Interesting tidbits: 1858 – U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new transatlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. However, a weak signal forces a shutdown of the service in a few weeks. 1896 – Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack, and Dawson Charlie discover gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush. The Klondike Gold Rush was a migration by an estimated 100,000 prospectors to the Klondike region of the Yukon in north-western Canada between 1896 and 1899. Gold was discovered here on August 16, 1896 and, when news reached Seattle and San Francisco the following year, it triggered a stampede of would-be prospectors. The journey proved too hard to many and only between 30,000 and 40,000 managed to arrive. Only some 4,000 struck gold, and fewer actually became wealthy. The Klondike Gold Rush ended in 1899 after gold was discovered in Nome, prompting an exodus from the Klondike. 1898 - On this day a patent was issued for the Rollercoaster. This is commemorated each year as Rollercoaster Day. 1927 – The Dole Air Race began. It was a tragic air race across the Pacific Ocean from northern California to the Territory of Hawaii in August 1927. Of the 15-18 airplanes entered, eleven were certified to compete but three crashed before the race, resulting in three deaths. Eight eventually participated in the race, with two crashing on takeoff and two going missing during the race. A third, forced to return for repairs, took off again to search for the missing and was itself never seen again. In all, before, during, and after the race, ten lives were lost and six airplanes were total losses. Two of the eight planes successfully landed in Hawaii. 1930 – The first color sound cartoon, called Fiddlesticks, is made by Ub Iwerks. 1942 – The two-person crew of the U.S. naval blimp L-8 disappeared without a trace on a routine anti-submarine patrol over the Pacific Ocean. The blimp drifted without her crew and crash-landed in Daly City, California. The strange disappearance of the crew and subsequent drifting of the airship inspired her to be called The Mary Celest of the air. Todays birthday crew: 1884 – Hugo Gernsback, Luxembourg-American writer and publisher best known for publications including the first science fiction magazine. His contributions to the genre as publisher were so significant that, along with the novelists H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, he is one person sometimes called The Father of Science Fiction. In his honor, annual awards presented at the World Science Fiction Convention are named the Hugos. In 1925, Hugo founded radio station WRNY which broadcast from the 18th floor of The Roosevelt Hotel in New York City and was involved in the first television broadcasts. Before becoming involved with science fiction, Gernsback was an entrepreneur in the electronics industry, importing radio parts from Europe to the United States and helping to popularize amateur wireless. In April 1908 he founded Modern Electrics, the worlds first magazine about both electronics and radio. While the cover of the magazine itself contends it was a catalog, most historians note that it contained articles, features, and plotlines, qualifying it as a magazine. Under its auspices, in January 1909, he founded the Wireless Association of America, which had 10,000 members within a year. In 1912, Gernsback said that he estimated 400,000 people in the U.S. were involved in amateur radio. In 1913, he founded a similar magazine, The Electrical Experimenter, which became Science and Invention in 1920. It was in these magazines that he began including scientific fiction stories alongside science journalism—including his own novel Ralph 124C 41+ which he ran for 12 months from April 1911 in Modern Electrics. Gernsback founding the first magazine dedicated to to science fiction in 1926, Amazing Stories. The inaugural April issue comprised a one-page editorial and reissues of six stories, three less than ten years old and three by Poe, Verne, and Wells. He said he became interested in the concept after reading a translation of the work of Percival Lowell as a child. His idea of a perfect science fiction story was 75 percent literature interwoven with 25 percent science. He also played a key role in starting science fiction fandom, by publishing the addresses of people who wrote letters to his magazines. So, the science fiction fans began to organize, and became aware of themselves as a movement, a social force. This was probably decisive for the subsequent history of the genre. In 1929, he lost ownership of his first magazines after a bankruptcy lawsuit. There is some debate about whether this process was genuine, manipulated by publisher Bernarr Macfadden, or was a Gernsback scheme to begin another company. After losing control of Amazing Stories, Gernsback founded Wonder Stories, which Gernsback continued to publish until 1936, when it was sold to Thrilling Publications. Gernsback was noted for sharp (and sometimes shady) business practices, and for paying his writers extremely low fees or not paying them at all. H. P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith referred to him as Hugo the Rat. 1892 – Otto Messmer, American cartoonist and animator, best known for his work on the Felix the Cat cartoons and comic strip produced by the Pat Sullivan studio. The extent of Messmers role in the creation and popularity of Felix is a matter of ongoing dispute, particularly as he only laid his claim to the character after the death of Sullivan, who until that time had received the credit. However, most prominent comics and animation historians support Messmers claim, as do the veterans of the Sullivan studio. 1933 – Julie Newmar, American actress, singer, best known as Catwoman in the Batman television series. 1934 – Diana Wynne Jones, English author fantasy novels. One of her better-known works is Howls Moving Castle, made into an anime video by Hayao Miyazaki . 1960 – Timothy Hutton, American actor known for his starring role as Nero Wolfes assistant and leg-man Archie Goodwin in the A&E television series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001–2002). He also served as an executive producer, and directed several episodes of the series. 1991 – Evanna Lynch, Irish actress best know for playing Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter film series, appearing in four Harry Potter films and their tie-in video games. Happy birthday guys!
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 11:06:11 +0000
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