The Thing About Today – April 5

April 5, 2020April 2, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

April 5, 2020
Day 96 of 366

April 5th is the ninety-sixth day of the year. It is Sikmogil in South Korea. Also known as the Korean Arbor Day, Sikmogil was established to celebrate forestry and the development of national history. The day of April 5 was chosen for its historical significance, the day upon which Silla achieved the unification of the Three Kingdoms of Korea.

It is also known to fans of Star Trek as First Contact Day. The eighth film in the franchise, Star Trek: First Contact, established the date of first contact between the people of Earth and the Vulcans as April 5, 2063. Fans have celebrated the date since the film premiered in 1996.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Caramel Day, National Deep Dish Pizza Day, National Flash Drive Day, National Go For Broke Day, National Nebraska Day, National Raisin and Spice Bar Day, National Read a Road Map Day, and Geologists Day. The last one is typically observed on the first Sunday in April.

Historical items of note:

In 1722, Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen discovered Easter Island.
In 1792, United States President George Washington exercises his authority to veto a bill. This was the first time this power is used in the United States.
In 1856, educator, essayist, and historian Booker T. Washington was born.
In 1900, Archaeologists in Knossos, Crete, discover a large cache of clay tablets with hieroglyphic writing in a script they call Linear B.
In 1904, the first international rugby league match was played between England and an Other Nationalities team comprised of Welsh and Scottish players in Central Park, Wigan, England.
In 1908, actress Bette Davis was born.
In 1909, Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli was born. An American film producer, he co-founded Eon Productions, home of the James Bond franchise.
In 1916, actor, producer, and activist Gregory Peck was born.
In 1922, the American Birth Control League, the forerunner of Planned Parenthood, was incorporated.
In 1933, actor Frank Gorshin was born. He played the Riddler in the 1966 Batman television series.
In 1949, a fire at St. Anthony’s Hospital in Effingham, Illinois, killed 77 people. The tragedy led to nationwide fire code improvements in the United States.
Also in 1949, astronaut Judith Resnik was born.
In 1950, writer Ann C. Crispin was born.
In 1952, actor Mitch Pileggi was born.
In 1958, Ripple Rock was destroyed. The underwater mountain was a threat to navigation in the Seymour Narrows in Canada, and it was removed in one of the largest non-nuclear controlled explosions of the time.
In 1982, actress Hayley Atwell was born.
In 1994, Kurt Cobain of the band Nirvana committed suicide by shooting himself in the head at his home in Seattle. His body wasn’t discovered until three days later by an electrician who had arrived to install a security system.
In 1998, the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge opened to traffic in Japan, becoming the longest bridge span in the world.
In 2008, Apple’s iTunes overtook supermarket group Wal-Mart to become the largest music retailer in the United States.

April 5th is Gold Star Spouses Day.

Families of United States service members are able to fly and display service flags. These flags have a white field with a large red border, inside of which are a number of blue stars corresponding to the number of family members serving during a period of time. A gold star (with a blue edge) represents a family member who died during military operations, typically during engagements during and after World War I. The flags and their usage are codified by law in the United States Code.

The families who fly the flags are referred to as Blue Star and Gold Star Families. Therefore, the spouse of a fallen service member is referred to as a Gold Star Wife or Husband, and Gold Star Spouses Day is a day to commemorate their sacrifices.

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 – April 4

April 4, 2020April 1, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

April 4, 2020
Day 95 of 366

April 4th is the ninety-fifth day of the year. It is Independence Day in Senegal, commemorating their freedom from French rule.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Chicken Cordon Bleu Day, National Hug a Newsperson Day, Jeep 4×4 Day, National School Librarian Day, National Vitamin C Day, National Walk Around Things Day, National Love Our Children Day, and National Handmade Day. The last two are typically observed on the first Saturday in April.

Today is also National Education and Sharing Day, which is typically observed on the 11th of Nissan in the Israel Calendar and therefore shifts annually on the Gregorian calendar.

Historical items of note:

In 1147, Moscow was mentioned for the first time in the historical record when it was named as a meeting place for two princes.
In 1581, Sir Francis Drake was knighted for completing a circumnavigation of the world.
In 1818, The United States Congress, affirming the Second Continental Congress, adopted the flag of the United States with 13 red and white stripes and one star for each state. At that time, there were twenty states.
In 1850, Los Angeles was incorporated as a city.
In 1887, Argonia, Kansas elected Susanna M. Salter as the first female mayor in the United States.
In 1922, composer and conductor Elmer Bernstein was born.
In 1923, actor, director, producer and screenwriter Gene Reynolds was born.
In 1928, poet and memoirist Maya Angelou was born.
Also in 1928, singer-songwriter Monty Norman was born. He is best known for composing the James Bond theme.
In 1944, actor, director, and producer Craig T. Nelson was born.
In 1956, screenwriter and producer David E. Kelley was born.
In 1960, actor and producer Hugo Weaving was born.
In 1964, The Beatles occupied the top five positions on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart.
In 1965, actor, producer, and screenwriter Robert Downey Jr. was born.
In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by James Earl Ray at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
Also in 1968, NASA launched Apollo 6, the final uncrewed Apollo test mission.
In 1969, Dr. Denton Cooley implanted the first temporary artificial heart.
In 1973, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City were officially dedicated.
In 1975, Microsoft was founded as a partnership between Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
In 1979, actor Heath Ledger was born.
In 1983, the Space Shuttle Challenger made its maiden voyage into space on Mission STS-6.
In 2012, Tardar Sauce was born. The feline was better known as Grumpy Cat, a popular internet meme.

In 1841, William Henry Harrison died of pneumonia, becoming the first President of the United States to die in office.

Harrison was the last president born as a British subject in the Thirteen Colonies before the start of the Revolutionary War in 1775. He served in the military, participating in the 1794 Battle of Fallen Timbers, an American military victory that effectively ended the Northwest Indian War. Later, he led a military force against Tecumseh’s Confederacy at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, was promoted to major general in the War of 1812, and in led American infantry and cavalry at the Battle of the Thames in Upper Canada in 1813.

Harrison began his political career in 1798 when he was appointed Secretary of the Northwest Territory. In 1799, he was elected as the territory’s delegate in the House of Representatives. Two years later, President John Adams named him governor of the newly established Indiana Territory, in which he served until 1812. After the War of 1812, he moved to Ohio and was elected to represent the state’s 1st district in the House in 1816. In 1824, the state legislature elected him to the United States Senate, but his term was cut short by his appointment as Minister Plenipotentiary to Gran Colombia in May 1828.

He returned to private life in North Bend, Ohio until he was nominated as the Whig Party candidate for president in the 1836 election, during which he was defeated by Democratic vice president Martin Van Buren. He tried again four years later with John Tyler as his running mate, touting the campaign slogan “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too”. They defeated Van Buren, making Harrison the first Whig to win the presidency.

Harrison was the oldest person elected to the office, a record he held until President Ronald Reagan was inaugurated in 1981. Harrison served as the Ninth President of the United States for 31 days until he died of typhoid, pneumonia or paratyphoid fever, setting the record for the briefest administration in American history.

His death ignited a brief constitutional crisis regarding succession to the presidency because the Constitution was unclear as to whether the vice president should assume the office or merely execute the duties of the vacant office. John Tyler claimed a constitutional mandate to become the new president and took the oath of office, setting the precedent for an orderly transfer of power when the previous president fails to complete the elected term.

The first vice president to succeed to the presidency without election, John Tyler served longer than any president in U.S. history not elected to the office. He served the remainder of Harrison’s four-year term before being succeeded by James K. Polk in 1845.

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 – April 3

April 3, 2020April 1, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

April 3, 2020
Day 94 of 366

April 3rd is the ninety-fourth day of the year. It is World Party Day, a day of global celebration and joy. Under the circumstances, we should all party with our friends and families virtually, maybe over Skype or Zoom, or even through an online gaming platform. I wish you a bright celebration of life today.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Chocolate Mousse Day, National Film Score Day, National Find a Rainbow Day, and National Tweed Day.

Historical items of note:

In 1783, Washington Irving was born. He was the American short story writer, essayist, biographer, historian who wrote Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and encouraged other American authors such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Herman Melville and Edgar Allan Poe through his successes in Europe.
In 1860, the first successful United States Pony Express run from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, began.
In 1865, Union forces captured Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederate States of America. The American Civil War would end just over a month later.
In 1885, Gottlieb Daimler was granted a German patent for his engine design.
In 1888, the first of eleven unsolved brutal murders of women committed in or near the impoverished Whitechapel district in the East End of London occurred. These murders were attributed to the mysterious Jack the Ripper.
In 1895, the trial in the libel case brought by Oscar Wilde begins. The trial would eventually result in his imprisonment on charges of homosexuality.
In 1922, singer and actress Doris Day was born.
In 1926, astronaut Gus Grissom was born.
In 1934, English primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall was born.
In 1946, Japanese Lt. General Masaharu Homma was executed in the Philippines for leading the Bataan Death March.
In 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed the Marshall Plan, authorizing $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.
In 1955, the American Civil Liberties Union announced that it would defend Allen Ginsberg’s book Howl against obscenity charges. Howl denounced what Ginsberg saw as the destructive forces of capitalism and conformity in the United States, as well as reflecting his own sexual orientation while describing heterosexual and homosexual sex at a time when sodomy laws made homosexual acts a crime in every state.
In 1958, actor, comedian, and producer Alec Baldwin was born.
In 1959, actor and activist David Hyde Pierce was born.
In 1961, actor and comedian Eddie Murphy was born.
In 1969, actor Ben Mendelsohn was born.
In 1973, Martin Cooper of Motorola made the first handheld mobile phone call to Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs.
Also in 1973, actor Jamie Bamber was born.
In 1975, Bobby Fischer refused to play in a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, giving Karpov the title of World Champion by default.
In 1980, the United States Congress restored a federal trust relationship with the 501 members of the Shvwits, Kanosh, Koosharem, and the Indian Peaks and Cedar City bands of the Paiute people of Utah.
In 1982, actress Cobie Smulders was born.
In 1989, the United States Supreme Court upheld the jurisdictional rights of tribal courts under the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 in Mississippi Choctaw Band v. Holyfield.
In 1996, the “Unabomber”, Theodore Kaczynski, was captured at his Montana cabin. Between 1978 and 1995, he killed three people and injured 23 others in an attempt to start a revolution by conducting a nationwide bombing campaign targeting people involved with modern technology. In 1998, a plea bargain was reached under which he pleaded guilty to all charges and was sentenced to eight consecutive life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole.
In 2010, Apple Inc. released their first iPad tablet computer.

In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech in Memphis, Tennessee.

The speech primarily concerned the Memphis Sanitation Strike, calling for unity, economic actions, boycotts, and nonviolent protest, while challenging the United States to live up to its ideals. At the end of the speech, he discussed the possibility of an untimely death. He would be assassinated the very next day.

Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live – a long life; longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. So I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

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 – April 2

April 2, 2020April 1, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

April 2, 2020
Day 93 of 366

April 2nd is the ninety-third day of the year. It is World Autism Awareness Day, an official health-specific United Nations day designed to bring attention to autism, research about it, and acceptance of those affected by it.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Ferret Day, National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day, National Reconciliation Day, and National Burrito Day. That last one is typically observed on the first Thursday in April.

Historical items of note:

In 1513, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León first sighted land in what is now the United States state of Florida. Somehow, we later got a natural spring and a street named after him in Atlanta, Georgia.
In 1792, the Coinage Act was passed, thus establishing the United States Mint.
In 1800, Ludwig van Beethoven led the premiere of his First Symphony in Vienna.
In 1805, Danish novelist, short story writer, and poet Hans Christian Andersen was born.
In 1875, Walter Chrysler was born. He was the businessman who founded the Chrysler car company.
In 1900, the United States Congress passed the Foraker Act, which granted Puerto Rico limited self-rule.
In 1902, the “Electric Theatre” opened in Los Angeles, California. It was the first full-time movie theater in the United States.
In 1911, the Australian Bureau of Statistics conducted the country’s first national census.
In 1912, the RMS Titanic began sea trials.
In 1914, actor Alec Guinness was born. Among other great roles, he portrayed Obi-Wan Kenobi in the first three Star Wars films.
In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson asked the United States Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.
In 1920, Jack Webb was born. The actor, director, producer, and screenwriter was well-known for his role as Sgt. Joe Friday in Dragnet.
In 1939, singer-songwriter Marvin Gaye was born.
In 1947, singer-songwriter Emmylou Harris was born.
In 1956, As the World Turns and The Edge of Night premiered on CBS. The two soap operas became the first daytime dramas to debut in the 30-minute format.
In 1962, actor Clark Gregg was born.
In 1968, 2001: A Space Odyssey premiered at the Uptown Theater in Washington, D.C.
In 1972, actor Charlie Chaplin returned to the United States for the first time since being labeled a communist during the Red Scare in the early 1950s.
In 1973, the LexisNexis computerized legal research service was launched.
In 1977, actor Michael Fassbender was born.
In 1991, Rita Johnston became the first female Premier of a Canadian province. She succeeded William Vander Zalm after his resignation as Premier of British Columbia.

Fitting for the day after April Fools’ Day: In 1941, radio host and satirist Dr. Demento was born.

Barry Hansen gained his Demento persona in 1970 while working at Los Angeles station KPPC-FM. He played “Transfusion” by Nervous Norvus on the radio, and station DJ “The Obscene” Steven Clean said that Hansen had to be “demented” to play it.

The name stuck.

His weekly show went into syndication in 1974 and was syndicated by the Westwood One Radio Network from 1978 to 1992, and continued in various markets until June 6, 2010. It has since entered the online market and continues weekly production.

The son of an amateur pianist, he started his vast record collection at age 12, a collection that now exceeds 85,000 units. He worked as Program Director and General Manager of KRRC radio in college, eventually earning a master’s degree in folklore and ethnomusicology.

Known for his love of novelty and parody music, he is credited with introducing new generations of listeners to artists such as Harry McClintock, Spike Jones, Benny Bell, Yogi Yorgesson, Stan Freberg, and Tom Lehrer. He also brought “Weird Al” Yankovic to national attention. In 1976, the good doctor spoke at Yankovic’s school, and Yankovic gave a self-recorded tape of comedy songs and parodies to him. The first song, “Belvedere Cruisin'”, about the family station wagon, was featured on the show. Positive listener response encouraged Yankovic to keep recording, leading Dr. Demento to fund Yankovic’s first EP, Another One Rides the Bus. Events led to a record deal and pop chart success in the 1980s and beyond, and Demento has appeared in a number of Weird Al’s music videos and his movie UHF as a result.

Dr. Demento has been inducted into both the Comedy Music Hall of Fame and the National Radio Hall of Fame.

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 – April 1

April 1, 2020March 31, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

April 1, 2020
Day 92 of 366

April 1st is the ninety-second day of the year. It is traditionally observed as April Fools’ Day, but we don’t do that here.

It is Edible Book Day, an annual international event where “edible books” are created, displayed, photographed, and then consumed.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National One Cent Day, National Sourdough Bread Day, Childhelp National Day of Hope, and National Walking Day. The last two are typically observed on the first Wednesday in April.

Historical items of note:

In 33 AD, according to one historian’s account, Jesus Christ’s Last Supper was held.
In 1789, the United States House of Representatives achieved its first quorum at Federal Hall in New York City. Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania was elected as the first Speaker.
In 1826, Samuel Morey received a patent for a compressionless “Gas or Vapor Engine”.
In 1873, the White Star Line steamer RMS Atlantic sank off Nova Scotia. 547 deaths were reported in one of the worst marine disasters of the 19th century.
In 1883, actor, director, and screenwriter Lon Chaney was born.
In 1891, the Wrigley Company was founded in Chicago, Illinois.
In 1893, the rank of Chief Petty Officer in the United States Navy was established. It is still uncertain how soon after this point that they started carrying coffee cups everywhere and refusing to wash them.
In 1917, Sydney Newman was born. He was a Canadian screenwriter and producer, and he was the co-creator of Doctor Who.
In 1918, the Royal Air Force was created by the merger of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service.
In 1920, actor and writer Toshiro Mifune was born.
In 1924, the Royal Canadian Air Force was formed.
In 1926, writer Anne McCaffrey was born.
In 1930, actress and singer Grace Lee Whitney was born. She portrayed Janice Rand on Star Trek.
In 1932, actress and singer Debbie Reynolds was born.
In 1937, the Royal New Zealand Air Force was formed as an independent service.
In 1947, the only mutiny in the history of the Royal New Zealand Navy began.
In 1952, actress Annette O’Toole was born. She was Lana Lang in Superman III and Martha Kent in Smallville.
In 1954, United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorized the creation of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado.
In 1960, the TIROS-1 satellite transmitted the first television picture from space.
In 1969, the Hawker Siddeley Harrier entered service with the Royal Air Force. It was the first operational fighter aircraft with Vertical/Short Takeoff and Landing capabilities.
In 1970, President Richard Nixon signed the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law, requiring the Surgeon General’s warnings on tobacco products and banning cigarette advertising on television and radio in the United States. It went into effect on January 1, 1971.
In 1976, Apple Inc. was formed by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne in Cupertino, California.
Also in 1976, actor David Oyelowo was born.
In 1979, Iran became an Islamic republic by a 99% vote, officially overthrowing the Shah.
In 1983, actor Matt Lanter was born.
In 2001, same-sex marriage became legal in the Netherlands, which became the first contemporary country to allow it.
In 2004, Google announced Gmail to the world.

April 1st is well-known as April Fools’ Day, a day of practical jokes, tomfoolery, and (in general) not believing a thing you read on the internet.

Origins of the holiday are disputed and various. One such origin is in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales from 1392. In the “Nun’s Priest’s Tale”, a vain cock Chauntecleer is tricked by a fox on Syn March bigan thritty dayes and two. While some readers apparently interpreted this as the 32nd of March, or rather April 1st, the text of the “Nun’s Priest’s Tale” also states that the story takes place on the day when the sun is in the signe of Taurus had y-runne Twenty degrees and one, which does not align with April 1st. Modern scholars attribute this to a copying error in the manuscripts over time, believing that Chaucer actually wrote, Syn March was gon. That would point to a date 32 days after March, which would be May 2nd. That’s also the anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia, which took place in 1381.

In 1508, French poet Eloy d’Amerval referred to a poisson d’avril (an April fool, literally “fish of April”), which is possibly the first reference to the celebration in France. Similarly, in 1561, Flemish poet Eduard de Dene wrote of a nobleman who sent his servants on foolish errands on April 1st.

There are also suggestions that April Fools’ originated due to calendar changes. In the Middle Ages, New Year’s Day was celebrated on March 25 in most European towns, with a holiday that in some areas of France ended on April 1. Those who celebrated New Year’s Eve on January 1 made fun of those who celebrated on other dates by the invention of April Fools’ Day. Observance of January 1st as New Year’s Day became common in France only in the mid-16th century, and the date was not adopted officially until 1564 by the Edict of Roussillon.

In the Netherlands, the origin of April Fools’ Day is often attributed to the Dutch victory in 1572 at Brielle, where the Spanish Duke Álvarez de Toledo was defeated. The Dutch proverb Op 1 april verloor Alva zijn bril can be translated as: “On the first of April, Alva lost his glasses.” In this case, “bril” (which is “glasses” in Dutch) serves as a homonym for Brielle. But, this theory provides no explanation for the international celebration of April Fools’ Day.

Finally, in 1686, John Aubrey referred to the celebration as “Fooles holy day”, which marks the first British reference. On April 1, 1698, several people were tricked into going to the Tower of London to “see the Lions washed”.

Following with these potential origin stories across Europe, it’s understandable why the tradition is held so strongly in the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Belgium, Ireland, Poland, the Nordic regions, Ukraine, Lebanon, most of the Spanish-speaking world, and Canada.

In the internet age, practical jokes have taken on a whole new dimension. The Nordic countries traditionally publish one false news story, typically on the front page but not above the fold, as an annual gag, but the internet expands the reach to the entire world. While some pranks are harmless – ThinkGeek, for example, generates advertisements for absurd collectibles that can actually become real if enough customers vote for them – others carry the joke too far by generating false news stories that gullible people defend as real. Which can be dangerous in an era of fraudulent news stories, identity theft, and cyberwarfare.

The internet age has taken April Fools’ Day to a new level, challenging us all to define the difference between innovative creativity and manipulative deception.

I have made it a point in my creative channels to either not participate or to make the joke blatantly obvious to the most casual observer. I like a good laugh as much as the next person, but not at the expense of deceiving people in the long run. There’s enough of that in the world as it is.

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 31

March 31, 2020March 30, 2020 Michael Falkner1 Comment

March 31, 2020
Day 91 of 366

March 31st is the ninety-first day of the year. It is the International Transgender Day of Visibility, an annual event celebrating transgender people and raising awareness of discrimination against them worldwide.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Bunsen Burner Day, National Clams on the Half Shell Day, National Crayon Day, National Prom Day, National Tater Day, and National Equal Pay Day. The last one is observed on a Tuesday in March or April and changes annually.

Historical items of note:

In 1492, Queen Isabella of Castile issued the Alhambra Decree. Also known as the Edict of Expulsion, it ordered her 150,000 Jewish and Muslim subjects to either convert to Christianity or face expulsion from her lands.
In 1596, René Descartes was born. A French mathematician and philosopher, he was the one who thought and therefore was.
In 1685, German composer Johann Sebastian Bach.
In 1889, the Eiffel Tower was officially opened.
In 1917, the United States took possession of the Danish West Indies after paying $25 million to Denmark. They renamed the territory as the United States Virgin Islands.
In 1918, Daylight saving time went into effect in the United States for the first time.
In 1927, actor William Daniels was born. He was Mr. Sweeny in Boy Meets World and the voice of KITT in Knight Rider and its spinoff TV movie.
In 1930, the Motion Picture Production Code was instituted in the United States. It imposed strict guidelines on the treatment of sex, crime, religion, and violence in film for the next thirty-eight years.
In 1939, The Hound of the Baskervilles was released. It was the first of fourteen films starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson.
In… 19… 43… Christopher Walken… was… born.
In 1945, a defecting German pilot delivered a Messerschmitt Me 262A-1, the world’s first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft, to the Americans. It was the first to fall into Allied hands.
In 1948, actress Rhea Perlman was born.
In 1966, the Soviet Union launched Luna 10. It later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon.
In 1971, actor Ewan McGregor was born. He portrayed Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel films.
In 1985, the first WrestleMania takes place in Madison Square Garden in New York City. It was the biggest wrestling event from the WWE (then called the WWF).

In 1992, USS Missouri, the last active United States Navy battleship, was decommissioned in Long Beach, California.

USS Missouri (BB-63) was an Iowa-class battleship. Nicknamed the “Mighty Mo” or the “Big Mo”, she was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named after the State of Missouri and was the last battleship commissioned by the United States.

Missouri was ordered in 1940 and commissioned in June 1944. In the Pacific Theater of World War II, she fought in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and shelled the Japanese home islands. She fought in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953 and was decommissioned in 1955 into the United States Navy reserve fleets. She was reactivated and modernized in 1984 as part of the 600-ship Navy plan, eventually providing fire support during Operation Desert Storm in January and February 1991.

Missouri received a total of eleven battle stars for service in World War II, Korea, and the Persian Gulf, and was finally decommissioned on March 31, 1992, after serving a total of seventeen years of active service. She was finally struck from the Naval Vessel Register until her name was struck in January 1995.

In 1998, she was donated to the USS Missouri Memorial Association and became a museum ship at Pearl Harbor. She is best remembered as the site of the surrender of the Empire of Japan, which ended World War II.

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 30

March 30, 2020March 27, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

March 30, 2020
Day 90 of 366

March 30th is the ninetieth day of the year. It is National Doctors’ Day in the United States, and given current events, I think it’s appropriate to celebrate doctors and medical professionals worldwide. Reach out to the medical professionals in your life today and thank them for their tireless service on the front lines of this pandemic.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Take a Walk in the Park Day, National I Am in Control Day, National Pencil Day, National Turkey Neck Soup Day, and National Virtual Vacation Day.

Historical items of note:

In 1811, German chemist Robert Bunsen was born. He investigated emission spectra of heated elements, discovered caesium in 1860 and rubidium in 1861, and developed an improvement on laboratory burners (later called the Bunsen burner).
In 1818, physicist Augustin Fresnel read a memoir on optical rotation to the French Academy of Sciences. It seems that, when polarized light is “depolarized” by a Fresnel rhomb, its properties are preserved in any subsequent passage through an optically-rotating crystal or liquid.
In 1822, the Florida Territory was created in the United States.
In 1841, the National Bank of Greece was founded in Athens.
In 1842, ether anesthesia was used for the first time. This occurred in an operation by the American surgeon Dr. Crawford Long.
In 1853, Vincent van Gogh was born.
In 1861, Sir William Crookes announced his discovery of thallium.
In 1867, Alaska was purchased from Russia for $7.2 million, roughly two cents per acre, by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward. The Alaska Purchase was derided by critics as Seward’s Folly and Seward’s Icebox. It seems to have worked out well.
In 1937, actor Warren Beatty was born.
In 1939, actor John Astin was born. I remember him best as Gomez Addams in The Addams Family and The Riddler in the second season of Batman.
Also in 1939, the Heinkel He 100 fighter set a world airspeed record of 463 miles per hour.
In 1950, actor Robbie Coltrane was born.
In 1958, voice actor Maurice LaMarche was born.
In 2017, SpaceX conducted the world’s first re-flight of an orbital class rocket.

In 1981, President Ronald Reagan was shot in the chest outside Washington Hilton Hotel by John Hinckley, Jr.

President Reagan was seriously wounded by a ricocheting .22 caliber bullet that bounced off the presidential limousine and hit him in the left underarm. It broke a rib and punctured a lung, resulting in serious internal bleeding. Reagan was taken to George Washington University Hospital for surgery, ad he recovered and was released about ten days later.

Besides Reagan, White House Press Secretary James Brady, Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy, and police officer Thomas Delahanty were also wounded. They all survived, but Brady suffered brain damage and was permanently disabled. When Brady died in 2014, it was classified as a homicide since it resulted from this injury.

Hinckley’s motivation for the attack was to impress actress Jodie Foster after he developed an obsession with her after watching one of her films. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity on charges of attempting to assassinate the president, and he remained confined to a psychiatric facility until September of 2016. He was not charged with James Brady’s death.

The assassination attempt had long-reaching effects, including a trivial change to The Greatest American Hero, which premiered that same year. The lead character, Ralph Hinkley, underwent a name change to Ralph Hanley for a few months to avoid any confusion with the failed assassin.

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 29

March 29, 2020March 27, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

March 29, 2020
Day 89 of 366

March 29th is the eighty-ninth day of the year. It is National Vietnam War Veterans Day in the United States.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Lemon Chiffon Cake Day, National Mom and Pop Business Owners Day, and National Nevada Day.

Historical items of note:

In 1806, construction was authorized of the Great National Pike, better known as the Cumberland Road and the National Road, which became the first United States federal highway. Built between 1811 and 1837, the 620-mile road connected the Potomac and Ohio Rivers – Cumberland, Maryland to Vandalia, Ilinois – and was a main transport path to the West for thousands of settlers.
In 1871, the Royal Albert Hall was opened by Queen Victoria.
In 1886, John Pemberton brewed the first batch of Coca-Cola in a backyard in Atlanta.
In 1943, Greek keyboard player and songwriter Vangelis was born.
In 1945, Jimmy Stewart was promoted to full colonel, making him one of the few Americans to rise from private to colonel in four years.
In 1955, actor Brendan Gleeson was born.
Also in 1955, actress Marina Sirtis was born.
In 1957, actor Christopher Lambert was born.
In 1961, the Twenty-Third Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, thus allowing residents of Washington, D.C., to vote in presidential elections.
In 1968, actress Lucy Lawless was born.
In 1973, the last United States combat soldiers left South Vietnam.
In 1974, NASA’s Mariner 10 became the first space probe to fly by Mercury.
Also in 1974, the Terracotta Army was discovered in Shaanxi province, China.
In 1999, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above the 10,000 mark at 10,006.78. This was the first time for the DJIA, happening during the height of the dot-com bubble.
In 2014, the first same-sex marriages in England and Wales were performed.

In 1951, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union.

The couple were accused of providing top-secret information about radar and sonar systems, jet propulsion engines, and valuable nuclear weapon designs. At the time, the United States was the only country in the world with nuclear weapons, making the underlying technology a valuable commodity.

Other convicted co-conspirators were sentenced to prison, including Ethel’s brother, David Greenglass (who had made a plea agreement), Harry Gold, and Morton Sobell. Klaus Fuchs, a German scientist working in Los Alamos, was convicted in the United Kingdom.

The Rosenbergs’ sons, Michael and Robert Meeropol and many other defenders maintained that Julius and Ethel were innocent of their crimes, victims of rampant Cold War paranoia. This idea was shattered after the fall of the Soviet Union when information concerning them was declassified. This included a trove of decoded Soviet cables, codenamed VENONA, which detailed Julius’s role as a courier and recruiter for the Soviets and Ethel’s role as an accessory.

In 2008 the National Archives of the United States published most of the grand jury testimony related to the prosecution. It revealed that Ethel had not been directly involved in activities, contrary to the charges levied by the government.

Convicted of espionage in 1951, the couple was executed by the federal government of the United States in 1953 at the Sing Sing correctional facility in Ossining, New York.

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 28

March 28, 2020March 25, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

March 28, 2020
Day 88 of 366

March 28th is the eighty-eighth day of the year. It is Serfs Emancipation Day in Tibet.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Black Forest Cake Day, National Something on a Stick Day, National Triglycerides Day, and National Weed Appreciation Day.

Historical items of note:

In 1776, Juan Bautista de Anza found the site for the Presidio of San Francisco.
In 1802, Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers discovered 2 Pallas, the second asteroid ever to be found.
In 1910, Henri Fabre became the first person to fly a seaplane, the Fabre Hydravion, after taking off from a water runway near Martigues, France.
In 1948, actress Dianne Wiest was born.
In 1955, singer-songwriter and producer Reba McEntire was born.
In 1960, actor Chris Barrie was born.
In 1979, a coolant leak at Three Mile Island’s Unit 2 nuclear reactor outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania led to the core overheating and a partial meltdown.
In 1981, actress Julia Stiles was born.
Also in 1981, actor Gareth-David Lloyd was born.

In 1842, Otto Nicolai conducted the first concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Until the 1830s, orchestral performances in Vienna was on an ad hoc basis. In 1833, Franz Lachner formed the forerunner of the Vienna Philharmonic, an orchestra called the Künstlerverein. That orchestra consisted of professional musicians from the Vienna Court Opera, which is now the Vienna State Opera. They performed four concerts, each including a Beethoven symphony.

The Vienna Philharmonic itself came to be nine years later, developed by a group that regularly met at a local inn, including the poet Nikolaus Lenau, newspaper editor August Schmidt, critic Alfred Becker, violinist Karlz Holz, Count Laurecin, and composer Otto Nicolai.

The Vienna Philharmonic is now considered to be one of the finest in the world, selecting its members from the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera. The selection process is lengthy, with each musician demonstrating his or her capability for a minimum of three years’ performance for the opera and ballet. After the probationary period, the candidate musician may request an application for a position in the orchestra from the Vienna Philharmonic’s board.

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 27

March 27, 2020March 25, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

March 27, 2020
Day 87 of 366

March 27th is the eighty-seventh day of the year.

First, it is International Whisk(e)y Day, a day to recognize Scottish, Canadian, and Japanese whiskies (no e) as well as Irish and American whiskeys (with an e), as well as supporting Parkinson’s Disease research. This celebration is not to be confused with World Whisky Day (in May) or National Bourbon Day (in June).

Second, it is World Theatre Day, an observance that was started in 1961 by the International Theatre Institute to recognize the international theatre community.

Third, it is International Medical Science Liaison Day, a day to honor the scientific experts who help to ensure that drugs and/or products they support are utilized effectively by physicians, and serve as scientific peers and resources within the medical community.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Joe Day, National Scribble Day, and National Spanish Paella Day.

Historical items of note:

In 1863, Henry Royce was born. An English engineer and businessman, he founded Rolls-Royce Limited.
In 1886, Apache warrior Geronimo surrendered to the United States Army, ending the main phase of the Apache Wars.
In 1915, Mary Mallon was put into quarantine for the second time. Known as Typhoid Mary, she was the first healthy carrier of disease ever identified in the United States. Since she was asymptomatic, she continued to work as a cook, exposed others to the disease, and caused multiple large outbreaks. She would remain forcibly quarantined for the rest of her life.
In 1935, actor Julian Glover was born.
In 1942, actor Michael York was born.
In 1952, Singin’ in the Rain premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
In 1967, actress Talisa Soto was born.
In 1970, actress Elizabeth Mitchell was born.
In 1971, actor Nathan Fillion was born.
In 1998, the Food and Drug Administration approved Viagra for use as a treatment for male impotence. It was the first pill to be approved for this condition in the United States.
In 2004, HMS Scylla, a decommissioned Leander-class frigate, was sunk as an artificial reef off Cornwall. This was the first event of its kind in Europe.

In 1794, the United States Government established a permanent navy and authorized the building of six frigates: Chesapeake, Constitution, President, United States, Congress, and Constellation.

Before this point, the naval forces were under the Continental Navy, which was established on October 13, 1775. Of the original six frigates, only the USS Constitution – “Old Ironsides”, the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world – remains, berthed in Charlestown Navy Yard, Boston, Massachusetts as a free-to-tour educational museum.

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.

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