QUIZ: Who are these men? Mark Osborne, Carlos Saldanha, Eric Leighton, Lee Unkrich, Kelly Asbury, Stephen Anderson?

Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: Who are these men? Yakima Canutt, Al Leong, Richard Farnsworth
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History for 1/5/2008
Birthdays: Zebulon Pike, Stephen Decatur, Alven Ailey,J. Stuart Blackton (the first American animator, born in Lincolnshire, England ), W.D. Snodgrass, Jack Norworth -composer of " Take Me out to the Ballgame'Umberto Ecco, Yves Tanguy, George Reeves,Roger Spottiswoode, Hiyao Miyazaki, Robert Duval is 77, Dianne Keaton is 62, Spanish King Juan Carlos

1643- The first divorce granted in North America. Pilgrim Anne Clarke was granted a divorce by the Massachusetts Bay Colony from her deadbeat husband Dennis.

1757- A man named Robert Damiens attacked French King Louis XV and stabbed him. It was a flesh wound that Voltaire described as a pin-prick. The king survived and the court sentenced Damiens to the most horrible death they could think of, the medieval punishment for regicides. Nobody had done it for generations so the court executioner, Charles Samson, had to consult the history books. Hmm...Drawing and quartering....cut off assailants hands and stick stumps in pan of burning sulfur...uh-huh..got it! The execution was so ghastly that the witnesses fled, the executioner fainted and his assistants had to finish the job. Damiens believed he was doing it for the people but unfortunately he was 32 years too early for the Revolution.

1825- Writer Alexander Dumas fought a duel with the Chevalier Saint George, a black Creole from Martinique who played violin so well he helped Beethoven write his Violin Concerto. Neither man was seriously hurt and Dumas went on to write the Three Musketeers. Saint George also once fought a duel with the enigmatic Monsieur d’Eon, a transvestite who fought his duels in a womens’ ballgown.

1836- Davy Crocket crossed into Texas.

1895-Today was the famous scene of after Captain Albert Dreyfus was framed for espionage he was publicly humiliated in the courtyard of the Ecole Militaire in Paris. He was stripped of his insignia and his sword broken. As he was marched off to prison he shouted aloud “Citizens of France I am Innocent!”

1896- A Vienna newspaper announced the invention by Dr. Wilhelm Roentgen of a machine that produces "X-Rays" to see inside the body. In England, scientist Lord Kelvin, who invented the Celsius temperature scales, declared x-rays a " ridiculous hoax "

1896- The New York World began printing the Yellow Kid comic strip with a yellow color on his shirt. The strip gave the name to the sensationalist tabloid press 'Yellow Journalism".



1914- The Ford Motor Company shocked the captains of American Industry by raising it’s wage rates for work shift from $2.40 a day to $5.00 a day and adopting the new 8 hour work day. Henry Ford’s idea was “when workers have more money they buy cars”. The idea worked and sales of cars quadrupled and the economic climate of Detroit boomed. I wonder what Henry Ford would have thought of today’s companies who lay off thousands of workers and move plants overseas to make their stock rise, then seem perplexed by the stagnant rate of consumer spending?

1921- Famous Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton was preparing one last expedition to the South Pole. This day on his ship anchored in South Georgian Island Bay, he complained he felt ill. He said to his doctor “Oh, what do you want me to give up now?” then he fell over dead of a heart attack. He was 47.

1924- William Chrysler introduced his first automobile featuring an all steel chassis frame instead of wood. He created it for the failing Maxwell Car Company and in 1925 changed the name to the Chrysler Car Company.

1925- Nellie Taylor Ross was inaugurated as the Governor of Wyoming, the first woman to hold such an office.

1933- First day of construction on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.

1933- Calvin Coolidge died peacefully. The laconic Coolidge was so low key and stand offish that he was a favorite target for political writers. H.L.Mencken said "Being fanatical for Coolidge is like being fanatical for double entry Bookkeeping". Will Rogers said:" The convention nominating Coolidge was so dull there was a call to open up the Churches early to liven things up". Dorothy Parker had the final word. When told that Coolidge had died she replied:"How could you tell?"..

1934- Both the American and National Baseball Leagues agreed upon a standard size for a baseball.

1953- Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot ( En attendant Godot ) first premiered in Paris.

1959- Buddy Holly released his last single,” It Doesn’t Matter Anymore.”

1959- The first Bozo the Clown TV show premiered on TV. Capitol Records producer Alan Livingston had created the clown in 1946 for some novelty records Bozo at the Circus. The name Bozo came from a 1916 slang term for train-riding hobo. Pinto Colvig, the voice actor who created Goofy for Disney.s was the first voice. In the 1950s one of the actors hired to play Bozo named Larry Harmon invented the TV show and became the national version of the famous children’s clown.


1961- “Hello Wilbur” Mr Ed the Talking Horse appeared on tv for the first time.

1968- A Boston grand jury indicted famous baby doctor Benjamin Spock for conspiring to abet violation of draft laws. The great scientist had come out as a vocal opponent of U.S. participation in the Vietnam War.

1970- Soap opera “ All My Children” premiered.

1979- EMI Records ended their contracts with the punk band the Sex Pistols. They felt their outrageous behavior had gone just too far.

1980- The first Hewlett Packard Personal Computer or PC goes on the market.

1998-At the Heavenly Valley Ski Resort former pop singer turned Neocon Congressman Sonny Bono died, when he skied headlong into a tree.
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Yesterday’s Quiz: Who are these men? Yakima Knutt, Al Leong, Richard Farnsworth

Answer: Hollywood stuntmen. Farnsworth in later life became a movie star in films like the Grey Fox and The Natural.