27 June 2017
Interesting tidbits:
1743 - During the Battle of Dettingen in Bavaria, King George II of Britain personally leads troops into battle. The last time a British monarch would command troops in the field.
1847 - New York and Boston linked by telegraph wires.
1895 – The inaugural run of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Royal Blue from Washington DC to New York was the first US passenger train to use electric locomotives. The B&O's use of electrification instead of steam power in a Baltimore tunnel on the Royal Blue Line, beginning in 1895, marked the first use of electric locomotives by an American railroad and presaged the dawn of practical alternatives to steam power. Spurred by intense competition from the formidable Pennsylvania Railroad, the dominant railroad in the lucrative New York to Washington market since the 1880s, the Royal Blue in its mid-1930s reincarnation was noted for a number of technological innovations, including streamlining and the first non-articulated diesel locomotive on a passenger train in the US, a harbinger of the steam locomotive's eventual demise.
1898 – Joshua Slocum completed the first single-handed circumnavigation of the world. He was a Nova Scotian born, naturalised American seaman and adventurer, and a noted writer. In 1900 he wrote a book about his journey Sailing Alone Around the World, which became an international best-seller. He disappeared in November 1909 while aboard his boat, the Spray.
1929 - The first color TV demonstration (NYC)
1954 – The world's first nuclear power station opens in Obninsk, near Moscow.
1971 – After only three years in business, rock promoter Bill Graham closes the Fillmore East in New York, New York, the "Church of Rock and Roll".
1982 – Space Shuttle Columbia launched from the Kennedy Space Center on the final research and development flight mission, STS-4.
1985 – The US Route 66 is closed. No, the road wasn't dug up or anything like that. It's still possible to drive from Chicago to CA, much of it one the originally designated road. But the designation is gone.
Today's birthday crew:
1838 – Paul Mauser, German weapon designer.
1869 – Emma Goldman, Lithuanian-American activist and writer.
1885 - Pierre Montet, French Egyptologist. Between 1929 and 1939, Montet excavated at Tanis, Egypt, finding the royal necropolis of the Twenty-first and Twenty-second Dynasties — the finds there almost equalled that of Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings. In the 1939-1940 Egypt excavation season, he discovered the completely intact tombs of 3 Egyptian pharaohs at Tanis: Psusennes I, Amenemope, and Shoshenq II along with the partially plundered tomb of Takelot I in Lower Egypt at Tanis. Fans of Indiana Jones will remember Tanis as part of the plot background.
1914 – Robert Aickman, English author (supernatural fiction).
1927 – Bob Keeshan, American actor (Captain Kangaroo).
1937 – Kirkpatrick Sale, American philosopher and political author.
1938 – Kathryn Beaumont, English voice actress and singer (Disney).
1941 – James P. Hogan, British science fiction author. Most of Hogan's fiction is hard science fiction that reflects anti-authoritarian social views and as such forms part of anarchist science fiction. Many of his novels promote the idea that new technological advances render certain social conventions obsolete. The melding of scientific and social speculation is clearly present in the novel Voyage from Yesteryear about a high-tech anarchist society in the Alpha Centauri system, a starship sent from Earth by a dictatorial government, and the events following their first contact. The story features concepts of civil disobedience, post scarcity and gift economy. In his later years, Hogan's views tended towards those widely considered "fringe" or pseudoscientific.
1951 – Julia Duffy, American actress (Newhart).
1956 – Scott Cunningham, American pagan author.
1959 – Dan Jurgens, American writer and illustrator best known for creating the superhero Booster Gold, and for his lengthy runs on the Superman titles The Adventures of Superman and Superman (vol. 2), particularly during "The Death of Superman" storyline. He was amongst the new creative talent running DC Comics' The New 52 relaunch in 2011, becoming the writer of the new Justice League International series with artist Aaron Lopresti and the artist of the new Green Arrow series with writer J. T. Krul and inker George Pérez. He became co-writer of Green Arrow with Keith Giffen on issues #4-6. DC announced in October 2011 that Jurgens will be returning to Superman, co-writing, as well as drawing, the self-titled Superman book with Keith Giffen. Their first issue was #7 (cover dated May 2012).
1975 – Tobey Maguire, American actor and film producer known for his role as Peter Parker / Spider-Man in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man film trilogy (2002–2007), and The Great Gatsby (2013).
1986 – Drake Bell, American singer-songwriter, musician, and actor (Superhero Movie).
1986 – Sam Claflin, English actor (The Hunger Games).
1989 – Matthew Lewis, English actor best known for playing Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter films.
Happy birthday guys!
