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Wednesday, May 23, 2012

May 23rd

May 23 is the 144th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. If the ancient Mayans were correct, there are 212 days remaining until the end of time.




1785 Benjamin Franklin announces his invention of bifocals
1829 Accordion patent granted in Vienna to Cyrill Demian— aka SATAN.
1883 Baseball game between one-armed and one-legged players in Philadelphia. The one-armed guys win 34-11.
1962 Joe Pepitone 2nd Yankee (after DiMaggio) to hit 2 home runs in 1 inning, but he's sprouting more wood than Joltin’ Joe.  I’m just saying. . .
1969 Who release rock opera "Tommy"
1979 "Kids Are All Right" is released all over the world, except Ireland.  Like "Tommy," it is later made into a movie.
1994 Finale of Star Trek The Next Generation starring Sir Patrick Stewart airs. . .again this week in syndication



1883 Douglas Fairbanks, US actor/writer/producer/director/executive 
1912 John Payne, cleft-chinned US actor/singer 
1933 Joan Collins, English actress/Alexis Colby Carrington Dexter Rowan/The Bitch 
1958 Lea Delaria, gay US comedienne/jazz singer 
1960 Linden Ashby, US actor 
1965 Tom Tykwer, maybe gay German director 
1967 Wotan Wilke Mohring, German actor 
1970 Carlos Evelyn, Brazilian actor 
1971 Eric Nies, US model/reality series star/TV host/naked dog rescuer 
1975 Jason Land, gay US actor 
1980 Ben Ross, Australian rugger 
1983 Tommy DeLuca, gay US actor 
1984 Ross Davenport, English swimmer 



1701 Captain William Kidd, Scottish pirate, has his giblets gibbeted.
    When the courts wished to make a particular example of a criminal, e.g. a highwayman, mail robber or murderer, they could order the additional punishment of gibbeting (also known as hanging in chains). After the hanging, the prisoner would be stripped and their body dipped into molten pitch or tar and then, when it had cooled, be re-dressed and placed into an iron cage that surrounded the head, torso and upper legs. The cage was riveted together and then suspended from either the original gallows or a purpose built gibbet. The body was left as a grim reminder to local people and could stay on the gibbet for a year or more until it rotted away or was eaten by birds, etc.
 
1934 With all due respect to Chubby Checker, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, US outlaws, invent the twist. 
1986 Sterling Hayden, actor (Blue and Gray, Dr. Strangelove), doesn’t make this a long goodbye




1 comment:

sdt (a.k.a. stevil) said...

Dear Crash - In the pictures of Douglas Fairbanks, that is indeed Mr. Fairbanks, Sr. on the left. The picture on the right, however, is of a different silent era actor, George O'Brien. Also, regarding the dance craze and song The Twist, Chubby Checker didn't invent it, he merely had the hit record. It was written and recorded a year earlier by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters. Hope all is well in Crashland. Bestest.