The DeMille-Lasky Barn,Courtesy of Marc Wanamaker and Hollywood Heritage


Once each year, at the DeMille Barn in Hollywood, the Animation Guild, ASIFA Hollywood and Women In Animation present An Afternoon of Remembrance “a non-denominational celebration of departed friends from our animation community”.

This year it takes place this Saturday, March 1, at 1pm. Tributes will be paid to:

Rene Alcazar …………….ink & paint artist
Roger Armstrong…………comic book artist of Disney’s Scamp and Looney Tunes comics.
Dick Arnall………………UK producer of animate! Program for Channel 4
Warren Batchelder………animator
Max Becraft……………..animator
Pat Boyd………………..Canadian animator
Sheila Brown…………....background artist
Erica Cassetti…………….digital modeller
Harvey Cohen……………composer
Jennifer Davidson……….VP programming Cartoon Network and Adult Swim
Alberto DeMello………....character designer
Greg Drolette…………….background artist
Walker Edmiston…………voice actor
Ray Erlenborn……………sound effects artist was child actor in Chaplin’s City Lights
Natatcha Estebanez……….producer
Becky Fallberg……………ink & paint supervisor
Mary Lou Ferguson………ink & paint artist
Ben Ferrer………………..designer
Lu Guarnier...animator, Guild President.
Ed Hanson………………...assistant animator, prod manager
Terry Harrison---------------animator
Florence Heintz--------------ink & paint artist
Dave Hilberman-------------animator, producer, activist, co-founder of UPA.
Dick Hoffman…………….animator
Steve Krantz………………producer of Fritz the Cat.
Ryan Larkin……………….Canadian animator, filmmaker
Carol Lundberg……………layout artist
John Marshall………………animator, producer
Roberta Gruetert Marshall….ink & paint supervisor
Tom O’Loughlin………….background artist
Henry Ortiz……………….xerox processor
Brant Parker……………….cartoonist co creator of The Wizard of Id
Nicole Pascal------------------assistant animator
Charles Nelson-Reilly--------voice actor
Will Schaefer………………composer of music for The Flintstones and the Yogi Bear.
Charlene Singleton…………checker
Ken Southworth……………animator,director
Art Stevens…………………animator, director
James Street………………..voice actor of DIC Strawberry Shortcake.
Iwao Takamoto…………….animator, designer of Scooby Doo and Penelope Pittstop
Aleksandr Tatarskiy………..Russian producer, co-founder of Moscow Pilot Studio
Caren (Scarpulla) Terry…....Color stylist
Jim Thurman……………….writer, voice actor writer of Roger Ramjet series.
Elbert Tuganov…………….The Father of Estonian Animation
Al Wilson………………….layout and story artist
Jack Zander…………………animator, director, producer first president of the Anim Guild.


The Afternoon of Remembrance is free of charge and is open to all. No RSVPs necessary. You don't have to be related to anyone to attend. It is about the animation industry remembering our friends and colleagues. Food and refreshments, and good stories. In previous years Chuck Jones spoke of is friend Friz Freleng, Bob Kurtz recalled Marc Davis. We learned a lot about many artists alternate pursuits like one who invented the game Chutes and Ladders, one was a drummer of the rock band the Turtles, one spent a summer with Picasso and wrote a book- My Summer with Picasso, another had a world class collection of pith helmets! Laughter, tears, memories, but never dull.

1 pm * Memoriams, 2 pm
Hollywood Heritage Museum (Lasky-DeMille Barn)
2100 N. Highland (across from Hollywood Bowl), Hollywood, California.

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Question: Which is the only city in Africa to be named after an American President?
Hint: There is no such place as Bushville.

Yesterday’s question answered below.
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History for 2/27/2008
Birthdays: Roman Emperor Constantine the Great–280AD, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Steinbeck, Ralph Nader is 74, Joanne Woodward, Marion Anderson, Chelsea Clinton, Franchot Tone, William Demarest, James Worthy, Mirella Freni, Judge Hugo Black, David Sarnoff the founder of NBC network, Adam Baldwin, Arial Sharon, Elizabeth Taylor is 76

1776- The American Congressmen in Philadelphia received the news from London that the British Crown had resolved that there be no more negotiations about American grievances. That all people living in British America who did not unconditionally surrender and renew their allegiance to their King would be branded a traitor. That meant hanging. This must have weighed heavy on the American minds when they voted on the Declaration of Independence.

1814- Beethoven’s 8th Symphony premiered.

1827- The first Mardi Gras celebration was held in New Orleans. Mardi Gras parties were first held by the French colonists of Mobile Alabama in 1709. From there the custom spread to the Big Easy.

1859-CONGRESSMAN COMMITS MURDER- While New York Representative Dan Sickles was being a Washington wheeler-dealer his lonely wife began an affair with the dashing son of Francis Scott Key, Phillip Barton Key. When Sickles found out he was horrified, even though he had cheated on her numerous times. This is the Victorian Era after all. Phillip Barton Key just then had the misfortune to be spotted passing by their house on Lafayette Square. Sickles in a rage grabbed a pistol and rushed after him, confronting him across the street from the White House: "Key, you Blackguard! You have dishonored my marriage bed and must die!" All Key could do was throw his opera glasses at him. Congressman Sickles then shot him dead. Incredibly, Sickles was acquitted of murder by the first use of the ‘plea of temporary insanity’. His attorney was Edwin Stanton, Lincoln's secretary of war. Sickles and Stanton both were close friends of President Buchanan.
Dan Sickles went on to finish his term, become a Union General and fought at Gettysburg, won the Medal of Honor, lived to 93 and helped build New York’s Central Park. He even reconciled with Mrs. Sickles.
Dan Sickles
1860- Abraham Lincoln gave a speech at the Cooper Union Institute in New York declaring himself a potential candidate for President: " A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand." The elite New York audience at first snickered at the Illinois man’s high nasal Western twang, but they soon were inspired by his words. He received a standing ovation when he finished. That previous day he first posed for photographer Matthew Brady who made a famous photo that was copied and recopied around the country. Lincoln later said:" Brady and the Cooper Institute made me president."

1900- In Britain several Independent Labor Parties, Trade union and Fabian Societies form the British Labor Party under Ramsey MacDonald. After the Liberals fell apart over Irish autonomy Labor became the dominant alternative to the Tory Conservatives.

1917-THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION BEGINS- In St. Petersburg a general strike was festering since the 23rd. Today soldiers and police start to join demonstrators instead of arresting them. Shouts of :"Cossacks! Don't shoot your brothers! Enough of blood! We want Peace and Bread!" The law courts were torched, prisons opened and the protestors grab the Czar's Rolls Royce and drive it around town draped in red flags. Government officials start to flee the city. Czar Nicholas out at his military headquarters received the news that the nations capitol was no longer under his control.

1919- Gustav Holst’s orchestral piece The Planets, first premiered.

1933-The Reichstag Fire- The German parliament building was destroyed in a spectacular fire. The perpetrator was never found but a Dutch Communist named Marinus Van Der Lubbe was arrested. The incident enabled Hitler to force through legislation suspending civil liberties and trial by jury.

1956- Elvis Presley released song Heartbreak Hotel.

1958- Columbia Pictures mogul Harry Cohn died of old age. His ruthlessness was legend in Hollywood. He once said " I don't get ulcers, I give them!" Hedda Hopper said:' You have to wait in line to hate him." The entire Columbia staff was ordered, not asked, to attend a memorial service. Looking at the large crowd around the coffin, Red Skelton quipped: "You see, give the people what they want and they'll show up."

1977- In Toronto the Canadian Mounties bust Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones and his girlfriend Anita Pallenberg for heroin possession. The Stones agree to do two benefit concerts as punishment.

1991- President George Bush 1st declared The Gulf War successfully completed, even though Saddam Hussein remained in power.

1991- The Mitchell Brothers were tops in the pornography business, producing blockbusters like Behind the Green Door and running the O’ Farrell Theater in San Francisco. This day after a lot of drug abuse Jim Mitchell shot his brother Arnie to death with a rifle. The Mitchell Brothers case also marked the first use of 3D computer animation as an illustrative tool in a court case.

1994- Figure skater Nancy Kerrigan skips the closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer so she could begin her multi-million dollar endorsements with DisneyWorld. She blows it all later when she’s caught on camera during a Disney parade saying: “This is all so corny. I can’t believe I’m doing this !”
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Yesterday’s Quiz: Famed cartoon director Fred Avery was nicknamed Tex Avery. Why?

Fred Bean Avery, was born in Taylor Texas and attended North Dallas High School. Avery claimed ancestry from Judge Roy Bean, the Hanging Judge and Law West of the Pecos in the Old West. The Beans also claimed ancestry from Daniel Boone.

TODAY WOULD HAVE BEEN THE 100TH BIRTHDAY OF FAMED CARTOON DIRECTOR

HE WAS ONE OF THE GREAT ANIMATION DIRECTORS OF HOLLYWOOD'S GOLDEN AGE. HIS TIMING AND MANIC, SURREAL HUMOR IS STILL INFLUENCING ARTISTS TODAY. HIS SIGNATURE CHARACTER REACTIONS, THE TEX AVERY TAKE, HAS INSPIRED FILMS LIKE JIM CARREY'S THE MASK, WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? TINYTOONS AND CATS & DOGS.

HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY!
ALL HAIL FREDERICK BEAN AVERY aka TEX AVERY, KING OF CARTOONS!

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Quiz: Famed cartoon director Fred Avery was nicknamed Tex Avery. Why?

Answer to yesterday’s question below.
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History for 2/ 26/ 2007
Birthday: Old and Good King Wenceslas of Bohemia-1361, Victor Hugo, Buffalo Bill Cody, Emma Destin, Levi Strauss, Jackie Gleason, Fats Domino, Betty Hutton, Johnny Cash, William Frawley (Fred Murtz), Robert Alda (Alan's dad), Tony Randall, Erhyke Bahdu

500¹s BC to 391 AD, Ancient Greek festival of ANTHESTERION- the festival of death and exorcism. The ancient Greeks believed ghosts weren’t as scary as they were annoying. If you didn’t bury the dead properly with spices and a coin in the mouth for the Chaeron the Boatman of the River Styx, they became ghosts. They would haunt you by moping around, turning up at inappropriate moments, predicting your death, bleeding on your lunch, etc. So this festival was a sort of ³visiting hours² for the other world. You left your door open and cooked a meal for the spirits so they could spend a day visiting their old haunts (forgive the pun).This way they would not bug you the rest of the year. This festival was also considered a festival of flowers to usher in Spring. Most Greeks spent all three days of the festival drunk.

1854- Composer Robert Schumann went mad and jumped off a bridge into the Rhine River. He was fished out and institutionalized. His schizophrenia grew out of advanced syphilis. He said he was not committing suicide but had thrown his wedding ring into the river to free his wife Clara of him, then he relented and leaped into the raging ice filled water to get it back. Ironically this drama was played out during his towns winter carnival celebrations. The tragedy of seeing his friend and teacher collapse moved young Johannes Brahms to write his First Piano Concerto.

1907- British Oil and Royal Shell merge to form the British Petroleum- B.P. company.

1919- Congress established Grand Canyon National Park.

1965- First day of shooting on the Beatle's second film 'Help!".

1983- Michael Jackson’s album Thriller went to #1 in the pop charts and stayed for weeks.

1985- New York Police under District Attorney Rudy Giuliani arrested most of the leaders of the New York Mafia families called ³The Commission². Giuliani went on to have two successful terms as New York¹s mayor and run for President in 2007.

1990- Cornell Gunther, lead singer for the DooWop group the Coasters, was shot dead at a Las Vegas traffic intersection."Yakkety-Yak, Don't Talk Back!"

1991- At a meeting in Switzerland Tim Berners-Lee introduced the first Web Browser.

1991-The Highway of Death- During Gulf War One, U.S. airforces caught a long column of Iraqi army vehicles fleeing on an open desert road. Their attacks became an easy turkey-shoot. No one is sure how many Iraqis were killed.

1993- THE FIRST WORLD TRADE CENTER ATTACK. Followers of Moslem extremist cleric Omar Abdel Rahman set off a large truck bomb in New York's World Trade Center. The bomb created a five story crater in level B-2 of the underground parking structure. It killed 7 and injured over one thousand. 50,000 had to be evacuated from the twin towers for smoke inhalation. It has been speculated that one reason there were not even more deaths in the collapse of 9-11-2001 was because much of the office workers experienced this 1993 attack, so knew exactly how to evacuate the towers quickly. President Clinton’s Justice Dept had all the perpetrators in jail within a year. When planner Ramsay Youssef was being flown out of New York to his 240 year imprisonment the plane flew over Manhattan by the World Trade Center. A he looked down he was reported to have sighed:²Should have used more dynamite.²
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yesterday’s question: Animation director Brad Bird has now won Oscars for The Incredibles and Ratatouille. Why did he not win one for The Iron Giant?

Answer: There was no category yet for feature animated film when the Iron Giant came out- 1999. The first year for the category was 2001. It was won by Shrek.

Courtesy of the LA Times, sent me by J. Tucker



Ben Chapman, 79; Gill Man in cult film 'Creature from the Black Lagoon'
By Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

As an actor, Ben Chapman never landed a star-making role. Far from it. He had small parts in only a few films, including an uncredited bit part in "Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki."

But Chapman nevertheless achieved a degree of movie immortality -- and he did it without uttering a word of dialogue or even showing his face.

The 6-foot-5 former Tahitian entertainer and ex-Marine played the title character in "Creature from the Black Lagoon," the classic 1954 3-D monster movie that quickly developed a cult following that has endured over the decades.

Chapman, a retired Honolulu real estate salesman, died Thursday of congestive heart failure at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, said his longtime companion, Merrilee Kazarian. He was 79.

For Chapman, playing the so-called Gill Man in "Creature from the Black Lagoon" was the role of a lifetime.

"In the big picture, he achieved a small amount of success as an actor, but for baby-boomer 'monster kids,' he was the bomb," Tom Weaver, author of the 1992 "making of" book "Creature from the Black Lagoon," told The Times on Friday.

courtesy AMPAS

CONGRATULATIONS TO PETER & THE WOLF and RATAOUILLE for their Oscars! All have remarked that this was a great year for animated films. The competition was strong, and even the films that did not make the requirements like Enchanted were great efforts. Enchanted couldn't compete in animated feature category because it was basically a live action movie with animation in it. It has to have 70% of the main characters animated to qualify. As the lines between animated and live performances dim, like the Spiderman or Garfield films for instance, this standard will be continually challenged.

Boy, this was one of my worst years for Oscar picks. I think I got only four right. But I am in the minority, that I thought No Country for Old Men was a good movie, but not the best. I was happy to see Marion Cotillard win for La Vie en Rose. She was incredible, she really became Edith Piaff from young girlhood to old age.

Looks like everyone had a good time at the event. My regards to all the animation folks who attended, kept in our usual ghetto on the uppermost balcony.
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QUIZ: Animation director Brad Bird has now won Oscars for The Incredibles and Ratatouille. Why did he not win one for The Iron Giant?

ANSWER TO YESTERDAY’S QUESTION BELOW- What does Persepolis mean?
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History for 2/25/2008
Birthdays: Enrico Caruso, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Zeppo Marx,St. Louis (King Louis IX of France), Bobby Riggs, Carl Eller, Sir Anthony Burgess, Neil Jordan, Larry Gelbart, Tom Courtenay, Sean Astin (Sam in Lord of the Rings) is 36, Tea Leoni, John Foster Dulles*

* Dulles was Secretary of State under Eisenhower and architect of the anti-Communist containment policy. Winston Churchill once described meeting with him: -" Dull, Duller, Dulles".

799AD- Today is the Feast of Saint Walburga, who with her brother Saint Winebold preached Christianity in the remote forests of Germany. Oddly enough after Walburga’s death the Saint’s remains were removed to a new resting place on the anniversary of a pagan festival and her name stuck to the celebration- April 30th the Walpurgisnacht.

1836- FIRST COLT REVOLVER. Samuel Colt was given his first gun to play with at age 7. He was inspired by a ships steering wheel to invent a cylindrical gun chamber. They didn’t become popular until the price dropped with the 1860 Navy Colt. His six-shooter was nicknamed : The Great Equalizer","The Peacemaker" the "Confidence Machine" and sometimes the 'Thumbbuster". Gunfighters usually filed off the sight at the end of the barrel because it caught in your clothes during a quickdraw. Wild Bill Hickock for instance didn't wear holsters, he carried his two Navy Colts tucked in a red sash around his waist. Shootists also learned to carry it "5 beans in the wheel', meaning leaving your gun cocked to one empty chamber while you walk around. This so your gun doesn't accidentally go off in your holster, which could be very embarrassing, as Wyatt Earp once found out.

1860- A little known former congressman from out west named Abraham Lincoln stepped off the Cortlandt St Ferry in New York City. He walked alone carrying a moth-eaten carpet bag suitcase up to the Astor Hotel where he let the press know he was in town to declare himself a candidate for President of these here United States. He then went and traded in his old beaver skin stovepipe hat for a new silk top hat and went to Matthew Brady’s photo parlor to pose for a photo like all genteel-type folks is supposed ta do.

1863- CIVIL WAR PRANKS - Outside the siege lines of Vicksburg, Union admiral David Porter decided to play a practical joke on the rebels. On an old barge he built a dummy ironclad with wooden logs for guns and two burning tar smudge pots nailed to phony smokestacks. The total cost to the government for black paint and wood was 15 dollars.
He then had this contraption pushed into the Mississippi and let it float with the current downstream. When the rebel shore batteries spotted the black monster they let loose a furious barrage. It only increased their panic that the Yankee ship seemed so formidable that it didn't even bother to shoot back! When the Confederate river fleet spotted the black enemy warship they fled in terror. One captain ran his gunboat into a sand bar, abandoned it and blew it up rather than let it be captured. Eventually the dummy barge stuck in some shallows. Finally a rebel sheepishly rowed out to the barge and discovered the joke.

1864- Battle of Buzzards Roost. Sherman’s army attacked Joe Johnston’s defense works in Georgia but were repulsed. Johnston's ancestor Joe Johnston IV directed Honey I Shrunk the Kids for Disney.

1932- TOONTOWN SCANDALS. Former Australian prizefighter Pat Sullivan was the producer of the Felix the Cat cartoons, the first true animation star. Although animator Otto Mesmer actually created him Sullivan's name is the only one on the titles. Felix was one of the top film stars of the 1920s. Lindbergh supposedly had a Felix doll with him in the Spirit of St. Louis and his body shape was the prototype of Mickey Mouse and dozens of other characters.While Mesmer quietly drew pictures Sullivan lived the fast life of a roaring twenties celebrity. Mrs. Marjorie Sullivan had been having an affair with her chauffeur. After a nasty scene when husband confronted wife and the chauffeur fled, Mrs. Sullivan mysteriously fell out of her window to her death. The scandal was front page news and Sullivan never got over it. He soon drank himself to death which during Prohibition was difficult to do. Sullivan's death and his failure to get Felix into sound cartoons doomed his studio. Otto Mesmer went on to animate the first Broadway light signs but did not receive any recognition for his contributions to animation until he was re-introduced to the public at a Bob Clampett night at the Museum of Modern Art in 1975. Kid animators Eric Goldberg and Tom Sito were in the audience.

1932- A minor bit of bookkeeping. Austrian born Nazi leader Adolf Hitler had to officially become a German citizen before he could run for President.

1943- Master animator Bill Tytla resigned from Disney.

1956- THE SECRET SPEECH-In Moscow at a closed session of the 20th Party Congress Premier Nikita Khruschev denounced the crimes of the mass-murderer Josef Stalin. The audience was stunned at such honesty. When someone shouted:" If he was so terrible, why did you say nothing?" Khruschev roared back: " WHO SAID THAT?................(silence)..........................that's why."

1956- Poets Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes met at a party in Cambridge England.

1957- Bugs Moran, the gangster who challenged Al Capone for mastery of the Chicago rackets, died in prison of lung cancer. The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre ruined Moran’s organization and he had slipped down to petty thievery when he was nabbed.

1957- Buddy Holly and the Crickets record "That'll Be the Day."

1964- Young Cassius Clay, later renamed Muhammed Ali, defeated Sonny Liston in 2:14 minutes into the 6th round for the heavyweight boxing crown. The odds were on Liston 8-1 but Clay said he would "Float like a Butterfly and Sting Like a Bee!"When asked to comment about his defeat, Sonny Liston concluded: "Life, a funny thing."

1971- Oh Calcutta, the first play with lots of actors shedding their clothes, premiered on Broadway at the Belasco.

1983- Famous playwright Tennessee Williams was found dead in a New York hotel room. He died when he choked on a nose spray bottle cap that fell into his mouth while he was using the spray. Others say it was a Pepsi bottle cap.

1986- President Ferdinand Marcos fled the Philippines in the face of the People-Power revolution. Former movie star turned first lady Imelda Marcos left behind her amazing shoe collection. She felt that if the poor people saw her living in luxury it would make them feel better- (?)

1996- Dr Haing Ngor, the doctor who survived the Cambodian Killing Fields holocaust and won an Academy Award in a movie of the same name, was killed in a robbery attempt outside his Los Angeles home.

2004- Movie star uber-Catholic Mel Gibson’s movie the "The Passion of the Christ" opened in North America. The film was criticized for it’s perceived anti-Semitism, it was the first movie in which Jesus spoke his real language –Aramaic. An Arab friend who speaks Aramaic told me when he saw it, the most Anti-Semitic passages were not translated. The film was advertised more in churches than in the press. Pastors bought blocks of tickets for their congregations. The film earned nearly a billion dollars, most of the profit earned by Mel Gibson, who was the films sole investor.
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Question: What does the title of the film Persepolis mean?

Answer: Persepolis was the name of the capitol of the Ancient Persian Empire, seat of the Shah-en-Shah, The King of Kings. Persepolis was destroyed by Alexander the Great in 331BC, and in 1924 Persia changed it’s name to Iran.

Best of Luck to all the Oscar nominees today! Pat and I are sitting this one out at home, with our feet up.
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Question: While not presuming to predict anything at the Oscars, What does the title of the film Persepolis mean? I mean, Ratatouille explained itself in the film.

Yesterdays Quiz answered below: Who are these men? Schuyler Colfax, Hamilton Fish, Cactus Jack Garner, Charles GoodTime Charlie Curtis and Alban Barkeley?
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History for 2/24/2008
B-Dazes: Roman Emperor Hadrian, Winslow Homer, Arrigo Boito, Wilhelm Grimm (a brother of the brothers Grimm), Honus Wagner- early 1900’s baseball player called the Flying Dutchman, Admiral Chester Nimitz, Edward James Olmos, Barry Bostwick, Michel Legrand, James Farentino, illustrator Zdzislaw Beskinski, Michael Radford, John Vernon, Billy Zane, Dominic Chiasense- Uncle Junior Soprano is 77 and Abe Vigoda, who everyone thinks is dead but lives on, is 87.

495 B.C. Roman Festival REGIFUGIUM in honor of the overthrow of the Tarquins and foundation of the ROMAN REPUBLIC. The king of Rome, Tarquinus Superbus -Tarquin the Proud, Rash, Pain-in-da-Butt, whatever, capping off a history of arrogant rule, raped Lucretia, the daughter of a nobleman named Horatius. She told her dad, so he stabbed her to death to save her further shame. I guess that's 'tough love 'or something. The Roman people led by the Horatius’ and his brother Marcus Brutus drive out the king and establish a republic. For the next 450 years Rome is a democracy led by a Senate-from" senates" or elders, electing two Consuls (presidents) a year with the common peoples spokesmen called Tribunes of the Plebs who could veto. The motto the Romans would carry to the ends of the earth is S.P.Q.R.-Senatus Populusque Romanum -The Senate and the People of Rome.
The proudest status foreigners like Herod or Saint Paul could aspire to was to be made a Citizen of Rome. They could get out of any jam by announcing “Civitis Romanum Sum!” I am a Roman Citizen. This meant you could not be imprisoned or otherwise punished by local authorities. Or if Saint Paul read MAD Magazine he would say " quid, me anxius sum?" what, me worry ? The Republic would last 450 years until Augustus established the Roman Empire in 31 A.D. -based on the word Imperator-leader. In 180 A.D. Marcus Aurelius gave Roman citizenship status to all peoples of the Empire.
The memory of Tarquin gave the Romans a hatred of kings and crowns. Even the thought that Julius Caesar might want to be a king was enough get him multiple stab wounds by a descendant of Brutus. It took till 285 A.D. for an Emperor to publicly wear a diadem.

1784- Alexander Hamilton established the Bank of New York, the second oldest private bank in North America. At first the Mayor Clinton refused to grant the bank a charter. He said “corporations are sinister plots aimed at the average citizen…”

1848- THE FRENCH SECOND REPUBLIC IS DECLARED. King Louis Phillipe whom Daumier caricatured as a fat pear in a frock coat and top hat, was overthrown. Austrian diplomat Baron Metternich predicted: When Paris catches cold, Europe sneezes. “ Sure enough, inspired by the French example, urban working class revolts break out all over Europe. Berliners,Viennese, Romans,Venetians, Hungarians, Saxons and Poles fight in the streets with the forces of their autocratic rulers. Karl Marx and Frederich Engels had trouble publishing their Communist Manifesto because of all the darn revolutions sprouting up! New York antiques importer Charles Tiffany was vacationing in Paris, when French aristocrats fleeing the revolution sold him their family jewels at cut-rate prices to raise ready cash. This unexpected opportunity became the Tiffany jewelry trade.

1928- Frenchman Nicholas Landru, called BLUEBEARD was executed by guillotine. Landru married ten times, bringing the ladies up to his home, murdering them, and burning them in his furnace. He'd then live off their estates and sell their furniture. When the prosecutor said: "So, you made a career out of the suffering and swindling of others !" Landru replied:" No monsieur, I am not a lawyer."

1942- The radio service the Voice of America first went on the air.

1944- Merrill’s Marauders, a special ops trained group of Army Rangers, entered the jungles of Burma to do battle against the Japanese.

1961- Dr. Richard Leakey in Tanzania discovered the oldest known human skull.

1968- THE TET OFFENSIVE ENDS- With the U.S recapture of the old Imperial city of Hue, the Vietnamese Tet Lunar offensive is declared over. North Vietnamese General Vo Giap, the mastermind of Dien Bien Phu, had planned this assault as his masterstoke to win the war. It's failure cost him his job and destroyed the Viet Cong as an effective force. And their mass executions of South Vietnamese civilian officials cost them much civilian support and lengthened the war. Yet even though the Vietnamese communists were strategically defeated, the battle showed the world that after years of maximum effort by the most powerful military on Earth, the little Vietnamese Army was as formidable as ever. While the generals there requested more troops, they already had 450,000, White House strategists from this moment on begin to explore ways to withdraw.

1987- US Robotics sold the first 56k modems.

1988- The US Supreme Court defended the right of public figures to be satirized by throwing out a lawsuit Rev Jerry Fallwell brought against Hustler Magazine owner Larry Flynt. Flynt published a drawing describing Rev Fallwells first romantic experience in an outhouse. The Court ruled a public figure can be lampooned so long as it is not portrayed as factual.

1989- According to the David Lynch television series Twin Peaks this is the day Laura Palmer’s body was found and F.B.I. agent Dale Cooper came to town to investigate.

1996- Los Angeles Angel Flight reopened.

1997- The announcement of the first successful cloning of a mammal embryo, a sheep named Dolly in Scotland. To prove even though they're research scientists 'boys will be boys', They used cells from a mammary gland to do the cloning, so they named their creation after busty singer Dolly Parton. After a series of illnesses, the animal was put down in 2003, living half the life span of a normal sheep, but she mated and had babies normally. The drive to develop cloning continues. In 2002 the a successful cloning of a cat was claimed by a California company called Commercial Savings & Clone.

2003- State Farm Insurance Company announced that they would add a clause into future car insurance policies that Nuclear Explosions and Terrorist Biological Agents would not be classified as Road Hazards and so not covered. Yep, if a Hydrogen Bomb goes off in my neighborhood, my first concern will be about my insurance premiums.

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Yesterdays’ Question: Who are these men? Schuyler Colfax, Hamilton Fish, Cactus Jack Garner, Charles GoodTime Charlie Curtis and Alban Barkeley?

Answer: They were all U.S.Vice Presidents. All except Hamilton Fish, who was a leading NY politician in the 1870s. Cactus Jack Garner advised Lyndon Johnson “ Lyndon, the Vice Presidency ain’t worth a bucket full of warm piss!”