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August 22, 1989 –Nolan Ryan’s fifth inning strike out of Rickey Henderson, on this date, made him the first Major League Baseball pitcher to record 5,000 strikeouts. His 5,714 career strikeouts rank first in baseball history by a significant margin.

August 21, 1911 –Pablo Picasso was having a very bad day. His so called friend, French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who had once called for the Louvre to be “burnt down,” came under suspicion when the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Lourve on this day; he was arrested and put in jail. Apollinaire, as allContinue reading “The Mona Lisa was stolen”

August 21, 1965 –The third British and fourth American studio album by the Rolling Stones, Out of Our Heads, went No. 1 on the Billboard Charts on this date. In America, London Records released the first version of Out Of Our Heads on July 30, 1965. The UK version, issued by Decca Records, came outContinue reading “Out of Our Heads topped the charts”

August 21, 1991 –The Coen Brothers take on 30s Hollywood, Barton Fink, starring John Turturro, John Goodman, Judy Davis, Michael Lerner, John Mahoney, and Jon Polito went into general release on this date. John Turturro took classes at a secretarial school to learn how to use a typewriter for the role. Between takes, he wroteContinue reading “Barton Fink opened”

August 21, 1987 –The low-budget film, directed by Emile Ardolino, Dirty Dancing, starring Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grey, Cynthia Rhodes, and Jerry Orbach, premiered in the US on this date. While the exteriors and cabin scenes were filmed at Mountain Lake in Virginia, the lake scene was filmed at Lake Lure in North Carolina in October.Continue reading “Nobody puts Baby in the corner”

August 20, 1972 – Stax Records commemorates the seventh anniversary of the 1965 Watts riots with a star-studded benefit concert at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, on this date. More than 100,000 fans show up to hear Isaac Hayes, The Bar-Kays, The Staple Singers, and Kim Weston, among others, perform at what becomes known asContinue reading “Watt Stax”

August 20, 1896 –A patent application was filed (US Patent No. 597,062) by brothers John and Charles J. Erickson & Alexander E. Keith for the rotary dial telephone on this date. The dial telephone made it possible for people to dial phone numbers on their own thereby making the communication process easier and more efficient.Continue reading “Watching the dial go around”

August 20, 1941 – William Wyler’s pitch-perfect adaptation of Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes, starring Bette Davis, opened on this date. Bette Davis and William Wyler fought a great deal during filming. Disagreements ranged from Davis’s interpretation of the character (Wyler thought she should be more sympathetic) to the appearance of the house (Davis thoughtContinue reading “The Little Foxes premiered”

August 20, 1988 –Steve Winwood’s single Roll With It when to No. 1 on the Billboard Charts on this date. The song was Winwood’s biggest solo hit in the US, spending four weeks at #1 and also topped the pop chart in his native Britain. The album of the same title also topped the USContinue reading “Roll With It topped the charts”

August 19, 1960 –The Soviet Union convicted U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers of espionage on this date, sentencing him to three years in prison and seven years of hard labor. All because he didn’t jab himself with the poison needle; another example of our faulty military training.