03 March 2018 Interesting tidbits:

in #life7 years ago

Interesting tidbits:

1873 – Censorship in the United States: The U.S. Congress enacts the Comstock Law, making it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, or lascivious" books through the mail.

1875 – Georges Bizet's opera Carmen receives its première at the Opéra-Comique in Paris.

1875 – The first ever organized indoor game of ice hockey is played in Montreal, Canada as recorded in The Montreal Gazette.

1885 – The American Telephone & Telegraph Company is incorporated in New York.

1904 – Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany becomes the first person to make a sound recording of a political document, using Thomas Edison's phonograph cylinder.

1910 – Rockefeller Foundation: J.D. Rockefeller Jr. announces his retirement from managing his businesses so that he can devote all his time to philanthropy.

1913 – Thousands of women march in a suffrage parade in Washington, D.C.

1915 – NACA, the predecessor of NASA, is founded.

1931 – The United States adopts The Star-Spangled Banner as its national anthem.

1938 – The Mallard the fastest steam driven train on the planet, was built by LNER Doncaster Works England. The wind-tunnel-tested, aerodynamic body and high power allowed the mallard to set the world speed record for steam locomotives at 125.88 mph / 202.58 kph). Mallard's world record has never been officially exceeded by a steam locomotive. However, even as the Mallard set the speed record, steam locomotives were already obsolete. The following year, the world's first practical jet - the Heinkel He 178 - became the world's first aircraft to fly under turbojet power, and the first practical jet aircraft.

1951 – Jackie Brenston, with Ike Turner and his band, records "Rocket 88", often cited as "the first rock and roll record", at Sam Phillips' recording studios in Memphis, Tennessee.

1969 – Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 9 to test the lunar module.

2004 – Belgian brewer Interbrew and Brazilian rival AmBev agree to merge in a $11.2 billion deal that forms InBev, the world's largest brewer.

2005 – Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly an airplane non-stop around the world solo without refueling.

Today's birthday crew:

1831 – George Pullman, American engineer and businessman, founded the Pullman Company. He designed and manufactured the Pullman sleeping car and founded a company town, Pullman, for the workers who manufactured it. His Pullman Company also hired African-American men to staff the Pullman cars, who became known and widely respected as Pullman porters, providing elite service. Struggling to maintain profitability during an 1894 downturn in manufacturing demand, he lowered wages and required workers to spend longer hours at the plant, but did not lower prices of rents and goods in his company town. He gained presidential support by Grover Cleveland for the use of federal military troops in the violent suppression of workers there to end the Pullman Strike of 1894. A national commission was appointed to investigate the strike, which included assessment of operations of the company town. In 1898 the Supreme Court of Illinois ordered the Pullman Company to divest itself of the town, which was annexed and absorbed by Chicago, becoming a neighborhood.

1847 – Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish-American engineer, credited with inventing the Telephone.

1863 – Arthur Machen, Welsh actor and author.

1911 – Jean Harlow, American film actress and sex symbol of the 1930s.

1920 – James Doohan, Canadian-American actor best known for his role as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the television and film series Star Trek.

1920 – Ronald Searle, English illustrator (St Trinian's).

1923 – Doc Watson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist.

1958 – Miranda Richardson, English actress who played a comedic Queen Elizabeth I, aka Queenie, in the British television comedy Blackadder II. She returned in guest roles in one episode each in Blackadder the Third (1987) and Blackadder Goes Forth (1989). She returned to play Queenie in the Christmas special Blackadder's Christmas Carol (1988), and later a special edition for the millennium Blackadder: Back and Forth. In 2005, she appeared in the role of Rita Skeeter, the toxic Daily Prophet journalist in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

1985 – Toby Turner, American comedian, actor, and YouTube personality.

Happy birthday guys!