Quiz: Who coined the term: A Last Ditch Effort?

Yesterday¹s Quiz answered below- What does it mean when people call something ³ A Potemkin Village²?
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History for 1/26/2008

Birthdays: General Douglas MacArthur, Stephan Grappelli, Angela Davis, Maria Von Trapp, Wayne Gretsky "The Great One" is 47, Eartha Kitt, Roger Vadim, Jules Feiffer, Henry Jaglom, Anita Baker, Edward Abbey, Scott Glenn, David Straitharn is 59, Randy Rhodes, Ellen DeGeneres is 50, Paul Newman is 83

1758 - French troops burn at the stake the Haitian rebel slave leader Mackandal. A practicioner of Voodoo, his followers believed that at the moment of death he transformed himself into a mosquito and brought the Yellow Fever sickness to kill the Europeans. Haitian Independence was achieved a generation later under Toussaint l'Overture and Dessalines. Mackandal's dance, done at all his rallies and voodoo religious ceremonies was the 'marenga".

1788-AUSTRALIA'S NATIONAL DAY.- A small fleet of ships carrying 700 convicts and 200 soldiers and families lands in Australia at Sydney Cove. The aboriginal people met them on the beach with calls of "Warra-warra!" which means "Go Away!" After a century Australians began to form their unique character. The Aussie nickname name for British people is Poms or Pommies. This was for the initials printed on British prison shirts POM- or Prisoner Of his Majesty. Another version has it that British sailors regularly picked the pomegranate trees clean of fruit to ward off scurvy.

1815- Congress votes to purchase Thomas Jefferson's book collection to replace the fledgling Library of Congress that was burnt by the British in the War of 1812.

1865-Despite his Civil War victories General William T Sherman had been criticized for having a hard attitude towards black slaves, This day he answered his critics by issuing his General Order # 15, stating that every freed black American has the right to "40 acres and a mule".

1875- Late at night Pinkerton detectives on the trail of Jesse James threw a bomb into the window of the James family home. The explosion killed Jesses' 18 year old autistic stepbrother who had nothing to do with the outlaws, and it blew the right arm off their mother. The James Gang were no where near the farm that night.

1911- Richard Strauss' opera Die Rosenkavalier opens in Vienna. Kaiser Wilhelm was offended by the E.T. Hoffman story about aristocrats sleeping around with servants. He called it "A dirty little play".

1924- The Russian city of Saint Petersburg was also called Petrograd. This day the Bolshevik Government changed its name in honor of Vladimir Lenin to Leningrad. In 1991 they changed the name back to Saint Petersburg.

1934- Hollywood producer Sam Goldwyn bought the rights to the L. Frank Baum book the Wonderful Wizard of Oz to develop into a movie.

1939-Generalissimo Franco¹s Fascist troops capture Barcelona. The last major stronghold of the Spanish Republic.

1939- The first day of shooting on the film Gone With the Wind.

1945- The Soviet Army finally liberated the Auschwitz and Birkenau death camps. The first soldier to reach the camp was a Mongolian scout on a horse. This led one Jewish survivor to wonder if the Nazis now had intended to hand them over to the Japanese! The Russians hanged Auschwitz commandant Rudolph Hoess in front of the villa in camp he and his family lived in. He was not the Rudolph Hess who flew to London in 1941 and died in Spandau Prison. Rescued Auschwitz survivors included the future Nobel Laureate Primo Levi, and the founder of Commodore Computers Jack Trammel.

1950- In India today is Constitution Day, when the Indian Constitution went into effect.

1962- Mob boss Charles Lucky Lucciano dropped dead of a heart attack at Naples airport as he was about to shake hands with an author who had arrived from the U.S. to do his biography. Lucky Lucciano was the criminal genius that converted gangsters from storefront street gangs to corporate syndicates with ties to legitimate business and government. He also helped the Italian-Sicilian system of La Mafia- family clan allegiance, to supplant the earlier Irish-Jewish gangsters. Lucky was deported to Italy in the 1950¹s and retired when his appeals to return were denied.

1967- THE BIG SNOW- The people of Chicago pride themselves on their ability to handle the toughest winters. But this day was one of the worst- 23 inches of snow in 27 hours, driven by 50 mile an hour cyclonic winds bring the city to a standstill.

1979- Nelson Rockefeller found dead in his office" en flagrante delicto" with Meaghan Marshak, his young director of the Rockefeller Foundation. His second wife Happy Rockefeller had also been one of his office staff once. The method of the 70 year old billionaire former Vice President's death was an open secret in New York City. I had a friend at art school at the time who was a receptionist for a Park Ave. doctor who was Rocky's physician. She said the paramedics found him with his pants down but his tie still in place. His will left $50,000 and a Manhattan townhouse to Ms Marshak.

1979- The Dukes of Hazard tv show premiered.

1983- the software LOTUS 1-2-3 premiered that helped make IBM¹s PC into the most popular business computers in the US.

1984-HELP ME TITO! During the filming of a Pepsi commercial a magnesium flash ignited singer Michael Jackson¹s jericurl hair gel causing him 3rd degree burns,

1988- Andrew Lloyd Weber¹s musical Phantom of the Opera premiered.

1996-First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton testifies to a grand jury, the first "first lady" to do so. The only earlier incident that comes to mind for me was in 1862 when a senate committee convened to investigate whether Mary Todd Lincoln was a Confederate spy.

1998- The Japanese town of Ito was attacked by a pack of berserk monkeys, injuring 26.
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Yesterday Quiz: What does it mean when people call something ³ A Potemkin Village²?

Answer: Czarina Catherine the Great was anxious to get foreign investment and skills to modernize Russia. Her chief minister Prince Potemkin wooed overseas investment by touring western businessmen though model communities. These were just painted facades covering up medieval squalor. Later the German, English and Dutch companies were housed in a sealed off village built to be a perfect copy of a western European town. Today a Potemkin Village means a situation, village, factory, vacation villa, etc. that is presented falsely as a " typical " example available for the people of the country.

Well, it's been raining like the dickens here in Hollywood. The concrete paved LA River actually has water in it now. I know it's no biggy for people in more wintery parts of North America, but it's a big deal to us. Funny how when animation folks discuss things in their past, we inevitably refer time to what film we were doing. Pat and I were talking about the last time it rained this hard in such a sort period. She said:" I think I was on Ferngully then." I replied:" Yeah I think it was Beauty and the Beast for me" (1991). The Northridge Earthquake was during Pocahontas, the Great LA Riots happened during Aladdin.
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Well, the trade papers keep saying the WGA is in trouble and the strike solidarity is breaking apart. yet I don't see writers crossing the line to go back to work, but I DO see more studios breaking ranks with the AMPTP and signing a deal. Lionsgate and Marvel reached agreements today.
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Quiz- What does it mean when people call something “ A Potemkin Village”?

Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: What was the Gang of Four?
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History for 1/25/2008
Birthdays: Temujin called The Genghis Khan, "Prince of Conquerers", Byzantine Emperor Leo IV the Khazar, Benedict Arnold, Carl Eller, Robert Burns, Somerset Maugham, Virginia Woolf, US Vice President Charles “Goodtime Charlie” Curtis, Edwin Newman, Jean Image, Dean Jones is 77, Ava Gardner, Etta Jones, Corazon Aquino, Anita Pallenberg, Gene Washington, Tobe Hooper is 65

1533- Henry VIII secretly married Lady Anne Boleyn already pregnant with the future Queen Elizabeth. Anne Boleyn was later called a sorceress because she had six fingers on one hand. Lusty King Henry has also had sex with her mother and her older sister Mary. And Yer Little Dog, Too!

1890- Newspaper reporter Nelly Bly ( Elizabeth Cochrane ) of the New York World is welcomed home after traveling around the World in 72 days. The stunt was inspired by the Jules Verne story Around the World in 80 days, which had became a hit stage play.

1924- The first Winter Olympics held in Charmonix France. Winter sports were celebrated as early as 1901 as the Nordic Games in Scandinavia. Trying to hedge their bets the International Olympic Committee originally styled the Charmonix games the Winter Sports Week. It was so successful that in 1928 the IOC designed the games at St. Moritz the Second Winter Olympiad. These games did a lot to raise the public interest in the sport of skiing.

1939-President Franklin Roosevelt designated the fossil rich Badlands area of South Dakota a National Monument.

1945- The Rock Creek Report recommends mass additives of fluoride into American drinking water supplies. Tooth decay drops by 50%, however many right wing fringe groups see it as a Communist plot.

1947- Mobster Al Capone died at his home in Florida at age 48. He was released from Alcatraz Prison early because of ill health, his mind was being slowly destroyed by untreated syphilis. When another hood was asked if Al would resume leadership of the Chicago rackets he replied:” Big Al is nuttier than a fruitcake.” Capone lived his final days in seclusion at his estate on Biscayne Bay.

1959- American Airlines sets up the first jetliner passenger service across the U.S.

1959- Disney's " SLEEPING BEAUTY " opened. Despite earning the fifth highest box office for that year it finished $1 million behind what it cost to make. The animation staff had swollen to it's largest to finish the production. It’s disappointing box office soured Walt Disney on feature animation. His low budget live action films like The Shaggy Dog and the Abent Minded Professor were much more profitable. After Sleeping Beauty was finished the Disney studio had a massive layoff, the staff roster dropping from 551 to just 75. Artists employed since "Bambi" and earlier found pink dismissal slips on their drawing tables when they came to work. The staff will not return to these same levels until 1990.

1959- VATICAN II- Pope John XXIII called for the creation of a Second Vatican Council to initiate reforms in the Roman Catholic Church. This was called Vatican II and it’s sweeping ideas changed the Church forever. Latin Masses replaced with native language, the priest does the Eucharist ceremony facing you instead of with his back to you, Folk Masses with guitars, etc. Satirist Tom Lehrer wrote his comic song The Vatican Rag as a reaction to Vatican II. Today many Catholic conservatives like Mel Gibson are mad at Vatican II for doing away with the Latin Mass. It was comforting to know that you could go into a church anywhere in the world and be just as confused as everyone else.

1960- Actress Diana Barrymore, the daughter of John Barrymore, overdosed on sleeping pills. The Barrymore family that had dominated the American theater since the 1850’s had a history of drug and alcohol abuse. Ancestor after ancestor drank themselves to death. Current leader of the family Drew Barrymore recovered after seeking rehab at age 12.

1961- John F. Kennedy has the first televised Presidential press conference.

1970- Robert Altman’s groovy movie M*A*S*H premiered.

1971- Charles Manson and his followers convicted of 27 counts of murder. They were all sentenced to the Gas Chamber but the death penalty had been abolished in California for the moment.

1995- Moscow radar detected a nuclear missile launch from Norwegian waters headed right for them. Russian President Boris Yeltsin and his cabinet had five minutes to decide if this was an accident or the dreaded First Strike, warranting a full retaliatory launching of all Russian missiles against the US.. They decided it was a mistake, and it turned out the missile was only a Norwegian weather satellite being fired into orbit. Similar nail biting incidents happened to Jimmy Carter in 1980 and off the US coast in 1986. So sleep well tonight, your safety is in the hands of G.W. Bush and Comrade Putin!
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Yesterday’s Question: What was the Gang of Four?

Answer: After the death of Chairman Mao the government of Communist China saw his widow Madame Chiang Ching, , Jiang Qing, or Zhiang Zhing as you prefer, throwing her weight around. In 1984 Madame Mao and her three compatriots from the Cultural Revolution Days were purged and brought up on charges of trying to overthrow the state. They were collectively called the Gang of Four. Besides Madame Mao there were 3 men, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan, and Wang Hongwen, They all were tried and convicted, two dying in prison, one committing suicide and the other being released after serving 20 years.

Question: What is the origin of the term, The Gang of Four?

Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is the origin of the term A Young Turk?
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History for 1/24/2008
Birthdays: Roman Emperor Publius Hadrian AD117, Carlo Broschi called Farinelli the Castrato-1707, Pierre De Beaumarchais, Ernest Borgnine, Frederick II the Great, Edith Wharton, German Field Marshal Model, Mary Lou Rhetton, John Belushi, Disney director Wilfred Jackson, Yakov Smirnoff, Daniel Auteuil, Orel Roberts, Natassia Kinski

41 A.D.- CALIGULA ASSASSINATED- The psychotic Roman Emperor left a gladiator bout to have lunch when in an isolated hallway of the amphitheater his own bodyguards turned on him. His chief assailant was the captain of the watch Chaerea who Caligula liked to embarrass -he once gave Chaerea the watchword “Gimme a kiss”. After two sword thrusts the bleeding emperor shouted: " I still live ! Strike again !" Which they did until he was finally dead. They threw Caligulas’ corpse in a hole in the Lamian gardens. It was said his ghost continued to scare people there for years afterwards. Realizing that without an Emperor an Emperor's Guard isn't much use, the guards looked about for a member of the Imperial family that hadn’t already been butchered. They dragged Caligula's simple old uncle Claudius out from under a table and made him Caesar. Robert Graves worked his novel 'I Claudius' around the theory that Claudius was actually very intelligent but merely feigned idiocy to escape the murderous intrigues of his family. This idea is disputed by a number of ancient writers like Seutonius who said: "Claudius told the court he had merely feigned simple-mindedness, but of course nobody believed him, as his subsequent behavior would prove out."

1848- James W. Marshall discovers Gold at Sutter's Mill, California. This event will spark the first big gold rush the following year, the '49 ers. John Sutter had bought the land from the last Russian settlers and set up his town while under Mexican rule. Ironically the gold rush ruined him. Thousands of prospectors ignored his jurisdiction claims, trampled his crops and slaughtered his herds for food. Within a year or two he was broke and spent the rest of his life trying to get the US Government to reimburse him.

1865- The Pioneer Oil Company set up to prospect for petroleum in the L.A. area.

1874- Modest Mussorgsky’s opera Boris Gudunov premiered in Saint Petersburg.

1875- Camille Saint-Saens orchestral work Danse Macabre premiered in Paris.

1927- The Pleasure Garden premiered, the first film directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

1942- Producer David O. Selznick signed young star Jennifer Jones. He became infatuated with her and left his wife, the daughter of Louis B. Mayer to marry Jones.

1961- Warner Bros. cartoon voice actor Mel Blanc had a terrible auto crash. He lingered in a coma for several weeks. The way the doctor brought him around was to say: “Hey Bugs Bunny! How are we today?” Blanc replied in character:” Ehhh…fine,doc!”

1965- Winston Churchill died at 90. His last words were "Oh, I'm so bored of it all..." At 75 Churchill said :"I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the ordeal of meeting me is another matter." David Lloyd George once quipped of how Churchill would behave in Heaven: "Winston would go up to his Creator and say he would very much like to meet His Son, about whom he has heard a great deal."

1972- Japanese soldier Soichi Yokoi was found in the jungles of Guam unaware that World War Two had ended 27 years earlier. He had stolen a radio and listened to the news. But he thought the stories of Americans in Korea and Vietnam were just propaganda. He was returned to Japan a healthy, if somewhat confused hero.

1983- Hulk Hogan pinned the Iron Sheik to win his first World Wrestling Federation title.

1984- Apple announced the first Macintosh Computer. It went for $2500.
it's so small!

1986 -Voyager 2 spacecraft flies by Uranus. A friend of mine was in the visitor's gallery at The Jet Propulsion Laboratory as the data began to roll in from the space probe. He saw one man break up the entire room of Nobel-prize winning professors into hysterical laughter with the childish pun :”Here is the latest data on Gas Emissions from Uranus..."

2006- The Walt Disney Company acquired CG animation studio PIXAR. Apple and PIXAR head Steve Jobs and Ed Catmul get a seat on Disney Board and director John Lasseter becomes creative head.
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Yesterday’s Question: What is the origin of the term A Young Turk?

ANSWER: In 1913 a group of young Turkish army officers led by Enver Bey take over the government from the despotic rule of Sultan Abdul Hamid IV, and try to modernize Turkey, while keeping the Sultan as a figurehead. This group around Enver became a political movement, an insurgent group fighting for change....Today Young Turks has come to refer to "new blood" infused into an established heirarchy, such as hot shot graduates from business or law school who come into well established firms with high falootin' ideas and
challenge the status quo, or how young actors like Kiefer Sutherland, Emilio Estevez, etc in the early '80's who broke in to challenge the "old guard" for prominence..

Congratulations to all the Oscar nominees- I lifted some of this list from Amid Amidi of Cartoon Brew with his kind permission:

Best Animated Feature
• Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud)
• Ratatouille (Brad Bird)
• Surf’s Up (Ash Brannon and Chris Buck)
Note: For the second year in a row I got this group correctly. I gotta get to Vegas before this streak goes cold!

Best Animated Short Film
• I Met The Walrus (Josh Raskin)
• Madame Tutli-Putli (NFB, Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski)
• (Meme Les Pigeons Vont Au Paradis)Even Pigeons Go To Heaven (Samuel Tourneux and Simon Vanesse)
• My Love (Moya Lyubov) by Alexander Petrov, who once fell asleep in the back of my Toyota coming from a Terry Thoren party.
• Peter And The Wolf (Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman)

Ratatouille also received nominations for Best Original Screenplay (Jan Pinkava, Jim Capobianco, Brad Bird), Best Original Score (Michael Giacchino), Best Sound Editing (Randy Thom and Michael Silvers) and Best Sound Mixing (Randy Thom, Michael Semanick and Doc Kane).

Some negotiations have begun, hopefully the WGA strike will be settled soon, so it doesn't spoil the evening for all these talented folks.
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Quiz: What is meant by the term A Young Turk?

Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What is that little space between your nose and upper lip called?
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History for Jan 23, 2008
Birthdays: Musio Clementi, Edouard Manet, Sergei Eisenstein, Derek Walcott, Ernie Kovacs, Stendahl, Jean Moreau, Randolph Scott, Dan Duryea, Rutger Hauer, Warner Bros animator Manny Davis, Disney animation director Dave Hand, Princess Caroline of Monaco

1789- Georgetown University was founded near the site of what will be Washington D.C.

1795- A fleet of 14 Dutch warships got stuck in ice and was attacked by French cavalry.

1806-Prime Minister Pitt the Younger dies at 46. A heavy port drinker, he had a stroke after getting the news of Napoleon's big victory at Austerlitz. As the maps and dispatches dropped from his lap, his last words were:" Oh My Country !" Another source said his dying words were "Oh I wish I had another one of Mr. Bellamy's Meat Pies !". Suspiciously, the source of that anecdote was a spokesman for the Bellamy's Meat Pies Company.

1812- The largest earthquake in North America. It was not in California but in the Mississippi Valley near New Madrid Missouri. The quake was felt as far south as New Orleans where it moved the mouth of the Mississippi River, and it rattled store windows in New York City. Legend has it Indian leader Tecumseh had predicted it. He told Indians who had signed treaties with the whites:" I will stamp my foot, then you will know the anger of the Great Spirit."

1862- Here’s a toast to that Great American- Count Agoston Haraszthy ! Who? Next time you raise a glass of Napa Valley Chardonnay think of him. This day the Hungarian immigrant count bought land in the Sonoma Valley and imported cuttings from 1,000 varieties of European wine grapes. There may have been one or more earlier vineyards, but He starts the California wine industry.

1867- New York City residents awoke this day to find the East River separating them and the City of Brooklyn had frozen solid. It stayed that way for several weeks wreaking havoc among the ship traffic and commerce. Everyone realized they needed a bridge. Work on the Brooklyn Bridge was begun two years later in 1869.

1879- The Defense of Rourkes Drift. After the British invasion force was annihilated by the Zulus at the Battle of Ishandlwana the other day, a ragtag group of stragglers, wounded and drivers behind an improvised wall of piled up oatmeal sacks hold off the entire Zulu army. The first Victoria Crosses were given out over this engagement. More were given here than at D-Day. One went to a sergeant who later had it stolen off the wall of his pub. He petitioned the government and got another one....and that too was stolen. When he died in 1911 he had the VC embellished on his tombstone....and,.. you guessed it....it was stolen.

1922- The first insulin injection given in Toronto by doctors Banting and Macleod to diabetic patient Leonard Thompson.

1930- Ivory Snow soap invented 'pure as the driven snow'. In 1969 the model on the Ivory Snow box, Marilyn Chambers, became a notorious porno star. The baby she held in the photo was actress Brooke Shields.

1942- Tupperware invented by Charles Tupper.

1968- THE PUEBLO INCIDENT- Just a few days after the shock of the Vietnamese Tet offensive, a US Navy spy ship doing CIA intelligence work is captured in North Korean waters. The hostage ordeal mesmerizes the public for weeks and the sailors are finally released after a long captivity and humiliating show-trials. After his release, the commander, Capt. Lloyd Bucher retired from the navy, went to Art Center in Pasadena and trained to become an illustrator.

1978- In Woodland Hills Terry Kath, the lead singer of the group Chicago, killed himself when he playfully put a pistol to his head. His last words were: "Don't worry. It's not loaded, see...?"

1989- Artist Salvador Dali’ died. Rushing to leave as much money as possible for his family his agents had him autograph reams of blank paper they intended to print Dali’ lithographs on later.

2004- Satellite TV dish installer Jay McNeil of Paduca Kentucky was trying out a new telescope when he discovered a nebula in space, now called McNeil’s Nebula.
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Yesterday’s Quiz: What is that little space between your nose and upper lip called?

Answer: The filcrum of philcrim.

Quiz: What is that little space between your nose and upper lip called?

Yesterday’s Question answered below. Which Statement is False?
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History for 1/22/2008
St. Vincents Day- "If Vincents Day be Rainy Weather, shall rain then 30 days together.”

Birthdays: Sir Francis Bacon, D.W. Griffith, Charles Gordon Lord Byron, August Strindberg, Andre Marie Ampere (electric Amps), 1960’s UN Secretary General U- Thant, Ann Southern, Rosa Ponselle, Sam Cooke, John Hurt, George McManus, Joseph Waumbaugh, J.J. Johnson, Jim Jarmusch is 55, Linda Blair is 49, Piper Laurie, Diane Lane is 43

1555- THE FIRES OF SMITHFIELD. When Mary the Catholic daughter of Henry VIII became queen she at first tried to be lenient towards her Protestant subjects. But continuous plots by Protestant nobility and her own desire to restore England to the old faith hardened her heart. This day began the mass trials and executions of those accused of Protestant heresy. Six clergymen including the Bishop of Gloucester were sentenced and burned at the stake. Hundreds more would follow. Even Spanish King Philip II urged Mary to cool it. Mary’s executioners added a new twist to an old system of Burning at the Stake. If they pitied you, before lighting the bonfire a bag of gunpowder was stuffed between your legs so you could go out with a bang. Bloody Mary and her cruelty in the name of Roman Catholicism all but convinced the English people to stay Anglican.

1840- The first English colonists reach New Zealand. And no, they didn't immediately start making Hobbit movies.

1863- THE MUD MARCH- Union General Ambrose Burnside (who created the fashion for "side-burns") tried to avenge his humiliating defeat at Fredericksburg by a winter march up the Rappahannock River to maneuver around Robert E. Lee. In so doing he discovered why all pre-industrial age armies took the winter off.. Burnsides army was pelted by blinding sleet storms and bogged down in oceans of gooey mud. When Burnside finally called it quits he had as many casualties from sickness as had he fought a battle. A bitter army joke based on a children’s prayer went:
"Now I lay me down to Sleep, In mud that’s eighteen fathoms Deep."
"If you can’t see me when we Awake, please dig me up with an oyster Rake."

1901- Queen Victoria died after a reign of 64 years, the longest ever for a British monarch. When she assumed the throne at 19 in 1837 there were still many alive who remembered the Battle of Waterloo and white periwigs, and she died in a world of electric lights, autos and motion pictures. The current Queen Elizabeth II has to reign ten more years to catch her.

1912- The first bridgeway connecting Key West and the Florida Keys opened.

1918- A Manitoba judge tries to outlaw movie comedies, because they tend to make the public "too frivolous".

1930- Work began on the foundation of the Empire State Building in New York.

1938- On a bare stage, Thorton Wilder’s play Our Town premiered.

1947- Hollywood first commercial television station KTLA went on the air for regular broadcasting. At the time in all of LA there were only 350 TV sets.

1949- Mao Tse Tung (MaoZseDong) and the Communists capture Peiping (Beijing).

1949-Tex Avery’s cartoon "Bad Luck Blackie".

1950- Preston Tucker tried to compete with the big auto giants like Ford and Chrysler with his revolutionary designed Tucker Automobile. But the giants bogged him down in court with charges of fraud. This day he was acquitted of all charges but the legal expenses ruined him. Only 40 Tuckers were ever made. Francis Ford Coppola made a movie about his life.

1951- During Winter baseball tryouts a promising young left-handed pitcher from Cuba was scouted by the New York Yankees. But after losing a game for the Washington Senators and getting dropped from their roster he gave up on pro-sports to pursue other careers- Fidel Castro.

1959- Former 'Our Gang' child star Charles 'Alfalfa" Switzer was killed in a bar in Studio City. He pulled a knife on a man over a $50 debt on a hunting dog. The man then shot him. He was 32. According to fellow Little Rascal Darla Hood Switzer was a brute who bullied the other children and bitter his adult career never blossomed.

1968-T.V. comedy review show Rowan & Martin’s Laugh In premiered. It launched the careers of Lilly Tomlin, Goldie Hawn and Eileen Brennan. You bet your sweet Bippy! Sockitotmesockitome...

1972- In an interview with Melody Maker magazine rocker David Bowie outed himself and said he was gay. Technically he would be bi-sexual since his wife Angela did catch him in bed with Bianca Jagger.

1975- Hollywood agents Ron Meyer and Michael Ovitz leave William Morris and form the Creative Artists Agency, or CAA.

1984- Amazon Indians attack an oil drilling crew with blow guns.
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Quiz: Which statement is false?
A) The song White Christmas was written by a Jewish man.
B) The song Dixie was written in New York City
C) The Gettysburg Address was not written by Abe Lincoln.
D) The Pledge of Allegiance was written by a Socialist.

Answer: C.
Abe Lincoln did write the Gettysburg Address, but contrary to the legend he did not write it on the back of an envelope on the way to the event. He labored over it for awhile, and several rough drafts of the speech in pencil still exist. Hmm...FiveScore and Seven Years ago...? Nah.....uh......Sixscore and Twelve and a Half years ago......hmmm.....nope.