Ant Farmer's Almanac

Today in Yesteryear

1675: Cornelia/Dina Olfaarts found not guilty of witchcraft in exchange for her promise to change her last name.

1851: Gail Borden announces his invention of evaporated milk.

1865: By a vote of 121 to 24, Congress passes the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery in America; at least those states still in the Union at this point. 

1871: Millions of birds fly over San Francisco, darkening the sky, presumably on their way north to Bodega Bay...

1874: Jesse James gang robs train at Gads Hill, Missouri.

1911: Congress designates San Francisco as the site for the Panama Canal opening celebration; not wanting to pass on hosting a big party, locals refrain from pointing out that the Panama Canal is "not really anywhere near San Francisco."

1928: Scotch tape first marketed by 3-M Company.

1936: The Green Hornet premieres on WXYZ radio, Detroit, Michigan.

1948: The Magnetic tape recorder is developed by the Wireway company; the machine's ability to stay on refrigerator doors becomes a huge selling point.

1949: The first daytime soap on TV These Are My Children, premieres.

1957: Liz Taylor's second divorce (Michael Wilding).

1958: Jackpot Bowling, hosted by Leo Durocher, premieres. Yes, this really happened. We are not making it up. We're only surprised it hasn't come back; I mean, a couple of years ago we were watching a TV show on which celebrities played poker. 

1969: The Beatles perform their last live gig, a filmed 42-minute concert on the roof of Apple HQ that results in the neighbors calling the cops.

1971: My Sweet Lord, from George Harrison's triple album All Things Must Pass, hits #1 on UK pop charts. Its popularity doesn't pass for what seems like a very, very long time. 

1974: McDonald's founder Ray Kroc buys the San Diego Padres; players can now make extra money in the off-season flipping burgers.

1990: McDonald's opens its first fast-food restaurant in Moscow.

Today's Birthdays!

1797 Franz Schubert; 1882 Anna Pavlova; 1903 Tallulah Bankhead; 1923 Norman Mailer; 1937 Philip Glass, Suzanne Pleshette; 1938 Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands; 1959 Anthony LaPaglia, Kelly Lynch.

In Memorium

Milton M. Levine, the man who invented the ant farm, has died at the age of 92. RIP, Mr. Levine, without you, this site would probably have some really silly name.

This Week on "60 Minutes," Julian Assange. But First, a Few Words from Andy Rooney...

There's been a lot of talk about wikileaks, lately. I don't know what a wiki is, exactly, but I'm pretty if you've got one that leaks, there's probably something wrong with it.  

Are wikis anything like tikis? We used to have tiki torches around our patio... I don't know what happened to them... we probably put them in a shed someplace when they ran out of whatever it was they burned. It didn't smell bad, so I don't think it was kerosene, but it didn't smell nice, either, like citronella; you know, to keep bugs away. 

Come to think of it, when we had those tiki torches, we'd drink something called a "Wiki Waki Woo". It was pretty tasty. Very fruity, if I remember right. You wouldn't want it to leak. That would be an awful waste of whatever's in it. Rum, I think. Are these wikis anything like them? I sure hope so.

I just don't want one that leaks.

Today in Yesteryear

1547 After six wives and 38 years on the throne, King Henry VIII of England dies; of exhaustion, probably.

1860 Britain formally returns the Mosquito Coast to Nicaragua; they do not, however, return the mosquitos.

1914 The city of Beverly Hills, California, is incorporated.

1915 President Woodrow Wilson refuses to prohibit immigration of illiterates; so long as they can identify the name "Woodrow Wilson" on a voting ballot. 

1922 The American Pro Football Association renamed "National Football League."

1934 First U.S. ski tow (rope) begins operation in Woodstock, Vermont.

1965 The Who make their first appearance on British TV.

1967 The Rolling Stones release Let's Spend the Night Together.

1978 Fantasy Island, starring Ricardo Montalban premieres; on this same day, Ted Nugent autographs a fan's arm with his knife. We're pretty sure this was a coincidence.

1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after liftoff.

1998 Michelangelo's, Christ & the Woman of Samaria, sells for $7.4 million at Sotheby's auction house in New York. It would have cost even more with a nice frame.

Today's Birthdays!

1912 Jackson Pollock; 1929 Claes Oldenburg; 1936 Alan Alda; 1955 Nicolas Sarkozy: 1981 Elijah Wood.

Today in Yesteryear

1880: Thomas A. Edison receives a U.S. patent for the electric incandescent light bulb.

1888: National Geographic Society organized; appropriately enough, this happens in a doctor's office waiting room.

1918: Tarzan of the Apes, the first of the many, many Tarzan film, premieres.

1951: Peter Pan closes at the Imperial Theater in New York after 320 performances.

1951: Their demands having been met, the U.S. Air Force tests a one-kiloton atomic bomb at Frenchman Flats in the Nevada desert instead of at the Imperial Theater in New York.

1961: Sing Along with Mitch [Miller] premieres on TV.

1964: Margaret Chase Smith (Senator-R-ME) tries for the Republican Presidential bid. The RNC has a good laugh about it, then nominates Barry Goldwater.

1973: The U.S. and North Vietnam sign a cease-fire, effectively ending the Vietnam war and the need for a military draft; it also effectively ends Baby Boomers' interest in politics until they start paying taxes.  

1977: In its infinite, infallible and unassailable wisdom, the Vatican reiterates that the Roman Catholic Church does not allow women to enter the priesthood; or girls to be altar boys, or priest to marry... because that would be bad.

1992: Presidential candidate Bill Clinton and Gennifer Flowers accuse each other of lying over her assertion they had a 12-year affair; "It only felt like 12 years," insists Clinton, "Ya'll know what I mean, right fellas?"

1997: Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, opens at the Gershwin Theater in New York. Critics are split between "Loved him, hated her" and "Loved her, hated him." It runs for about a week.

 

Today's Birthdays!

1756 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; 1832 Lewis Carroll; 1850 Samuel Gompers; 1885 Jerome Kern; 1918 Skitch Henderson; 1936 Troy Donahue; 1957 Frank Miller; 1959 Keith Olbermann; 1964 Bridget Fonda.

Today in Yesteryear

66: The fifth recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.

1340: In what we can only assume was just some sort of wacky mixup, English King Edward III is proclaimed king of France.

1784: Ben Franklin expresses his unhappiness over the choice of the eagle as America's symbol. He'd been hoping for Duck a L'Orange.

1788: The first group of European settlers arrives in Australia where they discover that every single living thing in Australia is poisonous and can kill you just like that. 

1802: Congress passes an act calling for a U.S. Capitol library. That their representatives can read surprises many voters.

1838: Tennessee becomes first state to prohibit alcohol.

1875: Electric dental drill is patented. 

1930: Cleveland's Terminal Tower (52 stories) opens for business. It's still there; business... not so much.

1934: The Apollo Theatre opens in New York City.

1939: Filming begins on Gone With the Wind.

1954: Groundbreaking begins on Disneyland.

1956: The 7th Winter Olympic games open in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.

1956: Buddy Holly's first formal recording session.

1961: "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" by Elvis Presley hits #1.

1962: Bishop Burke of the Buffalo, New York Catholic dioceses declares Chubby Checker's "Twist" is "impure" and bans it from all Catholic schools.

1980: 175,000 pay to hear Frank Sinatra sing in Rio de Janeiro.

1980: Israel & Egypt establish diplomatic relations.

1988: Phantom of the Opera opens at Majestic Theater New York City NY for 4,000+ performances.

1989: U.S. computer security expert warns of catastrophic virus.

1995: Governor Christine Todd Whitman, dedicates a rest stop along the New Jersey Turnpike to Howard Stern. It is closed in 2003 because of budget cuts.

Today's Birthdays!

1880 Douglas MacArthur; 1918 Stephane Grappelli; 1925 Paul Newman; 1928 Philip Jose Farmer, Eartha Kitt, Roger Vadim; 1929 Jules Feiffer; 1935 Bob Uecker; 1942 Scott Glenn; 1946 Gene Siskel; 1950 David Strathairn; 1953 Lucinda Williams; 1957 Eddie Van Halen; 1958 Ellen DeGeneres.

Today in Yesteryear

1533: King Henry VIII of England secretly marries Anne Boleyn (she's No. 2 out of a total of Six).

1858: Mendelssohn's "Wedding March" is first played at a wedding (Queen Victoria's daughter to the crown prince of Prussia).

1863: General Joseph Hooker replaces Ambrose Burnside as head of Army of Potomac; soldiers start growing wacky facial hair but don't give up consorting with women of easy virtue.

1870: Soda fountain patented by Gustavus Dows.

1924: The 1000-meter 5-Man Bobsledding-While-Getting-Attacked-by-a-Giant-Bird event makes its first and only appearance at the inaugural Winter Olympic games in Chamonix, France. RIP guys.

1937: The soap opera Guiding Light premieres on radio.

1945: Grand Rapids, Michigan becomes the first U.S. city to fluoridate its water.

1947: Al Capone dies in prison at age 48.

1955: Columbia University scientists develop an atomic clock accurate to within one second in 300 years. Problem is, we don't know if it's a second fast or a second slow and we won't find out until 2255.

1959: American Airlines beings the first scheduled transcontinental U.S. passenger air service, featuring the new Boeing 707 jetliner.

1970: Robert Altman's movie M*A*S*H, premieres.

1980: Paul McCartney is released from a Tokyo jail and deported from Japan.

1985: The song "We are the World" is recorded. It is a huge success and there is no more trouble anywhere after that.

1993: Sears closes its closing its catalog department after 97 years. Sales of vintage Montgomery-Ward catalogues skyrocket among outhouse owners.

1994: Michael Jackson reaches an out-of-court settlement regarding a civil lawsuit that accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy.

Today's Birthdays!

1759 Robert Burns

1882 Virginia Woolf

1931 Dean Jones

1933 Corazón Aquino.

 

Today in Yesteryear

1656: The first Jewish doctor in U.S., Jacob Lumbrozo, arrives in Maryland. Every Jewish mother of unmarried daughters could just plotz.

1848: James Marshall finds gold in Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California.

1874: Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov, premieres in St Petersburg.

1888: Jacob L. Wortman of Philadelphia receives a U.S. patent for the typewriter ribbon.

1899: Rubber heel patented by Humphrey O'Sullivan.

1908: Robert Baden-Powell organizes the first Boy Scout troop in England.

1913: Franz Kafka stops working on his book, Amerika and it is never finished.

1922: The Eskimo Pie is patented by Christian K. Nelson. 

1924: The Russian city of St. Petersburg is renamed Leningrad. It is renamed back to St. Petersburg in 1991.

1935: The first canned beer, "Krueger Cream Ale," is sold by Kruger Brewing Co. of Richmond, Virginia.

1936: Benny Goodman & orchestra record Stompin' at the Savoy.

1962: Brian Epstein signs a management contract with the Beatles.

1962: Jackie Robinson is the first black player elected to Baseball Hall of Fame.

1984: Apple Computer unveils the Macintosh, the first personal computer with a graphical interface.

1994: Dow Jones closes above 3,900 (3,914.48) for first time.

 

Today's Birthdays!

1862 Edith Wharton; 1915 Ernest Borgnine; 1941 Neil Diamond, Aaron Neville; 1948 Elliott Abrams; 1949 John Belushi; 1960 Nastassja Kinski; 1968 Mary Lou Retton.

Today in Yesteryear

1793: King Louis XVI of France is beheaded.

1903: Stage version of the Wizard of Oz, premieres in New York City.

1903: Harry Houdini escapes police station in Amsterdam. This wasn't part of his act or anything, he was in for drunk and disorderly.

1908: New York City regulation makes it illegal for a woman to smoke in public.

1949: Harry Truman's inaugural parade is the first ever televised.

1950: Former State Department official Alger Hiss is found guilty of perjury.

1966: George Harrison marries Patti Boyd.

1976: On this day in history the supersonic airliner 'Concorde' begins regular commercial service.

1977: Presient Jimmy Carter provides a presidential pardon to most Vietnam War draft dodgers on this day in history.

1978: The Bee Gees' Saturday Night Fever album goes #1 and stays there for 24 weeks.

1987: BB King donates his 7,000 record collection to University of Mississippi.

1993: It was announced that Hillary Clinton would work out of a White House office near the Oval Office, an unprecedented move in first lady history.

1997: For the first time in its history, the U.S. House of Representatives votes to fine and reprimand the Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich (R-GA), for ethical misconduct over misleading congressional investigators looking into his possible misuse of tax-exempt donations for political purposes.

1998: President Bill Clinton denies reports of his affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky and that he influenced her to lie about it. Hillary wanting an office close by makes a lot more sense now, doesn't it?

Today's Birthdays!

1905 Christian Dior

1924 Telly Savalas,
Benny Hill

1926 Steve Reeves

1939 Wolfman Jack

1940 Jack Nicklaus

1941 Placido Domingo

1957 Geena Davis

Today in Yesteryear

1667: The Treaty of Andrussovo that ends a 13-year war between Russia and Poland results in Russia getting control of Kiev, Smolensk, and the eastern Ukraine and Poland getting much, much smaller.

1892: On this day in history the first officially recognized basketball game was played at the YMCA gym in Springfield, Mass.

1929: Filming begins on In Old Arizona, the first feature talking motion picture taken outdoors.

1930: The first radio broadcast of The Lone Ranger; this takes place inside a cozy sound studio in Detroit.

1936: Britain's King George V (Michael Gambon) dies and is briefly succeeded by Edward VIII (Guy Pearce); who is then succeeded by his younger brother Albert (Colin Firth) whose crippling stammer is cured by Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffery Rush). Oscar takes notice.

1937: Franklin Roosevelt, taking the oath of office for the second time is the first president sworn in on January 20, instead of March 4.

1949: J. Edgar Hoover gives Shirley Temple a fountain pen that shoots tear gas; she later uses it on Mr.-Grabby-Hands Darryl Zanuck at an Oscar night after-party.

1958: Elvis Presley receives his draft notice.

1961: John Kennedy is sworn in as U.S. president.

1964: Meet The Beatles is released in U.S.

1965: Lyndon Johnson sworn in as president.

1965: The Beatles appear on Shindig.

1969: Richard Nixon inaugurated as President.

1977: Jimmy Carter sworn in as president.

1980: President Carter announces U.S. boycott of Moscow Olympics.

1981: Ronald Reagan inaugurated as President. Later in the day, 52 American hostages were released by Iran after 444 days in captivity.

1986: England and France announce plans to build a tunnel under the English Channel, affectionately called the "Chunnel."

1989: George H.W. Bush inaugurated as President.

1993: Bill Clinton inaugurated as president.

2001: George W. Bush is inaugurated as president.

2009: Barack Obama, inaugurated as president.

Today's Birthdays!

1896 George Burns; 1920 Federico Fellini, DeForest Kelley; 1926 Patricia Neal; 1929 Arte Johnson; 1930 Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin; 1946 David Lynch; 1956 Bill Maher; 1970 Skeet Ulrich.

Today in Yesteryear

1770: Battle of Golden Hill (Lower Manhattan).

1886: Aurora Ski Club, the first ski club in U.S. is founded in Minnesota. 

1915: Neon Tube sign patented by George Claude.

1920: U.S. Senate votes against membership in League of Nations.

1922: Geological survey says U.S. oil supply would be depleted in 20 years.

1927: British government decides to send troops to China. We really have no idea why.

1955: The board game "Scrabble" debuts.

1955: President Eisenhower agrees to allow a presidential news conference to broadcast (but not live) on television for the first time; few tune in, they're too busy playing the new board game sensation, "Scrabble".

1971: Beatles' Helter Skelter is played at the Charles Manson trial. The defense insists upon a rebuttal playing of Sympathy for the Devil.

1985: Born In The USA by Bruce Springsteen peaked at #9.

1994: The coldest day (-20F, -29C) ever recorded in Cleveland, Ohio. And that's saying something. (Picture above is not of that coldest day, but of an August afternoon the year before described by locals as "kinda balmy".)

Today's Birthdays!

1736 James Watts;
1737 Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre; 1807 Robert E. Lee; 1809 Edgar Allan Poe; 1839 Paul Cézanne; 1921 Patricia Highsmith; 1923 Jean Stapleton; 1935 Tippi Hedren; 1938 Phil Everly; 1942 Shelly Fabares; 1943 Janis Joplin; 1946 Dolly Parton; 1954 Katey Sagal.