FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

Sesame Street is an American educational children’s television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children’s Television Workshop until June 2000) and was created by Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett. It is known for its images communicated through the use of Jim Henson‘s Muppets, and includes short films, with humor and cultural references. It premiered on November 10, 1969, to positive reviews, some controversy, and high viewership. It has aired on the United States national public television provider PBS since its debut, with its first run moving to premium channel HBO on January 16, 2016, then its sister streaming service HBO Max in 2020. Sesame Street is one of the longest-running shows in the world.

The show’s format consists of a combination of commercial television production elements and techniques which have evolved to reflect changes in American culture and audiences’ viewing habits. It was the first children’s TV show to use educational goals and a curriculum to shape its content, and the first show whose educational effects were formally studied. Its format and content have undergone significant changes to reflect changes to its curriculum.

Shortly after its creation, its producers developed what came to be called the CTW Model (after the production company’s previous name), a system of planning, production and evaluation based on collaboration between producers, writers, educators and researchers. The show was initially funded by government and private foundations, but has become somewhat self-supporting due to revenues from licensing arrangements, international sales and other media. By 2006, independently produced versions (“co-productions“) of Sesame Street were broadcast in 20 countries. In 2001, there were over 120 million viewers of various international versions of Sesame Street; and by its 40th anniversary in 2009, it was broadcast in more than 140 countries.

Sesame Street was by then the 15th-highest-rated children’s television show in the United States. A 1996 survey found that 95% of all American preschoolers had watched it by the time they were three. In 2018, it was estimated that 86 million Americans had watched it as children. As of 2021, it has won 205 Emmy Awards and 11 Grammy Awards, more than any other children’s show.

TODAY’S ALMANAC

Question of the Day

Why can’t you stuff a turkey ahead of time?

The combination of moist stuffing and uncooked turkey invites the growth of salmonella, a type of bacteria common in poultry. The stuffing can be prepared ahead of time and put into the turkey just before roasting. After cooking, all stuffing should be removed from the bird’s cavity.

Advice of the Day

There is no better month in the year to cut wood than November.

Home Hint of the Day

Pinch the burned area off the wick of a kerosene lamp when the lamp is cold. Cutting it with scissors wastes wick unnecessarily.

Word of the Day

Siren

One of three sea nymphs, — or, according to some writers, of two, — said to frequent an island near the coast of Italy, and to sing with such sweetness that they lured mariners to destruction.

Puzzle of the Day

What is it that goes when a wagon goes, stops when a wagon stops, is of no use to the wagon, and yet the wagon cannot go without it?

The noise of the wheels.

Born

• Martin Luther (founder of the Lutheran church) – 1483
• William Hogarth (painter) – 1697
• Samuel Gridley Howe (physician) – 1801
• Donald Baxter Macmillan (arctic explorer) – 1874
• Claude Rains (actor) – 1889
• Karl Jay Shapiro (poet) – 1913
• Richard Burton (actor) – 1925
• Roy Scheider (actor) – 1932
• Norm Cash (baseball player) – 1934
• Sinbad (actor) – 1956
• MacKenzie Phillips (actress) – 1959
• Ellen Pompeo (actress) – 1969
• Brittany Murphy (actress) – 1977
• Giovonnie Samuels (actress) – 1985
• Josh Peck (actor) – 1986

Died

• Leonid Brezhnev (Russian Premier) – 1982
• Jack Palance (actor) – 2006
• Norman Mailer (author) – 2007
• Miriam Makeba (singer, referred to as Mama Africa) – 2008

Events

• The American Continental Congress established a full-time national Marine Corps, the Continental Marines– 1775
• Journalist Henry Morton Stanley located missing Scottish missionary, David Livingstone, in Central Africa, and delivered his famous greeting, Dr. Livingstone, I presume.– 1871
• Statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor first in the United States to be canonically crowned, New Orleans, Louisiana– 1895
• National Book Week was first observed in the United States– 1919
• Jeweler Harry Winston donated the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.– 1958
• Sesame Street made its television debut– 1969
• Gene Autry received a gold record for the single, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, 20 years after its release– 1969
• Luna 17 spacecraft launched– 1970
• The S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald, an ore boat with 29 crewmen aboard, sank during a storm on Lake Superior– 1975

Weather

• A tornado hit Great Bend, Kansas, killing 11 people and causing $1 million in damages– 1915
• A storm in Minnesota produced record-breaking low pressure– 1998
• More than seventy tornadoes churned across the eastern United States– 2002
• 71 degrees F, East Milford, New Hampshire– 2009

COURTESY www.almanac.com