Category Archives: Uncategorized

April 17, 1937 – Happy Birthday Daffy! Porky’s Duck Hunt, starring Porky Pig, is notable for being the first appearance of the character who would later be named Daffy Duck. It also notable that this is the first cartoon in which Mel Blanc voices both Porky and Daffy.

April 17, 2006 – A big-budget Coke commercial with a new song by Jack White called Love Is The Truth aired once on this date and was pulled. The video was directed by Japanese director Nagi Noda. Although I can find no reason why the commercial was pulled, Jack White has said that he “sawContinue reading “‘lost’ Jack White song”

April 17, 1987 – The final episode of Remington Steele, Steeled With a Kiss, starring Stephanie Zimbalist, Pierce Brosnan, Doris Roberts, James Read, Janet DeMay, and Jack Scalia, aired on this date The series was cancelled at the end of season four, on May 15, 1986, with a 60-day option left on the show. ThatContinue reading “The finale of Remington Steele”

April 17, 1964 –The New York Mets played their first game at Shea Stadium on this date, when they lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-3. The five tiered stadium seated 55,601 fans. For previous two years, the Mets had played their home games at the Polo Grounds, previously the home of the New York Giants.Continue reading “Meet the Mets (at Shea)”

April 16, 1963 –Martin Luther King wrote his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail, on this date. He composed it over the course of day, writing on a legal pad provided by his lawyers, margins of a newspaper, and, after running out of both of the above, toilet paper. King’s response to the wrong-time, wrong-place accusationContinue reading “Letter from Birmingham Jail”

A mid-1950s construction worker involved in the demolition of the J. C. Wilber Building finds a box inside a cornerstone. He opens it to reveal a singing, dancing frog (that came to be called Michigan J. Frog,) complete with top hat and cane. According to the cartoon, One Froggy Night (1955), the box also containsContinue reading “J. C. Wilber Building’s cornerstone was laid”

April 16, 1943 –LSD was first synthesized on April 7, 1938 by Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann at the Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, Switzerland, as part of a large research program searching for medically useful ergot alkaloid derivatives. Its psychedelic properties were unknown until five years later, when Hofmann, acting on what he has calledContinue reading “Oh wow, the colors, the lights, man.”

April 16, 1973 –In order to fulfill a contractual obligation with Lew Grade, Paul McCartney appeared in his first TV special (since the disastrous Magical Mystery Tour,) James Paul McCartney, on this date. Although it was very highly anticipated – McCartney received a cover story on TV Guide – the reviews were dreadful. The NewContinue reading “James Paul McCartney premiered”

(Sorry for this ear worm) April 16, 1977 –David Soul one half of TV cop show Starsky & Hutch, went to No.1 on the US singles chart (as well as the UK charts,) with Don’t Give Up On Us, his only US hit, on this date. This was written by Tony Macaulay, who co-wrote fourContinue reading “Don’t Give Up On Us topped the charts”

April 16, 1178 BC –… The sun has been obliterated from the sky, and an unlucky darkness invades the world. – Theoclymenus A solar eclipse may have marked the return of Odysseus, legendary King of Ithaca and one of the most recurrent characters in Western literature, to his kingdom after the Trojan War on thisContinue reading “Odysseus reaches Ithaca”