Posts by Richard The Guitarman

LEIF ERIKSSON DAY In A.D. 1000, long before Columbus, Eriksson led a Viking voyage westward from Greenland and reached the coast of North America, in what is now Newfoundland. He named his discovery Vinland. Although Eriksson is not officially credited with the European discovery of America, ever since 1964 U.S. presidents have had the option…

FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS Walter Francis O’Malley (October 9, 1903 – August 9, 1979) was an American sports executive who owned the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers team in Major League Baseball from 1950 to 1979. In 1958, as owner of the Dodgers, he brought major league baseball to the West Coast, moving the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles despite the Dodgers being the second…

FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS Cornell University is a private Ivy League and statutory land-grant research university, based in Ithaca, New York. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, it has consistently been ranked among the top universities in the world by major educational publications. Cornell was founded with the intention to teach and make contributions in all fields of knowledge—from the classics to the sciences, and from the theoretical to…

FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS Al Jolson (born Asa Yoelson; May 26, 1886 – October 23, 1950) was an American singer, comedian, actor, and vaudevillian. Self-billed as “The World’s Greatest Entertainer”, Jolson is credited with being America’s most famous and highest-paid star of the 1920s. He was known for his “shamelessly sentimental, melodramatic approach”, and for popularizing many of the songs…

Every Year WORLD TEACHERS’ DAY 1700s BORN 1703: JONATHAN EDWARDS (PHILOSOPHER) 1810s DIED 1813: TECUMSEH (NATIVE AMERICAN LEADER) DIED 1818: NANCY HANKS LINCOLN (MOTHER OF U.S. PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN) 1820s BORN 1829: CHESTER ARTHUR (21ST U.S. PRESIDENT) 1860s BORN 1864: LOUIS LUMIERE (INVENTOR) 1880s BORN 1882: ROBERT HUTCHINGS GODDARD (PHYSICIST) 1900s BORN 1902: RAY ARTHUR…

FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS Dick Tracy is an American comic strip featuring Dick Tracy (originally Plainclothes Tracy), a tough and intelligent police detective created by Chester Gould. It made its debut on Sunday, October 4, 1931 in the Detroit Mirror, and it was distributed by the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate. Gould wrote and drew the strip until 1977, and various artists and writers…

Every Year UNITY DAY (GERMANY) 1220s DIED 1226: ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI 1790s BORN 1790: JOHN ROSS (CHEROKEE NATION CHIEF) 1860s 1863: PRESIDENT LINCOLN DECLARED THE LAST THURSDAY IN NOVEMBER AS THANKSGIVING DAY 1868: LOUISA MAY ALCOTT’S LITTLE WOMEN FIRST PUBLISHED 1890s BORN 1898: LEO MCCAREY (PRODUCER) BORN 1899: GERTRUDE BERG (ACTRESS) 1900s BORN 1900:…

FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS The St. Lawrence Seaway (French: la Voie Maritime du Saint-Laurent) is a system of locks, canals, and channels in Canada and the United States that permits oceangoing vessels to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes of North America, as far inland as Duluth, Minnesota, at the western end of Lake Superior. The seaway is named for the St. Lawrence…

FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS Another World (often shortened to AW) is an American television soap opera that aired on NBC from May 4, 1964, to June 25, 1999.[1][2] It was created by Irna Phillips along with William J. Bell, and was produced by Procter & Gamble Productions at NBC Studios, 1268 JC Studios in Brooklyn. Set in the fictional town of Bay City, the series originally opened with announcer Bill Wolff intoning its epigram,…

ON THIS DATE IN 1880, CANADA’S NATIONAL ANTHEM, “O CANADA,” WAS FIRST PERFORMED IN QUEBEC CITY, CANADA. FULL STRAWBERRY MOON In 2020, the Full Moon for June rises on June 5 at 3:12 PM EDT. For some Native Americans, this month’s Moon was called the Strawberry Moon as it was a time for strawberries to…

1680s 1683: WILLIAM PENN SIGNED A TREATY OF PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP WITH THE LENNI LENAPE NATIVE AMERICANS IN WHAT IS NOW PENNSYLVANIA 1760s BORN 1763: JOSEPHINE DE BEAUHARNAIS (EMPRESS OF FRANCE) 1840s 1845: TEXAS VOTED FOR ANNEXATION BY THE UNITED STATES AFTER NEARLY TEN YEARS AS AN INDEPENDENT REPUBLIC 1860s 1868: FIRST PRACTICAL TYPEWRITER PATENTED…

Every Year ST. ALBAN 1610s 1611: HENRY HUDSON, SON, AND 7 CREW SET ADRIFT BY MUTINEERS 1810s 1813: DURING THE WAR OF 1812, LAURA SECORD OF QUEENSTON HIKED 18 HOURS TO WARN BRITISH OF AN UPCOMING ATTACK 1830s BORN 1837: PAUL MORPHY (CHESS MASTER) 1840s 1846: ADOLPHE SAX REGISTERED A PATENT FOR THE SAXOPHONE 1860s…

FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS On Sunday, June 21, 1964, Jim Bunning of the Philadelphia Phillies pitched the seventh perfect game in Major League Baseball history, defeating the New York Mets 6-0 in the first game of a doubleheader at Shea Stadium. A father of seven children at the time, Bunning pitched his perfect game on Father’s Day. One of Bunning’s daughters, Barbara, was in attendance, as was his wife, Mary. Needing…

FATHER’S DAY Like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day has a modern origin. The idea came to Mrs. John Dodd as she sat listening to a Mother’s Day sermon in 1909. Her father, William Smart, had raised his children alone on his Washington farm after his wife died giving birth to their sixth child. Mrs. Dodd proposed…

Every Year EMANCIPATION DAY (TEX.) 1620s BORN 1623: BLAISE PASCAL (MATHEMATICIAN AND PHYSICIST) 1840s 1846: FIRST REAL BASEBALL GAME WITH SET RULES WAS PLAYED IN HOBOKEN, NEW JERSEY 1860s 1862: SLAVERY ABOLISHED IN U.S. TERRITORIES 1900s BORN 1902: GUY LOMBARDO (BAND LEADER) BORN 1903: LOU GEHRIG (BASEBALL PLAYER) 1910s 1910: THE FIRST FATHER’S DAY WAS…

1810s 1812: THE UNITED STATES DECLARED WAR ON GREAT BRITAIN 1815: NAPOLEON’S TROOPS WERE DEFEATED AT WATERLOO (PRESENT-DAY BELGIUM) 1850s BORN 1854: E.W. SCRIPPS (NEWSPAPER PUBLISHER) 1860s 1861: FIRST FLY-CASTING TOURNAMENT IN THE UNITED STATES, UTICA, NEW YORK 1870s BORN 1877: JAMES MONTGOMERY FLAGG (ILLUSTRATOR OF UNCLE SAM “I WANT YOU FOR THE U.S. ARMY”…

BUNKER HILL DAY (SUFFOLK CO., MASS.) The Battle of Bunker Hill, one of the most famous battles of the Revolutionary War, for the most part did not take place on Bunker Hill. After dark on June 16, 1775, about 1,200 colonial soldiers moved onto the Charlestown peninsula overlooking Boston (occupied by the British) and began…

1770s 1779: SPAIN DECLARED WAR ON BRITAIN AND THE SIEGE OF GIBRALTAR BEGAN 1880s 1884: THE FIRST ROLLER COASTER IN THE UNITED STATES BEGAN OPERATION AT CONEY ISLAND, NEW YORK 1890s BORN 1890: STAN LAUREL (COMEDIAN) 1898: FIRST ISSUE OF KLONDIKE NUGGET PUBLISHED, DAWSON, YUKON 1900s BORN 1902: BARBARA MCCLINTOCK (GENETICIST) 1903: ANDREW JACKSON, JR.…

1210s 1215: KING JOHN OF ENGLAND PUT HIS SEAL ON THE MAGNA CARTA 1760s BORN 1767: RACHEL JACKSON (U.S. FIRST LADY) 1770s 1775: GEORGE WASHINGTON IS APPOINTED COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF THE CONTINENTAL ARMY BY THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 1820s BORN 1826: BILL ARP (WRITER) 1830s 1836: ARKANSAS ADMITTED TO THE UNION AS THE 25TH STATE…

FLAG DAY (UNITED STATES) What we know fondly as the “Stars and Stripes” was adopted by the Continental Congress as the official American flag on June 14, 1777, in the midst of the Revolutionary War. Colonial troops fought under many different flags with various symbols and slogans–rattlesnakes, pine trees, and eagles; “Don’t Tread on Me,”…