#365 history

December 12 1923, Bob Barker was born.

He is most known for his hosting job on the television game show, The Price is Right.

December 10 1950, Human Rights day was first celebrated.

Human Rights Day is observed by the international community every year on 10 December. It commemorates the day in 1948 when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The formal inception of Human Rights Day dates from 1950, after the Assembly passed a resolution inviting all States and interested organisations to adopt 10 December of each year as Human Rights Day.   

December 8 1980,  John Lennon is murdered by Mark David Chapman in front of The Dakota in New York City.

December 7 1842, New York Philharmonic played their first concert.

The first concert of the Philharmonic Society took place in the Apollo Rooms on lower Broadway before an audience of 600.

The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the leading American orchestras popularly referred to as the “Big Five”. The orchestra is one of America’s oldest musical institutions. Its record-setting 14,000th concert was given in December 2004.

The New York Philharmonic was founded in 1842 by the American conductor Ureli Corelli Hill, with the aid of the Irish composer William Vincent Wallace. The orchestra was then called the Philharmonic Society of New York. It was the third Philharmonic on American soil since, and had as its intended purpose, “the advancement of instrumental music." 

December 5 1901, Walt Disney (1901-1966) was born. 

Animator, voice actor, producer, and entertainer who founded The Walt Disney Company and created the iconic character Mickey Mouse.

December 4 1954,  The first Burger King is opened in Miami.

Burger King is the second largest fast food hamburger chain in the world. The original home of The Whopper. 

The company began in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida-based restaurant chain. After Insta-Burger King ran into financial difficulties in 1954, its two Miami-based franchisees, David Edgerton and James McLamore, purchased the company and renamed it Burger King.

December 3 1967,  At Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, a transplant team headed by Christian Barnard carries out the first heart transplant on a human (53-year-old Louis Washkansky).

December 2 1981, Britney Spears was born.

Pop star whose first two albums, Baby One More Time (1999) and Oops!…I Did it Again (2001), both sold over 20 million copies worldwide. She released another six albums from 2001 to 2013

November 30 1982,  Michael Jackson’s second solo album, Thriller is released worldwide. It will become the best-selling record album in history.

Michael Jackson’s Thriller, estimated to have sold between 51 to 65 million copies worldwide, is the best-selling album. Although sales estimates for Thriller have been as high as 110 million copies, these sales figures are unreliable.

November 28 1925,  The Grand Ole Opry begins broadcasting

The Grand Ole Opry, one of the longest-lived and most popular showcases for western music, begins broadcasting live from Nashville, Tennessee. The showcase was originally named the Barn Dance, after a Chicago radio program called the National Barn Dance that had begun broadcasting the previous year.

The four-and-a-half-hour Grand Ole Opry program became one of the most popular broadcasts in the South, and like its Chicago cousin, helped make country-western an enduring part of the popular American musical landscape. Playing a show at the grand ole opry is one of the highest honors in country music.

November 27 1968,  Penny Ann Early became the first woman to play major professional basketball, for the Kentucky Colonels in an ABA game against the Los Angeles Stars.

Early became the first licensed female jockey in the United States in 1968. In protest, male jockeys unanimously refused to ride in the first few races in which she was slated to compete at the Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky to prevent her from competing.

In the midst of this controversy the Kentucky Colonels of the American Basketball Association signed Early to a contract to play basketball for the team. Early had not played basketball at any level. (At just 5'3" and 112 pounds, she was also the smallest pro basketball player ever.) Management, including Colonels owners Joseph and Mamie Gregory, ordered coach Gene Rhodes to play Early in a game. Rhodes was not amused and protested to management.

Penny’s moment came on Wednesday, November 27, 1968, against the Los Angeles Stars. Wearing a miniskirt and a turtleneck sweater with a number 3 on the back (to represent the three boycotted races at Churchill Downs), Early warmed up with the players and sat on the bench with the team.

Early in the game, during a timeout, Rhodes reluctantly sent Early to the scorer’s table, where she checked into the game. In the Kentucky backcourt she took the ball out of bounds and inbounded it to teammate Bobby Rascoe. He quickly called a timeout and the Colonels removed Early from the game to a standing ovation. Afterward, she signed hundreds of autographs.

November 26 1872,  The Great Diamond Hoax was exposed.

The diamond hoax of 1872 was a swindle in which a pair of prospectors sold a false American diamond deposit to prominent businessmen in San Francisco and New York. It also triggered a brief diamond prospecting craze in the western USA, in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado. The hoax was  exposed with an article in the San Francisco Evening Bulletin

November 25 1971, Christina Applegate was born.

Christina Applegate is an American actress and dancer who was a child actress, playing the role of Kelly Bundy on the Fox sitcom Married… with Children.

November 24 1974,  Donald Johanson and Tom Gray discover the 40% complete Australopithecus afarensis skeleton, nicknamed “Lucy” (after The Beatles song “Lucy inthe Sky with Diamonds”), in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia’s Afar Depression.

The Lucy specimen is an early australopithecine and is dated to about 3.2 million years ago. The skeleton presents a small skull akin to that of non-hominin apes, plus evidence of a walking-gait that was bipedal and upright, akin to that of humans(and other hominins); this combination supports the (debated) view of human evolution that bipedalism preceded increase in brain size

November 23 1889,  The first public demonstration of the jukebox — then called the “nickel-in-the-slot phonograph” occurred at the Palais Royal Saloon in San Francisco.

The kind of jukebox we have today,  is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that will play a patron’s selection from self-contained media. The classic jukebox has buttons with letters and numbers on them that, when entered in combination, are used to play a specific selection.

December 31 1909, The Manhattan Bridge opened.

The Manhattan Bridge is a suspension bridge that crosses the East River in New York City, connecting Lower Manhattan at Canal Street with Downtown Brooklyn at the Flatbush Avenue Extension. The main span is 1,470 ft (448 m) long, with the suspension cables being 3,224 ft (983 m) long. The bridge’s total length is 6,855 ft (2,089 m). This is one of four toll-free bridges spanning the East River; the other three are the Queensboro, Brooklyn, and Williamsburg Bridges.

 It was designed by Leon Moisseiff, and is noted for its innovative design. As the first suspension bridge to employ Josef Melan’s deflection theory for the stiffening of its deck, it is considered to be the forerunner of modern suspension bridges and this design served as the model for many of the long-span suspension bridges built in the first half of the twentieth century. The Manhattan Bridge was also the first suspension bridge to utilize a Warren truss in its design.

December 30 1986, Ellie Goulding was born.

English singer and songwriter Ellie Goulding has released three studio albums, one remix album, seven extended plays, 22 singles (including six as a featured artist), four promotional singles and 27 music videos. As of June 2013, Goulding had sold three million albums and 10 million singles worldwide.  Additionally, she had sold over 1.5 million albums and over 4.3 million singles (including collaborations) in the United Kingdom alone as of February 2014

December 28 1922, Stan Lee was born.

Marvel Comics’ writer, publisher, editor, and chairman who co-created Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, X-Men, and the Fantastic Four. Also known for his trademark motto, “Excelsior!” and for devising the system of comic-book production known as the Marvel Method.

December 27 1932,  Radio City Music Hall opens with acts including  Ray Bolger, Doc Rockwell  and Martha Graham.

At the height of the Great Depression, thousands turn out for the opening of Radio City Music Hall, a magnificent Art Deco theater in New York City. Radio City Music Hall was designed as a palace for the people, a place of beauty where ordinary people could see high-quality entertainment. Since its 1932 opening, more than 300 million people have gone to Radio City to enjoy movies, stage shows, concerts, and special events.

December 26 1982, Time’s Man of the Year is for the first time a non-human, the personal computer.

December 25  336AD, Christmas was first celebrated.
   
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed most commonly on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world.

The first recorded date of Christmas being celebrated on December 25th was in 336AD, during the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine (he was the first Christian Roman Emperor). A few years later, Pope Julius I officially declared that the birth of Jesus would be celebrated on the 25th December.

December 24 1991, Louis Tomlinson was born.

Member of the popular British-Irish boy band One Direction, who won three Teen Choice Awards in 2012 and then eight more in 2014. He is joined in One Direction by Harry Styles,Liam Payne and Niall Horan.

December 22 1956,  Colo, the first gorilla to be bred in captivity, is born at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Ohio.

Colo is a western gorilla widely known as the first gorilla to be born in captivity anywhere in the world and as the oldest gorilla in captivity in the world. Colo was born at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium to Millie Christina (mother) and Baron Macombo (father). She was briefly called Cuddles before a contest was held to officially name her. The contest was won by a Columbus native, Rita Cochren. Colo’s name is derived from the place of her birth, Columbus,Ohio.

Colo celebrates her 59th birthday today.

December 21 1913,  Arthur Wynne’s “word-cross”, the first crossword puzzle, is published in the New York World.

December 20 1981,  The musical “Dreamgirls” opened on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre. The show was based on the careers of the Supremes.

Starring Jennifer Holliday, Obba Babatunde, Cleavant Derricks, Loretta Devine, Ben Harney, and Sheryl Lee Ralph, the musical follows the story of a young female singing trio from Chicago get their big break at an amateur competition and begin singing backup vocals for James “Thunder” Early. However, things begin to spin out of control when their agent, Curtis Taylor, Jr., makes Deena and not Effie, the star of what will become known as “The Dreams.”

Dreamgirls went on to do 1521 performances with 1 revival performance in 2001. There has been a movie based on this musical that stars
Jamie Foxx, Beyoncé Knowles, Eddie Murphy, Danny Glover, Jennifer Hudson, Anika Noni Rose, Keith Robinson, and Sharon Leal.

December 19 1980,  The film “9 to 5,” with Dolly Parton, opened.

Office satire about three female secretaries who decide to get revenge on their tyrannical, sexist boss by abducting him and running the business themselves. The trio, one of whom has been passed over for promotion because she is a woman, spend a night together having drug-induced fantasies of killing the slave-driving chauvinist. One of them panics the following day when she suspects she really has poisoned the tyrant.

December 18 1966,  Saturn’s moon Epimetheus is discovered by Richard Walker.

December 17 1903, The Wright brothers make the first controlled powered, heavier-than-air flight in the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

The Wright Flyer (often retrospectively referred to as Flyer I or 1903 Flyer) was the first successful heavier-than-air powered aircraft. It was designed and built by the Wright brothers. They flew it four times on December 17, 1903, near Kill Devil Hills, about four miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, US. Today, the airplane is exhibited in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C.

December 16 1775, Jane Austen was born.

 English author of such classic novels as Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma. Her widely read books became popular not only for their air of English countryside romance, but also for their social critique, irony, and realism.

December 15 1675, Dutch Artist, Jan (Johannes) Vermeer passed away at the age of 43.

He specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. Worked slowly and with great care, using bright colours and sometimes expensive pigments, with a preference for lapis lazuli and Indian yellow. He is particularly renowned for his masterly treatment and use of light in his work.

Since his passing, Vermeer has become a world-renowned artist, and his works have been hung in many prominent museums around the globe. Despite how much he is admired today, Vermeer left behind a small legacy in terms of actual works—approximately 36 paintings have been officially attributed to the painter.

December 14 1962, Bob Dylan released his first single, Mixed Up Confusion.

Supposedly written in a cab on the way to the sessions, “Mixed-Up Confusion” failed to dent the charts and sank without a trace, ultimately making it one of Dylan’s most collectible records. “I’m not sure what I based it on,” Dylan says in the liner notes to Biograph. “It didn’t do anything, whatever it was supposed to do.” He goes on to dismiss the record saying “I didn’t arrange the session. It wasn’t my idea.” The song saw its way through 14 takes over three sessions. According to Clinton Heylin’s book Bob Dylan: The Recording Sessions 1960-1994, Dylan stormed out of the studio during the third session.

December 13, 1983, the Detroit Pistons defeat the Denver Nuggets by a score of 186-184 in triple overtime, in the highest scoring game in the history of the National Basketball Association (NBA).