Interrogatories
It's National Cheesecake Day. What's the best cheesecake you ever had?
Did you ever have a treehouse? If you had to do without, did you at least like to climb trees?
Are you good at riding horses? What is your saddle preference?
Did you ever get into an actual physical altercation? Can you tell us about it?
The Twitter Emitter
On This Day
In 762, Abu Ja'far Abdallah ibn Muhammad al-Mansur founded the city of Baghdad.
In 1729, Baltimore, Maryland was founded.
In 1839, captured would-be-slaves mutinied aboard the ship La Amistad, successfully taking command.
In 1866, the Louisiana government (Demo, I mean Dixie-cratic at the time) raided a meeting of the Republican Party (at that time the Party of Lincoln) because it was (gasp!) integrated. 40 died and 150 injured in the resulting mêlée.
In 1932, the first Technicolor cartoon short, Disney's Flowers and Trees, premiered.
In 1952, the Oscar winning film High Noon, starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly, was released.
In 1965, The Rolling Stones album, Out of Our Heads, was released in the U.S., becoming their first number one album in this country.
In 1975, former Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa was last seen in a Detroit parking lot.
In 2003, the very last of the old style VW bugs was produced in Mexico.
In 2006, the long running British musical TV show, Top of the Pops (provider of many a yummy You Tube video) was shown for the last time.
Born on This Day
1511 – Giorgio Vasari, Italian painter, writer, historian, and architect (d. 1574)
1699 – Giuseppe Marchesi, Italian painter (d. 1771)
1818 – Emily Brontë, English novelist (d. 1848)
1819 – Edouard Henri Girardet, Swiss painter (d. 1880)
1826 –Achille Zo, French painter (d. 1901)
1853 - Julian Falat, Polish painter (d. 1929)
1863 – Henry Ford, American businessman, founder of the Ford Motor Company (d. 1947)
1872 – Princess Clémentine of Belgium (d. 1955)
1881 – Smedley Butler, American marine general (who foiled a right-wing government takeover) (d. 1940)
1882 – Robert Julian Onderdonk, American landscape painter (d. 1922)
1890 – Casey Stengel, American baseball player and manager (d. 1975)
1895 – Wanda Hawley, American actress (d. 1963)
1909 – Magda Schneider German actress (d. 1996)
1910 – Edgar de Evia, American photographer (d. 2003)
1929 – Sid Krofft, Canadian puppeteer and producer
1933 – Edd Byrnes, American actor
1934 – Bud Selig, American businessman, 9th Commissioner of Baseball
1936 – Buddy Guy, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1939 – Peter Bogdanovich, American director
1939 – Eleanor Smeal, American activist, founded the Feminist Majority Foundation
1940 – Patricia Schroeder, American politician
1941 – Paul Anka, Canadian singer-songwriter and actor
1945 – David Sanborn, American saxophonist and composer
1947 – Arnold Schwarzenegger, Austrian-American bodybuilder, actor, and politician, 38th Governor of California
1948 – Jean Reno, Moroccan-French actor
1948 – Otis Taylor, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and composer
1949 – Duck Baker, American guitarist
1955 – Rat Scabies, English drummer (The Damned)
1956 – Anita Hill, American attorney and academic, witness at the sexual harassment trial against Clarence Thomas
1958 – Kate Bush, English singer-songwriter and producer
1960 – Richard Linklater, American director and screenwriter
1961 – Laurence Fishburne, American actor
1962 – Alton Brown, American chef, author, and producer
1963 – Lisa Kudrow, American actress, writer, and producer
1964 – Vivica A. Fox, American actress and producer
1968 – Sean Moore, Welsh drummer (Manic Street Preachers)
1974 – Hilary Swank, American actress
1977 – Ian Watkins, Welsh singer-songwriter (Lostprophets and Public Disturbance)
Died on This Day
579 – Pope Benedict I
1528 – Palma Vecchio aka Jacopo Negretti, Italian painter (b. 1480)
1550 – Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton, English politician (b. 1505)
1683 – Maria Theresa of Spain (b. 1638)
1718 – William Penn, English businessman and philosopher, founder of the Province of Pennsylvania (b. 1644)
1746 – Francesco Trevisani, Italian painter (b. 1656)
1789 – Giovanna Bonanno, Italian poisoner and alleged witch (b. c. 1713)
1898 – Otto von Bismarck, German politician, 1st Chancellor of Germany (b. 1815)
1899 – Adolf Schreyer, German painter (b. 1828)
1900 – Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (b. 1844)
1918 – Joyce Kilmer, American poet (b. 1886)
1975 – James Blish, American science fiction author (Cities in Flight) (b. 1921)
1983 – Lynn Fontanne, English actress (b. 1887) See Tipple Jar
1992 – Brenda Marshall, American actress (b. 1915)
1996 – Claudette Colbert, American actress (b. 1903)
1998 – Buffalo Bob Smith, American television host (b. 1917)
2007 – Ingmar Bergman, Swedish director (b. 1918)
2007 – Bill Walsh, American football coach (b. 1931)
2012 – Maeve Binchy, Irish author, playwright, and journalist (b. 1940)
Today is
Feast of the Throne (Morocco)
National Cheesecake Day
Father-in-Law Day
Paperback Book Day