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Post by pegasus on Nov 6, 2011 9:20:19 GMT -7
MEET THE PRESS DAY
profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc4/276513_103708747870_996484192_n.jpg [/img]Meet the longest-running series on network television: Meet the Press. The NBC public affairs program had its start back in 1945 when Martha Rountree and Lawrence Spivak created it as a radio promotion for the American Mercury Magazine. Two years later, originating from NBC’s Washington, D.C. studios, Meet the Press came to network TV. It was on this day in 1947 that the program was first seen in the local Washington, D.C. market. Two weeks later, two stations on the network were added to the Thursday night show. Martha Rountree served as the original moderator until 1953; then NBC newscaster Ned Brooks took over. Regular panelist Spivak served as moderator for ten years beginning in 1965. From 1975 to 1984, Bill Monroe, also a regular panelist, took over the moderator seat. He was replaced by Marvin Kalb, then Chris Wallace in 1987 and Garrick Utley in 1988. Tim Russert was moderator from late 1991 until his death in June 2008. Tom Brokaw filled in as interim moderator from June through the 2008 presidential election. And longtime NBC anchor David Gregory took over as moderator in early 2009. Although Meet the Press has changed time slots many times, including moving to Sunday afternoons in 1965, it has always maintained the same format. Simply stated, the moderator hosts a panel of reporters as they question a leading public figure. Virtually every major political figure in the United States plus many foreign dignitaries have faced the journalists’ incisive questions. On the show’s 28th anniversary, U.S. President Gerald Ford faced the panel. It was the first time an incumbent president had agreed to Meet the Press. [/size][/color][/font]
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Post by pegasus on Nov 7, 2011 10:08:17 GMT -7
ELEPHANT DAY
The mighty elephant, trumpeter of the jungle and circus entertainer -- lumbering, powerful fieldworker and mode of transportation -- became a symbol of the Republican Party on Nov 7th in 1874. Now we know that the elephant is the mascot of the Crimson Tide, the football team of the University of Alabama; a symbolism that has never been satisfactorily explained (too many versions). But how was it that an animal who uses its nose to feed and wash itself and can form a circle with others of its kind by attaching trunks to tails, became a symbol of the Grand Old Party (G.O.P.), a political party of the United States?
Thomas Nast, a political cartoonist for Harper’s Weekly, created a satirical drawing of an elephant about to fall into a giant hole. The elephant represented the Republican party and was used in reference to Ulysses S. Grant’s possible bid for a 3rd term. Grant was a Republican. The symbol stuck and has been used ever since to represent the G.O.P. both in political cartoons and by the party itself.
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Post by pegasus on Nov 8, 2011 9:19:17 GMT -7
X-RAY DAY
Superman could see through walls with his X-ray vision; and so could Ray Milland in his title role, X: The Man with X-Ray Eyes. He played an unstable scientist.
Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, a scientist, but hardly unstable, took the first X-ray pictures on Nov. 8th in 1895. It wasn’t his eyes he was using, but his brain. He had been experimenting with electricity but failed to turn off the machine. The device he was working with overheated and emitted rays. After a number of hours of head-scratching, writing equations and much hypothesis, Roentgen came upon the scientific principle that would allow him to take X-ray pictures. Other X-rays had been observed before this; but Roentgen was the only one to have performed repeated experiments -- proving that his machine worked.
Roentgen may have been a clever scientist; but he had no business savvy. He never patented his X-ray machine and never received any money for it.
Tell that to your dentist or doctor when you get the bill for your X-rays.
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Post by pegasus on Nov 9, 2011 9:06:33 GMT -7
INSTANT SUCCESS DAY
On Nov. 9th in 1938, 24-year-old Mary Martin made her Broadway stage debut in the musical comedy Leave It to Me. She brought down the house as she sang "My Heart Belongs to Daddy". And the critics raved about New York’s bright new star.
The following year brought Martin a top-ten hit with the same song. Martin suddenly found herself singing duets with Bing Crosby; starring on Broadway in One Touch of Venus in 1943; Lute Song in 1946; touring in Annie Get Your Gun; and then taking on what would become her immortal role, that of Nellie in South Pacific. South Pacific was one of Broadway’s biggest hits and the cast album was one of the first of its kind -- also a big seller. Then came Mary’s stage and TV performances as Peter Pan. This would become her signature role -- a memorable moment as the petite actress flew through the air with Tinkerbell and fought the dangerous Captain Hook.
Broadway called to Mary Martin again in 1959 for The Sound of Music and once more in 1966 for I Do, I Do.
Back in 1951, Mary Martin recorded a duet with a young man who was also destined for instant and long-term stardom. The song they sang together was "Get Out Those Old Records". The twenty-year-old was her son, Larry Hagman. Maybe you know him as J.R. Ewing. This is one man that Mary Martin didn’t want to wash out of her hair!
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Post by pegasus on Nov 10, 2011 21:45:56 GMT -7
"DR. LIVINGSTONE, I PRESUME" DAY
On Nov 10th in 1871, Henry Stanley found the missing Scotsman, Dr. David Livingstone. Livingstone, an explorer and missionary, had been missing for two years. No white man had seen him in six years.
Through a promotion sponsored by The New York Herald, Stanley and several companions set out looking for Livingstone some eight months earlier. (Stanley’s fellow explorers died before this day.) Stanley’s search for Dr. Livingstone ended at Ujiji, Africa.
He greeted the doctor, not with, “Are you all right?” or “I’m so glad I found you,” but with these famous words: “Dr. Livingstone, I presume.”
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Post by pegasus on Nov 12, 2011 18:49:08 GMT -7
LEOTARD DAY
Whether you’re doing steps, low-impact aerobics or a plié, where would you be without the latest design in leotards? The original leotard design was a skintight, one-piece garment with the lower portion resembling tights. On Nov. 12th in 1859, the designer of the leotard, Jules Leotard, made his first public appearance as the world’s first flying trapeze artist, becoming the first to turn a somersault in mid-air and the first to jump from one trapeze to the next.
Just 21 years old, Jules had been practicing since he was a little boy. He would swing from a trapeze hanging over the swimming pool in his father’s gymnasium. The years of practice paid off ... first as the daring young man on the flying trapeze ... and second as the designer of the leotard, still worn by acrobats, dancers and exercise enthusiasts throughout the world.
OH - he floats through the air with the greatest of ease The daring young man on the flying trapeze His actions are graceful all girls he does please And my love he has stolen away.
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Post by pegasus on Nov 13, 2011 10:42:27 GMT -7
THE SHEIK DAY
That great romancer of the silver screen, Rudolph Valentino, starred in The Sheik, which was released on nOV. 12th in 1921. The Sheik firmly established Valentino’s popular reputation as the Great Lover, and his last film, the comical Son of the Sheik (1926), sealed that title. But the actor never thought of himself as a conqueror of women -- nor as a great actor. He found the Sheik films rather silly. Rudy’s wife, Natacha Rambova responded to her husband’s screen image: “My husband is a great lover of home life.” However, the publication of Valentino’s volume of poetry, Day Dreams (1923), further fueled the public’s imagination and drove fans into bookstores with a vengeance.
Rudolph Valentino had plans to make more serious films beginning with an ambitious version of El Cid, to be called The Hooded Falcon. In town for the premiere of Son of the Sheik, he collapsed in New York City on August 15, 1926. Valentino died eight days later from peritonitis -- before he could begin to work on films that would make the public forget his sheikly shenanigans.
So the grandiose romantic persona persists, and we remember Rudolph Valentino as the Great Lover, The Sheik.
Remember, too, these great films from Valentino:
The Conquering Power (1921), The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921), Beyond the Rocks (1922), Blood and Sand (1922), The Young Rajah (1922), Monsieur Beaucaire (1924), A Sainted Devil (1924), The Eagle (1925), Cobra (1925) and The Son of the Sheik (1926).
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Post by pegasus on Nov 14, 2011 9:53:17 GMT -7
MOBY DICK DAY
“Call me Ishmael. Some years ago -- never mind how long precisely -- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world...” Thus begins Herman Melville’s book Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, which was first published in New York City by Harpoon & Brothers on Nov. 14th in 1851. (Sorry. We meant Harper & Brothers.)
The complex, but rousing sea story tells the tale of a sea captain’s search for Moby Dick, the great white whale that had once crippled him.
The story is told by sailor-narrator Ishmael. Through the pages of Moby Dick, we meet Ishmael’s bunkmate Queequeg, a whale harpooner from Polynesia; learn everything there is to know about whaling in the 19th century; and, of course, about Captain Ahab and his obsession with Moby Dick.
Melville dedicated his novel to author Nathaniel Hawthorne. Director and writer John Huston adapted the high seas saga to the big screen in 1956 so all the world could see Moby Dick as big as life.
Herman Melville died at home, of a heart attack, shortly after midnight on September 28, 1891, at the age of 72. At the time, he had been almost totally forgotten by all but a small group of admirers in the United Kingdom and the United States.
(Other whale sightings on the WWW.)
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Post by pegasus on Nov 15, 2011 8:26:21 GMT -7
PIKES PEAK OR BUST DAY
On Nov. 15th in 1806, Lt. Zebulon Montgomery Pike sighted a mountain peak that now bears his name. What? All right, who’s the genius out there who said, “Zebulon Peak?” Those in the know, of course, realize that we speak of Pikes Peak.
The massive, towering (elevation 14,110 feet) behemoth had been called “The Long One” by Ute Indians. Its name was changed to honor the young army lieutenant. Zebulon Pike was leading a survey party into the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase when he spotted the snowcapped peak in the distance.
“Pikes Peak or Bust!” was the familiar slogan of many a wagon train settler traveling west in the 1800s. Visitors to the Pikes Peak region (near Colorado Springs) continue to be captivated, inspired, and enthralled by Colorado’s most famous mountain.
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Post by pegasus on Nov 16, 2011 7:25:42 GMT -7
SIXTEEN TONS DAY
‘Tennessee’ Ernie Ford drove to the top spot on the record charts on Nov. 16th in 1955. "Sixteen Tons," where he owed his “soul to the company store,” became the fastest-selling record in history, jumping to #1 in just 3 weeks. The tune, on Capitol Records, stayed at #1 for eight weeks. Ernie (bless his little pea-pickin’ heart) Ford is known for other classics, including: "Mule Train" (1949), "The Shotgun Boogie" (1950), "The Cry of the Wild Goose" (1950), "I’ll Never Be Free" (w/Kay Starr - 1950), "Mr. and Mississippi "(1951) and "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" (1955).
Ford was also famous for his religious albums, his NBC-TV show (1956-1961), and his many other television appearances. He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1960.
But, we remember him most fondly for that 1955 smash about work, work, work: “You load sixteen tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt...St. Peter, don't you call me, 'cause I can't go----I owe my soul to the company store.”
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Post by pegasus on Nov 17, 2011 11:38:00 GMT -7
SUEZ CANAL DAY
Over the years, a lot of squabbling has gone on over a 100-mile (160 kilometers) ditch called the Suez Canal. Formally opened on nOV. 17th in 1869, the canal connects the Mediterranean and Red Seas, eliminating a 4000-mile trip around Africa.
The canal first belonged to France, then to Great Britain and now Egypt. Because of the single direction of the wind in the Suez area and the narrowness of the canal, sailing ships had a hard time navigating and were eventually taken out of service in the British fleets - never to return. They were replaced by steamships. The building of the Suez Canal not only eliminated the African route, it eliminated a whole nautical tradition of sailing that had been a part of society for nearly 4,800 years.
The Suez Canal has played a major wartime role. It was blockaded (by Britain) in World War I to keep enemy ships from using the waterway. Axis ships were denied use of the canal in World War II; then in 1950, because of the Arab-Israeli war, Egypt banned Israeli ships from the canal. During the Arab-Israeli war in 1967, it was blocked once again, this time by sunken ships; and didn’t reopen until 1975.
Since 1956, when Egypt seized control and claimed the sovereign right to govern its use, the Suez canal has been a national treasure to the Egyptian people -- earning the country millions of dollars daily.
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Post by pegasus on Nov 19, 2011 9:40:09 GMT -7
GETTYSBURG ADDRESS DAY
President Abraham Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address on Nov. 19th in 1863. The speech was considered so insignificant at the time that coverage was limited to the inside pages of the newspapers (page one coverage went to a speech by Edward Everett). In July of 1863, the fields outside Gettysburg, Pennsylvania erupted into one of the bloodiest battles in the Civil War between the states. The Union forces held their positions against Confederate advances. The Confederates, under Robert E. Lee, retreated to Virginia, ending their attempt to invade the North. The battle was the turning point of the war; the Confederates were never again able to mount a campaign into the North and were on the run.
Pres. Lincoln traveled to the site of the battle to designate it as a national cemetery. While on the train, he wrote his speech on a small piece of paper. Three minutes after he had begun to speak, Lincoln had finished what is now considered to be one of the greatest speeches in American history:
“Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation: conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war - testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated - can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war.
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that this nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate - we cannot consecrate - we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people - by the people - for the people - shall not perish from this earth.”
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Post by pegasus on Nov 20, 2011 10:30:27 GMT -7
HUBBLE DAY
Edwin Powell Hubble was born in Marshfield, Missouri on Nov. 20th in l889. We’re talking about the Rhodes Scholar Hubble who studied Roman and English Law at Queens College, Oxford and then practiced law for a year in Louisville, Kentucky. This is the same Hubble who said, “... chucked the law for astronomy, and I knew that even if I were second-rate or third-rate, it was astronomy that mattered...” and then returned to his undergraduate alma mater, the University of Chicago, for postgraduate work leading to his doctoral degree in astronomy.
Hubble worked at the Mount Wilson (California) Observatory where he proved the need for a telescope larger than the 100-inch reflector they were using at the time and assisted in the design of the 200-inch Hale telescope. “With the 200-inch,” he said in a BBC broadcast in London, “we may grasp what now we can scarcely brush with our fingertips.”
“What do you expect to find with the 200-inch?” he was asked. Hubble’s reply, “We hope to find something we hadn’t expected.”
Edwin Hubble’s discovery and development of the concept of an expanding universe has been described as the “most spectacular astronomical discovery of the 20th century.” As a tribute to him, the Hubble Space Telescope bears his name. That telescope, with its 240-centimeter mirror, has allowed us to see farther into space than ever before.
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Post by pegasus on Nov 21, 2011 10:32:00 GMT -7
WORLD HELLO DAY
Here’s one event that you can participate in without it costing you a dime or even one red cent. It’s easy, and it’s good for everyone. What could possibly be so wonderful? World Hello Day, that’s what. This friendly annual event began on Nov. 20th in 1972 and has grown enormously since. People in 180 countries have participated and the heads of state of 114 countries have given their approval.
Now here’s what you do to participate: you just say, “hello” to ten people on this day. Greet them warmly and with a smile. And you can say, “hello” in any language. The reason: World Hello Day will put us all one step further ahead in the attempt to advance world peace through personal communication.
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Post by pegasus on Nov 22, 2011 9:41:29 GMT -7
JFK REMEMBERED DAY
Generations recall watching CBS Television on this day in 1963. The popular soap opera As the World Turns was interrupted by a flash bulletin from Dallas. No one was available to man the CBS News studio at that instant, but a voice informed the nation that Pres. John F. Kennedy had been gravely wounded during a motorcade through downtown Dallas. Minutes later, after teletype machines, with alarm bells clanging, had spread the word to newsrooms around the world, the network interrupted again.
This time, Walter Cronkite, wearing partially rolled-up, white shirt sleeves, a loosened tie, no makeup, and black glasses, read wire copy just handed him: “Ladies and gentleman, the President of the United States is dead.” Cronkite, disbelieving the words he had just said, turned to look at a studio clock, stoically raised a hand to wipe away tears and continued with the tragic news that President Kennedy had died while undergoing emergency surgery at Parkland Hospital.
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