25 June 2017
25 June 2017
Interesting tidbits:
1630 - The fork was introduced to American dining by Gov Winthrop.
1638 - A lunar eclipse is the first astronomical event recorded in the American Colonies.
1678 – Venetian Elena Cornaro Piscopia is the first woman awarded a doctorate of philosophy when she graduates from the University of Padua.
1876 – Battle of the Little Bighorn and the death of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer.
1900 – The Daoist monk Wang Yuanlu discovers the Dunhuang manuscripts, a cache of ancient texts that are of great historical and religious significance, in the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, China.
1906 – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania millionaire Harry Thaw shoots and kills prominent architect Stanford White. This was the first "trial of the century" of the 20th century. Harry Thaw was the son of American coal and railroad baron William Thaw. All his life he was plagued by mental illness, and led a profligate life. Heir to a multi-million dollar fortune, he spent money lavishly to fund his obsessive partying, drug addiction, and the gratification of his sexual appetites. It is alleged that it was at this point in time that the term “playboy” entered the popular vocabulary coined to describe the lifestyle that Thaw so energetically pursued. The Thaw family wealth allowed them to buy the silence of those individuals who threatened to make public the worst of Thaw’s reckless behavior and licentious transgressions. For four years Thaw obsessed on popular chorus girl and artists’ model Evelyn Nesbit, eventually wearing down her resistance and marrying her. In the early part of the twentieth century, the figure and face of Evelyn Nesbit was ubiquitous, appearing in mass circulation newspaper and magazine advertisements, on souvenir items and calendars, making her a cultural celebrity. For reasons based in Thaw's insanity, he had a long-standing vendetta against famous architect Stanford White. White himself was unaware of the vendetta and considered Thaw a poseur of little consequence, categorizing him as a clown — and most tellingly, called him the “Pennsylvania pug” — a reference to Thaw’s baby-faced features. But White WAS quite aware of Thaw's wife Nesbit, and the two began a laison. 25 June 1906 was an inordinately hot day. Thaw and Nesbit were stopping in New York briefly before boarding a luxury liner bound for a European holiday. Thaw had purchased tickets for himself, two of his male friends and his wife for a new show, Mam'zelle Champagne, playing on the rooftop theatre of Madison Square Garden. In spite of the suffocating heat, which did not abate as night fell, Thaw inappropriately wore a long black overcoat over his tuxedo, which he refused to take off throughout the entire evening. At 11:00pm, as the stage show was coming to a close, Stanford White appeared, taking his place at the table that was customarily reserved for him. During the finale Thaw produced a pistol, and standing some two feet from his target, fired three shots at Stanford White killing him instantly. Part of White’s blood-covered face was torn away and the rest of his features were unrecognizable, blackened by gunpowder. Thaw remained standing over White’s fallen body, displaying the gun aloft in the air, resoundingly proclaiming, according to witness reports, "I did it because he ruined my wife! He had it coming to him. He took advantage of the girl and then abandoned her!" Thaw was charged with first-degree murder and denied bail. A newspaper photo showed Thaw in The Tombs prison seated at a formal table setting, dining on a meal catered for him by Delmonico’s restaurant. In the background was further evidence of the preferential treatment the Thaw influence and money provided the incarcerated man. During his confinement Thaw slept in a brass bed, was allowed to wear his own custom tailored clothes, and had a daily ration of champagne and wine. Due to the unusual amount of publicity the case had garnered, it was ordered that the jury members be sequestered — the first time in the history of American jurisprudence that such a restriction was ordered. The first trial resulted in a deadlocked jury, at which Thaw went into fits of physical flailing and crying when he considered the very real possibility that he would be labeled a madman and imprisoned in an asylum. The second trial took place from January through February 1908. At the second trial Thaw pleaded temporary insanity. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity, and sentenced to incarceration for life at the Matteawan State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Fishkill, New York. His wealth allowed him to arrange accommodations for his comfort and be granted privileges not given to the general Matteawan population. But life for the son of a wealthy family did not mean life and it wasn't long before Thaw was out. It is conjectured the Thaws promised Nesbit a comfortable financial future if she provided testimony at trial favorable to Thaw’s case. Nesbit was now well aware that any solicitude or kindness shown her by the Thaw enclave was predicated on her pivotal performance on the witness stand. She was to present a pitiful portrait of innocence betrayed by the lascivious Stanford White. Thaw was to be the white knight whose noble, courageous act had avenged his wife’s ruin. Throughout the prolonged court proceedings, Nesbit had received financial support from the Thaws. These payments, made to her through the Thaw attorneys, had been inconsistent and far from generous. After the close of the second trial, the Thaws virtually abandoned Nesbit, cutting off all funds. However, in an interview Nesbit’s grandson, Russell Thaw gave to The Los Angeles Times in 2005, it is his belief that Nesbit received the amount of twenty-five thousand dollars from the Thaw family after the end of the second trial. Nesbit and Thaw were divorced in 1915.
1910 – The United States Congress passes the Mann Act, which prohibits interstate transport of females for “immoral purposes”; the ambiguous language would be used to selectively prosecute people for years to come.
1910 – Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird is premiered in Paris, bringing him to prominence as a composer.
1919 - The first advanced monoplane airliner flight took place (Junkers F13).
1944 – The final page of the comic Krazy Kat was published, exactly two months after its author George Herriman died.
1949 – Long-Haired Hare, starring Bugs Bunny, is released in theaters.
1967 – Broadcasting of the first live global satellite television program: Our World
1981 – Microsoft is restructured to become an incorporated business in its home state of Washington.
1997 – An unmanned Progress spacecraft collides with the Russian space station Mir.
Today's birthday crew:
1935 – Charles Sheffield, English-born Science Fiction author.
1903 – George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair), English author whose work is marked by clarity, intelligence and wit, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and commitment to democratic socialism. He is best known for the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) and the allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945), which together have sold more copies than any two books by any other 20th-century author. Orwell's work continues to influence popular and political culture, and the term Orwellian — descriptive of totalitarian or authoritarian social practices — has entered the language together with several of his neologisms, including Cold War, Big Brother, thought police, doublethink, and thoughtcrime.
1923 – Dorothy Gilman, American spy and mystery author (Mrs. Pollifax series).
1925 – June Lockhart, American actress (Lost in Space).
1928 – Alex Toth, American illustrator whose work began in the American comic book industry, After graduating from the High School of Industrial Art in 1947, Toth was hired by Sheldon Mayer at National/DC Comics. He worked there for five years, drawing the Golden Age versions of The Flash, Dr. Mid-Nite, Green Lantern and The Atom. He is better known for his animation designs for Hanna-Barbera throughout the 1960s and 1970s. His work included Super Friends, Space Ghost, The Herculoids, and Birdman. Toth's work has been resurrected in the late-night, adult-themed spinoffs on Cartoon Network: Space Ghost: Coast to Coast and Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law.
1930 – George Murdock, American actor (Dr. Salik in Battlestar Galactica, "God" in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Admiral Hanson in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode The Best of Both Worlds).
1935 – Charles Sheffield, English-born mathematician, physicist and science fiction author. He was a President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and of the American Astronautical Society. His novel The Web Between the Worlds, featuring the construction of a space elevator, was published almost simultaneously with Arthur C. Clarke's novel on the subject, The Fountains of Paradise, a coincidence that amused them both. He won the Nebula and Hugo awards for his novelette "Georgia on My Mind" and the 1992 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel for his novel Brother to Dragons. Sheffield was Toastmaster at BucConeer, the 1998 World Science Fiction Convention in Baltimore.
1956 – Anthony Bourdain, American chef and author.
Happy birthday guys!