Submarines, Grandmas and The Mona Lisa

National Blueberry Popsicle Month

Neither Rain Nor Snow Day - Honoring the opening of the NY Post Office building in 1914

HISTORIES:

1996 – Rapper Tupac Shakur was killed. His drive-by shooter was never identified.

1986 – Two years after winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Desmond Tutu became archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, the first black man to hold that position.

1977 – The US agreed to transfer control of the Panama Canal to, surprise, Panama.

1953 – Maureen Connolly won the US Open tennis championship making her the first woman to win the “Grand Slam” of tennis. Two years later, her tennis career would end tragically when her leg was crushed in a horse-riding accident.

1921 – Atlantic City, NU: 50 young women gathered today to compete for a college scholarship in what will be an annual event called The Miss America Beauty Pageant.

1911 – An arrest in the theft of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa from the Louvre in Paris of radical poet Guillaume Apollinaire. He was released 5 days later and  two years later, former Louvre employee, Vincenzo Perggia, was arrested while trying to sell the painting.

1896 – The first auto race in the US was held. An electric car built by Riker Electric Motor Company beat out other vehicles powered by gas, steam and electricity.

1876 – Northfield, MN: Townspeople surround the James-Younger gang after the outlaws attempted to rob their local bank. All but Jesse James was wounded or killed. They escaped to Dakota Territory and then south to Tennessee.

1813 –Uncle Sam was adopted as the US nickname. A meat packer from Troy, NY, Samuel Wilson,  stamped his barrels of packed beef “US..”, meaning to be shipped to US troops. Army soldiers began calling the food Uncle Sam’s. The most accepted rendering of Uncle Sam came decades later by artist James Montgomery Flagg.

1776 – Revolutionary War submarine (yeah, I said submarine) the Turtle was used to attempt to sink the British flagship HMS Eagle, unfortunately the time bomb would not attach to the hull. Each mission the Turtle was used, it failed, due to the complex functions. It was sunk during the Battle of Fort Lee.

BIRTHDAYS:

1954 – Corbin Bernsen, actor who made a mark on the 1980’s drama L.A.Law.

1950 – Julie Kavner, actress who is known as Rhoda’s sister in the 70’s sitcom, Rhoda and as Marge Simpson’s voice in The Simpsons cartoon.

1949 – Gloria Gaynor, singer of such tunes as  I Will Survive.

1947 – Ann Beattie, writer of short stories and novels including Falling in Place, Chilly Scenes of Winter and Walks With Men.

1936 – Charles Hardin “Buddy Holly” Holley, singer of That’ll Be The Day who lost his life in a plane accident in Iowa, just two years after breaking into the music business.

1931 – Al McGuire, coach of Marquette University’s basketball team.

1923 – Peter Lawford, actor,  member of “The Rat Pack” and brother-in-law to President John F Kennedy. You can watch him in Royal Wedding (1951), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) and Oceans’ Eleven (1960).

1909 – Elia Kazan, director of A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront and East of Eden and known for introducing audience to James Dean, Marlon Brando, Warren Beatty, Julie Harris, Andy Griffith, Lee Remick, Rip Torn, Eli Wallach, Eva Marie Saing, Fred Gwynne, Pat Hingle and Martin Balsam.

1908 – Michael DeBakey, doctor/surgeon. Had a hand in developing the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH), Veteran’s Administration Medical Center Research System. Invented the roller pump, which, 20 years later would become an essential part of someone else’s invention, the heart –lung machine, making open heart surgery possible.

1860 – Anna Mary Robertson, painter known as Grandma Moses. She began painting because arthritis caused her to have to quit her career in embroidery.