On This Day in History

[GhostDancer]

1537 The 1st complete English-language Bible, the "Matthew Bible" is printed, with translations by William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale

1675 Dutch mathematician Christiaan Huygens patents the pocket watch

1881 Edward Leveaux patents automatic player piano

1883 The Orient Express departs on its first official journey from Paris to Instanbul 1915 Dinosaur National Monument in Colorado & Utah is established

1931 Dick Tracy comic strip by Chester Gould debuts

1933 Esquire magazine is 1st published

1949 United Nations' permanent NYC headquarters is dedicated

1957 Soviet Union launches Sputnik I, the 1st artificial Earth satellite into elliptical low Earth orbit

1957 "Leave It to Beaver" debuts on CBS 1958 Transatlantic commercial jet passenger service began (BOAC)

1971 Borden's opens a turn-of-century ice cream parlor at Disney World 1973 Hans of Manens ballet "Adagio Hammerklavier" premieres in Amsterdam

1974 John Lennon releases "Walls & Bridges" album featuring No. 1 single "Whatever Gets You thru the Night"

1980 ABC premiere of Saturday futuristic fantasy cartoon "Thundarr the Barbarian”

1985 Free Software Foundation is founded in Massachusetts, USA

1987 "The Last Emperor" directed by Bernardo Bertolucci and starring John Lone, Joan Chen and Peter O'Toole premieres at the Tokyo Film Festival (Best Picture 1988)

1990 U.S. premiere of Fox TV's "Beverly Hills, 90210" starring Luke Perry, Jason Priestley and Shannen Doherty

1999 "Breathe" single released by Faith Hill (Billboard Song of the Year 2000)

 

Thanks to Rebecca E. Whitten

[GhostDancer]

Happy birthday to actress Karen Allen, born this date in 1951. Among many fine performances, she played Marion Ravenwood in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008):

[GhostDancer]

1806, carbon paper is patented in London by inventor Ralph Wedgewood.

[Cancer]

On this day in 1571, the Battle of Lepanto was fought between the galley fleets of the Ottoman Empire and the Holy League (Spain, Venice, the Papal States), ending in a crushing defeat of the Turkish forces, one from which their Mediterranean naval power never really recovered.  The Ottoman fleet by itself never regained the ability to strike into the western end of the Mediterranean, though their land forces engulfed the entirety of the south shore, and they continued land campaigns through the Balkans, and Venice continued to lose ground against the Ottomans in terms of territory, wealth, and influence.  But the operations of galley warfare was critically dependent upon experienced, highly-skilled officers in the galleys, and all but a few of these were lost at Lepanto (not least because any who were captured were identified and executed by the Christians after the battle; Philip II of Spain commanded the victorious admiral to do this, who coolly replied that the orders had already been given).  By the time another generation had mastered those skills, Western sea technology and tactics had changed and left the galley in obsolescence.

[GhostDancer]

1942, Milton Caniff's Burma strips began appearing in American military service papers. From Wikipedia: During the war, Caniff began a second strip, a special version of Terry and the Pirates without Terry but featuring the blonde bombshell, Burma. Caniff donated all of his work on this strip to the armed forces—the strip was available only in military newspapers. After complaints from the Miami Herald about the military version of the strip being published by military newspapers in the Herald's circulation territory, the strip was renamed Male Call and given a new star, Miss Lace, a beautiful woman who lived near every military base and enjoyed the company of enlisted men, whom she addressed as "Generals". Her function, Caniff often said, was to remind service men what they were fighting for, and while the situations in the strip included much 'double entendre', Miss Lace was not portrayed as being promiscuous. Much more so than civilian comic strips which portrayed military characters, Male Call was notable for its honest depiction of what the servicemen encountered; one strip displays Lace dating a soldier on leave who had lost an arm (she lost her temper when a civilian insulted him for that disability). Another strip had her dancing with a man in civilian clothes; a disgruntled GI shoved and mocked him for having an easy life, but Lace's partner was in fact an ex-GI blinded in battle. Caniff continued Male Call until seven months after V-J Day, ending it in March 1946.

[GhostDancer]

1956 - American actress, screenwriter, presenter, and comedian Arleen Sorkin, born this date. Sorkin is known for portraying Calliope Jones on the NBC daytime serial Days of Our Lives and for inspiring and voicing the DC Comics villain Harley Quinn in Batman: The Animated Series and the many animated series and video games that followed it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arleen_Sorkin

[GhostDancer]

Birthdays, historical notes and remembrances for today:

Sol Hess (1872)

Grace Drayton (1877)

Eastman receives patent on his new paper-strip film (1884)

Roundhay Garden Scene (1888)

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890)

Philip Mendoza (1898)

George Wilson (1902)

Bob Oksner (1916)

Winnie-the-Pooh (1926)

Roger Moore (1927)

Giovanni Gandini (1929)

Happy Hooligan/And Her Name was Maud concludes (1932)

L'Avventuroso debuts (1934)

Dann Jippes (1945)

Katy Manning (1946)

Chuck Yeager becomes first to exceed speed of sound (1947)

Bruno Di Sano (1951)

Harry Anderson (1952)

Charlie Williams (1952)

Martin Luther King Jr. receives Nobel Peace Prize (1964)

Michael R. Hawkins (1965)

First live TV broadcast by American astronauts in orbit (1968)

Henri Jenfevre (1968)

Christopher Jones (1969)

Brandon Peterson (1969)

Stijn Gisquière (1975)

IPC merges 2000 AD and Starlord into 2000 AD and Starlord (1978)

Jaume aka Jaume Pallardó Segarra (1978) Vanessa Davis (1978)

First National March on Washington for Lesbian & Gay Rights (1979)

President Ronald Reagan proclaims War on Drugs (1982)

Ming Doyle (1984)

[Cancer]

On this day in 1777, English General Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga, a pivotal point in the American Revolution.  The victory was enough to draw a treaty of alliance with France, who declared war on Britain in March of 1778.

[BNakagawa]

30 years ago, the Loma Prieta earthquake rocked the bay area, interrupting the World Series, closing the Bay Bridge and collapsing numerous structures ranging from Oakland to Santa Cruz.

[Cancer]

I remember that event.  I was here in Seattle, had the TV on to watch the World Series, and the phone rang and a good friend (who was in Arizona) had called me in deep distress (she'd just learned she was pregnant, and this was in no way a happy event in this case).  The conversation lasted well over an hour, with me paying no attention to the TV.  Finally I got her over the immediate dismay ... there really wasn't anything I could do about the root issue, but emotional support I could ... and glancing at the muted TV, I slowly deduced that they were in "an earthquake just happened!" mode.

 

Also, my boss was in Berkeley at the time, but he reported the next day that he was ok.  I had relatives in Santa Cruz as well, and it took longer to hear from them, but they too came out OK.

[Cancer]

On October 17, 2019 at 3:20 PM, Cancer said:

On this day in 1777, English General Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga, a pivotal point in the American Revolution.  The victory was enough to draw a treaty of alliance with France, who declared war on Britain in March of 1778.

 

And four years and a couple of days later, Lord Cornwallis surrendered himself and his army at Yorktown to the American and French forces under Washington and Rochambeau, the last major military action in the American Revolution, and led to the British government seeking negotiations to end the war.

[GhostDancer]

1959 - pretty fly for a white guy.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/"Weird_Al"_Yankovic

[GhostDancer]

It was 44 years ago today that the Edmund Fitzgerald was being loaded with 26,000 tons of iron ore, prepped for what would become her doomed final voyage.

[Cancer]

And 30 years ago today, the Berlin Wall opened.

[death tribble]

Today the Eddystone Lighthouse was lit for the first time., November 14th 1698. And as Google are celebrating it and it protects my home town, I post it.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddystone_Lighthouse

It is also the birthdays of Bernard Hinault, the last French man to win 5 Tours de France born November 14 1954 and Prince Charles born November 14 1948

[Cancer]

75 years ago today, German forces launched Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein, a major attack against Allied forces in the Ardennes Forest, which came to be known as the Battle of the Bulge in the English-speaking countries.  The Allies had broken out from their beachhead in Normandy at the end of July 1944 after the D-Day invasion, and had a successful of the southern coast of France in August, resulting in a catastrophic collapse of the German armies in France and the Allies forced to a halt on the approaches to the Rhine due to logistical exhaustion.  It was a forced pause while all the armies resupplied, and the front in the Ardennes was held by a very thinly spread force, US VIII Corps. 

 

The Germans achieved perhaps total surprise, and their Fifth Panzer Army, Sixth Panzer Army, and Seventh Army all but shattered VIII Corps as they drove west, with the ostensible goal of retaking Antwerp and cutting off Montgomery's 21st Army Group and driving it into the Channel.  The weather cooperated with the German plan, with overcast conditions suppressing the overwhelming Allied air power for the first week while the tanks raced for Allied supply dumps through the same terrain they had traversed in June 1940 when they had shattered the French Army and driven the British forces to evacuation at Dunkirk. 

 

101st Airborne Division, Combat Command B of 10th Armored Division, 705th Tank Destroyer Battalion, 969th Artillery Battalion, and other elements of VIII Corps, were surrounded in the major road junction at Bastogne, where the Germans demanded surrender, with Gen. Anthony McAuliffe famously giving the one-word reply, "NUTS".  The weather broke on the 24th, allowing Allied air power to come to bear against the German forces and drop supplies into still-surrounded Bastogne; the German advance was halted and began to retreat.  (The first time I saw this image it bore the caption "Manna from heaven: Christmas 1944".)  Patton's 3rd Army drove into the salient from the south, relieving Bastogne on the 26th, and pressure was applied from all directions as the Allied materiel superiority was brought to bear. 

 

The pre-attack front was restored on 25 January 1945.  US 1st Army would capture the Allies' first bridge across the Rhine on 7 March (and put six divisions across it in ten days), Soviet forces would surround and take Berlin in April and very early May, and the Germans would surrender on 11 May.

[GhostDancer]

Today in 1996, Marvel Entertainment filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

[death tribble]

Today January 27th 2020 is the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp at Auschwitz

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_of_Auschwitz_concentration_camp

Six American diplomats left Iran on this day 27th January 1980 having been sheltered by Canadians in Tehran. The film Argo is loosely based on it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Caper

[GhostDancer]

Historical note from Turning Points by Maggie Thompson: 60 years ago February 1960 DC’s The Brave and the Bold #28 introduces Starro and Snapper Carr – and, oh, yeah, The Justice League of America. “Starro the Conqueror!” is by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, and Bernard Sachs. (And here’s a tip of the Thompson topper to Peter the Puffer Fish, who warns Aquaman that an alien starfish is a threat in the first place. Thanks, Pete! You don’t get enough credit!) Cover by Mike Sekowsky and Murphy Andrson.

[GhostDancer]

1964: 73 million people tuned into The Ed Sullivan show to see The Beatles make their American TV debut. 

[GhostDancer]

1943: according to the Grand Comics Database, Alfred Pennyworth (butler to Bruce Wayne and the Batman) was introduced in Batman #16 (April–May 1943).

[GhostDancer]

Historical note from Turning Points by Maggie Thompson:

 

55 years ago February 1965 “Even the world’s mightiest crusaders find themselves helplessly trapped,” when Marvel’s The Avengers #13 introduces Count Nefaria and The Maggia in “The Castle of Count Nefaria!” by Stan Lee, Don Heck, and Dick Ayers.

 

Cover by Jack Kirby and Chic Stone.

[death tribble]

February 13th 1970 Black Sabbath release their self titled album

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sabbath_(album)

[Cancer]

Note that "Evil Woman" on that disk is a cover of a song originally done by Crow, which was one of my favorites when it came out in first run in 1969.

[GhostDancer]

1948, The World Health Organization was established by the United Nations.