We’ve got a little bit of everything today.
Today in 1939, “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington” actually went to Washington, premiering at Constitution Hall. Senate Majority Leader Alben Barkley groused that the film made the Senate look like “a bunch of crooks.”
On that exact same day in 1939, Evel Knievel, professional daredevil, is born in Butte, Montana. No word on whether his first outfit was a jumpsuit.
Today in 1978, Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand record their harrowing tale of a florist’s worst nightmare, “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers.”
30 years ago today, an earthquake hits San Francisco before a World Series game at Candlestick Park. I remember seeing this live on TV, though it sure doesn’t feel like it was that long ago. The quake knocks the signal off air about 2:20 into this video.
Finally, “suppressed news” about pants! Today in 1884, a short piece in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch appears to lament that the nation is bereft of news about President Chester Arthur’s “winter trousers, which, in the course of natural events, he must shortly put on.”
