Month: March 2020

The Thing About Today – March 6

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

March 6, 2020
Day 66 of 366

 

March 6th is the sixty-sixth day of the year. It is the European Day of the Righteous, a commemoration of those who have stood up to crimes against humanity and totalitarianism with their own moral responsibility.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Dentist’s Day, National Dress Day, National Frozen Food Day, National Oreo Cookie Day, National White Chocolate Cheesecake Day, National Dress in Blue Day, National Speech and Debate Education Day, and National Employee Appreciation Day. The last three are typically observed on the first Friday in March.

Apparently, it’s a busy day.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1475, Italian painter and sculptor Michelangelo was born.
  • In 1619, French author and playwright Cyrano de Bergerac was born.
  • In 1665, Henry Oldenburg – the first joint Secretary of the Royal Society – published the first issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. It is the world’s longest-running scientific journal.
  • In 1820, the Missouri Compromise was signed into law by President James Monroe. The compromise allows Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state, allowed Maine into the Union as a free state, and made the rest of the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase territory slavery-free.
  • In 1836, the Battle of the Alamo came to an end. After a thirteen-day siege by an army of 3,000 Mexican troops, the 187 Texas volunteers – including frontiersman Davy Crockett and colonel Jim Bowie – defending the Alamo were killed and the fort was captured.
  • In 1869, Dmitri Mendeleev presented the first periodic table to the Russian Chemical Society.
  • In 1917, illustrator and publisher Will Eisner was born.
  • In 1923, comedian and game show host Ed McMahon was born.
  • In 1943, Norman Rockwell published Freedom from Want in The Saturday Evening Post with a matching essay by Carlos Bulosan as part of the Four Freedoms series.
  • In 1968, actress Moira Kelly was born.
  • In 1981, Walter Cronkite signed off as anchorman of CBS Evening News. This marked his retirement from the program after nearly twenty years. He was succeeded by Dan Rather.

Walter Cronkite left a farewell message for his audience:

This is my last broadcast as the anchorman of The CBS Evening News; for me, it’s a moment for which I long have planned, but which, nevertheless, comes with some sadness. For almost two decades, after all, we’ve been meeting like this in the evenings, and I’ll miss that. But those who have made anything of this departure, I’m afraid have made too much. This is but a transition, a passing of the baton. A great broadcaster and gentleman, Doug Edwards, preceded me in this job, and another, Dan Rather, will follow. And anyway, the person who sits here is but the most conspicuous member of a superb team of journalists; writers, reporters, editors, producers, and none of that will change. Furthermore, I’m not even going away! I’ll be back from time to time with special news reports and documentaries, and, beginning in June, every week, with our science program, Universe. Old anchormen, you see, don’t fade away; they just keep coming back for more. And that’s the way it is: Friday, March 6, 1981. I’ll be away on assignment, and Dan Rather will be sitting in here for the next few years. Good night.

 

In 1857, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case.

Dred Scott was an enslaved black man whose owners had taken him from Missouri (at that time, a slave state) into the Missouri Territory, most of which had been designated “free” territory by the Missouri Compromise. When his owners later brought him back to Missouri, Scott sued in court for his freedom, claiming that because he had been taken into a “free” United States territory, he had automatically been freed and was legally no longer a slave. He sued first in Missouri state court, which ruled that he was still a slave under its law. He took his case to the federal court, which ruled against him by deciding that it had to apply Missouri law to the case. In his last chance, he then appealed to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court held in a 7-2 decision that the Constitution of the United States was not meant to include American citizenship for black people, regardless of whether they were enslaved or free, and therefore the rights and privileges it confers upon American citizens could not apply to them.

Chief Justice Roger Taney had hoped that the ruling would settle the slavery controversy, which at this point was dividing the public and leading into the upcoming Civil War. The effect was the polar opposite, with “unmitigated wrath” from the majority of the populace except for the slave states. In fact, this decision was seen as a contributing factor to the outbreak of the Civil War four years later.

After the Union’s victory in 1865, the Court’s rulings in Dred Scott were superseded by direct amendments to the U.S. Constitution: the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, and the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed citizenship for “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof”. The Dred Scott decision, however, remains judged in the history books as one of the Supreme Court’s worst decisions ever.

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

 

 

The Thing About Today – March 5

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

March 5, 2020
Day 65 of 366

 

March 5th is the sixty-fifth day of the year. It is St. Piran’s Day, a national day of Cornwall, observed in honor of the patron saint of tin miners.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Absinthe Day, National Cheese Doodle Day, National Multiple Personality Day, and National Hospitalist Day. The last one is typically observed on the first Thursday in March.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1616, Nicolaus Copernicus’s book On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres was added to the Index of Forbidden Books. This was done 73 years after the book was first published.
  • In 1770, the Boston Massacre occurred. Five Americans, including Crispus Attucks, were fatally shot by British troops. This event would contribute to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War five years later.
  • In 1853, Howard Pyle was born. An American author and illustrator, he wrote The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood in 1883.
  • In 1868, Arrigo Boito’s opera Mefistofele premiered at La Scala in Milan, Italy.
  • In 1874, Henry Travers was born. He portrayed Clarence Odbody in 1946’s It’s a Wonderful Life.
  • In 1908, actor Rex Harrison was born.
  • In 1933, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party received 43.9% of the vote at the Reichstag elections. This allowed the Nazis to later pass the Enabling Act and establish a dictatorship.
  • In 1934, actor James B. Sikking was born.
  • In 1936, actor Dean Stockwell was born.
  • In 1943, Britain’s first combat jet aircraft – the Gloster Meteor – underwent its first flight.
  • In 1946, Winston Churchill coined the phrase “Iron Curtain” in his speech at Westminster College, Missouri.
  • In 1969, actor Paul Blackthorne was born.
  • In 1970, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons went into effect after ratification by 43 nations.
  • In 1989, actor Jake Lloyd was born.

 

In 1970, the film Airport premiered.

The film, directed and written by George Seaton, was based on Arthur Hailey’s 1968 novel of the same name. It was produced on a $10 million budget and made over $100 million, sparking the 1970s disaster film genre that brought us The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno, Earthquake, The Hindenburg, Black Sunday, and so many more titles. It even surpassed Spartacus as the biggest moneymaker for Universal Pictures.

Starring Burt Lancaster and Dean Martin, the film is about an airport manager trying to keep the Lincoln International Airport open during a snowstorm. Meanwhile, a suicide bomber plots to destroy a Boeing 707 while in flight. It focuses on day-to-day operations at the airport while intertwining personal stories and life-changing decisions.

Filming took place at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Internation Airport, but the weather was non-cooperative so the production team had to rely on artificial snow to tell their story. It was the final film scored by the legendary Alfred Newman, resulting in a posthumous Academy Award nomination for him, the most received by a composer at that time.

It also spawned three sequels in the era of disaster films – Airport 1975,  Airport ’77, and The Concorde… Airport ’79 – of which only the first two were box office hits. The series was later parodied by the 1980 cult classic Airplane!

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

 

 

Timestamp: Torchwood Series Two Summary

Michael Falkner4 Comments

Torchwood: Series Two Summary

 

Torchwood‘s second series took the messages and meanings of Series One to greater heights of humanity, compassion, and companionship.

From tales of family and friendship to a mission to save what was effectively a space whale from a life of torture, we saw the next evolution of empathy and compassion mixed with the dark and gritty atmosphere that made Torchwood so distinct from its parent franchise. That darkness reared its head with multiple deaths this round, including an exploration of what lay beyond with Owen’s trilogy of stories in the middle of the run.

Like Series One, what remains is a shattered team, but this time around we see a stronger resolve among the survivors. Jack, despite the gaping hole in his heart from the dark resolution of his brother’s story, remains as a stronger leader this time around and anchors Ianto and Gwen going forward. Owen and Tosh will be missed, from their combined medical knowledge to their respective acerbic wit and technical expertise. I loved Tosh from the start, but Owen grew on me as time went on. Their unrequited love is the grand tragedy.

As with last time, it’s obvious that we can’t make a direct comparison between Torchwood and Doctor Who, but we can look at the scores so far to get an idea of how it fits within the Timestamps Project’s scope.

Torchwood Series Two earned a 4.0 average. That places it on par with the classic Twelfth Season – the debut of Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor – which is the ninth highest in the history of the Timestamps Project. It’s also slightly higher than the first series of Torchwood, which is a good sign going forward.

 

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang – 4
Sleeper – 4
To the Last Man – 4
Meat – 4
Adam – 4
Reset – 4
Dead Man Walking – 4
A Day in the Death – 3
Something Borrowed – 4
From Out of the Rain – 2
Adrift – 5
Fragments – 5
Exit Wounds – 5

Torchwood Series One Average Rating: 4.0/5

 

Since I’m approaching the revival era from a (mostly) chronological order, we’re headed back to Doctor Who proper with the return of Donna Noble and Series Four. After that, the second series of Sarah Jane Adventures and the third series of Torchwood, with bits of David Tennant’s final year specials sprinkled throughout.

 

UP NEXT – Doctor Who: Partners in Crime

 

The Timestamps Project is an adventure through the televised universe of Doctor Who, story by story, from the beginning of the franchise. For more reviews like this one, please visit the project’s page at Creative Criticality.

The Thing About Today – March 4

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

March 4, 2020
Day 64 of 366

 

March 4th is the sixty-fourth day of the year. It is St. Casimir’s Fair, also known as Kaziuko mugė, a large annual folk arts and crafts fair in Vilnius, Lithuania.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Grammar Day, National Hug a G.I. Day, Marching Music Day, National Pound Cake Day, and National Sons Day.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1628, the Massachusetts Bay Colony was granted a Royal charter.
  • In 1678, Italian violinist and composer Antonio Vivaldi was born.
  • In 1681, William Penn was granted a land charter for the area that later became Pennsylvania.
  • In 1789, the first Congress of the United States convened in New York City and put the United States Constitution into effect. The United States Bill of Rights was written and proposed to Congress.
  • In 1790, France was divided into 83 départements, cutting across the former provinces in an attempt to dislodge regional loyalties based on ownership of land by the nobility.
  • In 1791, the Constitutional Act of 1791 was introduced by the British House of Commons in London. This envisaged the separation of Canada into Lower Canada (Quebec) and Upper Canada (Ontario).
  • Also in 1791, the State of Vermont was admitted to the United States as the fourteenth in the Union.
  • In 1794, The Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed by Congress. This amendment restricts the ability of individuals to bring suit against the states in federal court.
  • In 1797, John Adams was inaugurated as the second President of the United States, thus becoming the first President to begin his term on March 4th.
  • In 1837, the city of Chicago was incorporated.
  • In 1861, the first national flag of the Confederate States of America – the so-called “Stars and Bars” – was adopted.
  • In 1865, the third and final national flag of the Confederate States of America – the so-called “Blood-Stained Banner” – was adopted. This replaced the “Stainless Banner”, also known as “The White Man’s Flag”. The Confederacy would surrender and begin dissolution two months later.
  • In 1882, Britain’s first electric trams began running in east London.
  • In 1922, Nosferatu premiered at the Berlin Zoological Garden in Germany. An adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, this was the first vampire film.
  • In 1933, Frances Perkins became the United States Secretary of Labor. She was the first female member of the United States Cabinet.
  • In 1954, actress Catherine O’Hara was born.
  • In 1957, The S&P 500 stock market index was introduced and replaced the S&P 90.
  • In 1958, actress Patricia Heaton was born.
  • In 1974, People magazine was published for the first time, debuting under the title People Weekly.
  • In 1985, the Food and Drug Administration approved a blood test for AIDS infection. It has been used since for screening all blood donations in the United States.
  • In 1998, The Supreme Court of the United States decided on Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc., ruling that federal laws banning on-the-job sexual harassment also apply when both parties are the same sex.

 

In 1849, President-Elect Zachary Taylor and Vice President-Elect Millard Fillmore did not take their respective Oaths of Office, leading to the theory that outgoing President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate David Rice Atchison assumed the role of Acting President of the United States for one day.

The idea has been dismissed by nearly all historians, scholars, and biographers, but it is a fascinating piece of United States trivia.

The crux of the matter was that Inauguration Day in 1849 fell on a Sunday, so President-elect Zachary Taylor did not take the presidential oath of office until the next day. Legally, the term of the outgoing president, James K. Polk, ended at noon on March 4th. So, technically, there was no President of the United States for a single day.

Adding complications to the matter, outgoing Vice President George M. Dallas relinquished his position as President of the Senate on March 2nd, at which time Atchison was elected President pro tempore. In 1849, according to the Presidential Succession Act of 1792, the Senate President pro tempore immediately followed the Vice President in the Presidential line of succession. Since Dallas’s term as Vice President also ended at noon on the 4th, and as neither Taylor nor Vice President-elect Millard Fillmore had taken their respective Oaths of Office, Atchison could have been the Acting President of the United States.

Historians, constitutional scholars, and biographers point out that Atchison’s Senate term had ended on March 3. When the Senate of the new Congress convened on March 5 to allow new senators and the new vice president to take the oath of office, the secretary of the Senate called members to order, as the Senate had no President pro tempore. Furthermore, the Constitution doesn’t require the President-elect to take the oath of office to hold the office, just to execute the powers.

Additionally, Atchison never swore the Presidential Oath, so he could not have acted in the office.

It all depends on how one legally views the office: Does the President-elect immediately assume office (but not execute any powers) as soon as the outgoing President’s term expires?

David Rice Atchison addressed this with a reporter for the Plattsburg Lever:

It was in this way: Polk went out of office on March 3, 1849, on Saturday at 12 noon. The next day, the 4th, occurring on Sunday, Gen. Taylor was not inaugurated. He was not inaugurated till Monday, the 5th, at 12 noon. It was then canvassed among Senators whether there was an interregnum (a time during which a country lacks a government). It was plain that there was either an interregnum or I was the President of the United States being chairman of the Senate, having succeeded Judge Mangum of North Carolina. The judge waked me up at 3 o’clock in the morning and said jocularly that as I was President of the United States he wanted me to appoint him as secretary of state. I made no pretense to the office, but if I was entitled in it I had one boast to make, that not a woman or a child shed a tear on account of my removing any one from office during my incumbency of the place. A great many such questions are liable to arise under our form of government.

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

 

 

The Thing About Today – March 3

Michael Falkner1 Comment

March 3, 2020
Day 63 of 366

 

March 3rd is the sixty-third day of the year. It is World Wildlife Day, a United Nations day of celebration and awareness of the world’s wild fauna and flora. In its adoption of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 1973, the United Nations General Assembly reaffirmed the intrinsic value of wildlife and its various contributions, including ecological, genetic, social, economic, scientific, educational, cultural, recreational and aesthetic, to sustainable development and human well-being.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Anthem Day, National Cold Cuts Day, National I Want You to be Happy Day, National Mulled Wine Day, and Soup It Forward Day.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1776, the first amphibious landing of the United States Marine Corps begins the Battle of Nassau.
  • In 1845, Florida was admitted as the 27th U.S. state. It is unknown how soon Florida Man arrived on the scene.
  • In 1847, Alexander Graham Bell was born. He was the Scottish-American engineer and academic who invented the telephone.
  • In 1873, the United States Congress enacted the Comstock Laws, making it illegal to send any “obscene, lewd, or lascivious” books through the mail. This included obscenity, contraceptives, abortifacients, sex toys, personal letters with any sexual content or information, or any information regarding such restricted items. Many of the Comstock Laws have since been declared unconstitutional.
  • In 1875, Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen premiered at the Opéra-Comique in Paris.
  • In 1882, Charles Ponzi was born. He was an Italian businessman whose corrupt practices gave birth to the term “Ponzi scheme”.
  • In 1891, Shoshone National Forest was established as the first national forest in the United States and the world.
  • In 1904, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany became the first person to make a sound recording of a political document. He used Thomas Edison’s phonograph cylinder for the task.
  • In 1913, thousands of women marched in a suffrage parade in Washington, D.C.
  • In 1920, James Doohan was born. A Canadian-American actor and soldier, he portrayed Montgomery “Scotty” Scott on Star Trek.
  • In 1923, TIME magazine was published for the first time.
  • In 1939, Mohandas Gandhi began a hunger strike in Bombay to protest the autocratic rule in British India.
  • In 1962, American heptathlete and long jumper Jackie Joyner-Kersee was born.
  • In 1968, physicist Brian Cox was born.
  • In 1969, Apollo 9 was launched on a mission to test the lunar module. Astronauts James A. McDivitt, David R. Scott, and Russell L. Schweickart completed the mission over ten days.
  • In 1980, The USS Nautilus was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register.
  • In 1991, an amateur video captures the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers.
  • In 2005, Margaret Wilson was elected as Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives. This began a period lasting until August 23, 2006 where all the highest political offices (including Queen Elizabeth II as Head of State), were occupied by women. New Zealand the first country for this to occur.

 

In 1931, the United States adopted The Star-Spangled Banner as its national anthem.

Before 1931, other songs served as the hymns of the United States, including “Hail, Columbia” for most of the 19th century. “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee”, which is melodically identical to “God Save the Queen” (the United Kingdom’s anthem) also served the purpose. Following the War of 1812 and subsequent conflicts, other songs emerged to compete for popularity including “America the Beautiful”.

The lyrics of The Star-Spangled Banner come from the “Defence of Fort M’Henry”, a poem written on September 14, 1814, by Francis Scott Key. He was a 35-year old lawyer who was inspired after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British ships in Baltimore Harbor during the War of 1812. It was the large American flag, with 15 stars and 15 stripes, flying triumphantly above the fort during the United States victory that caught his eye.

The poem was set to the tune of a popular British song, “To Anacreon in Heaven”, written by John Stafford Smith for a men’s social club in London. Renamed “The Star-Spangled Banner”, the song took off as a patriotic song, despite being very difficult to sing with its range of 19 semitones.

“The Star-Spangled Banner” was recognized for official use by the United States Navy in 1889, and by United States President Woodrow Wilson in 1916. It was finally confirmed as the official national anthem by a congressional resolution (46 Stat. 1508, codified at 36 U.S.C. § 301) and President Herbert Hoover in 1931.

The poem has four stanzas, but only the first is commonly performed.

O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner, O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation.
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust.’
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

A couple of alternative versions have popped up over the years. Eighteen years after Francis Scott Key’s death, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. added a fifth stanza to the song in indignation over the start of the American Civil War. Written in 1861, it was published in songbooks of the era.

When our land is illumined with Liberty’s smile,
If a foe from within strike a blow at her glory,
Down, down with the traitor that dares to defile
The flag of her stars and the page of her story!
By the millions unchained, who our birthright have gained,
We will keep her bright blazon forever unstained!
And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave
While the land of the free is the home of the brave.

For the 1986 rededication of the Statue of Liberty, Christian recording artist Sandi Patty wrote her version of an additional verse. The revision of the anthem brought her national acclaim.

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

 

 

The Thing About Today – March 2

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

March 2, 2020
Day 62 of 366

 

March 2nd is the sixty-second day of the year. It is Texas Independence Day, commemorating the creation of the Republic of Texas on this day in 1836.

In the United States, it is “celebrated” as World Teen Mental Wellness Day, National Banana Cream Pie Day, National Old Stuff Day, and National Read Across America Day (Dr. Seuss Day). If that last one falls on a weekend, it is typically observed on the closest school day.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1484, the College of Arms was formally incorporated by Royal Charter signed by King Richard III of England.
  • In 1797, the Bank of England issued the first one-pound and two-pound banknotes.
  • In 1807, the United States Congress passed the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves, thereby disallowing the importation of new slaves into the country.
  • In 1859, the two-day so-called Great Slave Auction, the largest such auction in United States history, began.
  • In 1867, the United States Congress passed the first Reconstruction Act.
  • In 1877, the United States Congress declared Rutherford B. Hayes the winner of the 1876 Presidential Election. Settled only four days before inauguration, the decision was made despite Samuel J. Tilden winning the popular vote because the Electoral College was tied.
  • In 1901, United States Steel Corporation was founded as a result of a merger between Carnegie Steel Company and Federal Steel Company. This resulted in the first corporation in the world with a market capital over $1 billion.
  • In 1903, the Martha Washington Hotel opened in New York City, becoming the first hotel exclusively for women.
  • In 1917, Cuban-American actor, singer, and producer Desi Arnaz was born.
  • In 1933, King Kong opened at New York’s Radio City Music Hall.
  • In 1935, Porky Pig made his debut with “I Haven’t Got a Hat”.
  • In 1937, the Steel Workers Organizing Committee signed a collective bargaining agreement with U.S. Steel, thus leading to unionization of the United States steel industry.
  • In 1949, Captain James Gallagher landed his B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II in Fort Worth, Texas. This completed the first non-stop around-the-world airplane flight in 94 hours and one minute.
  • Also in 1949, actress and choreographer Gates McFadden was born.
  • In 1962, Wilt Chamberlain set the single-game scoring record in the National Basketball Association by scoring 100 points.
  • In 1965, The Sound of Music premiered.
  • In 1968, actor and producer Daniel Craig was born.
  • In 1969, the first test flight of the Concorde was conducted in Toulouse, France.
  • In 1972, the Pioneer 10 space probe was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida with a mission to explore the outer planets. The last contact with the probe was made in 2003.
  • In 1976, Walt Disney World logged its 50 millionth guest after opening in October 1971.
  • In 1981, actress and filmmaker Bryce Dallas Howard was born.
  • In 1983, compact discs and players were released for the first time in the United States and other markets. They had previously been available only in Japan.
  • In 1995, researchers at Fermilab announced the discovery of the top quark.

 

In 1904, Dr. Seuss was born.

Theodor Seuss Geisel was an American children’s book writer, poet, animator, screenwriter, and illustrator. He wrote and illustrated for more than sixty books, including many of the most popular children’s books of all time.

He adopted the “Dr. Seuss” pen name in college and began his career at Vanity Fair and Life magazines. He published his first children’s book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, in 1937 but took a break to illustrate political cartoons and make films for the United States Army during World War II. It was during his service to the Army that he won the 1947 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for Design for Death.

After the war, Geisel returned to writing children’s books. He wrote classics like If I Ran the Zoo (1950), Horton Hears a Who! (1955), If I Ran the Circus (1956), The Cat in the Hat (1957), How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1957), and Green Eggs and Ham (1960). All told, he published over 60 books during his career. Those works have spawned numerous adaptations, including 11 television specials, five feature films, a Broadway musical, and four television series.

He died of cancer on September 24, 1991, at the age of 87.

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

 

 

The Thing About Today – March 1

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

March 1, 2020
Day 61 of 366

 

March 1st is the sixty-first day of the year. It is Beer Day in Iceland, which celebrates the end of a 74-year prohibition on beer in 1989.

In the United States, it is “celebrated” as National Dadgum That’s Good Day, National Fruit Compote Day, National Horse Protection Day, National Minnesota Day, National Peanut Butter Lover’s Day, National Pig Day, Self-Injury Awareness Day, and Finisher’s Medal Day. That last one is typically observed on the first Sunday in March.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 293, Emperors Diocletian and Maximian appointed Constantius Chlorus and Galerius as Caesars. This is considered the beginning of the Tetrarchy, also known as the Quattuor Principes Mundi (“Four Rulers of the World”).
  • In 1565, the city of Rio de Janeiro was founded in what would become Brazil.
  • In 1642, Georgeana, Massachusetts became the first incorporated city in the United States. It is now known as York, Maine.
  • In 1781, the Articles of Confederation went into effect in the United States. They would be replaced in twelve years by the current Constitution of the United States.
  • In 1790, the first United States census was authorized.
  • In 1810, Polish pianist and composer Frédéric Chopin was born.
  • In 1872, Yellowstone National Park was established as the world’s first national park.
  • In 1893, Nikola Tesla gave the first public demonstration of radio in St. Louis, Missouri.
  • In 1896, Henri Becquerel discovered the phenomenon of radioactive decay.
  • In 1910, actor and soldier David Niven was born.
  • In 1918, actor Roger Delgado was born. He first portrayed the Master on Doctor Who.
  • In 1924, astronaut Deke Slayton was born.
  • In 1927, actor and singer-songwriter Harry Belafonte was born.
  • In 1945, actor Dirk Benedict was born.
  • In 1946, the Bank of England was nationalized.
  • In 1947, the International Monetary Fund began operations.
  • In 1954, the Castle Bravo 15-megaton hydrogen bomb was detonated on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. The event resulted in the worst radioactive contamination ever caused by the United States.
  • Also in 1954, actress Catherine Bach was born.
  • Also in 1954, actor, director, and producer Ron Howard was born.
  • In 1961, United States President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps.
  • In 1966, the Venera 3 space probe crashed on Venus. Launched by the Soviet Union, it was the first spacecraft to land on another planet’s surface.
  • In 1969, Spanish actor and producer Javier Bardem was born.
  • In 1975, color television transmissions began in Australia.
  • In 1983, Mexican-Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o was born.
  • In 1998, Titanic became the first film to gross over $1 billion worldwide.
  • In 2005, the Supreme Court of the United States decided Roper v. Simmons. This case established that the execution of juveniles found guilty of murder is unconstitutional.

 

In 1941, Captain America was first published.

Cap was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby and first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 from Timely Comics, a predecessor to Marvel. He was designed as a patriotic supersoldier who fought against the Axis powers in World War II. While the character was very popular in the wartime period, the book was discontinued when interest in superheroes diminished after the war ended.

Marvel Comics revived the character in 1964 and Cap has remained in publication ever since.

The character’s story revolves around being turned into a supersoldier (courtesy of a special serum) and eventually frozen in ice until the modern day. With his nearly indestructible shield, Captain America struggles to maintain his ideals as a man out of time. He was the first Marvel Comics character to appear in media outside comics with the release of 1944’s Captain America serial. He has since been in various films and television series, including the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is where I grew to love the character thanks to actor Chris Evans and the creative team behind those movies.

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.