Interesting tidbits: 1835 – P. T. Barnum and his circus start their first tour of the United States. Barnum was a scam artist and entertainer, remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and for founding the circus that became the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. I personally find him to be one of the nineteenth centurys most fascinating characters. Barnum is widely but erroneously credited with coining the phrase Theres a sucker born every minute to describe his personal philosophy, Barnum purchased a museum that he used as a platform to promote hoaxes and human curiosities such as the Feejee mermaid and General Tom Thumb. On the other hand, in 1850 he promoted the American tour of singer Jenny Lind, paying her an unprecedented $1,000 a night for 150 nights. After economic reversals due to bad investments in the 1850s, and years of litigation and public humiliation, he used a lecture tour, mostly as a temperance speaker, to emerge from debt. His museum added Americas first aquarium and expanded the wax figure department. Barnum served two terms in the Connecticut legislature in 1865. With the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution over slavery and African-American suffrage, Barnum spoke before the legislature and said, A human soul, ‘that God has created and Christ died for,’ is not to be trifled with. It may tenant the body of a Chinaman, a Turk, an Arab or a Hottentot – it is still an immortal spirit. As mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut he worked to improve the water supply, bring gas lighting to streets, and to enforce liquor and prostitution laws. Barnum was instrumental in starting Bridgeport Hospital, founded in 1878, and was its first president. The circus business was the source of much of his enduring fame. He established P. T. Barnums Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan & Hippodrome, a traveling circus, menagerie and museum of freaks, which adopted many names over the years. Although he is best remembered as a con-artist who created the traveling circus, he also worked to improve the lives of the people. 1857 - James Gibbs of VA, patents the chain-stitch single-thread sewing machine. 1875 - Alexander Graham Bell makes the first sound transmission. 1896 – Guglielmo Marconi applies for a patent for his newest invention, the radio. Marconi is often credited as the inventor of radio, and he shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand Braun in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy. And he certainly did make it a commercial success. But, as the saying goes, he stood on the shoulders of giants. At the turn of the 20th century, Marconi began investigating the means to signal completely across the Atlantic, in order to compete with the transatlantic telegraph cables. Marconi established a wireless transmitting station at Marconi House, Rosslare Strand, Co. Wexford in 1901 to act as a link between Poldhu in Cornwall and Clifden in Co. Galway. He soon made the announcement that on 12 December 1901, using a 152.4-metre / 500 ft kite-supported antenna for reception, the message was received at Signal Hill in St Johns, Newfoundland from the new high-power station at Poldhu, Cornwall. The distance between the two points was about 3,500 kilometres / 2,200 mi. Heralded as a great scientific advance, there was — and continues to be — considerable skepticism about this claim. The exact wavelength used is not known, but it is fairly reliably determined to have been in the neighborhood of 350 meters. The tests took place at a time of day during which the entire transatlantic path was in daylight. We now know (although Marconi did not know then) that this was the worst possible choice. At this medium wavelength, long distance transmission in the daytime is not possible because of heavy absorption of the skywave in the ionosphere. It was not a blind test - Marconi knew in advance to listen for a repetitive signal of three clicks, signifying the Morse code letter S. The clicks were reported to have been heard faintly and sporadically. There was no independent confirmation of the reported reception, and the transmissions were difficult to distinguish from atmospheric noise. On 17 December 1902, a transmission from the Marconi station in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada, became the first radio message to cross the Atlantic from North America. In 1901, Marconi built a station near South Wellfleet, Massachusetts that on 18 January 1903 sent a message of greetings from Theodore Roosevelt, the President of the United States, to King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, marking the first transatlantic radio transmission originating in the United States. This station also was one of the first to receive the distress signals coming from the RMS Titanic. However, consistent transatlantic signalling was difficult to establish. It should be noted that the two radio operators aboard the Titanic — Jack Phillips and Harold Bride — were not employed by the White Star Line, but by the Marconi International Marine Communication Company. Todays birthday crew: 1915 – Walter Tetley, American voice actor and child impersonator in radios classic era, He is perhaps best known as the voice of Sherman in the Jay Ward-Bill Scott Mr. Peabody TV cartoons. Walters foray into voices for theatrical cartoons began as the voice of Felix the Cat, and later the voice of Andy Panda. In the late 50s and early 1960s, Walter would become the voice of Sherman, the nerdy, freckled, bespectacled boy sidekick of time-traveling dog genius Mr. Peabody, in the Peabodys Improbable History segments of Jay Wards The Rocky Show (also known as The Bullwinkle Show), which made its debut in 1959. 1927 – W. Watts Biggers, American author and animator, bast known as the co-creator of the Underdog TV series. He also created and produced a variety of animated TV series, including King Leonardo, The Hunter, Tooter Turtle, Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales, Go Go Gophers, The World of Commander McBragg, and Klondike Kat. For these series, Biggers co-wrote more than 500 scripts and composed all theme songs, words and music. 1971 – Anthony Montgomery, American actor best known for his portrayal of Ensign Travis Mayweather on the UPN science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise. 1977 – Zachary Quinto, American actor and producer played Spock in the 2009 reboot Star Trek, and its 2013 sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness. His casting as a young Spock in the J.J. Abrams-directed reimagining of the Star Trek film franchise was officially announced at the 2007 Comic-Con. Speaking alongside Leonard Nimoy at a press conference to promote the new Star Trek film, Quinto revealed that Nimoy had been given casting approval over who would play the role of the young Spock. For me Leonards involvement was only liberating, frankly, says Quinto. I knew that he had approval over the actor that would play young Spock, so when I got the role I knew from the beginning it was with his blessing. 1979 – Morena Baccarin, Brazilian actress best known for roles in several American science fiction television series: as Inara Serra in the series Firefly and the follow-up film Serenity; as Adria in the series Stargate SG-1 and the follow-up film Stargate: The Ark of Truth; and as Anna in the 2009 version of the series V. In February 2005, Baccarin provided the voice for Black Canary in multiple episodes of the animated series Justice League Unlimited. 1982 – Jewel Staite, Canadian actress best known as Kaylee Frye in Firefly and Serenity, and Dr. Jennifer Keller on Stargate Atlantis, making her the third actor from the Firefly series to move on to appear in a Stargate series (the first being Adam Baldwin, who had a brief role as a colonel in the Stargate SG-1 Season Seven episode Heroes, and the second being Morena Baccarin, who played Adria, the main villain in the tenth season of SG-1), and the second to take a recurring role. She replaced Paul McGillion (Dr. Carson Beckett). In the fifth season her character was changed from recurring status to part of the main cast. Before taking on the role as Dr. Keller she previously played the Wraith child Ellia in the Stargate Atlantis episode Instinct. She also appeared in the 2010 Sci-Fi film, Mothman. Staite appeared in an episode of Warehouse 13 as the wife of her characters Firefly love interest, Simon Tam, played by Sean Maher, as a shout-out to their unresolved story line. She also wrote a chapter in the book Finding Serenity, called Kaylee Speaks: Jewel Staite On Firefly. Happy birthday guys!
Posted on: Mon, 02 Jun 2014 11:01:27 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015