Category: Our Universe

Culture on My Mind – Lessons from Short Circuit

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

Culture on My Mind
Lessons from Short Circuit
June 19, 2020

This week’s “can’t let it go” are a pair of favorite movies from my childhood.

I love the Short Circuit films.

Yeah, I said it. Both of the films are drenched in late ’80s cheese and dance around the lines between programming and life. I have no shame.

The first film, Short Circuit from 1986, focuses on a robot (designated Number 5) built for war that gets struck by lightning and develops a consciousness. Number 5 is voiced by Tim Blaney, who modern audiences would recognize as Frank the Pug from the Men in Black films and his puppeteering work over the last 35 years. The five war robots were programmed by two scientists, played by Steve Guttenberg and Fisher Stevens, and when Number 5 is struck by lightning, it inadvertently escapes the defense research facility and ends up in the care of Stephanie Speck, a food truck owner and animal lover played by Ally Sheedy.

The film also stars Austin Pendleton as the irritating president of the robotics corporation and G. W. Bailey doing what he does best as the head of security. It was directed by John Badham, who also brought us Saturday Night Fever, Dracula, Blue Thunder, and WarGames. Number 5 has a true sci-fi pedigree since he was designed by Syd Mead, the “visual futurist” famous for his work on Blade Runner and Tron.

Over the course of the film, Number 5 develops sentience and proves that he is alive, after which he chooses his own name: Johnny 5. It’s a fun and cute, but ultimately forgettable romp.

The sequel, Short Circuit 2, came out in 1988. Only Fisher Stevens and Tim Blaney made the jump to the second film, with a voice cameo from Ally Sheedy, and Kenneth Johnson – the TV sci-fi guy responsible for V, The Bionic Woman, The Incredible Hulk, and Alien Nation – picked up the directing duties.

The sequel finds the two original characters on the streets of New York City with a con-man (Michael McKean), a new love interest (Cynthia Gibb), and white-collar crime. This one is a bit more cringe-worthy in many aspects, but I enjoy the robot’s story and character a lot more, especially when he keeps two books (input) for special attention: Pinocchio and Frankenstein.

The film ends with the Be a Real Boy trope of granting the “other” American citizenship for their special efforts. It was the ’80s, gang, Cold War and all.

A third movie was developed by the studio, but there wasn’t enough interest.

All of the cheese and schmaltz aside, the biggest problem with these two films lies in cultural insensitivity. The sole human character that stars in both films – Ben Jabituya in Short Circuit, but Benjamin Jahveri in Short Circuit 2 – is a white man portraying an Indian man.

For background, the character was not intended to be Indian. Fisher Stevens initially had the role, but he was fired and replaced by Bronson Pinchot. When Perfect Strangers started, Pinchot left for the television and Stevens was rehired. When the character was changed to Indian descent, Stevens grew a beard, dyed his hair black, used contacts to change his eye color, and darken his skin with makeup.

In short, the film employed brownface to make the character work.

The effect was convincing among Indian moviegoers. As the urban legend goes, many believed that Fisher Stevens was actually Bollywood actor Javed Jaffrey. The resemblance is uncanny, particularly with the beard and round eyeglasses, but Jaffrey set the record straight soon after. Another fan who was confused, but for an entirely different reason, was comedian Aziz Ansari.

In 2015, Ansari published a piece in the New York Times discussing acting, race, and Hollywood. In it, he describes how he was amazed to see an Indian character as a film lead with a love interest.

Seeing an Indian character in a lead role had a powerful effect on me, but it was only as I got older that I realized what an anomaly it was. I rarely saw any Indians on TV or film, except for brief appearances as a cabdriver or a convenience store worker literally servicing white characters who were off to more interesting adventures. This made “Short Circuit 2” special. An Indian lead character? With a Caucasian love interest? In the 1980s? What’s going on here? A bold foray into diversity far ahead of its time?

Sadly, no.

He was devastated when he found out that Stevens used a culturally insensitive method to play a role. Brownface (and yellowface) are siblings to the practice of blackface, a practice that was popular in the 19th century. In the United States, it was used by white actors to portray blacks, and spread racial stereotypes that betrayed the true nature of slavery and society’s views on minorities. It was popular through the early 20th century, but has since become seen as offensive, disrespectful, and racist.

To that end, when Ansari found out the truth, he saw it as a mockery of his ethnicity. What amazed me, though, was how Ansari tracked down Stevens to talk with him about the role and the pain that it caused. The end result was something that we can all learn from.

After a long conversation, I can confirm Mr. Stevens is not a villain, but was, when he took the role, a well-intentioned if slightly misguided young actor who needed a job during a more culturally insensitive time.

It was 1987, Stevens needed work, and the world wasn’t nearly as culturally savvy as we are now. To his credit, as Ansari discovered, Stevens tried to make the portrayal as authentic as possible, including full immersion in the culture.

Through the discussion, Stevens grew to understand just how much the approach harmed the culture even though he put the work in to avoid playing his own minstrel show.

Go read the accounts by both Aziz Ansari and Fisher Stevens on their meeting. They’re quite enlightening.

The reason that I bring this up is because of my love for these films. I’m not Indian, but I understood where Ansari was coming from as I grew to understand the damage of blackface and similar practices. It threw my enjoyment of the movies into question. Does it make me a bad person to still love the film even though it contains these cultural misrepresentations?

Similarly, look at any of the classics that we still enjoy today, from Star Trek to the James Bond franchise. How do we square our fandom with the ideals that drove those shows, from subtle racism and jingoism to misogyny and beyond?

Ansari and Stevens came to the answer in their discussion, and it’s the same one that Sue Kisenwether, Gary Mitchel, Mike Faber and Michael Gordon, Michael Bailey, and so many others in our circles have talked about many times: It depends on the lenses that we use to analyze it. It’s okay to still enjoy classic Trek or Short Circuit as long we acknowledge the shortcomings of the time and how culture has evolved. We can still enjoy something, be critical of it, and acknowledge both the cultural impact and how we’ve evolved in the time since.

It wasn’t okay for Fisher Stevens to apply brownface for those films, but it was accepted. To that end, it is not acceptable now.

This is how we learn and grow as a human culture, and how we develop sensitivity and respect for each other.

Rumors have been about for a while about making another Short Circuit film, either as a sequel or a complete reboot. Aziz Ansari and Fisher Stevens agreed on how to make the character of Benjamin right going forward.

Without a doubt, the role should be played by someone of Indian descent.
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Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.

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

The Thing About Today – June 19

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

June 19, 2020
Day 171 of 366

 

June 19th is the 171st day of the year. It is World Sickle Cell Day, a day of awareness and information about the group of blood disorders that result in abnormalities in the oxygen-carrying protein hemoglobin found in red blood cells.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National FreeBSD Day, National Garfield the Cat Day, National Martini Day, National Watch Day, Wear BLUE Day (typically observed on the Friday before Father’s Day), National Take Back the Lunch Break Day (typically observed on the third Friday in June), and National Flip Flop Day (also typically observed on the third Friday in June).

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1586, English colonists left Roanoke Island after failing to establish England’s first permanent settlement in North America.
  • In 1846, the first officially recorded and organized baseball game was played under Alexander Cartwright’s rules on Hoboken, New Jersey’s Elysian Fields. The New York Base Ball Club defeated the Knickerbockers by a score of 23–1. Cartwright served as umpire.
  • In 1862, the United States Congress prohibited slavery in United States territories, nullifying Dred Scott v. Sandford.
  • In 1903, baseball player Lou Gehrig was born.
  • In 1910, the first Father’s Day was celebrated in Spokane, Washington.
  • In 1915, publisher and agent Julius Schwartz was born.
  • In 1922, Danish physicist, academic, and Nobel Prize laureate Aage Bohr was born. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1975 with Ben Mottelson and James Rainwater “for the discovery of the connection between collective motion and particle motion in atomic nuclei and the development of the theory of the structure of the atomic nucleus based on this connection”.
  • In 1926, mathematician and inventor Erna Schneider Hoover was born. She invented a computerized telephone switching method that revolutionized modern communication.
  • In 1934, the Communications Act of 1934 established the United States’ Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
  • In 1962, singer-songwriter, dancer, actress, and presenter Paula Abdul was born.
  • In 1964, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was approved after surviving an 83-day filibuster in the United States Senate.
  • In 1967, actress Mia Sara was born.
  • In 1978, actress Zoe Saldana was born.
  • In 1990, the current international law defending indigenous peoples, Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989, was ratified for the first time by Norway.
  • In 1992, Batman Returns premiered.
  • In 2015, Inside Out premiered.
  • In 2018, the 10 millionth United States Patent was issued.

 

In 1865, over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Galveston, Texas were finally informed of their freedom, establishing a holiday known as Juneteenth.

During the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862. It was formally issued on January 1, 1863, declaring that all enslaved persons in the Confederate States of America in rebellion and not in Union hands were to be freed.

Planters and other slaveholders had migrated to the more geographically isolated Texas from eastern states to avoid the fighting, many of them bringing enslaved people with them. This increased the enslaved population of Texas by thousands, and by 1865, there were an estimated 250,000 enslaved people in the state.

News of General Robert E. Lee’s surrender, which happened on April 9, 1865, reached Texas later in the month. The western Army of the Trans-Mississippi did not surrender until June 2nd, and by June 18th, Union Army General Gordon Granger arrived at Galveston Island with 2,000 federal troops to occupy Texas on behalf of the federal government.

The following day, while standing on the balcony of Galveston’s Ashton Villa, General Granger read aloud the contents of “General Order No. 3”, announcing the total emancipation of those held as slaves:

The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.

Even though the event is popularly thought of as “the end of slavery”, the Emancipation Proclamation did not apply to those enslaved in Union-held territory. Those slaves would not be freed until a proclamation several months later after the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified on December 6, 1865.

The freedom of formerly enslaved people in Texas was given legal status in a series of Texas Supreme Court decisions between 1868 and 1874.

June 19th is still officially celebrated as Juneteenth in Texas. Every state in the Union except South Dakota and Hawaii recognizes the event.

(Despite what he says, the sitting president did not make the holiday famous. It has nothing to do with him.)

 

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 – June 18

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

June 18, 2020
Day 170 of 366

 

June 18th is the 170th day of the year. In the United Kingdom, it is Waterloo Day, commemorating the date of the famous battle between Napoleon Bonaparte and the combined forces of the Duke of Ellington and Field Marshal von Blücher in Belgium. Napoleon was defeated and forced to abdicate the throne of France for the second and last time.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Go Fishing Day, National Splurge Day, and National Career Nurse Assistants Day.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1264, the Parliament of Ireland met at Castledermot in County Kildare, marking the first definitively known meeting of this Irish legislature.
  • In 1429, French forces under the leadership of Joan of Arc defeated the main English army under Sir John Fastolf at the Battle of Patay. This turned the tide of the Hundred Years’ War.
  • In 1812, the United States declaration of war upon the United Kingdom was signed by President James Madison, thus beginning the War of 1812.
  • In 1858, Charles Darwin received a paper from Alfred Russel Wallace that included nearly identical conclusions about evolution as Darwin’s own, prompting Darwin to publish his theory.
  • In 1873, Susan B. Anthony was fined $100 for attempting to vote in the 1872 presidential election.
  • In 1923, Checker Taxi put its first taxi on the streets.
  • In 1928, aviator Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly in an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean. During this flight, she was the passenger, Wilmer Stultz was the pilot, and Lou Gordon was the mechanic.
  • In 1940, Winston Churchill delivered his “Finest Hour” speech.
  • In 1942, journalist, critic, and screenwriter Roger Ebert was born.
  • Also in 1942, singer-songwriter and guitarist Paul McCartney was born.
  • In 1948, Columbia Records introduced the long-playing record album in a public demonstration at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.
  • In 1960, director and producer Barbara Broccoli was born.
  • In 1981, the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk made its first flight. The Nighthawk was the first operational aircraft initially designed around stealth technology.
  • In 1983, Space Shuttle Challenger (STS-7) was launched, making astronaut Sally Ride the first American woman in space.
  • In 1991, actress Willa Holland was born.
  • In 2001, The Fast and the Furious premiered and started a film franchise about cars and family.
  • In 2005, David Tennant premiered on Doctor Who as the Tenth Doctor in “The Parting of the Ways”.

 

June 18th is Autistic Pride Day, recognizing the importance of autistic people and their role in bringing about positive changes in the broader society.

Autistic Pride Day was first celebrated in 2005 by Aspies for Freedom and it quickly became a global event. Autistic pride points out that autistic people have always been an important part of human culture and that being autistic is a form of neurodiversity. As with all forms of neurodiversity, most of the challenges autistic people face come from other people’s attitudes about autism and a lack of supports and accommodations (better known as ableism), rather than being essential to the autistic condition.

Autistic activists have contributed to a shift in attitudes away from the notion that autism is a deviation from the norm that must be treated or cured. Autistic self-advocacy organizations, which are led and run by autistics, are a key force in the movement for autistic acceptance and autistic pride.

 

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 – June 17

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

June 17, 2020
Day 169 of 366

 

June 17th is the 169th day of the year. It was previously a day of remembrance for the East German uprising of 1953. It began as a strike by East Berlin construction workers on June 16th, which evolved into a widespread uprising against the communist German Democratic Republic government. It was violently suppressed by Soviet occupation forces (using tanks) and the military force of the Kasernierte Volkspolizei, but the strikes and protests continued into more than 500 towns and villages. All told, it involved more than one million people. It was an annual public holiday in West Germany (the Federal Republic of Germany) until reunification happened in 1990. After that, it was replaced by German Unity Day, which takes place on October 3rd.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as Global Garbage Man Day, National Eat Your Vegetables Day, National Stewart’s Root Beer Day, National Apple Strudel Day, and National Cherry Tart Day.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1242, following the Disputation of Paris, twenty-four carriage loads of Jewish religious manuscripts were burnt in Paris. The Disputation of Paris, also known as the Trial of the Talmud, was an inquisition that followed the work of Nicholas Donin, a Jewish convert to Christianity. He translated the Talmud (a central text of the Jewish faith) and pressed 35 charges against it to Pope Gregory IX by quoting a series of allegedly blasphemous passages about Jesus, Mary, or Christianity. Four of the most distinguished rabbis in France defended the Talmud against Donin’s accusations.
  • In 1579, Sir Francis Drake claimed a land he called Nova Albion for England. It would later be known as California.
  • In 1631, Mumtaz Mahal died during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, would spend the next 17 years building her mausoleum, the Taj Mahal.
  • In 1637, French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet reached the Mississippi River and became the first Europeans to make a detailed account of its course.
  • In 1839, in the Kingdom of Hawaii, Kamehameha III issued the edict of toleration which provided Roman Catholics the freedom to worship in the Hawaiian Islands. The Hawaii Catholic Church and the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace were established as a result.
  • In 1843, the Wairau Affray took place. It was the first serious clash of arms between Māori and British settlers in the New Zealand Wars.
  • In 1867, Irish-born American educator, publisher, and humanitarian John Robert Gregg was born.
  • Also in 1867, Australian poet and author Henry Lawson was born.
  • In 1882, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor Igor Stravinsky was born.
  • In 1885, the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York Harbor.
  • In 1898, the United States Navy Hospital Corps was established.
  • In 1943, singer-songwriter and producer Barry Manilow was born.
  • In 1944, Iceland declared independence from Denmark and became a republic.
  • In 1945, broadcaster and author Art Bell was born. He was the founder and the original host of the paranormal-themed radio program Coast to Coast AM.
  • In 1963, the United States Supreme Court ruled 8–1 in Abington School District v. Schempp against requiring the reciting of Bible verses and the Lord’s Prayer in public schools.
  • In 1972, five White House operatives were arrested for burgling the offices of the Democratic National Committee, in an attempt by some members of the Republican party to illegally wiretap the opposition. It would be known as the Watergate Scandal.
  • In 1982, actor Arthur Darvill was born.
  • Also in 1982, actor Jodie Whittaker was born. She is currently the Thirteenth Doctor on Doctor Who.
  • In 1985, Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-51-G) launched carrying Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the first Arab and first Muslim in space, as a payload specialist.
  • In 1987, with the death of the last individual of the species, the dusky seaside sparrow became extinct.
  • In 2015, nine African-Americans were killed in a mass shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The gunman was a 21-year-old white supremacist who targeted the church because of its history and stature. The gunman’s adoration of the Confederate battle flag sparked a debate on the modern display of the symbol.

 

June 17th is the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought.

The United Nations observance aims to raise awareness of the presence of desertification and drought, which transforms fertile drylands into arid deserts. The event highlights methods of preventing desertification and recovering from drought using a unique, novel emphasis each year that had not been developed previously.

The goal is “to protect the planet from degradation, including through sustainable consumption and production, sustainably managing its natural resources and taking urgent action on climate change, so that it can support the needs of the present and future generations.”

 

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 – June 16

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

June 16, 2020
Day 168 of 366

 

June 16th is the 168th day of the year. It is the Day of the African Child, an observance started in 1991 by the Organisation of African Unity. It honors those who participated in the Soweto Uprising in 1976 and raises awareness of the continuing need for improvement of the education provided to African children.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Fudge Day.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1829, Apache leader Geronimo was born.
  • In 1846, the Papal conclave elected Pope Pius IX, beginning the longest reign in the history of the papacy.
  • In 1858, Abraham Lincoln delivered his House Divided speech in Springfield, Illinois.
  • In 1902, geneticist, academic, and Nobel Prize laureate Barbara McClintock was born.
  • In 1903, Roald Amundsen left Oslo, Norway, to commence the first east-west navigation of the Northwest Passage.
  • In 1911, IBM (International Business Machines Corporation) was founded as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in Endicott, New York.
  • In 1960, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho premiered.
  • In 1962, actor Arnold Vosloo was born.
  • In 1963, the Vostok 6 mission launched, making cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova the first woman in space.
  • In 1972, the largest single-site hydroelectric power project in Canada was inaugurated at Churchill Falls Generating Station.
  • In 1977, the Oracle Corporation was incorporated in Redwood Shores, California, as Software Development Laboratories (SDL), by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner, and Ed Oates.
  • In 1978, actor Daniel Brühl was born.
  • In 1989, Ghostbusters II premiered.
  • In 2012, China successfully launched its Shenzhou 9 spacecraft, carrying three astronauts, including the first female Chinese astronaut Liu Yang, to the Tiangong-1 orbital module.
  • Also in 2012, the United States Air Force’s robotic Boeing X-37B spaceplane returned to Earth after a classified 469-day orbital mission.

 

June 16th is celebrated as Bloomsday, a commemoration of the life of Irish writer James Joyce.

In 1904, Joyce began a relationship with Nora Barnacle, his soon-to-be-wife, and subsequently uses the date to set the actions for his novel Ulysses. In Dublin, the day involves a range of cultural activities, including Ulysses readings and dramatizations, pub crawls, and other events. Some of the events are hosted by the James Joyce Centre, and enthusiasts often dress in Edwardian costume to celebrate. Hard-core devotees have even been known to hold marathon readings of the entire novel, some lasting up to 36 hours.

The day is named after the novel’s protagonist Leopold Bloom.

 

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 – June 15

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

June 15, 2020
Day 167 of 366

 

June 15th is the 167th day of the year. It is National Beer Day in the United Kingdom, celebrated on the date in 1215 when the Magna Carta was sealed since it states in clause 35:

Let there be throughout our kingdom a single measure for wine and a single measure for ale and a single measure for corn, namely ‘the London quarter’

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Smile Power Day and Nature Photography Day.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1215, King John of England put his seal to Magna Carta. The Magna Carta Libertatum – in Medieval Latin, “Great Charter of Freedoms” – is a charter of rights drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury to make peace between the unpopular King and a group of rebel barons, promising the protection of church rights, protection for the barons from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice, and limitations on feudal payments to the Crown, to be implemented through a council of 25 barons. Neither side stood behind their commitments, and the charter was annulled by Pope Innocent III, leading to the First Barons’ War.
  • In 1648, Margaret Jones was hanged in Boston for witchcraft in the first such execution for the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
  • In 1667, the first human blood transfusion was administered by Dr. Jean-Baptiste Denys.
  • In 1752, Benjamin Franklin proved that lightning is electricity. This is the traditional date since the exact date is unknown.
  • In 1843, Norwegian pianist and composer Edvard Grieg was born.
  • In 1844, Charles Goodyear received a patent for vulcanization, a process to strengthen rubber.
  • In 1864, Arlington National Cemetery was established when 200 acres of the Arlington estate were officially set aside as a military cemetery by United States Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. The land had been the estate of Confederate general Robert E. Lee’s wife Mary Anna Custis Lee, a great-granddaughter of Martha Washington, before it was surrendered to the United States government near the start of the Civil War.
  • In 1877, Henry Ossian Flipper became the first African American cadet to graduate from the United States Military Academy.
  • In 1878, Eadweard Muybridge took a series of photographs to prove that all four feet of a horse leave the ground when it runs. The Horse in Motion became the basis of motion pictures.
  • In 1916, United States President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill incorporating the Boy Scouts of America, making them the only American youth organization with a federal charter.
  • In 1921, Bessie Coleman earned her pilot’s license, becoming the first female pilot of African-American descent.
  • In 1934, the United States Great Smoky Mountains National Park was founded.
  • In 1954, actor Jim Belushi was born.
  • In 1963, actress, director, and producer Helen Hunt was born.
  • In 1964, actress and producer Courteney Cox was born.
  • In 1973, actor and singer Neil Patrick Harris was born.
  • In 1983, Blackadder premiered on BBC1.
  • In 1994, The Lion King premiered.
  • In 2005, Batman Begins premiered.

 

June 15th is Global Wind Day.

The event was organized by WindEurope and GWEC (the Global Wind Energy Council). It celebrates wind energy and the exchanged of information about wind energy, its power, and the possibilities it holds to change the world.

 

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 – June 14

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

June 14, 2020
Day 166 of 366

 

June 14th is the 166th day of the year. It is Flag Day in the United States, commemorating the adoption of the flag on June 14, 1777 by resolution of the Second Continental Congress.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as International Bath Day, National Strawberry Shortcake Day, National Pop Goes the Weasel Day, National Bourbon Day, National New Mexico Day, and National Children’s Day (which is typically observed on the second Sunday in June).

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1158, Munich was founded by Henry the Lion on the banks of the river Isar.
  • In 1618, Joris Veseler printed the first Dutch newspaper Courante uyt Italien, Duytslandt, &c. in Amsterdam.
  • In 1775, the Continental Army was established by the Continental Congress, marking the birth of the United States Army.
  • In 1777, the Stars and Stripes was adopted by Congress as the Flag of the United States.
  • In 1789, the HMS Bounty mutiny survivors including Captain William Bligh and 18 others reach Timor after a nearly 4,600 mile journey in an open boat.
  • In 1822, Charles Babbage proposed a difference engine in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society.
  • In 1846, the Bear Flag Revolt began as white settlers in Sonoma, California started a rebellion against Mexico and proclaimed the California Republic.
  • In 1864, German psychiatrist and neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer was born.
  • In 1877, British biochemist Ida MacLean was born. She was the first woman admitted to the London Chemical Society.
  • In 1900, Hawaii became a United States territory.
  • In 1907, the National Association for Women’s Suffrage succeeded in getting Norwegian women the right to vote in parliamentary elections.
  • In 1909, actor and singer Burl Ives was born.
  • In 1949, Albert II, a rhesus monkey, rode a V-2 rocket to an altitude of 83 miles, thereby becoming the first monkey in space.
  • In 1954, United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill into law that placed the words “under God” into the United States Pledge of Allegiance. It was an attempt to differentiate the United States from the USSR during the Cold War.
  • In 1959, Disneyland Monorail System, the first daily operating monorail system in the Western Hemisphere, opens to the public in Anaheim, California.
  • In 1962, the European Space Research Organisation was established in Paris. It would later become the European Space Agency.
  • In 1966, the Vatican announced the abolition of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (“index of prohibited books”), which was originally instituted in 1557.
  • In 1967, Mariner 5 was launched towards Venus.
  • In 1968, model and actress Yasmine Bleeth was born.
  • In 1991, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was released.
  • In 2002, The Bourne Identity was released.

 

June 14th is World Blood Donor Day.

The event, established in 2004, serves to raise awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products and to thank blood donors for their voluntary, life-saving gifts of blood.

Transfusion of blood and blood products helps to save millions of lives every year, helping patients who suffer from life-threatening conditions live longer and with a higher quality of life, and supports complex medical and surgical procedures. It also has an essential, life-saving role in maternal and perinatal care. Access to safe and sufficient blood and blood products can help reduce rates of death and disability due to severe bleeding during delivery and after childbirth. In many countries, there is not an adequate supply of safe blood, and blood services face the challenge of making sufficient blood available, while also ensuring its quality and safety.

World Blood Donor Day is one of eight official global public health campaigns marked by the World Health Organization (WHO), along with World Health Day, World Tuberculosis Day, World Immunization Week, World Malaria Day, World No Tobacco Day, World Hepatitis Day, and World AIDS Day.

World Blood Donor Day is celebrated on June 14, on the birthday anniversary of Karl Landsteiner, the scientist who won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the ABO blood group system.

 

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 – June 13

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

June 13, 2020
Day 165 of 366

 

June 13th is the 165th day of the year. It is Inventors’ Day in Hungary.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Kitchen Klutzes of America Day, National Weed Your Garden Day, National Sewing Machine Day, and National Rosé Day (which is typically observed on the second Saturday in June).

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 313, the decisions of the Edict of Milan, signed by Constantine the Great and co-emperor Valerius Licinius, were published in Nicomedia. They granted religious freedom throughout the Roman Empire.
  • In 1525, Martin Luther married Katharina von Bora, standing against the celibacy rule decreed by the Roman Catholic Church for priests and nuns.
  • In 1774, Rhode Island became the first of Britain’s North American colonies to ban the importation of slaves.
  • In 1777, Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette, known simply as Lafayette in the United States, landed near Charleston, South Carolina, in order to help the Continental Congress to train its army.
  • In 1831, Scottish physicist and mathematician James Clerk Maxwell was born. His most notable achievement was the “second great unification in physics”, specifically to formulate the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, bringing together for the first time electricity, magnetism, and light as different manifestations of the same phenomenon.
  • In 1865, Irish poet, playwright, and Nobel Prize laureate William Butler Yeats was born.
  • In 1870, Belgian immunologist, microbiologist, and Nobel Prize laureate Jules Bordet was born.
  • In 1892, actor Basil Rathbone was born.
  • In 1893, United States President Grover Cleveland noticed a rough spot in his mouth. On July 1, he underwent a secret, successful surgery to remove a large, cancerous portion of his jaw. The public didn’t find out until 1917, nine years after the president’s death.
  • In 1911, physicist, academic, and Nobel Prize laureate Luis Walter Alvarez was born.
  • In 1928, mathematician, academic, and Nobel Prize laureate John Forbes Nash, Jr. was born.
  • In 1929, illustrator Ralph McQuarrie was born. A lot of the imagery in science fiction and fantasy came from his mind.
  • In 1943, actor and producer Malcolm McDowell was born.
  • In 1951, actor Stellan Skarsgård was born.
  • In 1962, actress and author Ally Sheedy was born.
  • In 1966, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Miranda v. Arizona that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them.
  • In 1967, United States President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Solicitor-General Thurgood Marshall to become the first black justice on the United States Supreme Court.
  • In 1971, The New York Times began publication of the Pentagon Papers.
  • In 1978, the film version of Grease premiered.
  • In 1981, actor, producer, and Captain America Chris Evans was born.
  • In 1983, Pioneer 10 became the first man-made object to leave the central Solar System when it passed beyond the orbit of Neptune.
  • In 1986, child actresses, fashion designers, and businesswomen twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen were born.
  • In 1994, a jury in Anchorage, Alaska, blamed recklessness by Exxon and Captain Joseph Hazelwood for the Exxon Valdez disaster, allowing victims of the oil spill to seek $15 billion in damages.

 

June 13th is National Random Acts of Light Day in the United States.

“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”
—Edith Wharton

National Random Acts of Light Day encourages people to bring light to the darkness of cancer by surprising someone with an act of kindness. After all, it takes just one gentle word or small token to help.

As part of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Light The Night Walks fundraising campaign, Random Acts of Light brings awareness to the importance of providing cures. The organization also provides access to treatments for blood cancer patients.

A simple visit. A walk in the park. A fresh bouquet of flowers. A cup of coffee. Surprise someone you love by bringing a little light to their day.

 

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.

 

 

Culture on My Mind – Quarantine Con, Episode VIII

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

Culture on My Mind
Quarantine Con, Episode VIII
June 12, 2020

This week’s “can’t let it go” is yet another panel from the Classic Track Irregulars!

Broadcasting from their respective socially distant quarantine bunkers, the Dragon Con American Sci-Fi Classics Track panelists have returned to talk about the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

But, not the Marvel Cinematic Universe that you know. Rather, the one that might have been.

Classics Track co-directors Joe Crowe and Gary Mitchel are joined by Van Allen Plexico and Darin Bush to talk about what would have happened if we got the MCU in the 1970s!

As before, Joe and Gary will be hosting more of these, so stay tuned to the YouTube channel and the group on Facebook. If you join in live, you can also leave comments and participate in the discussion using StreamYard connected through Facebook.
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Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.

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

The Thing About Today – June 12

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

June 12, 2020
Day 164 of 366

 

June 12th is the 164th day of the year. It is the World Day Against Child Labour, an International Labour Organization (ILO)-sanctioned holiday first launched in 2002 designed to raise awareness and activism to prevent child labor. The ILO is the United Nations body that regulates the world of work, and according to their data, hundreds of millions of girls and boys throughout the world are involved in work that deprives them of receiving an adequate education, health, leisure, and basic freedoms. Of these children, more than half are exposed to the worst forms of child labor, including work in hazardous environments, slavery, drug trafficking and prostitution, and involvement in armed conflict.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Red Rose Day, National Jerky Day, and National Peanut Butter Cookie Day.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1665, Thomas Willett was appointed the first mayor of New York City.
  • In 1817, the earliest form of bicycle, the dandy horse, was driven by Karl von Drais.
  • In 1827, Swiss author Johanna Spyri was born. Her best known work is Heidi.
  • In 1916, director and producer Irwin Allen was born.
  • In 1929, Anne Frank was born. She would famously chronicle her life in hiding from the soldiers of Nazi Germany. She died at the age of 15 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
  • In 1930, actor and singer Jim Nabors was born.
  • In 1935, a ceasefire was negotiated between Bolivia and Paraguay, thereby ending the Chaco War.
  • In 1939, filming began on Dr. Cyclops, a film by Paramount Pictures and the first horror film photographed in three-strip Technicolor.
  • In 1942, Anne Frank received a diary for her thirteenth birthday.
  • In 1948, comic book writer and editor Len Wein was born.
  • In 1958, actress Rebecca Holden was born.
  • In 1963, NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers was murdered in front of his home in Jackson, Mississippi by Ku Klux Klan member Byron De La Beckwith during the civil rights movement.
  • In 1967, You Only Live Twice premiered. It was the fifth James Bond film, and starred Sean Connery with a screenplay by Roald Dahl.
  • In 1981, Raiders of the Lost Ark premiered.
  • In 1987, at the Brandenburg Gate, United States President Ronald Reagan publicly challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.
  • In 1997, Queen Elizabeth II reopened the Globe Theatre in London.
  • In 2007, analog television stations (excluding low-powered stations) switched to digital television following the DTV Delay Act.

 

In 1967, the United States Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia declared that all U.S. state laws which prohibited interracial marriage were unconstitutional.

The case involved Mildred Loving, a woman of color, and her white husband Richard Loving. In 1958, they were sentenced to a year in prison for marrying each other. Their marriage violated Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which criminalized marriage between people classified as “white” and people classified as “colored”.

Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote in the court majority opinion that “the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual, and cannot be infringed by the State.” The anti-miscegenation laws violated the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The decision was followed by an increase in interracial marriages in the United States and is remembered annually on Loving Day.

 

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.