This Day in History ~ May 10

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Taking a look back on a few events that has taken place on May 10th in previous years.

1969 – Apollo 10 transmit 1st color pictures of Earth from space. The Apollo 10 mission encompassed all aspects of an actual crewed lunar landing, except the landing. It was the first flight of a complete, crewed Apollo spacecraft to operate around the moon.

1973 – Bruce Lee collapsed in Golden Harvest studios in Hong Kong while doing dubbing work for the movie Enter the Dragon. Suffering from seizures and headaches, he was immediately rushed to Hong Kong Baptist Hospital where doctors diagnosed cerebral edema. These same symptoms occurred again on the day of his death on July 20, 1973.

1986 – “Rock Me Amadeus” by Falco hits number one in the United Kingdom, becoming the first single by an Austrian act to achieve this distinction.

1994 – Nelson Mandela becomes South Africa’s first black president after more than three centuries of white rule.

2003 – this day ended most prolific continuous period of tornado outbreaks in American history. 401 tornadoes were reported in 19 states and 1 Canadian province, 1,587 reports of large hail and 740 reports of wind damage.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY ~ APRIL 6

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Taking a look back on a few events that has taken place on April 6th in previous years.

1954  – The first TV Dinners were put out for sale. Several smaller companies had tried to market the prepared meals that would become coined as TV Dinners, but they all failed. The first company to successfully market these new frozen convenience meals was Swanson. The first TV Dinner meals to come onto the market consisted of turkey, cornbread dressing, peas and sweet potatoes.

1965 – The first commercial geosynchronous communications satellite was launched. The satellite was named Intelsat I, but was nicknamed Early Bird, and it was built by It was the Space and Communications Group of Hughes Aircraft Company. This important satellite was the first move towards live, on-air coverage of important events. The first major live event that the satellite broadcast coverage for was that of the splashdown of the Gemini 6 spacecraft on December 26, 1965.

1975 – After 45 performances, the musical “The Rocky Horror Show” closes its Broadway run at the Belasco Theater in NYC. Later that same year in August, the film adaptation of the show, “The Rocky Horror Picture” Show, is released by 20^th Century Fox.

1980 – After a year of consumer testing in a select market, the familiar Post-It Notes were released for sale on this date nationally across America. A year later, the product was introduced to the Canadian and European markets. Originally, the notepads all had lines and were only available in yellow.

1998 – Well-known country music singer and song-writer, Virginia Wynette Pugh, better known by her professional stage name, Tammy Wynette, passed away on this date in her sleep at her Nashville home at the age of 55. It was later released that she had died from a blood clot in her lung. Wynette was called “The First Lady of Country Music” and is best known by her 1968 number one hit song that she co-wrote, “Stand by Your Man.”

THIS DAY IN HISTORY ~ APRIL 4

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Taking a look back on a few events that has taken place on April 4th in previous years.

1964 – The Beatles’ hit single, “Can’t Buy Me Love” goes to number one & stays at number one for five weeks. This song was composed by Paul McCartney. It was recorded on January 29th and released on March 16th.

1975 – The Microsoft Corporation is founded as a partnership between childhood friends Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Allen came up with the original name of “Micro-Soft,” as recounted in a 1995 Fortune magazine article.

1981 – San Antonio native, Henry Cisneros, is elected the first Mexican-American mayor of a major American city, in his beloved Texas home city. Cisneros held this office for 8 years, from May 1, 1981 – June 1, 1989. Cisneros later served as the 10th Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the administration of President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997.

1994 – Netscape Communications was founded, under the original name of Mosaic Communications. Netscape was best known for its Netscape Navigator web browser. The Netscape Navigator web browser was once a dominate force with its of usage share of about 75%, but then its usage dropped off in favor of Internet Explore by the end of the 90’s.

2007 – Fifteen British Royal Navy personnel which had been held for 13 days in Iran are released by the Iranian President. No casualties were reported during this incident.

2013 – American journalist and film critic Roger Ebert passed away in a Chicago hospital, ending his 11-year battle with cancer. Ebert was 70 years old. In 2005, Ebert became the first film critic to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

What IS Leap Day & This Day in History

What is Leap Day and why do we have one?  As most everyone knows, a year is measured by the time it takes the earth to revolve around the sun, which is 365 days. A solar year is the length of time it takes the earth to make one complete revolution around the sun, which is actually equal to 365.24219 days. This means that our calendar is off by about a quarter of a day per year or roughly 6 hours. That equates to a loss of about 24 hours every four years.

In 45 B.C., Julius Caesar announced a decree that began the practice of adding one extra day every four years, making up for the loss of the 24 hours that had accumulated during the four previous years.  Thus, creating the Julian calendar. Well, that sort of made up the difference. In actuality, it is even more complicated than that!

By 1582 A.D. that slight discrepancy in the Julian calendar added up to 10 days. So Pope Gregory XIII created the Gregorian calendar, coined the term “leap year” and established February 29 as the official date to add to a leap year. He also introduced a rule to take into account the discrepancy in the Julian calendar.

Now, a leap year occurs in every year that is divisible by four, but only in century years that are evenly divided by 400. Therefore, 800, 1200 and 2000 were leap years, but 1700 and 1900 were not, because even though they are divisible by four, they were not divisible by 400.

Well, now that we have that all sorted out or have you totally confused, let’s take a look back on a few events that has taken place on February 29th in previous years.

1960 – Hugh Hefner opens the original Playboy Club in Chicago.

1968 – The Beatles’ eighth album, Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, wins a Grammy. The album was released on June 1, 1967.

1972 – At the age of 39 while playing for the Atlanta Braves, Hank Aaron becomes first baseball player to sign a contract with a salary of $200,000 a year. Hank was born on born February 5, 1934 in Mobile, Alabama with the given name of Henry Louis Aaron.  His two nicknames were “Hammer” and “Hammerin Hank.” He is currently 82 years old.

2004 – At the 76th Academy Awards, with host Billy Crystal, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ruled the day sweeping all 11 categories in which it was nominated. Not only that, it tied Titanic and Ben Hur for the most Oscar wins. The biggest prize of all was being named Best Picture.

2012 – My daughter gave birth to our youngest Grandson, Corbin. Yes, he is our very special Leap Day baby! He is my daughter’s third child (first and only son) and our fourth Grandchild.

This Day in History ~ February 28

Taking a look back on a few events that has taken place on February 28th in previous years.

1940 – The first basketball game is televised. from Madison Square Garden. The University of Pittsburgh wins over Fordham University with a score of 50-37.

1960 – the 8th Winter Olympic games held at Squaw Valley, California closes.

1972 – President Richard Nixon ends historic week-long visit to China.

1984 – Michael Jackson won an unprecedented eight Grammys at the 26th Annual  Grammy Awards held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. This beat Paul Simon’s previous record of seven. Jackson’s wins included Record Of The Year for “Beat It” and Album Of The Year for Thriller.

1993 – Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms raid the Branch Davidian cult compound in Waco, Texas, prompting a gun battle in which four agents and six cult members are killed. The federal agents were attempting to arrest the leader of the Branch Davidians, David Koresh, on information that the religious sect was stockpiling weapons. A nearly two-month standoff ensued after the unsuccessful raid.

2007 – The New Horizons Pluto observer spacecraft, which was originally launched on On January 19, 2006, makes its closest approach of Jupiter, at a distance of 1.4 million miles.

2010 –  the 21st Winter Olympic games held at Vancouver, Canada closes. Approximately 2,600 athletes from 82 nations participated in 86 events in fifteen disciplines.

This Day in History ~ February 22

Taking a look back on a few events that has taken place on February 22nd in previous years.

1959 – The first running of the Daytona 500 took place. Lee Petty, patriarch of the now well-known Petty racing family, narrowly won the first Daytona 500 in a photo finish against Johnn Beauchamp. Although it appears to be a close three way tie in the photo,  with Joe Weatherly on the outside, Beauchamp on the inside, and Petty in the middle, in reality Petty and Beauchamp were lapping Weatherly at the finish line!

1962- Basketball star, Wilt Chamberlain (1936-1999), sets NBA record with 34 free throw attempts in a single game while playing for the Philadelphia Warriors. This record stood for 50 years, until it was broken in 2012.

1973 – “Charlotte’s Web” opens to a limited audience. It was opened to the general public on March 1, 1973.  This American film is an animated musical drama produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and Sagittarius Productions and based upon the 1952 children’s book of the same name by E. B. White. This film is voiced by many well known stars including Henry Gibson as Wilbur the pig, Debbie Reynolds as Charlotte A. Cavatica the spider, Paul Lynde as Templeton the rat, and Agnes Moorehead as the Goose.

1986 – “Sara” by Starship took over as the #1 Adult Contemporary song.

1997 – It was announced by the Roslin Institute in Scotland that it had produced the world’s first cloned mammal from an adult cell. This cloned mammal was Dolly the sheep. Dolly was actually born the previous year on July 5, 1996, but the news was withheld while the Institute conduct extensive studies on the animal prior to publicly announcing the event. During her life, she bore 6 lambs. Dolly humanely euthanized on February 14, 2003 because she had a progressive lung disease and severe arthritis.

 

1998 – Closing date of the 18th Winter Olympic games which took place at Nagano, Japan. At these games, Curling returned as an official sport and Snowboarding made its debut. Azerbaijan, Kenya, the Republic of Macedonia, Uruguay, and Venezuela made their first appearance at the Olympic Winter Games. Denmark won their first, and only, Winter Olympics medal when they won a silver medal in the women’s curling event. Zali Steggall won the bronze in the women’s slalom bringing home Australia’s first individual Winter Olympic medal.

2004 – Johnny Depp wins for his performance in Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl at the 10th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards.