Today, 25th May 2014 in History! LEAD STORY On this day in 1977, Memorial Day weekend opens with an intergalactic bang as the first of George Lucas blockbuster Star Wars movies hits American theaters. The incredible success of Star Wars--it received seven Oscars, and earned $461 million in U.S. ticket sales and a gross of close to $800 million worldwide--began with an extensive, coordinated marketing push by Lucas and his studio, 20th Century Fox, months before the movies release date. It wasnt like a movie opening, actress Carrie Fisher, who played rebel leader Princess Leia, later told Time magazine. It was like an earthquake. Beginning with--in Fishers words--a new order of geeks, enthusiastic young people with sleeping bags, the anticipation of a revolutionary movie-watching experience spread like wildfire, causing long lines in front of movie theaters across the country and around the world. With its groundbreaking special effects, Star Wars leaped off screens and immersed audiences in a galaxy far, far away. By now everyone knows the story, which followed the baby-faced Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) as he enlisted a team of allies--including hunky Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and the robots C3PO and R2D2--on his mission to rescue the kidnapped Princess Leia from an Evil Empire governed by Darth Vader. The film made all three of its lead actors overnight stars, turning Fisher into an object of adoration for millions of young male fans and launching Fords now-legendary career as an action-hero heartthrob. Star Wars was soon a bona-fide pop culture phenomenon. Over the years it has spawned five more feature films, five TV series and an entire industrys worth of comic books, toys, video games and other products. Two big-screen sequels, The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and The Return of the Jedi (1983), featured much of the original cast and enjoyed the same success--both critical and commercial--as the first film. In 1999, Lucas stretched back in time for the fourth installment, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, chronologically a prequel to the original movie. Two other prequels, Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005) followed. The latter Star Wars movies featured a new cast--including Ewan McGregor, Liam Neeson, Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen--and have generally failed to earn the same amount of critical praise as the first three films. They continue to score at the box office, however, with Revenge of the Sith becoming the top-grossing film of 2005 in the United States and the second worldwide. AMERICAN REVOLUTION Constitutional Convention convenes in Philadelphia, 1787 AUTOMOTIVE Pennsylvania man buried with his beloved Corvette, 1994 CIVIL WAR Confederates score a victory at First Battle of Winchester, 1862 COLD WAR Chinese government removes ban on Shakespeare, 1977 CRIME President Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus during the Civil War, 1861 Oscar Wilde is sent to prison for indecency, 1895 DISASTER DC-10 crashes, killing all aboard, 1979 GENERAL INTEREST The English Restoration, 1660 Constitutional Convention begins, 1787 Catholic priest ordained in America, 1793 Worst air crash in U.S. history, 1979 HOLLYWOOD Star Wars released, 1977 LITERARY Thomas Mann visits the Lido in Venice, 1911 International best-selling thriller writer Robert Ludlum is born, 1927 MUSIC HMS Pinafore premieres in London, 1878 OLD WEST Grizzly bear is classified as a threatened species, 1975 PRESIDENTIAL JFK asks Congress to support the space program, 1961 SPORTS Babe Ruth hits last home run, 1935 VIETNAM WAR Communist launch new offensive, 1968 National Democratic Front formed in Saigon, 1969 WORLD WAR I Large-scale deportations of Armenians begin in Turkey, 1915 WORLD WAR II Operation Knights Move is launched, 1944
Posted on: Sun, 25 May 2014 03:03:29 +0000
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