Archive for February, 2009

On this day in 1983, Tennessee Williams died.

Williams died on February 24, 1983, after he choked on an eyedrop bottle cap in his room at the Hotel Elysee in New York. He would routinely place the cap in his mouth, lean back, and place his eyedrops in each eye.[4] The police report, however, suggested his use of drugs and alcohol contributed to his death. Many toxic drugs were found in the room. Williams’ gag response may have been diminished by the effects of drugs and alcohol.

Williams’ funeral took place on Saturday March 3, 1983 at St. Malachy’s Roman Catholic Church in New York City. Williams’ body was interred in the Calvary Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri. Williams had long told his friends he wanted to be buried at sea at approximately the same place as the poet Hart Crane, as he considered Crane to be one of his most significant influences.

Williams left his literary rights to The University of the South in honor of his grandfather, Walter Dakin, an alumnus of the university. It is located in Sewanee, Tennessee. The funds support a creative writing program. When his sister Rose died after many years in a mental institution, she bequeathed over 50 million dollars from her part of the Williams estate to The University of the South as well.

In 1989, the University City Loop (in a suburb of St. Louis) inducted Tennessee Williams into its St. Louis Walk of Fame.

I remember hearing the news that Tennessee Williams had died I was busy re-arranging furniture and I was just getting ready to move the tv stand when the news came over the radio.

On this day in 1956, Elvis Presley entered the music charts for the first time as Heartbreak Hotel began it’s climb to number 1.

On this day in 1916, the Battle of Verdun started.

The Battle of Verdun was one of the most critical battles in World War I on the Western Front. It was fought between the German and French armies, from 21 February to 15 December 1916, on hilly terrain north of the city of Verdun-sur-Meuse in northeastern France. The Battle of Verdun ended with a French victory as the German assailants failed to capture Verdun and were pushed back to their initial starting lines, on the right bank of the Meuse river, by December 1916. They also lost, in August 1917, what was left of their 1916 advances on the left bank of the Meuse river.

1916, 1917, or 1997, I have always had trouble with conversion rate optimization. Of course the Battle of Verdun has nothing to do with that, I just wanted you to know that.

On this day in 2001, Dale Earnhardt died in a crash on the last lap of the Daytona 500.

On this day in 1954, Doris Day sang “Secret Love” all the way to #1 on the charts.

On this day in 1564, Galileo was born in Pisa, Italy.

Italian natural philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician who made fundamental contributions to the sciences of motion, astronomy, and strength of materials and to the development of the scientific method. His formulation of (circular) inertia, the law of falling bodies, and parabolic trajectories marked the beginning of a fundamental change in the study of motion. His insistence that the book of nature was written in the language of mathematics changed natural philosophy from a verbal, qualitative account to a mathematical one in which experimentation became a recognized method for discovering the facts of nature. Finally, his discoveries with the telescope revolutionized astronomy and paved the way for the acceptance of the Copernican heliocentric system, but his advocacy of that system eventually resulted in an Inquisition process against him.

On this day in 1867, the Blue Danube Waltz was played for the first time at a public concert.

On this day in 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born.

Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th President of the United States. He successfully led the country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, preserving the Union and ending slavery. As the war was drawing to a close, Lincoln became the first American president to be assassinated. Before his election in 1860 as the first Republican president, Lincoln had been a lawyer, an Illinois state legislator, a member of the United States House of Representatives, and twice an unsuccessful candidate for election to the U.S. Senate.

As an outspoken opponent of the expansion of slavery in the United States, Lincoln won the Republican Party nomination in 1860 and was elected president later that year. His tenure in office was occupied primarily with the defeat of the secessionist Confederate States of America in the American Civil War. He introduced measures that resulted in the abolition of slavery, issuing his Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and promoting the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which passed Congress before Lincoln’s death and was ratified by the states later in 1865.

On this day in 1942, Glenn Miller received the first ever gold record of Chattanooga Choo Choo

You can find out more about this day in history at the History Channel, Those Were The Days, and InfoPlease.

On this day in 1964, the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show.