit.
This was written during the same afternoon as The Bee Gees' previous American hit, Lonely Days in Barry Gibb's basement flat at Addison Road, Holland Park, London.
August 7, 1976 -
Elton John and Kiki Dee's song Don't Go Breaking My Heart hits #1 in America for the first of four weeks, on this date.
This was the second-biggest-selling record of 1976 in both the UK and US (In the UK, Save Your Kisses for Me was #1; in the US it was Silly Love Songs by Wings.) It was a huge international success, topping the charts in a number of countries, including France, Italy, Australia and Canada.
August 7, 1981 -
The animated sci-fi film Heavy Metal went into general release in the US and Canada on this date.
This movie was inspired by a long-running science fiction magazine of the same title, which began in Europe as Metal Hurlant. Most of the story segments are based on stories or characters featured in the magazine.
August 7, 2018 -
Jon M Chu's suprprise mega-hit romantic comedy (with all-Asian cast,) Crazy Rich Asians, starring Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Gemma Chan, Lisa Lu, Awkwafina, Ken Jeong, and Michelle Yeoh, premiered in Los Angeles on this date.
Awkwafina was supposed to wear several different wigs throughout the movie; however, after putting on the blonde wig, it was decided to scrap other wigs and just keep the one. The joke about this was kept in the scene where actor Ken Jeong starts calling her "Asian Ellen" (aka Ellen DeGeneres).
Another unimportant moment in history
Today in History:
August 7, 1782 -
... the road to glory in a patriot army and a free country is is thus open to all.
General George Washington created the Order of the Purple Heart, a decoration to recognize merit in enlisted personnal and non commissioned officers.
Washington authorized the award of the Purple Heart for soldiers wounded in combat.
August 7, 1876 -
The German spy Mata Hari, a Dutchwoman named Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, was born on this day. She was executed by the French on October 14, 1917. (I seem to bring her up a lot.)
There was not much actual evidence of espionage, but she had been seen naked with German officers and the French found this distasteful enough to kill her.
August 7, 1882 -
Ellison Hatfield was stabbed 26 times and shot in the back by Tolbert McCoy and two of his brothers. Two days later, the Hatfield clan captures the three McCoys and executes them by firing squad.
Thus begins generations of bloodshed between the families, ultimately causing about 100 casualties.
Louis Leakey was also born on this day, in 1903. Mr Leakey was a prominent British archeologist who discovered that either mankind was much older than had previously been supposed or that mankind had not actually been mankind but some other kind instead.
The archeological world was convulsed for decades by arguments over what to name this strange new species and the struggle drove Mr Leakey to become a spy for the British government and cheat on his wife (though seldom simultaneously).
August 7, 1947 -
Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft the Kon-Tiki, (which started the trip on April 28, 1947,) smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands after a 101-day, 7,000 kilometres (4,300 miles) journey across the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to prove that pre-historic peoples could have traveled from South America.
Heyerdahl's theory of Polynesian origins never gained acceptance among anthropologists. Physical and cultural evidence had long suggested that Polynesia was settled from west to east, migration having begun from the Asian mainland, not South America. In the late 1990s, genetic testing found that the mitochondrial DNA of the Polynesians is more similar to people from southeast Asia than to people from South America, showing that their ancestors most likely came from Asia. Easter Islanders are of Polynesian descent.
August 7, 1953 -
If only Nixon had given Eisenhower that rum toddy today and tucked him in for his afternoon nap, the 2016 election might have been different.
President Eisenhower signed legislation retroactively granting Ohio official statehood for the previous 150 years. In 1803, apparently everyone just assumed that Ohio was a state, even though Congress had never passed legislation to that effect. The nation remained blissfully unaware of this fact until nosy historians began snooping around in preparation for Ohio's Sesquicentennial.
August 7, 1955 -
The first transistor radio, the model TR-55, was sold in Japan on this date. The first transistor radio in the US, the Regency TR1, was put on the market on October 18, 1954.
Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering, the forerunner of the later Sony, launched the line of radios.
August 7, 1957 -
It was 1954 and the world's most beloved comedy duo were getting ready for a comeback. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were enjoying a resurgence of popularity in the U.S. thanks to constant showings of their old movies on television. The duo were on the verge of starring in a series of TV comedy specials when Stan Laurel suffered a stroke in April of 1955. While recuperating, Oliver Hardy suffered a massive heart attack. Doctors ordered Hardy bed rest and a diet regime. Hardy lost an amazing 150 lbs and Laurel completely recovered from his stroke.
Unfortunately, on September 12, 1956, Oliver Hardy suffered a debilitating stroke. while he survived, he was left completely disabled. His wife cared for him constantly (at home) while Laurel visited often. Oliver Hardy succumbed to his stroke on this date. Upon hearing the news of his death, Stan Laurel said, "What's there to say? It's shocking of course. Ollie was like a brother."
August 7, 1959 -
Explorer 6 transmitted the first TV photo of Earth from space on this date.
The satellite, popularly known as the 'paddlewheel satellite,' featured a photocell scanner that transmitted a crude picture of the earth's surface and cloud cover from a distance of 17,000 miles.
August 7, 1960 -
Film and television actor David Duchovny (recovering sex addict and another member of the Milton Berle club) was born in New York City on this date. Two of his most popular TV roles include Special Agent Fox Mulder from The X-Files and troubled writer Hank Moody on Showtime's Californication.
Remember, the truth is out there. But then again, What is truth, what is beauty and remember hemlock is poison.
August 7, 1974 -
Yes bunkies - The past is a foreign country; they did things differently there.
Philippe Petit, the French high wire artist, walked between the Twin Towers in New York City on this date.
August 7, 1982 -
After a screaming foul ball critically injured 4-year-old Jonathan Keane in Fenway Park on this date, Boston Red Sox player Jim Rice sprinted out of the dugout, scooped him up, and rushed him into the baseball clubhouse “saving the boy’s life” with medical care that was provided in just seconds.
Team physician Arthur Pappas called Children’s Hospital while the medical team worked on Jonathan. They rushed him to the hospital, where doctors noted that Rice’s quick actions were instrumental in his survival. Jonathan fully recovered with only a light scar above his left eye.
And so it goes.
Let us also remember that in 1752, Erik Pontoppidan, the Bishop of Bergen, wrote a published report of seeing the Kraken, a horned creature so large that when it surfaced, most of its body remained underwater.
(We should always celebrate Cecil the sea sick sea serpent. )
Bunkies, as we tell you every summer - avoid mosquitoes at all cost, they're not good!
Dengue Fever or West Nile Virus cases has not been as front of mind as it has been in the past, yet these mosquito-borne diseases are once again on the rise in New York City. Beyond being itch-provoking summer pests, mosquitoes kill more that an an estimated million people around the world each year. That makes them more deadly than any animal on Earth, humans included. The World Health Organization estimates that between 300 and 500 million cases of malaria occur each year, which are transmitted person to person in a one-celled parasite that female mosquitoes pass around when they suck our blood.
ACME takes some pride in this (not the deaths, mind you, but reporting on this.) and once again we would like to publish this importance health update:
It's not always easy to discern whether or not a given mosquito is carrying the Malaria parasite, so the prudent move is to avoid all mosquitoes.
This may be unfair to innocent mosquitoes who mean you no harm--the so-called "moderate" mosquitoes - but political niceties must be subordinated to threats to your survival.
It's important to remember that mosquitoes are masters of disguise. With a little makeup or a fancy hat, any mosquito can take on the appearance of several other species. They cannot, however, conceal their stingers.
Avoid all insects with stingers. If you encounter one that claims its stinger is merely a golf-club wedged into its rectum, do not believe it: insects don't golf.
Do not open your doors or windows to strangers before ascertaining whether or not they're mosquitoes. If they acknowledge being mosquitoes but deny carrying the Malaria parasite, do not trust them. Some mosquitoes may even offer to show you a doctor's certificate, but such evidence is meaningless: they may have picked up the Malaria parasite in the time elapsed since their doctor tested them.
Upon your ole doctor's advice: Continue to drink large quantities of Gin and Tonics during these summer months.
August 07, 1937 -
The Looney Tunes short, Porky's Railroad, directed by Frank Tashlin, and starring Pork Pig, was released on this date.
The Morse code heard in this cartoon translates as QST QSL 'LEON SCHLESINGER' HOLLYWOOD FOR PICTURE OF PORKY'.
August 7, 1948 -
... Five dollars for the best duck? You mean I came all the way from Dubuque for a measly five bucks?.
Chuck Jones guided Daffy Duck's personality change from a "screwball" character, to a greedy, self-centered one in You Were Never Duckier which premiered on this date.
August 7, 1953 -
The best musical of the Golden Age of Hollywood Musicals (unless you consider Singing in the Rain the best), The Band Wagon, premiered on this date.
Betty Comden and Adolph Green made the characters played by Nanette Fabray and Oscar Levant a married couple because they felt that the audiences would not accept a male/female writing team who weren't married to each other, even though the characters were based on Comden and Green, who were themselves not married to each other.
August 07, 1954 -
The Looney Tunes short, Satan's Waitin', directed by Friz Freleng, and starring Tweety Bird and Sylvester the Cat, was released on this date.
Some TV broadcasts omits the entire ending, in which Sylvester moves into a bank safe and soon loses his ninth and final life..
August 7, 1963 -
American International released the first "beach-blanket" film, Beach Party, on this date.
Although "old fogey" Professor Sutwell knew nothing about beach life, actor Robert Cummings was a competent surfer himself, as documented in personal home movies shot in Hawaii by Hollywood's television host and author Ken Murray.
August 7, 1971 -
The Bee Gees early hit How Can You Mend a Broken Heart? topped the charts on this date. It became their first US #1 hit.
This was written during the same afternoon as The Bee Gees' previous American hit, Lonely Days in Barry Gibb's basement flat at Addison Road, Holland Park, London.
August 7, 1976 -
Elton John and Kiki Dee's song Don't Go Breaking My Heart hits #1 in America for the first of four weeks, on this date.
This was the second-biggest-selling record of 1976 in both the UK and US (In the UK, Save Your Kisses for Me was #1; in the US it was Silly Love Songs by Wings.) It was a huge international success, topping the charts in a number of countries, including France, Italy, Australia and Canada.
August 7, 1981 -
The animated sci-fi film Heavy Metal went into general release in the US and Canada on this date.
This movie was inspired by a long-running science fiction magazine of the same title, which began in Europe as Metal Hurlant. Most of the story segments are based on stories or characters featured in the magazine.
August 7, 2018 -
Jon M Chu's suprprise mega-hit romantic comedy (with all-Asian cast,) Crazy Rich Asians, starring Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Gemma Chan, Lisa Lu, Awkwafina, Ken Jeong, and Michelle Yeoh, premiered in Los Angeles on this date.
Awkwafina was supposed to wear several different wigs throughout the movie; however, after putting on the blonde wig, it was decided to scrap other wigs and just keep the one. The joke about this was kept in the scene where actor Ken Jeong starts calling her "Asian Ellen" (aka Ellen DeGeneres).
Another unimportant moment in history
Today in History:
August 7, 1782 -
... the road to glory in a patriot army and a free country is is thus open to all.
Washington authorized the award of the Purple Heart for soldiers wounded in combat.
August 7, 1876 -
The German spy Mata Hari, a Dutchwoman named Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, was born on this day. She was executed by the French on October 14, 1917. (I seem to bring her up a lot.)
There was not much actual evidence of espionage, but she had been seen naked with German officers and the French found this distasteful enough to kill her.
August 7, 1882 -
Ellison Hatfield was stabbed 26 times and shot in the back by Tolbert McCoy and two of his brothers. Two days later, the Hatfield clan captures the three McCoys and executes them by firing squad.
Thus begins generations of bloodshed between the families, ultimately causing about 100 casualties.
Louis Leakey was also born on this day, in 1903. Mr Leakey was a prominent British archeologist who discovered that either mankind was much older than had previously been supposed or that mankind had not actually been mankind but some other kind instead.
August 7, 1947 -
Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft the Kon-Tiki, (which started the trip on April 28, 1947,) smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands after a 101-day, 7,000 kilometres (4,300 miles) journey across the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to prove that pre-historic peoples could have traveled from South America.
Heyerdahl's theory of Polynesian origins never gained acceptance among anthropologists. Physical and cultural evidence had long suggested that Polynesia was settled from west to east, migration having begun from the Asian mainland, not South America. In the late 1990s, genetic testing found that the mitochondrial DNA of the Polynesians is more similar to people from southeast Asia than to people from South America, showing that their ancestors most likely came from Asia. Easter Islanders are of Polynesian descent.
August 7, 1953 -
If only Nixon had given Eisenhower that rum toddy today and tucked him in for his afternoon nap, the 2016 election might have been different.
President Eisenhower signed legislation retroactively granting Ohio official statehood for the previous 150 years. In 1803, apparently everyone just assumed that Ohio was a state, even though Congress had never passed legislation to that effect. The nation remained blissfully unaware of this fact until nosy historians began snooping around in preparation for Ohio's Sesquicentennial.
August 7, 1955 -
The first transistor radio, the model TR-55, was sold in Japan on this date. The first transistor radio in the US, the Regency TR1, was put on the market on October 18, 1954.
Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering, the forerunner of the later Sony, launched the line of radios.
August 7, 1957 -
It was 1954 and the world's most beloved comedy duo were getting ready for a comeback. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were enjoying a resurgence of popularity in the U.S. thanks to constant showings of their old movies on television. The duo were on the verge of starring in a series of TV comedy specials when Stan Laurel suffered a stroke in April of 1955. While recuperating, Oliver Hardy suffered a massive heart attack. Doctors ordered Hardy bed rest and a diet regime. Hardy lost an amazing 150 lbs and Laurel completely recovered from his stroke.
Unfortunately, on September 12, 1956, Oliver Hardy suffered a debilitating stroke. while he survived, he was left completely disabled. His wife cared for him constantly (at home) while Laurel visited often. Oliver Hardy succumbed to his stroke on this date. Upon hearing the news of his death, Stan Laurel said, "What's there to say? It's shocking of course. Ollie was like a brother."
August 7, 1959 -
Explorer 6 transmitted the first TV photo of Earth from space on this date.
The satellite, popularly known as the 'paddlewheel satellite,' featured a photocell scanner that transmitted a crude picture of the earth's surface and cloud cover from a distance of 17,000 miles.
August 7, 1960 -
Film and television actor David Duchovny (recovering sex addict and another member of the Milton Berle club) was born in New York City on this date. Two of his most popular TV roles include Special Agent Fox Mulder from The X-Files and troubled writer Hank Moody on Showtime's Californication.
Remember, the truth is out there. But then again, What is truth, what is beauty and remember hemlock is poison.
August 7, 1974 -
Yes bunkies - The past is a foreign country; they did things differently there.
Philippe Petit, the French high wire artist, walked between the Twin Towers in New York City on this date.
August 7, 1982 -
After a screaming foul ball critically injured 4-year-old Jonathan Keane in Fenway Park on this date, Boston Red Sox player Jim Rice sprinted out of the dugout, scooped him up, and rushed him into the baseball clubhouse “saving the boy’s life” with medical care that was provided in just seconds.
Team physician Arthur Pappas called Children’s Hospital while the medical team worked on Jonathan. They rushed him to the hospital, where doctors noted that Rice’s quick actions were instrumental in his survival. Jonathan fully recovered with only a light scar above his left eye.
And so it goes.
Thursday, August 6, 2026
Sorry to tell you but ...
A quick check of the calendar :
It's the half way point of summer today and there are 141 days until Christmas
Happy National Root Beer Float Day - also known as the “Black Cow,” the root beer float got its start in Cripple Creek, Colorado, in a mining camp. Frank J. Wisner the owner of Cripple Creek Brewing, gets the credit for inventing the Black Cow in August of 1893.
Which means, you know, we get to play that song.
Callooh! Callay! (Adding alcohol to your Black Cow, is between you and your god.)
August 6, 1926 -
One of John Barrymore's classic silent movies, Don Juan, co-starring a young Mary Astor, opened in NYC on this date.
Don Juan plants 191 kisses on various females during the course of the film, an average of one every 53 seconds.
August 06, 1932-
The Merrie Melodies short, I Love a Parade, directed by Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising, was released on this date.
Look closely, there is a Mickey Mouse and Pluto character in the parade at the beginning.
August 6, 1938 -
... ... In this corner, at 203 and one-third pounds, the most magnificent marvelous multiple monstrous mad mauling mass of meaty muscles ever to master, modify, mat, make mince-meat, and mangle many menacing monsters from Manitoba to Minneapolis!
An early pairing of this comedy duo, Porky and Daffy, directed by Bob Clampett, was released on this date.
August 6, 1949 -
The Looney Tunes short, The Grey Hounded Hare, directed by Bob McKimson, and starring Bugs Bunny, was released on this date.
A tethered, angry racing dog, eager to chase Bugs, ends up digging himself underground. Bugs offers an aside to the audience: "Hey, this kid's gonna leave his race down that hole!" This was a rare bit of sexual innuendo in a cartoon from director Bob McKimson.
August 06, 1955-
The Merrie Melodies short, Jumpin' Jupiter, directed by Chuck Jones, Porky Pig and Sylvester the Cat was released on this date.
This cartoon marks the final pairing of Porky Pig and Sylvester in Chuck Jones' Porky and Sylvester horror trilogy in the classic era, which started with Scaredy Cat and Claws for Alarm.
August 06, 1958-
The Merrie Melodies short, Weasel While You Work, directed by Bob McKimson, Foghorn Leghorn and the Barnyard Dawg was released on this date.
The Dog's exclamation, "I'll moider da bum," was originally coined by boxer "Two Ton" Tony Galento, when predicting the outcome of a fight. The phrase came into common usage as a comical way to express certain, overwhelming victory.
August 6, 1960 -
Chubby Checker performs his version of The Twist on American Bandstand starting a worldwide dance craze. The song soon reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart—and then, again, for a second time in 1962, making it the only song to hit No. 1 twice.
This started a dance craze that got so popular because it was so easy to do. Even the severely rhythm-challenged could do The Twist (Chubby Checker explained it as "like putting out a cigarette with both feet and coming out of a shower and wiping your bottom with a towel to the beat"). This helped bridge a generation gap, since both kids and adults could do it.
August 6, 1965 -
The Beatles released their fifth album, Help! — the soundtrack to their second film, on this date.
Originally, the album cover showed The Beatles spelling out the word "Help" using the semaphore system of communicating with flags, which was usually used by ships. The photographer, Robert Freeman, didn't like the pose because it looked unbalanced, so he had them hold the flags in a way that looked good, but spelled N-U-J-V. Only those who understood semaphore noticed.
August 6, 1965 -
The clasic exploitation film, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, directed by Russ Meyer and starring Tura Satana, Haji, Lori Williams, Susan Bernard, Stuart Lancaster, Paul Trinka, Dennis Busch, Ray Barlow, and Mickey Foxx, was released on this date.
Although the film did make a profit, it was not a big hit when it was originally released. Since then, however, it has gone on to become a cult film and has been shown at several film festivals and art house theaters.
August 6, 1982 -
Alan Parker's rock-musical interpretation of the classical album, Pink Floyd The Wall, premiered in NYC on this date.
Many of the extras in the Run Like Hell and Waiting for the Worms sequences were actual neo-Nazis cast for realism. Gerald Scarfe became frightened that things were getting out of control when, on one day during filming, several of them showed up with the double-hammer insignia shaved into the sides of their heads. Later, a fascist group did spring up in the late 1980s dubbed the "Hammerskins" with this logo as their insignia, much to the dismay of Scarfe, Parker and Waters, whose intentions were to make the portrayal anti-fascist.
August 6, 1993 -
Sheryl Crow releases her first album, Tuesday Night Music Club on this date. It takes about a year to catch on, but eventually sells over 7 million copies.
Tuesday Night Music Club was Crow's first album, released when she was 31. It took nearly a year for the album to catch on as Crow toured small theaters while she built an audience. She got a lot of exposure in 1994 when she opened for the Eagles on their reunion tour and played Woodstock II. All I Wanna Do was her breakthrough hit, reaching #2 in America on October 8, 1994, 14 months after the album was released.
August 6, 1994 -
Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories single, Stay (I Missed You), from the original movie soundtrack to Reality Bites, went to No. 1 on the Billboard Charts on this date.
Lisa Loeb's friend, Ethan Hawke, brought it to the attention of Ben Stiller, who saw Loeb perform and used her song in his movie. It was a huge break for Loeb, who did not have a record deal at the time. When she found out the song was going on the soundtrack, she knew it was the end of her temp work - she had a gig with the consulting firm Ernst & Young at the time).
August 6, 2015 -
This show isn't ending. This is just a pause in the conversation ...
Jon Stewart gave up his very reluctant mantle as the 'most trusted man on television' when he hosted his final episode (of his more than a decade long career) on Comedy Central's The Daily Show, on this date.
Another little known Monopoly card
Today in History:
August 6 is noted historically as the official end of the Holy Roman Empire, which collapsed on that date in 1806 as Emperor Francis II abdicated.
As always, please note, the Holy Roman Empire was not holy, roman or an empire (per se).
Discuss amongst yourselves.
August 6, 1890 –
At Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler became the first person to be executed by electric chair on this date.
The first shock of electricity did not kill Kemmler, and a second shock was required. The second jolt lasted until the smell of burning flesh filled the room, about four minutes. As soon as his charred body stopped smoldering, Kemmler was pronounced dead.
It was not a pretty sight.
August 6, 1911 -
The secret to staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age.
Lucille Ball, film and television executive, actress and comedian, was born on this date.
A comment from a member of the preview audience of Follow the Fleet about bit-player Ball: "You might give the tall gum chewing blonde more parts and see if she can't make the grade - a good gamble."
August 6, 1926 -
Gertrude Ederle becomes first woman to swim the English Channel. Before setting out from Cap Griz-Nez, France, at 7:09 a.m., Ederle coated her body with layers of lard and petroleum jelly to insulate her from the cold waters.
Only five men had been able to swim the English Channel before Ederle. The best time had been 16 hours, 33 minutes by an Italian-born Argentine, Enrique Tiraboschi. Ederle walked up the beach at Dover, England after 14 hours and 39 minutes. The first person to greet her was a British immigration officer who requested a passport from "the bleary-eyed, waterlogged teenager."
That man's name is no longer remembered but truly he is the spiritual grandfather of the TSA.
August 6, 1930 -
NY state Supreme Court Judge Joseph Force Crater (infamously known in New York tabloids for his alleged corruption and frequent affairs with showgirls,) dined at a West 45th Street steakhouse with a group of friends. Crater had earlier withdrawn $5,150 from a pair of bank accounts. He was last seen at 9:15 p.m., climbing into the cab. Judge Crater was never seen again.
Evidence in 2005 suggested that several men killed the judge and buried him under the Coney Island Boardwalk in Brooklyn.
August 6, 1945 -
The first atomic bomb used in combat was dropped on Hiroshima by the Enola Gay, piloted by Col. Paul Tibbets, on this date.
President Truman ordered the use of the first nuclear bomb, which the military referred to as "Little Boy." Harry had been vice president for only 82 days when President Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945 and didn't even know of the existence of the 9,600 pound bomb until he was told about it upon his assumption of the presidency.
In minutes the massive blast and the firestorm it produced destroyed the majority of the city and killed 66,000 people instantly and a total of as many as 166,000 died over a period of months from the nuclear fallout (a third of Hiroshima's population.)
August 6, 1965 -
One of the crowning achievements of the civil rights movement, The Voting Rights Act, was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson, 60 years ago on this date.
One of it key aims was to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote under the 15th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
August 6, 1991 -
On December 25, 1990, Tim Berners-Lee (not Al Gore,) successfully connected an http client with an Internet server, thus inventing the World Wide Web.
Less than a year later, on this day, the first website built was at CERN within the border of France, and was first put online.
And so it goes.
It's the half way point of summer today and there are 141 days until Christmas
Happy National Root Beer Float Day - also known as the “Black Cow,” the root beer float got its start in Cripple Creek, Colorado, in a mining camp. Frank J. Wisner the owner of Cripple Creek Brewing, gets the credit for inventing the Black Cow in August of 1893.
Which means, you know, we get to play that song.
Callooh! Callay! (Adding alcohol to your Black Cow, is between you and your god.)
August 6, 1926 -
One of John Barrymore's classic silent movies, Don Juan, co-starring a young Mary Astor, opened in NYC on this date.
Don Juan plants 191 kisses on various females during the course of the film, an average of one every 53 seconds.
August 06, 1932-
The Merrie Melodies short, I Love a Parade, directed by Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising, was released on this date.
Look closely, there is a Mickey Mouse and Pluto character in the parade at the beginning.
August 6, 1938 -
... ... In this corner, at 203 and one-third pounds, the most magnificent marvelous multiple monstrous mad mauling mass of meaty muscles ever to master, modify, mat, make mince-meat, and mangle many menacing monsters from Manitoba to Minneapolis!
An early pairing of this comedy duo, Porky and Daffy, directed by Bob Clampett, was released on this date.
August 6, 1949 -
The Looney Tunes short, The Grey Hounded Hare, directed by Bob McKimson, and starring Bugs Bunny, was released on this date.
A tethered, angry racing dog, eager to chase Bugs, ends up digging himself underground. Bugs offers an aside to the audience: "Hey, this kid's gonna leave his race down that hole!" This was a rare bit of sexual innuendo in a cartoon from director Bob McKimson.
August 06, 1955-
The Merrie Melodies short, Jumpin' Jupiter, directed by Chuck Jones, Porky Pig and Sylvester the Cat was released on this date.
This cartoon marks the final pairing of Porky Pig and Sylvester in Chuck Jones' Porky and Sylvester horror trilogy in the classic era, which started with Scaredy Cat and Claws for Alarm.
August 06, 1958-
The Merrie Melodies short, Weasel While You Work, directed by Bob McKimson, Foghorn Leghorn and the Barnyard Dawg was released on this date.
The Dog's exclamation, "I'll moider da bum," was originally coined by boxer "Two Ton" Tony Galento, when predicting the outcome of a fight. The phrase came into common usage as a comical way to express certain, overwhelming victory.
August 6, 1960 -
Chubby Checker performs his version of The Twist on American Bandstand starting a worldwide dance craze. The song soon reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart—and then, again, for a second time in 1962, making it the only song to hit No. 1 twice.
This started a dance craze that got so popular because it was so easy to do. Even the severely rhythm-challenged could do The Twist (Chubby Checker explained it as "like putting out a cigarette with both feet and coming out of a shower and wiping your bottom with a towel to the beat"). This helped bridge a generation gap, since both kids and adults could do it.
August 6, 1965 -
The Beatles released their fifth album, Help! — the soundtrack to their second film, on this date.
Originally, the album cover showed The Beatles spelling out the word "Help" using the semaphore system of communicating with flags, which was usually used by ships. The photographer, Robert Freeman, didn't like the pose because it looked unbalanced, so he had them hold the flags in a way that looked good, but spelled N-U-J-V. Only those who understood semaphore noticed.
August 6, 1965 -
The clasic exploitation film, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, directed by Russ Meyer and starring Tura Satana, Haji, Lori Williams, Susan Bernard, Stuart Lancaster, Paul Trinka, Dennis Busch, Ray Barlow, and Mickey Foxx, was released on this date.
Although the film did make a profit, it was not a big hit when it was originally released. Since then, however, it has gone on to become a cult film and has been shown at several film festivals and art house theaters.
August 6, 1982 -
Alan Parker's rock-musical interpretation of the classical album, Pink Floyd The Wall, premiered in NYC on this date.
Many of the extras in the Run Like Hell and Waiting for the Worms sequences were actual neo-Nazis cast for realism. Gerald Scarfe became frightened that things were getting out of control when, on one day during filming, several of them showed up with the double-hammer insignia shaved into the sides of their heads. Later, a fascist group did spring up in the late 1980s dubbed the "Hammerskins" with this logo as their insignia, much to the dismay of Scarfe, Parker and Waters, whose intentions were to make the portrayal anti-fascist.
August 6, 1993 -
Sheryl Crow releases her first album, Tuesday Night Music Club on this date. It takes about a year to catch on, but eventually sells over 7 million copies.
Tuesday Night Music Club was Crow's first album, released when she was 31. It took nearly a year for the album to catch on as Crow toured small theaters while she built an audience. She got a lot of exposure in 1994 when she opened for the Eagles on their reunion tour and played Woodstock II. All I Wanna Do was her breakthrough hit, reaching #2 in America on October 8, 1994, 14 months after the album was released.
August 6, 1994 -
Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories single, Stay (I Missed You), from the original movie soundtrack to Reality Bites, went to No. 1 on the Billboard Charts on this date.
Lisa Loeb's friend, Ethan Hawke, brought it to the attention of Ben Stiller, who saw Loeb perform and used her song in his movie. It was a huge break for Loeb, who did not have a record deal at the time. When she found out the song was going on the soundtrack, she knew it was the end of her temp work - she had a gig with the consulting firm Ernst & Young at the time).
August 6, 2015 -
This show isn't ending. This is just a pause in the conversation ...
Jon Stewart gave up his very reluctant mantle as the 'most trusted man on television' when he hosted his final episode (of his more than a decade long career) on Comedy Central's The Daily Show, on this date.
Another little known Monopoly card
Today in History:
August 6 is noted historically as the official end of the Holy Roman Empire, which collapsed on that date in 1806 as Emperor Francis II abdicated.
Discuss amongst yourselves.
August 6, 1890 –
At Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler became the first person to be executed by electric chair on this date.
The first shock of electricity did not kill Kemmler, and a second shock was required. The second jolt lasted until the smell of burning flesh filled the room, about four minutes. As soon as his charred body stopped smoldering, Kemmler was pronounced dead.
It was not a pretty sight.
August 6, 1911 -
The secret to staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age.
A comment from a member of the preview audience of Follow the Fleet about bit-player Ball: "You might give the tall gum chewing blonde more parts and see if she can't make the grade - a good gamble."
August 6, 1926 -
Gertrude Ederle becomes first woman to swim the English Channel. Before setting out from Cap Griz-Nez, France, at 7:09 a.m., Ederle coated her body with layers of lard and petroleum jelly to insulate her from the cold waters.
Only five men had been able to swim the English Channel before Ederle. The best time had been 16 hours, 33 minutes by an Italian-born Argentine, Enrique Tiraboschi. Ederle walked up the beach at Dover, England after 14 hours and 39 minutes. The first person to greet her was a British immigration officer who requested a passport from "the bleary-eyed, waterlogged teenager."
That man's name is no longer remembered but truly he is the spiritual grandfather of the TSA.
August 6, 1930 -
NY state Supreme Court Judge Joseph Force Crater (infamously known in New York tabloids for his alleged corruption and frequent affairs with showgirls,) dined at a West 45th Street steakhouse with a group of friends. Crater had earlier withdrawn $5,150 from a pair of bank accounts. He was last seen at 9:15 p.m., climbing into the cab. Judge Crater was never seen again.
Evidence in 2005 suggested that several men killed the judge and buried him under the Coney Island Boardwalk in Brooklyn.
August 6, 1945 -
The first atomic bomb used in combat was dropped on Hiroshima by the Enola Gay, piloted by Col. Paul Tibbets, on this date.
President Truman ordered the use of the first nuclear bomb, which the military referred to as "Little Boy." Harry had been vice president for only 82 days when President Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945 and didn't even know of the existence of the 9,600 pound bomb until he was told about it upon his assumption of the presidency.
In minutes the massive blast and the firestorm it produced destroyed the majority of the city and killed 66,000 people instantly and a total of as many as 166,000 died over a period of months from the nuclear fallout (a third of Hiroshima's population.)
August 6, 1965 -
One of the crowning achievements of the civil rights movement, The Voting Rights Act, was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson, 60 years ago on this date.
One of it key aims was to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote under the 15th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
August 6, 1991 -
On December 25, 1990, Tim Berners-Lee (not Al Gore,) successfully connected an http client with an Internet server, thus inventing the World Wide Web.
Less than a year later, on this day, the first website built was at CERN within the border of France, and was first put online.
And so it goes.
Wednesday, August 5, 2026
For your amusement and most generous alms.
August 5, 1922 -
The silent-film classic, Blood and Sand, starring Rudolph Valentino and Lila Lee, was released on this date.
The film's editor was Dorothy Arzner, who would later go on to become Hollywood's first female director. Arzner impressed the producers by cannily interspersing stock bull-fighting footage with shots of Rudolph Valentino to make it look like the actor was actually in the ring with real bulls. This was quite a progressive technique in its day.
August 5, 1939 -
The Looney Tunes short, Wise Quacks, directed by Bob Clampett, and starring Porky PigDaffy Duck, was released on this date.
This was the first cartoon to not have WARNER BROS. in a banner. This would continue after Hare-um Scare-um.
August 5 1944 -
The Looney Tunes short, From Hand to Mouse, directed by Chuck Jones, was released on this date.
The unnamed mouse from this cartoon bears a strong physical resemblance to the later redesign of Chuck Jones' mice duo Hubie and Bertie, although both characters would not receive this redesign until Roughly Squeaking two years later.
August 05, 1950-
The Merrie Melodies short, Golden Yeggs, directed by Friz Freleng, and starring Porky Pig and Daffy Duck was released on this date.
This is the first of only two shorts (along with Rocky's next appearance in 1953's Catty Cornered where Rocky is the antagonist to a character other than Bugs Bunny.
August 5, 1953 -
Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr got busy in the surf and someone may have gotten a horse head telegram delivered to their bedroom - From Here to Eternity, also starring Montgomery Cliff, Donna Reed, Frank Sinatra, and Ernest Borgnine, premiered in NYC on this date.
Montgomery Clift, Frank Sinatra and author James Jones were very close during the filming, frequently embarking on monumental drinking binges. Clift coached Sinatra on how to play Maggio during their more sober moments, for which Sinatra was eternally grateful.
August 5, 1955 -
Alfred Hitchcock's surprisingly light comedic touch is on full display in, To Catch A Thief, starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, when it opened in NYC on this date.
While working on this film in the French Riviera, Grace Kelly met Prince Rainier of Monaco. It wasn't love at first sight for Kelly, but the prince initiated a long correspondence, which led to their marriage in 1956. Afterward, she became Princess Grace of Monaco, and retired from acting.
August 5, 1960 -
The camp horror classic, The Little Shop of Horrors, directed and produced by Roger Corman, and starring Jonathan Haze, Jackie Joseph, Mel Welles, Dick Miller, and Jack Nicholson, was released on this date.
The film was shot on a budget of $22,500 to $28,000 (nearly $300,000 in 2024), with interiors being shot about two days, utilizing sets that had been left standing from A Bucket of Blood.
August 5, 1966 -
Based of the TV series, Doctor Who, the sequel to the film, Dr. Who and the Daleks, Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., starring Peter Cushing, Roberta Tovey, Jill Curzon, and Bernard Cribbins, premiered on this date.
The rebel hideout in 2150 is prominently identified as Embankment station on the London Underground's Bakerloo and Northern Lines. There had actually been a station called Embankment once, but it was renamed Charing Cross from 1915; thus Embankment was a suitable name for a fictional station. However, in 1976, 10 years after the movie was released, reality conformed to fiction when the station, now served by the Bakerloo and Northern Lines among others, was given back its original name of Embankment.
August 5, 1966 -
This was a big day in Beatles history:
The Beatles released their Revolver album in UK on this date.
and they also released Yellow Submarine and Eleanor Rigby as a double A single in UK. A lot of kids weekly allowance must have flown out the door on this date.
August 5, 1967 -
Pink Floyd released their debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, on which most songs were penned by Syd Barrett, on this date.
Two tracks on the album are credited to the band collectively and one track was written by Roger Waters. The studio album borrows its name from the title of chapter seven of Kenneth Grahame's 1908 novel The Wind in the Willows, which refers to the nature god Pan, who plays his pan pipes at dawn.
August 5, 1976 -
NBC aired a very bizarre TV special celebrating the the 15th anniversary of the Beach Boys, It's OK, directed by Gary Weis and starring the Beach Boys on this date.
The special featured cameos by John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Paul and Linda McCartney and Van Dyke Parks.
August 5, 1978 -
The Rolling Stones had their eighth US No.1 hit with the single Miss You, on this date.
The song was written by Mick Jagger after jamming with keyboardist Billy Preston during rehearsals for forthcoming club dates the Stones were playing.
August 5, 1998 -
The American spin-off of the British series Whose Line Is It Anyway?, hosted by Drew Carey and starring Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie, and Wayne Brady, premiered on ABC-TV, on this date.
The Whose line crew was such a well-oiled machine that they could shoot 9 to 12 episodes on a single weekend. Shooting a whole season took only three or four weekends every year. The cast revealed it was one of the reasons they were so great together and had great relationships with each other, because they didn't have to spend that much time together.
Another episode of ACME's Little Known Animal Facts
Today in History:
August 5, 1861 -
Folks, please note: The US government established the first income tax on US citizens on this date (Abraham Lincoln was president at the time.) The Revenue Act of 1862 established a tax of 3 percent on incomes of more than $800 Dollars.
The tax, which was used for financial aid during the Civil War, was rescinded in 1872.
August 5, 1884 –
The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor on this date.
Children and horses were kept indoors on that day for fear of offending their delicate nature.
August 5, 1914 -
The first electric traffic signal, based on a design by James Hoge, was installed on this date.
The system of red and green lights, indicating stop and go, was installed in Cleveland, Ohio, on the corner of East 105th Street and Euclid Avenue. Lost in the miasma of time is the name of the person that first ran the red light.
August 5, 1924 –
The comic strip, Little Orphan Annie by Harold Gray, debuted the Chicago Tribune on this date.
Apparently there is no deep, dark meaning behind the fact that Annie has no pupils; that was just the style of the artist. All of the characters in the Little Orphan Annie comic strip had no pupils; it wasn't just Annie. Even her dog Sandy had no pupils.
Now you know.
August 5, 1926 -
Harry Houdini stayed in a coffin, submerged in the swimming pool of New York's Hotel Shelton for one hour and a half, on this date.
Note: He currently has exceeded his own record substantially.
On August 4, 1955, Carmen Miranda suffered a heart attack during a segment of the live TV show The Jimmy Durante Show, although she did not realize it. After completing a dance number, she fell to her knees, and Durante instinctively told the band to "stop da music!".
He helped Miranda up to her feet as she laughed "I'm all out of breath!". "Dat's OK, honey, I'll take yer lines", Durante replied. Miranda laughed again and quickly pulled herself together, finishing the show. At the end of the broadcast, she smiled and waved, then exited the stage. She died later that night, on August 5, 1955, after suffering a second heart attack at her home in Beverly Hills.
As with all great performers - the show had to go on.
August 5, 1957 –
American Bandstand, a local Philadelphia show dedicated to the teenage "baby-boomers" by playing the songs and showing popular dances of the time, hosted by Dick Clark, debuted nationally on the ABC television network on this date.
Please be careful, Zombie Mr. Clark still roams the nation in search of brains to feast upon.
August 5, 1962 -
64 years ago today, a very unhappy Marilyn Monroe (Norma J. Mortenson) died of natural causes, aggravated by sleeping pills, in her Brentwood home.
Unless she was murdered.
August 5, 1981 -
As dementia continued to take its karma toll, President Ronald Reagan began firing 11,359 air-traffic controllers striking in violation of his order for them to return to work on this date.
The executive action, regarded as extreme by many, significantly slows air travel for months.
Feel free to sing Happy Birthday, unencumbered by the whole copyright issue thing, to the Curiosity Rover parked on Mars, at the moment.
NASA has programmed the Curiosity Rover to sing itself Happy Birthday every year, on the anniversary of it’s landing date on Mars at 10:32 p.m. PDT on August 5, 2012.
And so it goes.
The silent-film classic, Blood and Sand, starring Rudolph Valentino and Lila Lee, was released on this date.
The film's editor was Dorothy Arzner, who would later go on to become Hollywood's first female director. Arzner impressed the producers by cannily interspersing stock bull-fighting footage with shots of Rudolph Valentino to make it look like the actor was actually in the ring with real bulls. This was quite a progressive technique in its day.
August 5, 1939 -
The Looney Tunes short, Wise Quacks, directed by Bob Clampett, and starring Porky PigDaffy Duck, was released on this date.
This was the first cartoon to not have WARNER BROS. in a banner. This would continue after Hare-um Scare-um.
August 5 1944 -
The Looney Tunes short, From Hand to Mouse, directed by Chuck Jones, was released on this date.
The unnamed mouse from this cartoon bears a strong physical resemblance to the later redesign of Chuck Jones' mice duo Hubie and Bertie, although both characters would not receive this redesign until Roughly Squeaking two years later.
August 05, 1950-
The Merrie Melodies short, Golden Yeggs, directed by Friz Freleng, and starring Porky Pig and Daffy Duck was released on this date.
This is the first of only two shorts (along with Rocky's next appearance in 1953's Catty Cornered where Rocky is the antagonist to a character other than Bugs Bunny.
August 5, 1953 -
Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr got busy in the surf and someone may have gotten a horse head telegram delivered to their bedroom - From Here to Eternity, also starring Montgomery Cliff, Donna Reed, Frank Sinatra, and Ernest Borgnine, premiered in NYC on this date.
Montgomery Clift, Frank Sinatra and author James Jones were very close during the filming, frequently embarking on monumental drinking binges. Clift coached Sinatra on how to play Maggio during their more sober moments, for which Sinatra was eternally grateful.
August 5, 1955 -
Alfred Hitchcock's surprisingly light comedic touch is on full display in, To Catch A Thief, starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, when it opened in NYC on this date.
While working on this film in the French Riviera, Grace Kelly met Prince Rainier of Monaco. It wasn't love at first sight for Kelly, but the prince initiated a long correspondence, which led to their marriage in 1956. Afterward, she became Princess Grace of Monaco, and retired from acting.
August 5, 1960 -
The camp horror classic, The Little Shop of Horrors, directed and produced by Roger Corman, and starring Jonathan Haze, Jackie Joseph, Mel Welles, Dick Miller, and Jack Nicholson, was released on this date.
The film was shot on a budget of $22,500 to $28,000 (nearly $300,000 in 2024), with interiors being shot about two days, utilizing sets that had been left standing from A Bucket of Blood.
August 5, 1966 -
Based of the TV series, Doctor Who, the sequel to the film, Dr. Who and the Daleks, Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., starring Peter Cushing, Roberta Tovey, Jill Curzon, and Bernard Cribbins, premiered on this date.
The rebel hideout in 2150 is prominently identified as Embankment station on the London Underground's Bakerloo and Northern Lines. There had actually been a station called Embankment once, but it was renamed Charing Cross from 1915; thus Embankment was a suitable name for a fictional station. However, in 1976, 10 years after the movie was released, reality conformed to fiction when the station, now served by the Bakerloo and Northern Lines among others, was given back its original name of Embankment.
August 5, 1966 -
This was a big day in Beatles history:
The Beatles released their Revolver album in UK on this date.
and they also released Yellow Submarine and Eleanor Rigby as a double A single in UK. A lot of kids weekly allowance must have flown out the door on this date.
August 5, 1967 -
Pink Floyd released their debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, on which most songs were penned by Syd Barrett, on this date.
Two tracks on the album are credited to the band collectively and one track was written by Roger Waters. The studio album borrows its name from the title of chapter seven of Kenneth Grahame's 1908 novel The Wind in the Willows, which refers to the nature god Pan, who plays his pan pipes at dawn.
August 5, 1976 -
NBC aired a very bizarre TV special celebrating the the 15th anniversary of the Beach Boys, It's OK, directed by Gary Weis and starring the Beach Boys on this date.
The special featured cameos by John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Paul and Linda McCartney and Van Dyke Parks.
August 5, 1978 -
The Rolling Stones had their eighth US No.1 hit with the single Miss You, on this date.
The song was written by Mick Jagger after jamming with keyboardist Billy Preston during rehearsals for forthcoming club dates the Stones were playing.
August 5, 1998 -
The American spin-off of the British series Whose Line Is It Anyway?, hosted by Drew Carey and starring Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie, and Wayne Brady, premiered on ABC-TV, on this date.
The Whose line crew was such a well-oiled machine that they could shoot 9 to 12 episodes on a single weekend. Shooting a whole season took only three or four weekends every year. The cast revealed it was one of the reasons they were so great together and had great relationships with each other, because they didn't have to spend that much time together.
Another episode of ACME's Little Known Animal Facts
Today in History:
August 5, 1861 -
Folks, please note: The US government established the first income tax on US citizens on this date (Abraham Lincoln was president at the time.) The Revenue Act of 1862 established a tax of 3 percent on incomes of more than $800 Dollars.
The tax, which was used for financial aid during the Civil War, was rescinded in 1872.
August 5, 1884 –
The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor on this date.
August 5, 1914 -
The first electric traffic signal, based on a design by James Hoge, was installed on this date.
August 5, 1924 –
The comic strip, Little Orphan Annie by Harold Gray, debuted the Chicago Tribune on this date.
Now you know.
August 5, 1926 -
Harry Houdini stayed in a coffin, submerged in the swimming pool of New York's Hotel Shelton for one hour and a half, on this date.
On August 4, 1955, Carmen Miranda suffered a heart attack during a segment of the live TV show The Jimmy Durante Show, although she did not realize it. After completing a dance number, she fell to her knees, and Durante instinctively told the band to "stop da music!".
He helped Miranda up to her feet as she laughed "I'm all out of breath!". "Dat's OK, honey, I'll take yer lines", Durante replied. Miranda laughed again and quickly pulled herself together, finishing the show. At the end of the broadcast, she smiled and waved, then exited the stage. She died later that night, on August 5, 1955, after suffering a second heart attack at her home in Beverly Hills.
As with all great performers - the show had to go on.
August 5, 1957 –
American Bandstand, a local Philadelphia show dedicated to the teenage "baby-boomers" by playing the songs and showing popular dances of the time, hosted by Dick Clark, debuted nationally on the ABC television network on this date.
Please be careful, Zombie Mr. Clark still roams the nation in search of brains to feast upon.
August 5, 1962 -
64 years ago today, a very unhappy Marilyn Monroe (Norma J. Mortenson) died of natural causes, aggravated by sleeping pills, in her Brentwood home.
Unless she was murdered.
August 5, 1981 -
As dementia continued to take its karma toll, President Ronald Reagan began firing 11,359 air-traffic controllers striking in violation of his order for them to return to work on this date.
The executive action, regarded as extreme by many, significantly slows air travel for months.
Feel free to sing Happy Birthday, unencumbered by the whole copyright issue thing, to the Curiosity Rover parked on Mars, at the moment.
NASA has programmed the Curiosity Rover to sing itself Happy Birthday every year, on the anniversary of it’s landing date on Mars at 10:32 p.m. PDT on August 5, 2012.
And so it goes.
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