An Extra Day in February
February 29th. It’s the day that is added every 4 years to balance the calendar. A year is actually a little less that 365.25 days long. The actual formula for leap days is that it occurs only every four years, in years evenly divisible by 4, except century years not divisible by 400. Since the [...]
Lillian Gish
When Lillian Gish died on February 27, 1993, at the age of 99, the world lost a great actress. She was born in Springfield, Ohio on October 14, 1883 with the birth name of Lillian Diana de Guiche. Miss Gish’s career started on the stage when she was just six years old. She had a [...]
And These Were Also Winners
On the day after the Oscars are presented, everyone knows who won the big awards. But those small, but just as important awards should also be talked about. So here we go: Achievement in Art Direction: Shouldn’t be too much of a surprise it went to Sweeney Todd:The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Art Direction: [...]
The 16th Amendment is Passed
On February 25, 1913, a little over three years after the Sixty-first Congress passed an amendment to the Constitution, Secretary of State Philander Knox announced that the Sixteenth Amendment had been ratified. The Amendment gave Congress, “… the power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several [...]
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences were established in 1927. It was decided that they would create a ceremony to publicize and reward fourteen individuals and movies that were the best artistic examples of film making. The first award ceremony was in 1929 for the period August 1, 1927 to July 31, 1928. [...]
The Affairs of Presidents
Over the course of United States history there has been rumors and even documented evidence that presidents are people. And they have at times taken a lover who was not their wife. The latest has been with the report that John McCain may have had one, but there’s no doubt that Bill Clinton was not [...]
Presidential Succession
The United States Constitution in Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 gave Congress the right to determine who would become President in the case that both the President and Vice-President was unable to complete the term. On February 21, 1792 Congress passed the first Presidential Succession Act. This Act determined that the next officials in [...]
Pierre Boulle’s “Bridge Over the River Kwai”
During the 2nd World War Pierre Boulle, who later would write the original novels from which The Bridge Over the River Kwai and Planet of the Apes were based, served as a secret agent helping the French Resistance in China, Burma and French Indochina. In 1943 he was captured and stationed at a force labor [...]
Edison’s Phonograph
The United States Patent Office on February 19, 1878 issued to Thomas Edison patent #200,521 for the phonograph. Edison’s was working on two other inventions when he discovered that sound could make an indentation onto paper. He changed the paper to a tin foil wrap cylinder and found that the machine he designed would replay [...]
Early Stars in Playboy
It’s not that unusual to find a celebrity appearing on the cover or on the pages of Playboy magazine. Some have seen it and sued it as a stepping stone in their career. But that has not always been the case. In the early days of the magazine it was rare to find a celebrity. [...]
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