Author Archives: dcaligari

February 20, 1971 –An erroneous warning is emitted on the Emergency Broadcast System causing a number of stations to go off the air (for more than 30 minutes,) and others to completely ignore the alert (thus pointing out that many key stations would not react to any emergency broadcast over the system.) So remember (asContinue reading “EBS system failure”

February 20, 1829 –The Yuengling Brewery opened in Pottsville Pennsylvania, on this date. It is the oldest brewery still operating in the U.S. And so it goes

February 20, 1970 –The Plastic Ono Band released the single Instant Karma! in the US, on this date. George Harrison played guitar and Billy Preston played piano on this song.

Car manufacturer Volkswagen makes sausages. Volkswagen’s currywurst is currently in its 47th year of production. VW estimates that it produces about 18,000 sausages a day. The automaker makes its pork sausages at it’s autoplant in Wolfsburg Germany, and it’s wildly popular — VW made 6.8 million currywursts in 2017, which is higher than the numberContinue reading “So one uses gas, the other gives you gas”

In the presidential election of 1800, Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson drew to a tie. The House of Representatives broke the tie by throwing their weight behind Jefferson, making him president, on February 17, 1801. Burr was given the vice-presidency as either a consolation prize or a practical joke. Like most other people, Vice-President BurrContinue reading “In case that random call for $10,000 comes your way”

February 19, 1986 –The Soviets launched the first part of space station Mir, (the orbiting laboratory–the main module that included the crew quarters, with airlocks for docking and more,) and with it, a new phase in space exploration, on this date. Mir, which means both peace and world in Russian, would provide the home baseContinue reading “The launch of Mir”

February 19, 1473 –Nicolaus Copernicus (or Mikolaj Kopernik or Nicolaus Koppernigk – apparently he was running some sort of ponzi scheme at an early age and was giving different names to different people) was born in Poland on this date. He stated an early theory that the Earth and the planets move around the SunContinue reading “Call the men of science and let them hear this song …”

February 19, 1977 –Manfred Mann’s Earth Band’s cover of Bruce Springsteen’s Blinded By The Light hits #1 on the Billboard Charts in America, on this date. Manfred Mann’s version replaces the line “cut loose like a deuce” with “revved up like a deuce.” In their version, “Deuce” was commonly misheard as “Douche.” Springsteen’s original lineContinue reading “Blinded By The Light”

Badfinger was a British pop band signed to the Beatles‘ label Apple. One of their best songs was Without You which appeared on their second album No Dice. It was released as a single on November 9, 1970. Paul McCartney once described the ballad as “the killer song of all time“. Harry Nilsson started aContinue reading “(Sorry for this Earworm) –”

February 19, 1968 –Everyone’s favorite adult, Fred Rogers began telling everyone that It’s a beautiful year in the neighborhood when the national broadcast of his program, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood premiered on this date. Guests on the show were often surprised to find that although Rogers was just as gentle and patient in life as heContinue reading “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood premiered”