Author Archives: dcaligari

June 19 –It is a great art to saunter – Henry David Thoreau Today is known as World Sauntering Day, sometimes referred to as International Sautering Day. Created by W.T. Rabe in response to the jogging craze; it was his thought that the day would be a reminder to slow down.

June 18, 1977 –Fleetwood Mac’s third single from their album Rumours, Dreams, hit the no. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100. Dreams sold more than one million copies and was the band’s only No. 1 hit. Stevie Nicks recalled to The Daily Mail October 16, 2009: “I remember the night I wrote ‘Dreams.’ IContinue reading “Dreams topped the charts”

June 18, 1948 – Goodbye to our old 78’s A CBS employee named Edward Wallerstein walked into a room at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York with Goddard Lieberson, the president of Columbia Records and publicly unveiled its new long-playing phonograph record, the 33 1/3, on this date. Unlike the standard 10-inch 78 rpm record,Continue reading “Just take those old records off the shelf”

June 18, 1969 –Sam Peckinpah’s violent western elegy, The Wild Bunch, premiered on this date. Robert Ryan’s incessant complaints about not receiving top billing so annoyed director Sam Peckinpah that he decided to “punish” Ryan. In the opening credits, after freezing the screen on closeups of William Holden’s and Ernest Borgnine’s faces while listing them,Continue reading “The Wild Bunch premiered”

June 18, 1956 –The pilot episode for the quiz show To Tell the Truth premiered on CBS on this date. The series debuted on CBS on December 18, 1956. The series outlasted most of the others of the period, especially after the 1958 quiz-show scandal, partly because every contestant was supposed to be untrustworthy.

European history would have been dramatically different if only for a higher fiber diet. One of the most decisive battles in the history of Europe was fought in Belgium on June 18, 1815, as a resurgent Napoleon Bonaparte launched his last military offensive against the Duke of Wellington and the Prussian Marshal Blücher. Nearly 50,000Continue reading “It all connected (and yes, this will all be on the test.)”

June 18, 1971 – The Nike “swoosh” logo was created in 1971 by a graphic design student Carolyn Davidson and was purchased by Blue Ribbon for $35. The intention was to convey motion in its design. it was first used by Nike on this date. (She was later given around 500 shares in the companyContinue reading “With a flick of a pen”

June 17, 1976 –Mel Brooks’ very silly send up of Silent Films, Silent Movie, starring Mel Brooks, Dom DeLuise, Marty Feldman, Bernadette Peters and Sid Caesar opened in the US on this date. The movie features the first onscreen pairing of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft, who dance a tango together. The couple were marriedContinue reading “Silent Movie premiered”

June 17, 1987 –A late Kubrick masterpiece, Full Metal Jacket, was released on this date. One of the scenes cut from the movie was a scene that showed a group of Marines playing soccer. The scene was cut because a shot revealed they were not using a soccer ball, but a human head.

June 17, 1950 – The Disassociated Press sent a reporter to get Bug Bunny’s life story in What’s Up Doc?, which was released on this date. Bugs‘ classic catchphrase is shown in this film to have been originally an accident. It came from Bugs after he pied Elmer in the face and bonked him onContinue reading “What’s Up Doc (the cartoon) premiered”