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May 7th, 2007 monday
May 7th, 2007

Birthday: Johannes Brahms, Peter Ilyich Tschaikowsky, Gary Cooper, Gabby Hayes, Robert Browning, Marcus Loew of Loews Theater chain, Darin McGavin, Edward Land (inventor of the Polaroid lens and camera), Bob Clampett, Amy Heckerling, Traci Lords
Happy Birthday Clampett!Bob Clampett 1913-1984

Greek Festival of the Birth of Apollo.

1904 - Flexible Flyer trademark registered

1914-Jesse Lasky, Cecil B. DeMille and partners formed Paramount Pictures.

1915- THE LUSITANIA- The Civilian oceanliner Luisitania was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20. 1,198 drowned, including many Americans. The Kaiser later gave a medal to the U-boat Captain Walter Schweige. These acts outraged American opinion and led us into World War I despite many pro-German immigrants. It was revealed in recent years that the reason Lusitania sank so quickly, just 18 minutes - even Captain Schweige was surprised- was that it's cargo hold was full of contraband explosives. First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill fought the German U-boat blockade by covertly transporting purchased American weapons on hospital ships, civilian ocean liners and let some British freighters illegally fly the flags of neutral countries. The German government knew that the Lusitania had been classified by the British admiralty a military cruiser. The German government apologized to the American government and stopped the unrestricted U-boat campaign for two years, but the Lusitania shifted neutral U.S. public sympathy irrevocably to the Franco-English side. Cartoonist Winsor McCay was moved to create a cartoon about the incident.


1926- Gangster Al Capone killed 3 of his men with a baseball bat over dinner.

1937-Nobel Prize winning writer William Faulkner hired by MGM Studios, earning $500 a week. He celebrated by going on a two week long drinking binge. When MGM's Head of Writing Sam Marx had him tracked down to an Oakie migrant camp in the Imperial Valley, he was dragged off boozily whining: " Ah only wanna write for Mickey Mouse !!"
Another time he requested that if he could work at home he would be more productive than in a studio environment. Marx agreed and Faulkner again disappeared. Finally after three weeks Marx got a telegram from Oxford, Mississippi.

1941-Glen Miller records the "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" for RCA. the first gold record million seller.

1942- Battle of the Coral Sea-The U.S. Navy, suffering only defeats up till then, stops a Japanese task force in the first battle between aircraft carriers. This is the first battle in which the two fleets never saw each other but fought long distance with airplanes. Veterans commented that one of the sadder losses was when the aircraft carrier Lexington went down she took the fleet's supply of 6 Bugs Bunny cartoons with her. War is Hell.

1966- “Monday Monday” by the Mammas and the Poppas becomes #1 in the pop charts.

1996- Comedian Martin Lawrence went berserk and ran down a main intersection in Van Nuys Cal. raving and waving a pistol. When asked to explain himself Lawrence blamed it on “Dehydration.”

1998- Apple Computers introduced the iMac.


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