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322nd day of 2010 - 43 remaining
Thursday, November 18, 2010
STEAMBOAT WILLIE DAY
On this day in 1928, Walt Disney debuted his talking, animated cartoon, Steamboat Willie, at the Colony Theatre in New York. The short film featured a character who had been named Mortimer. Walt changed the name to Mickey Mouse.
Steamboat Willie was the first cartoon with synchronized sound. And, for those of you who don’t remember, Steamboat Willie was in black and white. Disney’s first color cartoon wasn’t released for another four years.
The star of the film has changed somewhat over the years; but Mickey Mouse is still with us, in cartoons, on TV, in books and even in his own stores. What a great success story, especially for a mouse!
Events November 18
1307 - The story of William Tell shooting the apple off of his young son’s noggin is said to have taken place on this day. The story is of either Swiss, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, or Persian origin. In other words, Who knows?
1626 - St. Peter’s Basilica was dedicated in Rome by Urban VIII.
1894 - The New York World published the first colored Sunday comic.
1919 - One of the first ticker-tape parades was held -- to welcome the Prince of Wales to New York City. Ticker tape came from Wall Street, you know. Rolls of paper were used to record stock trades long before computers were invented. As the paper rolled over pins that punched stock information read by stock brokers, it would leave holes. When a big parade was organized, the shredded tape was scooped up and thrown out of windows on the marchers below. We now call the stuff confetti, since ticker tape isn’t used anymore.
1932 - For the first time, a tie occurred for the Best Actor Academy Award. Wallace Beery and Fredric March were only one vote apart so the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ruled it a tie. Both received an Oscar at the Fifth Annual Academy Awards, March for his performance in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Beery for his role in The Champ. March thought it rather funny that the two were honored for ‘best male performance of the year’ when they each had adopted a child that year. The Champ also was honored when Frances Marion received the Writing/Original Story Academy Award for the film. There was only one Best Actress Award and it was presented to Helen Hayes for her performance in The Sin of Madelon Claudet. Host Lionel Barrymore greeted the film industry this night in the Fiesta Room at LA’s grand hotel, The Ambassador. The movie, Grand Hotel (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), earned the top honors as Outstanding Production. It was also a grand night for the film, Bad Girl. Its director, Frank Borzage, and its writer (adaptation), Edwin Burke, were both presented with Academy Awards. Walt Disney also received two awards: an honorary award for the creation of Mickey Mouse and for the cartoon short subject, Flowers and Trees. Short Subject awards were presented to two other well-known Hollywood talents on this evening. Hal Roach won his prize for the comedy, The Music Box and Mack Sennett for the novelty short, Wrestling Swordfish. Both were first-time Academy Award winners as were Gordon Wiles for Art Direction (Transatlantic) and Lee Garmes for Cinematography (Shanghai Express). A grand night was had by all.
1942 - Thornton Wilder’s play, The Skin of Our Teeth, opened in New York City. The play was Wilder’s sequel to Our Town. The Skin of Our Teeth starred Tallulah Bankhead, Fredric March, Montgomery Clift and E.G. Marshall. One critic wrote, “As of last evening, the theatre was looking up.”
1943 - British bombers attacked Berlin. This was the first in a series of heavy night attacks by the RAF against the Nazi capitol city.
1949 - Alben W. Barkley married Jane Rucker Hadley in St. Louis. It was the first time a U.S. Vice President married while in office.
1951 - On this, a Sunday afternoon, Edward R. Murrow and Fred Friendly launched one of the most highly-praised TV productions in history. See It Now debuted on CBS. On that first program, Murrow showed a live camera shot of the Atlantic Ocean, followed by a live shot of the Pacific, then he said, “We are impressed by a medium through which a man sitting in his living room has been able to look at two oceans at once.” In April of 1952, See It Now moved into an evening time slot.
1956 - Morocco’s long struggle for independence from France ended on this day. Morocco had been a French protectorate since 1912.
1960 - Almost a year to the day after Ford ended production of its Edsel line, Chrysler pulled the plug on DeSoto after several years of sharply falling sales. In fact production of the final 1961 models totalled just 3,034 cars.
1963 - The first telephone in the U.S. with push buttons instead of a rotary dial was placed in commercial service in Carnegie and Greensburg, PA.
1966 - Robert Kennedy was pictured on the cover of LIFE magazine. Stories on RFK included his “truce with LBJ” (President Lyndon Baines Johnson) and speculation that Kennedy would run for president in 1968.
1966 - A ruling was announced (to take effect Dec 2) that abstinence from meat on Fridays would no longer be required of U.S. Roman Catholics (except during Lent).
1967 - Lulu’s To Sir with Love, from the movie of the same name, started its fifth and final week at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Lulu was born Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie (November 3, 1948). She changed her name to Lulu (and The Luvvers) in Scotland, early in her career.
1969 - Financier-diplomat Joseph P. Kennedy, patriarch of the Kennedy family, died in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. He was 81 years old.
1970 - Nobel Prize-winner Linus Pauling declared that large doses of Vitamin C could ward off the common cold.
1975 - John Denver received a gold record for I’m Sorry.
1977 - The American Cancer Society held the first nationwide Great American Smokout. Arthur P. Mullaney of Randolph, Massachusetts had come up with the idea in 1971. He asked his neighbors to give up cigarettes for a day and donate the money they would have spent for cigarettes to a high school scholarship fund. In 1976, the California Division of the American Cancer Society had persuaded nearly one million of the state’s 5 million smokers to quit for 24 hours.
1978 - The worst case of murder-suicide in history took place in Jonestown, Guyana. Religious-cult leader Jim Jones (Peoples Temple) directed the ingestion of Kool-Aid (laced with cyanide) by at least 900 of his followers. He and his mistress then followed suit. Earlier in the day, Jones had directed the murder of California Congressman Leo J. Ryan, three newspeople and several ‘defectors’. Ryan, on a fact-finding tour of Jonestown, was boarding a privated airplan with the small group when they were shot down.
1986 - For the first time since his departure from his own late-night TV show, Jack Paar was a guest of Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. One of TV’s great lines came from the show, when Carson quipped (after one of Paar’s long, long spiels), “Why is it that I feel I’m guesting on your show?”
1986 - Roger Clemens was named the American League’s Most Valuable Player. He was the first American League starter to be so named in 15 years. The Boston Red Sox hurler won the honor one week after earning the Cy Young Award.
1987 - Thirty-one people died in a fire at King’s Cross, London’s busiest subway station.
1989 - The Cosmic Background Explorer satellite was launched. It provided evidence for the ‘Big Bang’ that spawned the universe 10-20 billion years ago. Dr. David T. Wilkinson was the driving force behind the satellite launch.
1991 - Vukovar, capital of eastern Slavonia, fell to Serbian raiders. They removed some 260 wounded Croat patients, hospital staff and political activists sheltered in the Vukovar hospital and took them to the village of Ovcara where most were shot and buried. On Mar 26, 1996 Slavko Dokmanovic, the Serb mayor of Vukovar, was indicted for his role in the incident. Investigators began uncovering bodies from the mass grave in September 1996.
1992 - The movie, Malcolm X, starring Denzel Washington, premiered in the U.S.
1992 - Dorothy Kirsten, U.S. opera soprano, died from stroke. She was 82 years old.
1994 - Star Trek: Generations premiered in U.S. theatres. The sci-fi action adventure stars Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, Malcolm McDowell, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, William Shatner, Alan Ruck, Jacqueline Kim, Jenette Goldstein and Thomas Kopache.
1995 - Tha Dogg Pound’s album Dogg Food hit #1 in the U.S. for one week. The tracks were: Intro, Dogg Pound Gangstaz, Respect, New York, New York (Tha Night I Served 2,000 M.C.s), Smooth, Cyco-Lic-No (***** Azz Niggaz) Ridin’, Slipin’ and Slidin’, U Can’t See Me, Big Pimpin 2, Let’s Play House, I Don’t Like to Dream About Gettin Paid, Do What I Feel, If We All Fuc*, Some Bomb Azz *****, A Dogg’z Day Afternoon, Reality, "One By One (Subtracting Sucka Azz Niggaz from the Face of the Earth)", Sooo Much Style. This album will make the perfect gift for grandma this Christmas.
1996 - Harold James Nicholson, former CIA station chief, was arrested for espionage. Nicholson passed information to Russia from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in June 1994 and collected as much as $180,000. (He later pleaded guilty to espionage and was sentenced to 23 1/2 years in prison. He was spared a life sentence for cooperating with investigators.)
1997 - Two Willem de Kooning paintings topped the lots at Christie’s blue-chip contemporary sale in New York City. Two Standing Women (1949), sold for $4,182,500 and Woman (Blue Eyes) (1953), which went for about $2 million.
1997 - The Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays begin taking shape with 35 selections apiece in baseball’s expansion draft. Both the Diamondbacks and Devil Rays began their baseball lives with sufficient funds to contend quickly.
1997 - It was the biggest banking deal to that day. First Union Corporation announced the purchase of CoreStates Financial Corporation for $16.1 billion.
1997 - The FBI concluded its criminal investigation into the TWA Flight 800 disaster. Assistant FBI Director James Kallstrom said the explosion that destroyed the Boeing 747 was not caused by a criminal act.
1999 - A pyramid of logs for a traditional football bonfire collapsed and killed eleven students at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. One of another 28 people who were injured died the next day.
2000 - George W. Bush’s campaign fiercely attacked the hand-recounting of votes in Florida’s presidential election, depicting a process riddled with human error and Democratic bias. Al Gore’s lawyers defended the effort in papers filed with the state Supreme Court.
2001 - Phillips Petroleum Co. and Conoco Inc. announced they were merging in a deal that created the third-largest U.S. oil and gas company. The combined firm was to be known as ConocoPhillips. It was estimated that the value of the new corporation would be approximately $35 billion.
2002 - Actor James Coburn died at 74 years of age. His long list (over 100) of films includes Our Man Flint and The Magnificent Seven.
2003 - The Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that a ban on same sex marriage was unconstitutional. Lawmakers were given 180 days to find a solution.
2004 - An estimated 30,000 guests attended the opening of the Clinton Presidential Center. The 30-acre, $165 million glass-and-steel home of artifacts and documents gathered during Bill Clinton’s eight years in the White House is located in Little Rock, AR.
2004 - Composer Cy Coleman died in New York City at 75 years of age. His Broadway musicals include Wildcat (1960), Sweet Charity (1966) and I Love My Wife (1977).
2004 - Great Britain outlawed fox hunting in England and Wales. Legislators used the 1949 Parliament Act to win a dramatic standoff with the House of Lords to ban the popular country sport.
2005 - Opening in U.S. movie theatres: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, Robbie Coltrane, David Bradley, Fiona Shaw, Richard Griffiths, Julie Walters, Mark Williams, David Thewlis, Jim Tavare, Timothy Spall, Michael Gambon, Brendan Gleeson, Frances de la Tour, Roger Lloyd-Pack, Pedja Bjelac, Jeff Rawle, David Tennant, Robert Pattinson, Stanislav Ianevski, Clemence Poesy, Katie Leung, Shefali Chowdhury, Afshan Azad, Angelica Mandy; and Walk the Line, with Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, Robert Patrick, Ginnifer Goodwin, Shelby Lynne and Hailey Anne Nelson.
2005 - Tropical Storm Gamma became the 24th named storm of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season.
2006 - Soldiers and police from Australia and New Zealand arrived in Nuku‘alofa, capital of Tonga, to help restore order. Mobs demanding democratic reforms had destroyed much of the capital in rioting that left eight people dead.
2007 - Detroit, Michigan passed St. Louis, Missouri to become the most dangerous city in the United States. This, according to CQ Press, a Unit of Congressional Quarterly Inc. Flint, MI ranked 3rd and Oakland, CA ranked 4th. Note, the report was not accepted as gospel in all quarters.
2007 - A methane blast tore through a coal mine in eastern Ukraine, killing 101 workers. An investigative commission said negligence by coal-mine managers, eager to ratchet up output, led to the blast -- Ukraine’s deadliest mining disaster since the Soviet breakup. At the time of the explosion, 457 miners were in the complex.
2008 - Conservative John Key became New Zealand’s new prime minister, promising to make the economy his top priority.
2008 - A 17-year-old Cambodian monk was arrested for raping a 39-year-old British woman while he was guiding her to a mountain-top temple in the northwestern Sampov mountains. The monk also allegedly stole $55 and a cell phone from the woman.
2009 - U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers’ failure to properly maintain a navigation channel led to massive flooding during Hurricane Katrina. The ruling represented the first time that the Army Corps had been held liable for damages in a major catastrophe.
Birthdays November 18
1786 - Carl Maria von Weber
composer: Der Freischutz, Euryanthem Oberon, Invitation to the Dance; began the era of German romantic music; died June 5, 1826
1787 - Louis Daguerre
theater scene painter, physicist, inventor: daguerreotype photographic process; died July 10, 1851
1801 - John Butterfield
operator of stagecoach and freight lines: he founded companies that became American Express and Wells Fargo; died Nov 14, 1869
1836 - Sir William Gilbert
comic opera libretto writer: team: Gilbert & Sullivan: HMS Pinafore, The Mikado, Pirates of Penzance; died May 29, 1911
1860 - Ignace Jan Paderewski
composer: musician: piano: Minuet in G; Polish patriot: 1st Premier of Poland [1919]; his California Zinfandel wines won several awards with the LA Times saying, “Some of his Zinfandel was as coveted as his music.”; died June 29, 1941
1882 - Amelita Galli-Curci
opera soprano: “If not the greatest coloratura soprano of all time, she must surely be recognized as among the world’s finest examples of true operatic artistry.”; died Nov 26, 1963
1899 - Eugene Ormandy (Jeno Blau)
conductor: The Philadelphia Orchestra; died Mar 12, 1985
1901 - George (Horace) Gallup
pollster whose opinion polls became famous by predicting FDR’s win in 1936; died in 1984; died July 26, 1984
1901 - Craig Wood
golf champion: PGA Hall of Famer: Masters [1941], U.S. Open [1941: he had entered 15 times before the win]; died May 7, 1968
1908 - Imogene Coca
Emmy Award-winning comedienne, actress: Your Show of Shows [1951]; Sid Caesar Invites You, It’s about Time, Grindl, Admiral Broadway Revue, National Lampoon’s Vacation; died June 2, 2001
1909 - Johnny (John Herndon) Mercer
Academy Award-winning composer, lyricist: On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe [1946], In the Cool Cool Cool of the Evening [w/Hoagy Carmichael] [1951], Moon River [1961], Days of Wine and Roses [1962]; Autumn Leaves, One for My Baby, Charade, Satin Doll, You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby, Come Rain or Come Shine, Hooray for Hollywood, Jeepers Creepers, I’m An Old Cowhand, Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive; wrote or co-wrote over a thousand songs; died June 25, 1976
1912 - Arthur Peterson
actor: Soap, Rollercoaster, The Rear Guard, The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid, The Young Animals, One Man’s Way, Yours, Mine and Ours; died Oct 31, 1996
1919 - Jocelyn Brando
actress: A Question of Love, The Big Heat; Sister of Marlon Brando; died Nov 27, 2005
1923 - Alan Shepard Jr.
astronaut: first American in space; died July 21, 1998
1925 - Gene (William) ‘Skip’ Mauch
baseball: Brooklyn Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs, Boston Braves, SL Cardinals, Boston Red Sox; manager: Philadelphia Phillies, LA Angels; died Aug 8, 2005
1926 - Dorothy Collins (Marjorie Chandler)
singer: My Boy Flattop, Your Hit Parade, sang with Benny Goodman band; actress: Follies; died July 21, 1994
1926 - Roy (Roy Edward) ‘Squirrel’ Sievers
baseball: SL Browns: [Rookie of the Year: 1949], Washington Nationals [all-star: 1956], Washington Senators [all-star: 1957, 1959], Chicago White Sox [all-star: 1961], Philadelphia Phillies
1927- Hank Ballard
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame singer, songwriter: group: The Midnighters: The Twist, Finger Poppin’ Time, Let’s Go, Let’s Go, Let’s Go, Work with Me Annie, Sexy Ways, Annie Had a Baby
1931 - Roberto Goizueta
businessman: CEO of Coca-Cola Company; died Oct 18, 1997
1939 - Margaret Atwood
author: Cat’s Eye, Dancing Girls & Other Stories, The Handmaid’s Tale
1939 - Brenda Vaccaro
Emmy Award-winning actress: The Shape of Things [1973-74]; Once is Not Enough, Cactus Flower, The Goodbye People, How Now Dow Jones, Midnight Cowboy, Airport ’77, Ten Little Indians
1941 - Gary Bettenhausen
auto racer: fastest Indy 500 qualifying time ever: 224.468 mph [1991]
1941 - David Hemmings
actor: The Deadly Game, Islands in the Stream, The Old Curiosity Shop, Blow Up, Charge of the Light Brigade, Camelot, Barbarella, L.A. Law; died Dec 3, 2003
1942 - Linda Evans (Evanstad)
actress: Dynasty, The Big Valley, Standing Tall, Hunter, North and South, Book II
1942 - Susan Sullivan
actress: Castle, It’s a Living, Falcon Crest, Rich Man Poor Man Book II, Having Babies, The George Carlin Show, The Dark Ride, The Incredible Hulk, Deadman’s Curve; commercial spokesperson: Tylenol
1947 - Jameson Parker
actor: Simon and Simon, Curse of the Crystal Eye, Prince of Darkness, American Justice, A Small Circle of Friends, The Gathering: Part 2, Anatomy of a Seduction
1948 - Andrea Marcovicci
actress: Trapper John, M.D., Berrenger’s, Jack the Bear, The Water Engine, The Stuff, Kings and Desperate Men, The Concorde: Airport ’79, The Devil’s Web
1948 - Jack Tatum
football [safety]: Oakland Raiders: longest fumble return in history: 104 yards [1972, against the Green Bay Packers]; Super Bowl XI
1950 - Graham Parker
singer: group: Graham Parker and The Rumour: Between You and Me, Back to Schooldays, Hey Lord Don’t Ask Me Questions, Discovering Japan, Local Girls, Passion is No Ordinary Word, Stupefaction, The Beating of Another Heart; solo: LPs: Another Grey Area, The Real Macaw, Steady Nerves, The Mona Lisa’s Sister
1953 - Kevin Nealon
actor: Saturday Night Live, All I Want for Christmas, Roxanne, Champs
1953 - Herman Rarebell
musician: drums: group: Scorpions: LPs: Taken by Force, Tokyo Tapes, Lovedrive, Animal Magnetism, Blackout, Love at First Sting, World Wide Live
1956 - Warren Moon
football: QB: Univ. of Washington [1978 Rose Bowl MVP]; Houston Oilers, Minnesota Vikings, Seattle Seahawks, KC Chiefs
1960 - Elizabeth Perkins
actress: Moonlight and Valentino, Miracle on 34th Street, The Flintstones, Indian Summer, He Said, She Said, Avalon, Big, About Last Night...
1960 - Kim Wilde
singer: Kids in America, Rage to Love, You Keep Me Hangin’ On
1962 - Tim Guinee
actor: Iron Man 2, The Pardon, Winged Creatures, Broken English, Elvis, Warning: Parental Advisory, Blade, Courage Under Fire
1962 - Kirk Hammett
musician: guitar: group: Metallica: Enter Sandman, Nothing Else Matters
1962 - Jamie Moyer
baseball [pitcher]: Chicago Cubs, Texas Rangers, St. Louis Cardinals, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Seattle Mariners
1963 - Dante Bichette
baseball: California Angels, Milwaukee Brewers, Colorado Rockies, Boston Red Sox, Cincinnati Reds
1964 - Seth Joyner
football [linebacker]: NFL: Philadelphia Eagles, Arizona Cardinals, Green Bay Packers, Denver Broncos
1967 - Tom Gordon
baseball [pitcher]: Kansas City Royals, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros, Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees
1968 - Gary (Antonian) Sheffield
baseball: Milwaukee Brewers, SDiego Padres [all-star: 1992], Florida Marlins [all-star: 1993, 1996]; nephew of baseball all-star Dwight Gooden
1968 - Owen Wilson
actor: The Wendell Baker Story, Starsky & Hutch, Shanghai Noon, Shanghai Knights, Behind Enemy Lines, The Royal Tenenbaums, Meet the Fockers, Wedding Crashers
1969 - Sam Cassell
basketball [guard]: Houston Rockets, Dallas Mavericks, New Jersey Nets, Milwaukee Bucks, Minnesota Timberwolves, LA Clippers
1970 - Peta Wilson
actress: La Femme Nikita, Naked Jane, Vanishing Point, Other People, Joe and Max
1973 - Shaune Bagwell
actress: Days of Our Lives, Single in the City
1974 - Chloë Sevigny
model, actress: Kids, Trees Lounge, Palmetto, The Last Days of Disco, Gummo, Boys Don’t Cry
1975 - Lucy Akhurst
actress: All Quiet on the Preston Front, The Land Girls, Trinity, Shaun of the Dead
1975 - Shawn Camp
baseball [pitcher]: Toronto Blue Jays, Kansas City Royals, Tampa Bay Devil Rays
1975 - David Ortiz
baseball: Minnesota Twins, Boston Red Sox
1975 - Jason Williams
basketball [guard]: Sacramento Kings, Memphis Grizzlies, Miami Heat
1975 - Matt Wise
baseball [pitcher]: Anaheim Angels and Milwaukee Brewers
1981 - Christina Vidal
singer, actress: Life With Mikey, The Cosby Mysteries, Welcome to the Dollhouse, Taina, Freaky Friday, See No Evil
1986 - Joseph Ashton
actor: Rocket Power, Where the Red Fern Grows, Slappy and the Stinkers, Fallout, The Education of Little Tree, Asylum, The Little Rascals [1994], L.A. Doctors
Chart Toppers November 18
1950All My Love - Patti Page
Goodnight Irene - The Weavers
Thinking of You - Don Cherry
I’m Moving On - Hank Snow
1959Mr. Blue - The Fleetwoods
Don’t You Know - Della Reese
Heartaches by the Number - Guy Mitchell
Country Girl - Faron Young
1968Hey Jude - The Beatles
Those Were the Days - Mary Hopkin
Love Child - Diana Ross & The Supremes
I Walk Alone - Marty Robbins
1977You Light Up My Life - Debby Boone
Boogie Nights - Heatwave
It’s Ecstacy When You Lay Down Next to Me - Barry White
More to Me - Charley Pride
1986Amanda - Boston
True Blue - Madonna
Take Me Home Tonight - Eddie Money
That Rock Won’t Roll - Restless Heart
1995Fantasy - Mariah Carey
Gangsta’s Paradise - Coolio featuring L.V.
You Remond Me of Something - R. Kelly
Check Yes or No - George Strait
2004My Boo - Usher & Alicia Keys
Over And Over - Nelly featuring Tim McGraw
Lose My Breath - Destiny’s Child
In a Real Love - Phil Vassar
Born On This Day 1927...Hank Ballard of The Midnighters...R.I.P.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
STEAMBOAT WILLIE DAY
On this day in 1928, Walt Disney debuted his talking, animated cartoon, Steamboat Willie, at the Colony Theatre in New York. The short film featured a character who had been named Mortimer. Walt changed the name to Mickey Mouse.
Steamboat Willie was the first cartoon with synchronized sound. And, for those of you who don’t remember, Steamboat Willie was in black and white. Disney’s first color cartoon wasn’t released for another four years.
The star of the film has changed somewhat over the years; but Mickey Mouse is still with us, in cartoons, on TV, in books and even in his own stores. What a great success story, especially for a mouse!
Events November 18
1307 - The story of William Tell shooting the apple off of his young son’s noggin is said to have taken place on this day. The story is of either Swiss, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, or Persian origin. In other words, Who knows?
1626 - St. Peter’s Basilica was dedicated in Rome by Urban VIII.
1894 - The New York World published the first colored Sunday comic.
1919 - One of the first ticker-tape parades was held -- to welcome the Prince of Wales to New York City. Ticker tape came from Wall Street, you know. Rolls of paper were used to record stock trades long before computers were invented. As the paper rolled over pins that punched stock information read by stock brokers, it would leave holes. When a big parade was organized, the shredded tape was scooped up and thrown out of windows on the marchers below. We now call the stuff confetti, since ticker tape isn’t used anymore.
1932 - For the first time, a tie occurred for the Best Actor Academy Award. Wallace Beery and Fredric March were only one vote apart so the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ruled it a tie. Both received an Oscar at the Fifth Annual Academy Awards, March for his performance in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Beery for his role in The Champ. March thought it rather funny that the two were honored for ‘best male performance of the year’ when they each had adopted a child that year. The Champ also was honored when Frances Marion received the Writing/Original Story Academy Award for the film. There was only one Best Actress Award and it was presented to Helen Hayes for her performance in The Sin of Madelon Claudet. Host Lionel Barrymore greeted the film industry this night in the Fiesta Room at LA’s grand hotel, The Ambassador. The movie, Grand Hotel (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), earned the top honors as Outstanding Production. It was also a grand night for the film, Bad Girl. Its director, Frank Borzage, and its writer (adaptation), Edwin Burke, were both presented with Academy Awards. Walt Disney also received two awards: an honorary award for the creation of Mickey Mouse and for the cartoon short subject, Flowers and Trees. Short Subject awards were presented to two other well-known Hollywood talents on this evening. Hal Roach won his prize for the comedy, The Music Box and Mack Sennett for the novelty short, Wrestling Swordfish. Both were first-time Academy Award winners as were Gordon Wiles for Art Direction (Transatlantic) and Lee Garmes for Cinematography (Shanghai Express). A grand night was had by all.
1942 - Thornton Wilder’s play, The Skin of Our Teeth, opened in New York City. The play was Wilder’s sequel to Our Town. The Skin of Our Teeth starred Tallulah Bankhead, Fredric March, Montgomery Clift and E.G. Marshall. One critic wrote, “As of last evening, the theatre was looking up.”
1943 - British bombers attacked Berlin. This was the first in a series of heavy night attacks by the RAF against the Nazi capitol city.
1949 - Alben W. Barkley married Jane Rucker Hadley in St. Louis. It was the first time a U.S. Vice President married while in office.
1951 - On this, a Sunday afternoon, Edward R. Murrow and Fred Friendly launched one of the most highly-praised TV productions in history. See It Now debuted on CBS. On that first program, Murrow showed a live camera shot of the Atlantic Ocean, followed by a live shot of the Pacific, then he said, “We are impressed by a medium through which a man sitting in his living room has been able to look at two oceans at once.” In April of 1952, See It Now moved into an evening time slot.
1956 - Morocco’s long struggle for independence from France ended on this day. Morocco had been a French protectorate since 1912.
1960 - Almost a year to the day after Ford ended production of its Edsel line, Chrysler pulled the plug on DeSoto after several years of sharply falling sales. In fact production of the final 1961 models totalled just 3,034 cars.
1963 - The first telephone in the U.S. with push buttons instead of a rotary dial was placed in commercial service in Carnegie and Greensburg, PA.
1966 - Robert Kennedy was pictured on the cover of LIFE magazine. Stories on RFK included his “truce with LBJ” (President Lyndon Baines Johnson) and speculation that Kennedy would run for president in 1968.
1966 - A ruling was announced (to take effect Dec 2) that abstinence from meat on Fridays would no longer be required of U.S. Roman Catholics (except during Lent).
1967 - Lulu’s To Sir with Love, from the movie of the same name, started its fifth and final week at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Lulu was born Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie (November 3, 1948). She changed her name to Lulu (and The Luvvers) in Scotland, early in her career.
1969 - Financier-diplomat Joseph P. Kennedy, patriarch of the Kennedy family, died in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. He was 81 years old.
1970 - Nobel Prize-winner Linus Pauling declared that large doses of Vitamin C could ward off the common cold.
1975 - John Denver received a gold record for I’m Sorry.
1977 - The American Cancer Society held the first nationwide Great American Smokout. Arthur P. Mullaney of Randolph, Massachusetts had come up with the idea in 1971. He asked his neighbors to give up cigarettes for a day and donate the money they would have spent for cigarettes to a high school scholarship fund. In 1976, the California Division of the American Cancer Society had persuaded nearly one million of the state’s 5 million smokers to quit for 24 hours.
1978 - The worst case of murder-suicide in history took place in Jonestown, Guyana. Religious-cult leader Jim Jones (Peoples Temple) directed the ingestion of Kool-Aid (laced with cyanide) by at least 900 of his followers. He and his mistress then followed suit. Earlier in the day, Jones had directed the murder of California Congressman Leo J. Ryan, three newspeople and several ‘defectors’. Ryan, on a fact-finding tour of Jonestown, was boarding a privated airplan with the small group when they were shot down.
1986 - For the first time since his departure from his own late-night TV show, Jack Paar was a guest of Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. One of TV’s great lines came from the show, when Carson quipped (after one of Paar’s long, long spiels), “Why is it that I feel I’m guesting on your show?”
1986 - Roger Clemens was named the American League’s Most Valuable Player. He was the first American League starter to be so named in 15 years. The Boston Red Sox hurler won the honor one week after earning the Cy Young Award.
1987 - Thirty-one people died in a fire at King’s Cross, London’s busiest subway station.
1989 - The Cosmic Background Explorer satellite was launched. It provided evidence for the ‘Big Bang’ that spawned the universe 10-20 billion years ago. Dr. David T. Wilkinson was the driving force behind the satellite launch.
1991 - Vukovar, capital of eastern Slavonia, fell to Serbian raiders. They removed some 260 wounded Croat patients, hospital staff and political activists sheltered in the Vukovar hospital and took them to the village of Ovcara where most were shot and buried. On Mar 26, 1996 Slavko Dokmanovic, the Serb mayor of Vukovar, was indicted for his role in the incident. Investigators began uncovering bodies from the mass grave in September 1996.
1992 - The movie, Malcolm X, starring Denzel Washington, premiered in the U.S.
1992 - Dorothy Kirsten, U.S. opera soprano, died from stroke. She was 82 years old.
1994 - Star Trek: Generations premiered in U.S. theatres. The sci-fi action adventure stars Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, Malcolm McDowell, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, William Shatner, Alan Ruck, Jacqueline Kim, Jenette Goldstein and Thomas Kopache.
1995 - Tha Dogg Pound’s album Dogg Food hit #1 in the U.S. for one week. The tracks were: Intro, Dogg Pound Gangstaz, Respect, New York, New York (Tha Night I Served 2,000 M.C.s), Smooth, Cyco-Lic-No (***** Azz Niggaz) Ridin’, Slipin’ and Slidin’, U Can’t See Me, Big Pimpin 2, Let’s Play House, I Don’t Like to Dream About Gettin Paid, Do What I Feel, If We All Fuc*, Some Bomb Azz *****, A Dogg’z Day Afternoon, Reality, "One By One (Subtracting Sucka Azz Niggaz from the Face of the Earth)", Sooo Much Style. This album will make the perfect gift for grandma this Christmas.
1996 - Harold James Nicholson, former CIA station chief, was arrested for espionage. Nicholson passed information to Russia from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in June 1994 and collected as much as $180,000. (He later pleaded guilty to espionage and was sentenced to 23 1/2 years in prison. He was spared a life sentence for cooperating with investigators.)
1997 - Two Willem de Kooning paintings topped the lots at Christie’s blue-chip contemporary sale in New York City. Two Standing Women (1949), sold for $4,182,500 and Woman (Blue Eyes) (1953), which went for about $2 million.
1997 - The Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays begin taking shape with 35 selections apiece in baseball’s expansion draft. Both the Diamondbacks and Devil Rays began their baseball lives with sufficient funds to contend quickly.
1997 - It was the biggest banking deal to that day. First Union Corporation announced the purchase of CoreStates Financial Corporation for $16.1 billion.
1997 - The FBI concluded its criminal investigation into the TWA Flight 800 disaster. Assistant FBI Director James Kallstrom said the explosion that destroyed the Boeing 747 was not caused by a criminal act.
1999 - A pyramid of logs for a traditional football bonfire collapsed and killed eleven students at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. One of another 28 people who were injured died the next day.
2000 - George W. Bush’s campaign fiercely attacked the hand-recounting of votes in Florida’s presidential election, depicting a process riddled with human error and Democratic bias. Al Gore’s lawyers defended the effort in papers filed with the state Supreme Court.
2001 - Phillips Petroleum Co. and Conoco Inc. announced they were merging in a deal that created the third-largest U.S. oil and gas company. The combined firm was to be known as ConocoPhillips. It was estimated that the value of the new corporation would be approximately $35 billion.
2002 - Actor James Coburn died at 74 years of age. His long list (over 100) of films includes Our Man Flint and The Magnificent Seven.
2003 - The Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that a ban on same sex marriage was unconstitutional. Lawmakers were given 180 days to find a solution.
2004 - An estimated 30,000 guests attended the opening of the Clinton Presidential Center. The 30-acre, $165 million glass-and-steel home of artifacts and documents gathered during Bill Clinton’s eight years in the White House is located in Little Rock, AR.
2004 - Composer Cy Coleman died in New York City at 75 years of age. His Broadway musicals include Wildcat (1960), Sweet Charity (1966) and I Love My Wife (1977).
2004 - Great Britain outlawed fox hunting in England and Wales. Legislators used the 1949 Parliament Act to win a dramatic standoff with the House of Lords to ban the popular country sport.
2005 - Opening in U.S. movie theatres: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, Robbie Coltrane, David Bradley, Fiona Shaw, Richard Griffiths, Julie Walters, Mark Williams, David Thewlis, Jim Tavare, Timothy Spall, Michael Gambon, Brendan Gleeson, Frances de la Tour, Roger Lloyd-Pack, Pedja Bjelac, Jeff Rawle, David Tennant, Robert Pattinson, Stanislav Ianevski, Clemence Poesy, Katie Leung, Shefali Chowdhury, Afshan Azad, Angelica Mandy; and Walk the Line, with Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, Robert Patrick, Ginnifer Goodwin, Shelby Lynne and Hailey Anne Nelson.
2005 - Tropical Storm Gamma became the 24th named storm of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season.
2006 - Soldiers and police from Australia and New Zealand arrived in Nuku‘alofa, capital of Tonga, to help restore order. Mobs demanding democratic reforms had destroyed much of the capital in rioting that left eight people dead.
2007 - Detroit, Michigan passed St. Louis, Missouri to become the most dangerous city in the United States. This, according to CQ Press, a Unit of Congressional Quarterly Inc. Flint, MI ranked 3rd and Oakland, CA ranked 4th. Note, the report was not accepted as gospel in all quarters.
2007 - A methane blast tore through a coal mine in eastern Ukraine, killing 101 workers. An investigative commission said negligence by coal-mine managers, eager to ratchet up output, led to the blast -- Ukraine’s deadliest mining disaster since the Soviet breakup. At the time of the explosion, 457 miners were in the complex.
2008 - Conservative John Key became New Zealand’s new prime minister, promising to make the economy his top priority.
2008 - A 17-year-old Cambodian monk was arrested for raping a 39-year-old British woman while he was guiding her to a mountain-top temple in the northwestern Sampov mountains. The monk also allegedly stole $55 and a cell phone from the woman.
2009 - U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers’ failure to properly maintain a navigation channel led to massive flooding during Hurricane Katrina. The ruling represented the first time that the Army Corps had been held liable for damages in a major catastrophe.
Birthdays November 18
1786 - Carl Maria von Weber
composer: Der Freischutz, Euryanthem Oberon, Invitation to the Dance; began the era of German romantic music; died June 5, 1826
1787 - Louis Daguerre
theater scene painter, physicist, inventor: daguerreotype photographic process; died July 10, 1851
1801 - John Butterfield
operator of stagecoach and freight lines: he founded companies that became American Express and Wells Fargo; died Nov 14, 1869
1836 - Sir William Gilbert
comic opera libretto writer: team: Gilbert & Sullivan: HMS Pinafore, The Mikado, Pirates of Penzance; died May 29, 1911
1860 - Ignace Jan Paderewski
composer: musician: piano: Minuet in G; Polish patriot: 1st Premier of Poland [1919]; his California Zinfandel wines won several awards with the LA Times saying, “Some of his Zinfandel was as coveted as his music.”; died June 29, 1941
1882 - Amelita Galli-Curci
opera soprano: “If not the greatest coloratura soprano of all time, she must surely be recognized as among the world’s finest examples of true operatic artistry.”; died Nov 26, 1963
1899 - Eugene Ormandy (Jeno Blau)
conductor: The Philadelphia Orchestra; died Mar 12, 1985
1901 - George (Horace) Gallup
pollster whose opinion polls became famous by predicting FDR’s win in 1936; died in 1984; died July 26, 1984
1901 - Craig Wood
golf champion: PGA Hall of Famer: Masters [1941], U.S. Open [1941: he had entered 15 times before the win]; died May 7, 1968
1908 - Imogene Coca
Emmy Award-winning comedienne, actress: Your Show of Shows [1951]; Sid Caesar Invites You, It’s about Time, Grindl, Admiral Broadway Revue, National Lampoon’s Vacation; died June 2, 2001
1909 - Johnny (John Herndon) Mercer
Academy Award-winning composer, lyricist: On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe [1946], In the Cool Cool Cool of the Evening [w/Hoagy Carmichael] [1951], Moon River [1961], Days of Wine and Roses [1962]; Autumn Leaves, One for My Baby, Charade, Satin Doll, You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby, Come Rain or Come Shine, Hooray for Hollywood, Jeepers Creepers, I’m An Old Cowhand, Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive; wrote or co-wrote over a thousand songs; died June 25, 1976
1912 - Arthur Peterson
actor: Soap, Rollercoaster, The Rear Guard, The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid, The Young Animals, One Man’s Way, Yours, Mine and Ours; died Oct 31, 1996
1919 - Jocelyn Brando
actress: A Question of Love, The Big Heat; Sister of Marlon Brando; died Nov 27, 2005
1923 - Alan Shepard Jr.
astronaut: first American in space; died July 21, 1998
1925 - Gene (William) ‘Skip’ Mauch
baseball: Brooklyn Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs, Boston Braves, SL Cardinals, Boston Red Sox; manager: Philadelphia Phillies, LA Angels; died Aug 8, 2005
1926 - Dorothy Collins (Marjorie Chandler)
singer: My Boy Flattop, Your Hit Parade, sang with Benny Goodman band; actress: Follies; died July 21, 1994
1926 - Roy (Roy Edward) ‘Squirrel’ Sievers
baseball: SL Browns: [Rookie of the Year: 1949], Washington Nationals [all-star: 1956], Washington Senators [all-star: 1957, 1959], Chicago White Sox [all-star: 1961], Philadelphia Phillies
1927- Hank Ballard
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame singer, songwriter: group: The Midnighters: The Twist, Finger Poppin’ Time, Let’s Go, Let’s Go, Let’s Go, Work with Me Annie, Sexy Ways, Annie Had a Baby
1931 - Roberto Goizueta
businessman: CEO of Coca-Cola Company; died Oct 18, 1997
1939 - Margaret Atwood
author: Cat’s Eye, Dancing Girls & Other Stories, The Handmaid’s Tale
1939 - Brenda Vaccaro
Emmy Award-winning actress: The Shape of Things [1973-74]; Once is Not Enough, Cactus Flower, The Goodbye People, How Now Dow Jones, Midnight Cowboy, Airport ’77, Ten Little Indians
1941 - Gary Bettenhausen
auto racer: fastest Indy 500 qualifying time ever: 224.468 mph [1991]
1941 - David Hemmings
actor: The Deadly Game, Islands in the Stream, The Old Curiosity Shop, Blow Up, Charge of the Light Brigade, Camelot, Barbarella, L.A. Law; died Dec 3, 2003
1942 - Linda Evans (Evanstad)
actress: Dynasty, The Big Valley, Standing Tall, Hunter, North and South, Book II
1942 - Susan Sullivan
actress: Castle, It’s a Living, Falcon Crest, Rich Man Poor Man Book II, Having Babies, The George Carlin Show, The Dark Ride, The Incredible Hulk, Deadman’s Curve; commercial spokesperson: Tylenol
1947 - Jameson Parker
actor: Simon and Simon, Curse of the Crystal Eye, Prince of Darkness, American Justice, A Small Circle of Friends, The Gathering: Part 2, Anatomy of a Seduction
1948 - Andrea Marcovicci
actress: Trapper John, M.D., Berrenger’s, Jack the Bear, The Water Engine, The Stuff, Kings and Desperate Men, The Concorde: Airport ’79, The Devil’s Web
1948 - Jack Tatum
football [safety]: Oakland Raiders: longest fumble return in history: 104 yards [1972, against the Green Bay Packers]; Super Bowl XI
1950 - Graham Parker
singer: group: Graham Parker and The Rumour: Between You and Me, Back to Schooldays, Hey Lord Don’t Ask Me Questions, Discovering Japan, Local Girls, Passion is No Ordinary Word, Stupefaction, The Beating of Another Heart; solo: LPs: Another Grey Area, The Real Macaw, Steady Nerves, The Mona Lisa’s Sister
1953 - Kevin Nealon
actor: Saturday Night Live, All I Want for Christmas, Roxanne, Champs
1953 - Herman Rarebell
musician: drums: group: Scorpions: LPs: Taken by Force, Tokyo Tapes, Lovedrive, Animal Magnetism, Blackout, Love at First Sting, World Wide Live
1956 - Warren Moon
football: QB: Univ. of Washington [1978 Rose Bowl MVP]; Houston Oilers, Minnesota Vikings, Seattle Seahawks, KC Chiefs
1960 - Elizabeth Perkins
actress: Moonlight and Valentino, Miracle on 34th Street, The Flintstones, Indian Summer, He Said, She Said, Avalon, Big, About Last Night...
1960 - Kim Wilde
singer: Kids in America, Rage to Love, You Keep Me Hangin’ On
1962 - Tim Guinee
actor: Iron Man 2, The Pardon, Winged Creatures, Broken English, Elvis, Warning: Parental Advisory, Blade, Courage Under Fire
1962 - Kirk Hammett
musician: guitar: group: Metallica: Enter Sandman, Nothing Else Matters
1962 - Jamie Moyer
baseball [pitcher]: Chicago Cubs, Texas Rangers, St. Louis Cardinals, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Seattle Mariners
1963 - Dante Bichette
baseball: California Angels, Milwaukee Brewers, Colorado Rockies, Boston Red Sox, Cincinnati Reds
1964 - Seth Joyner
football [linebacker]: NFL: Philadelphia Eagles, Arizona Cardinals, Green Bay Packers, Denver Broncos
1967 - Tom Gordon
baseball [pitcher]: Kansas City Royals, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros, Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees
1968 - Gary (Antonian) Sheffield
baseball: Milwaukee Brewers, SDiego Padres [all-star: 1992], Florida Marlins [all-star: 1993, 1996]; nephew of baseball all-star Dwight Gooden
1968 - Owen Wilson
actor: The Wendell Baker Story, Starsky & Hutch, Shanghai Noon, Shanghai Knights, Behind Enemy Lines, The Royal Tenenbaums, Meet the Fockers, Wedding Crashers
1969 - Sam Cassell
basketball [guard]: Houston Rockets, Dallas Mavericks, New Jersey Nets, Milwaukee Bucks, Minnesota Timberwolves, LA Clippers
1970 - Peta Wilson
actress: La Femme Nikita, Naked Jane, Vanishing Point, Other People, Joe and Max
1973 - Shaune Bagwell
actress: Days of Our Lives, Single in the City
1974 - Chloë Sevigny
model, actress: Kids, Trees Lounge, Palmetto, The Last Days of Disco, Gummo, Boys Don’t Cry
1975 - Lucy Akhurst
actress: All Quiet on the Preston Front, The Land Girls, Trinity, Shaun of the Dead
1975 - Shawn Camp
baseball [pitcher]: Toronto Blue Jays, Kansas City Royals, Tampa Bay Devil Rays
1975 - David Ortiz
baseball: Minnesota Twins, Boston Red Sox
1975 - Jason Williams
basketball [guard]: Sacramento Kings, Memphis Grizzlies, Miami Heat
1975 - Matt Wise
baseball [pitcher]: Anaheim Angels and Milwaukee Brewers
1981 - Christina Vidal
singer, actress: Life With Mikey, The Cosby Mysteries, Welcome to the Dollhouse, Taina, Freaky Friday, See No Evil
1986 - Joseph Ashton
actor: Rocket Power, Where the Red Fern Grows, Slappy and the Stinkers, Fallout, The Education of Little Tree, Asylum, The Little Rascals [1994], L.A. Doctors
Chart Toppers November 18
1950All My Love - Patti Page
Goodnight Irene - The Weavers
Thinking of You - Don Cherry
I’m Moving On - Hank Snow
1959Mr. Blue - The Fleetwoods
Don’t You Know - Della Reese
Heartaches by the Number - Guy Mitchell
Country Girl - Faron Young
1968Hey Jude - The Beatles
Those Were the Days - Mary Hopkin
Love Child - Diana Ross & The Supremes
I Walk Alone - Marty Robbins
1977You Light Up My Life - Debby Boone
Boogie Nights - Heatwave
It’s Ecstacy When You Lay Down Next to Me - Barry White
More to Me - Charley Pride
1986Amanda - Boston
True Blue - Madonna
Take Me Home Tonight - Eddie Money
That Rock Won’t Roll - Restless Heart
1995Fantasy - Mariah Carey
Gangsta’s Paradise - Coolio featuring L.V.
You Remond Me of Something - R. Kelly
Check Yes or No - George Strait
2004My Boo - Usher & Alicia Keys
Over And Over - Nelly featuring Tim McGraw
Lose My Breath - Destiny’s Child
In a Real Love - Phil Vassar
Born On This Day 1927...Hank Ballard of The Midnighters...R.I.P.