I speak in praise of old animators who never achieved the fame of a Chuck or Frank & Ollie. I always admired the work of animators such as Rod Scribner, John Sibley, Hicks Lokey, Bill Littlejohn, Bobe Cannon, Burney Wolf, Virgil Ross, Irv Spence and many more.

Well might we say as the First Century Roman writer Pliny told his friend Tacitus:"So let us continue along the path we have chosen. For if it lifts few to the full light of fame, it lifts many from the shades of obscurity..."
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Birthdays: Amerigo Vespucci, Eddie Foy Sr., Yuri Gargarin, Samuel Barber, chess master Bobby Fischer, Mickey Spillane, Vita Sackville-West, Raul Julia, Vacheslav Molotov -Stalins' foreign minister for whom the Molotov Cocktail is named, Juliet Binoche, Linda Fiorentino,, Lil’ Bow-Wow

1907-Former Edison animator J. Stuart Blackton starts "Moving Picture World" an early movie fanzine.

1935- The Looney Tune Cartoon "I haven’t Got a Hat" premiered. This cartoon gave birth to the first permanent Warner Bros. Cartoon star- Porky Pig. Daffy Duck came in 1937 and Bugs Bunny in 1940.

1954- Edgar R. Murrow does a "See It Now" television broadcast detailing the life of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the champion commie-chaser. The obvious contradictions and gross opportunism in McCarthy's record when laid out to a nationwide audience destroyed his career and took the steam out of the "Red Scare" of the 50's. It is probably television journalism's finest moment. For the lowest ? Well, what's on tonight ?

1955- Actor James Dean’s film East of Eden premiered today,.

1959-The first "Clutch Cargo" show.

1974- Lieutenant Hiru Onada came out of the Philippine jungle and surrendered, at last made to understand that World War Two had been over for thirty years. Even after he captured a radio he thought the news of American troops in Vietnam and Korea was just propaganda. He was finally convinced after Japanese researchers produced his elderly retired Major who read over a bullhorn the surrender orders he first gave in 1945.

1984- Roy E. Disney Jr. resigned from the central board of the Walt Disney Company, setting in motion a series of takeover bids and maneuvering that by August would leave him in control of the company. Disney' Studios at the time was 14th in box office receipts. The joke was "Some people work for Disney, others work in film." Roy Disney and his partner Frank Wells brought in Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg from Paramount and in two years Disney was the #1 box office earner.

1989- Artist-photographer Robert Maplethorpe died of AIDS.

1997- Gangsta-rap singer Christopher Wallace , who was known as the Notorious B.I.G. and also called Biggie Smalls, was shot and killed by a gangsta-style drive by. His last album was entitled Life After Death. Notorious BIG could never shake the accusation that he was involved in the similar murder of singer Tupac Shakur.