May 22, 2011
BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND
The news as I see it and the views as I want them.
May 22 is … Buy-A-Musical-Instrument Day
I think I’ll buy a horn and toot it for my sister’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Patty.
My horse finished fifth in the Preakness. Shackelford won meaning no Triple Crown Winner again this year; it has been 33 years since a horse won the Triple Crown, clearly making it one of the hardest things to do in professional sports unless you are the Chicago Cubs. A hprse ran in the Preakness Saturday that was blind in its right eye. This happens now and again but these horses cannot run in Australia or Ireland and a few other places that run the races clockwise. A horse blind in its right eye can see the rail running counter-clockwise, like we run in America but it could not see the rail running clockwise. This also prevents the horse from seeing the crowd in the seats and the railbirds thus not spooking it.
Birthdays - May 22
1813 - Wilhelm Richard Wagner (composer: Tristan, Isolde, Lohengrin; died Feb 13, 1883)
1844 - Mary Cassatt (artist: The Bath; died June 14, 1926)
1859 - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (physician; writer: Sherlock Holmes: 56 short stories, 3 novels: The Sign of Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Valley of Fear; died July 7, 1930)
1907 - Sir Laurence (Kerr) Olivier (Academy Award-winning actor: Hamlet [1948]; War Requiem, The Boys from Brazil, Brideshead Revisited, Carrie, The Jazz Singer, Peter the Great, Richard III, Spartacus, The Merchant of Venice, Marathon Man, Khartoum; Emmy Award-winning actor: The Moon and Sixpence [1960], A Long Day’s Journey into Night [1973], Love Among the Ruins [1975], Brideshead Revisited, King Lear [1984]; died July 11, 1989)
1914 - Vance Packard (writer: The Hidden Persuaders; died Dec 12, 1996)
1914 - Sun Ra (Herman Blount) (jazz musician: piano, organ, synthesizer; died May 30, 1993)
1922 - Judith Crist (Klein) (TV critic: TV Guide, Saturday Review, Today Show)
1924 - Charles Aznavour (Shahnour Varenagh Aznavurjian) (actor: Edith & Marcel, The Tin Drum, Twist, Ten Little Indians, Candy, Shoot the Piano Player; singer, songwriter)
1926 - Elaine Leighton (drummer: played w/Billie Holiday)
1927 - Michael Constantine (Constantine Joanides) (Emmy Award-winning actor: Room 222 [1969-70]; Sirota’s Court, Hey Landlord, The Hustler)
1928 - Jackie (Jacqueline) Cain (singer: duo: Jackie & Roy [Kral]: Flamingo, Over the Rainbow, Euphoria, I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles)
1931 - Kenny Ball (musician: trumpet: bandleader: Midnight in Moscow)
1934 - Al Brown (entertainer: group: Al Brown & The Tunetoppers: LP: The Madison Dance Party)
1934 - Peter Nero (Nierow) (pianist: Theme from the Summer of ’42)
1938 - Richard Benjamin (actor: Goodbye Columbus, Diary of a Mad Housewife, He and She, Portnoy’s Complaint, Love at First Bite, The Sunshine Boys, Westworld; director: The Money Pit, Little Nikita, Made in America, Milk Money)
1938 - Frank Converse (actor: Brother Future, Tales of the Unexpected, Home at Last, Cruise into Terror, N.Y.P.D., Movin’ On, The Family Tree, Coronet Blue, Dolphin Cove)
1938 - Susan Strasberg (actress: The Marriage, Toma, Picnic, Rollercoaster, Delta Force; died Jan 21, 1999)
1939 - Larry Siegfried (basketball: Boston Celtics)
1939 - Paul Winfield (actor: Tyson, Breathing Lessons, Carbon Copy, Cliffhanger, Dennis the Menace, Presumed Innocent, Sounder, The Terminator, Star Trek 2; died Mar 7, 2004)
1940 - Michael Sarrazin (actor: Lena’s Holiday, They Shoot Horses Don’t They, The Reincarnation of Peter Proud, The Flim Flam Man, For Pete’s Sake, Mascara, The Seduction)
1940 - Mick Tingelhoff (football: Minnesota Vikings center: All-Pro team [1964, 65, 66, 67, 68, 68])
1942 - Barbara Parkins (actress: Peyton Place, Captains and the Kings, Valley of the Dolls, Calendar Girl Murders, The Deadly Trap)
1943 - Tommy (Thomas Edward) John (baseball: pitcher: Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox [all-star: 1968], LA Dodgers [World Series: 1977, 1978/all-star: 1978], NY Yankees [all-star: 1979, 1980/World Series: 1981], California Angels, Oakland Athletics)
1950 - Bernie Taupin (lyricist: Your Song, Friends, Rocket Man, Honkey Cat, Crocodile Rock, Daniel, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me; Elton John’s lyricist)
1951 - Patricia Brennan born in Streator, IL
1955 - Iva Davies (musician: guitar, singer: group: Icehouse)
1959 - Morrissey (Stephen Morrissey) (singer: group: The Smiths: Hand in Glove, This Charming Man, What Difference Does It Make, Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now, William It Was Really Nothing, Reel Around the Fountain, Suffer Little Children, Bigmouth Strikes Again, That Joke isn’t Funny Anymore, Shakespeare’s Sister, Boy with the Thorn in His Side, The Queen is Dead, Frankly Mr. Shankly, Cemetry Gates)
1970 - Naomi Campbell (model; writer: Swan; actress: Miami Rhapsody)
Other important events on this date throughout history:
1906 Wright Brothers patent an aero plane
1909 1st San Francisco fireboat, David Scannell, launched
1911 Braves pitcher, Cliff Curtis, loses his 23rd game in a row
1915 Local train collides with troop train killing 226 (Gretna Scotland)
1916 French troops occupy parts of Fort Douaumont Verdun
1923 Stanley Baldwin succeeds Andrew Bonar Law as British premier
1924 In Chicago, Nathan Leopold & Richard Loeb kidnap Robert Franks
1926 "Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue" by Gene Austin hits #1
1926 Chiang Kai-shek replaces communists in Guomindang China
1927 8.3 earthquake strikes Nan-Shan China, 200,000 killed
1927 Dodgers beat Phillies, 20-4
1928 US Congress accept Jones-White Merchant Naval Act
1930 Ruth hits 3 consecutive homeruns (8th-10th of 60 in 1930)
1930 Yankee "Bronx Bombers" hit 14 homeruns in a game
1931 Canned rattlesnake meat 1st goes on sale in Florida
1933 Loch Ness Monster is 1st reportedly sighted by John Mackay
1933 World Trade Day/National Maritime Day 1st celebrated
1938 Dodgers announce contracts to install lights at Ebbets Field
1939 Hitler & Mussolini sign "Pact of Steel"
1940 Dutch Premier De Geer begins working with Nazis
1940 Prime Minister Winston Churchill flies to Paris
1941 British troops attack Baghdad
1942 México declares war on Nazi-Germany & Japan
1943 1st jet fighter is tested
1943 RAF scatters 1st copies of "The Flying Hollander"
1943 Stalin disbands Komintern
1945 6th Marine division reaches suburbs of Naha Okinawa
1945 NSB-Führer Rost van Tonningen attempts & fails at suicide
1946 Yankees turn triple-play & defeat Tigers' 5-3
1947 "Truman Doctrine" goes into effect, aiding Turkey & Greece
1947 1st US ballistic missile fired
1950 Celal Bayar elected president of Turkey
1950 Dutch poet Gerrit Achterberg wins PC Hooft prize
1950 Richard Strauss' "4 Last Songs" (4 letzte Lieder) in London
1951 Patricia Lynn Brennan born in Streator, Illinois
1953 President Eisenhower signs Offshore Oil Bill
1953 Yankee Irv Noren hits into a triple-play, Yankees beat Washington 12-4
1954 80th Preakness: Johnny Adams aboard Hasty Road wins in 1:57.4
1954 KREX TV channel 5 in Grand Junction CO (CBS) begins broadcasting
1954 Robert Zimmerman aka Bob Dylan is Bar Mitzvahed
1955 Oldest man to drive in the Grand Prix (aged 55) finishes 6th
1956 "Bob Hope Show" last airs on NBC-TV
1956 KRIS TV channel 6 in Corpus Christi TX (NBC) begins broadcasting
1957 KBTX TV channel 3 in Bryan TX (CBS) begins broadcasting
1957 Red Sox set American League record by smashing 4 homeruns in 6th inning in 11-0 win
1957 South Africa Government approves race separation in universities
1959 Benjamin O Davis Jr becomes 1st black general-major in USAF
1960 Virtually all coastal towns between 37th & 44th parallels severely damaged by tsunami that strikes Hilo HI at 01:04 AM
1961 "Mother-In-Law" by Ernie K-Doe hits #1
1961 "Touchables In Brooklyn" by Dickie Goodman hits #42
1961 1st revolving restaurant (Top Of The Space Needle in Seattle), opens
1962 14th Emmy Awards: Bob Newhart Show, E G Marshall & Shirley Booth
1962 Netherlands telephone net becomes completely automated
1962 Robert A Rushworth, USAF major, takes X-15 to 30,600 meters
1962 Roger Maris walks 5 times (record 4 intentionally) in a 9 inning game
1963 Mickey Mantle hits a ball off Yankee Stadium's facade
1964 LBJ presents "Great Society"
1965 "Super-cali-fragil-istic-expi-ali-docious" hits #66
1965 Beatles' "Ticket to Ride" single goes #1
1966 18th Emmy Awards: Fugitive, Dick Van Dyke & Mary Tyler Moore
1967 "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" debuts on NET (now PBS)
1967 Egyptian president Nasser closes Straits of Tiran to Israel
1967 Fire at L'Innovation department store kills 322 (Brussels, Belgium)
1968 Pittsburgh Pirate Willie Stargell hits 3 homeruns, a double & a single
1969 Stafford & Cernan pilot Apollo 10 LEM 9.4 miles (15km) above lunar surface
1970 Arab terrorists kill 9 children & 3 adults on a school bus
1970 Mel Stottlemyre sets record by walking 11, but wins 2-0
1972 US President Nixon begins visit Moscow
1973 Emmy News & Documentaries Award presentation
1973 President Nixon confesses his role in Watergate cover-up
1974 Ruffian begins her racing career as a filly & dies 14 months later
1974 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1975 8th ABA Championship: Kentucky Colonels beat Indiana Pacers, 4 games to 1
1976 NASA launches space vehicle S-179
1976 St Louis Cardinal Reggie Smith hits 3 homeruns
1977 Final European scheduled run of the Orient Express (94 years)
1977 Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Coca-Cola Golf Classic
1977 Red Sox (6) & Brewers (5) tie single game homerun record of 11
1979 Canadians elect conservatives, Joseph Clark replaces Pierre Trudeau
1980 Marlo Thomas & Phil Donahue marry
1981 Soyuz 40 returns to Earth
1983 Toronto Blue Jay Cliff Johnson hits record 18th pinch hit homerun
1985 Pete Rose 2,108th run passes Hank Aaron as National League run scoring leader
1985 US sailor Michael L Walker arrested for spying for USSR
1987 30 killed in a Texas tornado
1990 Andre Dawson sets record being intentionally walked 5 times
1990 Dow Jones average hits a record 2,852.23
1990 Microsoft releases Windows 3.0
1991 NFL Owners agree to add 2 teams in 1994
1992 California Angels are involved in a bus crash in New Jersey
1992 Johnny Carson's final appearance as host of the Tonight Show
1993 Riddick Bowe TKOs Jesse Ferguson in 2 for heavyweight boxing title
1994 Toronto NBA franchise unveils name "Raptors" & logo
1995 Laverne & Shirley 20th anniversary reunion special, televised
1996 Emmy 23rd Daytime Award presentation - Susan Lucci loses for 16th time
Just a couple of thoughts I had.
BRUCE A. BRENNAN
DEKALB, IL 60115
COPYRIGHT 2011
VISIT ANY OF THE SITES LISTED FOR REVIEW, RESEARCH, ORDERING MY WRITING PRODUCTS OR TO CONTACT ME.
Go to web sites below to buy books by Bruce A. Brennan. It is still a good time to purchase any of my books. The books are interesting and inexpensive reads. My third book should be available later this year, in late 2011. More information will be forthcoming.
Book Titles:
Holmes the Ripper
A Revengeful Mix of Short Fiction
"Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product." - Eleanor Roosevelt
