Happy Monday, Bomb-critters! Such a lovely weekend it was.
Interrogatories
What is your primary form of transportation? (Mine are feet and bus.) Is there anything that you continue to do the old school way even though there are new, labor saving ways to do it? What labor saving device do you wish someone would invent? What stereotype that applies to your gender annoys you the most? What do you wish your life had more of? What do you wish your life had less of?
The Twitter Emitter
On This Day
In 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh (such a stupid git) was granted a patent to colonize Virginia.
In 1634, the first Maryland colonists settled there, having been sent by the second Lord Baltimore. (Because it wasn't all religious freedom, ya know…)
In 1807, Britain abolished its slave trade with the passage of the Slave Trade Act.
In 1811, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley was kicked out of Oxford University for publishing the pamphlet called The Necessity of Atheism.
In 1894, Jacob S. Coxey began leading his "army" (a bunch of undeserving freeloaders, no doubt) of the unemployed from Massillon, Ohio, to Washington, D.C., to petition the federal government for relief.
In 1911, 146 workers were killed in a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, thanks to the doors being locked to prevent the workers from stealing or taking unauthorized breaks.
In 1947, 111 workers were killed in a coal mine explosion in Centralia, IL. Woody Guthrie wrote this song about the incident:
In 1957, U.S. Customs seized copies of Allen Ginsburg's Howl, claiming it was obscene.
In 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. led 25,000 marchers to Montgomery, AL, to protest the denial of voting rights to blacks. (Now voting rights seem to be heading back in that direction.)
In 1969, John Lennon and his new wife, Yoko, began their first Bed-In for Peace at the Amsterdam Hilton.
Born on This Day
1347 – Catherine of Siena, Italian saint (d. 1380)
1541 – Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1587)
1614 - Juan Carreño de Miranda, Spanish painter (d. 1685)
1661 – Paul de Rapin, French historian (d. 1725)
1782 – Caroline Bonaparte, Queen of Naples (d. 1839)
1840 - Gustave Achille Guillaumet, French painter (d. 1887)
1867 – Arturo Toscanini, Italian conductor, (d. 1957)
1867 – Gutzon Borglum, Mt. Rushmore sculptor (d. 1941)
1876 - Alson Skinner Clark, American impressionist painter (d. 1949)
1881 – Béla Bartók, Hungarian composer (d. 1945)
1888 - Gerald Murphy, American expat part time artist (d. 1964)
1901 – Ed Begley, American actor (d. 1970)
1908 – Sir David Lean, English film director (d. 1991)
1910 – Magda Olivero, Italian soprano
1910 – Benzion Netanyahu, Israeli historian, father of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu (d. 2012)
1911 – Jack Ruby, killer of Lee Harvey Oswald (d. 1967)
1916 – Jean Rogers, American actress (d. 1991)
1918 – Howard Cosell, American sports reporter (d. 1995)
1920 – Patrick Troughton, English actor (the second Dr. Who) (d. 1987)
1921 – Nancy Kelly, American actress (d. 1995)
1921 – Simone Signoret, French actress (d. 1985)
1925 – Flannery O'Connor, American author (d. 1964)
1928 – Jim Lovell, American astronaut
1931 – Tom Wilson, American record producer and father of a friend of mine (I already asked her if she had any tapes sitting around… nothing…) (d. 1978)
1934 – Johnny Burnette, American singer (The Rock and Roll Trio) (d. 1964)
1934 – Gloria Steinem, American feminist and publisher
1937 – Tom Monaghan, American wingnutty hard-core Catholic businessman, founder of the terrible Domino's Pizza
1938 – Hoyt Axton, American singer-songwriter and actor (d. 1999)
1940 – Anita Bryant, American singer and anti-gay activist
1942 – Aretha Franklin, American singer
1942 – Richard O'Brien, English actor and writer
1947 – Elton John, English singer and songwriter
1948 – Bonnie Bedelia, American actress
1951 – Maizie Williams, British singer (Boney M.)
1958 – John Ensign, American politician and adulterer
1958 – Susie Bright, American feminist and writer
1960 – Steve Norman, British saxophonist (Spandau Ballet)
1966 – Jeff Healey, Canadian guitarist (The Jeff Healey Band) (d. 2008)
1982 – Danica Patrick, American race car driver
Died on This Day
1458 – Íñigo López de Mendoza, Marqués de Santillana, Spanish poet (b. 1398)
1712 – Nehemiah Grew, English naturalist (b. 1641)
1738 – Turlough O'Carolan, Irish harper and composer (b. 1670)
1873 – Wilhelm Marstrand, Danish painter (b. 1810)
1918 – Claude Debussy, French composer (b. 1862)
1937 - Georges Valmier, French cubist painter (b. 1885)
1957 – Max Ophüls, German director and writer (b. 1902)
1958 – Tom Brown, American jazz musician (b. 1888)
1973 - Edward Steichen, American photographer (b. 1879)
1978 – Hanna Ralph, German actress (b. 1888)
1983 - Martha Sleeper, American silent film and stage actress (b. 1910)
1988 – Robert Joffrey, American dancer and choreographer (b. 1930)
2006 – Buck Owens, American singer and guitarist (The Buckaroos) (b. 1929)
Today is
Pecan Day
Waffle Day
Lobster Newburg Day
Maryland Day
Tolkein Reading Day