Author Archives: dcaligari

April 7, 1970 –John Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy won the Oscar for Best Picture on this date. It remains the only X-rated film to win an Academy Award. The film was rated “X” (no one under 17 admitted) upon its original release in 1969, but the unrestricted use of that rating by pornographic filmmakers caused theContinue reading “Midnight Cowboy premiered”

April 7, 1927 –An audience in New York saw an image of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover in the first successful long-distance demonstration of television. Hoover’s image and voice were transmitted across telephone lines. Edna Mae Horner, an operator at the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company, assisted the transmission and became the first woman on television.Continue reading “First demonstration of long distance TV broadcast”

April 7, 1933 –While it is not actual a national holiday, in March of 1933, President Roosevelt signed the Cullen–Harrison Act allowing the sale of beer once again with the proviso, the beer remain no more than 3.2% alcohol by weight, the first legal alcohol allowed since Prohibition began in 1919. On this date, theContinue reading “Today is also National Beer Day.”

April 7, 1939 –That little old Italian wine maker, Francis Ford Coppola, (who is also a magazine publisher and hotelier) was born on this date. Like Martin Scorsese, Coppola was a sickly youth, a case of polio which allowed him time to indulge in puppet theater and home movies. Demand Euphoria!

April 6, 1971 –The Rolling Stones held a party in Cannes to unveil the launching of Rolling Stone Records on this date. The record label was created to promote the hits of The Rolling Stones. The famous Stones trademark, the lips logo, became widely used. Brown Sugar was the first hit by the Rolling StonesContinue reading “The Stones iconic logo”

April 6, 1909 –A team lead by Robert E. Peary, Matthew A. Henson and four Inuit team members become the first men to reach the North Pole on this date. Arctic explorer Frederick A. Cook claims to have discovered the North Pole a year earlier, but the assertion will later be disproved. They established “CampContinue reading “Reaching the North Pole (or not)”

Today is National Caramel Popcorn Day – enjoy! It’s also Sorry Charlie Day. The day is dedicated to remind us that we have all been rejected, and yet somehow survived it. Celebrate this day by taking a minute to remember a past rejection. After doing this, be happy and realize the fact, that most ofContinue reading “Candied coated popcorn, peanuts and a prize”

April 6, 1967 – The Star Trek episode The City on the Edge of Forever premiered on this date. It has been considered the best episode of the series by fans, critics, and crew alike. Gene Roddenberry apparently denied Harlan Ellison’s pseudonym request because he knew everyone in the science fiction community was aware thatContinue reading “The City on the Edge of Forever premiered”

We had a Friday night tradition in our house of ‘Family Movie Night‘ and a big hit with my kids was caramel popcorn (now a big hit with my kids is staying out all hours of the night, doing God knows what, but I digress….) While the kids would be choosing the movie I wouldContinue reading “Caramel Popcorn (made somewhat easy)”

April 5, 1965 –The first motion lamp was designed in 1963 by an engineer, Edward Craven Walker, who sold it under the name Astro Lamp. In 1965, two American entrepreneurs, Adolph Wertheimer and William M. Rubinstein, saw the lamp displayed at a German trade show and were in awe at its beauty. They bought theContinue reading “Happy Lava Lamp Day”