Daniel Lieberman's Blog

Births:

No Smoking!

King James VI of Scotland and I of England 1566-1625. “The wisest fool in Christendom.” Sponsor of the King James Bible. Obsessive hater of tobacco. Many of Shakespeare’s best plays were produced during his reign.

I wonder if this thing is as fast as an abacus

Blaise Pascal 1623-1662. Philosopher, mathematician. Father of probability theory (had a friend who was a professional gambler). Inventor of a practical adding machine.

Moe Howard 1897-1975. I think somebody should write a collective biography of the 3 Stooges. There must be some important lessons to be learned from these mens’ lives in the Vaudeville and Hollywood cultures of their day. I’ve looked but never found a serious bio of the Stooges. There are some terrific books about the Marx Brothers, on the other hand.

Nyukk Nyukk Nyukk

Deaths:

Maximilian I of Mexico

Maximilian I, Emperor of Mexico 1832-1867. Set on the throne of Mexico in 1864 (while the United States was a little preoccupied with the Civil War) by Napoleon III, Maximilian was an Austrian Archduke. He appears to have truly meant well, although the regime that supported him was rapaciously imperialistic. He was executed in 1867 by the liberal revolutionaries under Benito Juarez.

Thomas J. Watson 1874-1956. Founder of IBM, which just turned 100.

Jean Arthur 1904 – 1900. Wonderful film actress, appeared in Frank Capra’s Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and others. Radiantly beautiful in Mr. Deeds – the camera just loved Jean Arthur.

Events:

1865. Juneteenth. “Over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Galveston, Texas are finally informed of their freedom.”

Ammannati, Ammannato, che bel marmo hai rovinato!

Bartolomeo Ammannati, b. 1511. Italian renaissance architect and sculptor. He worked on some pretty terrific projects, including one of the most beautiful bridges in Florence, the Ponte Santa Trinita and the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice. He’s remembered, however for the execrable, gigantic Fountain of Neptune in Piazza Signoria in Florence. Michelangelo dissed him thus:

Ammanannati, Ammanatto, che bel’ marmo hai rovinato! (how much beautiful marble you’ve ruined)

Ivan Goncharov, b. 1812. Author of the sublime, echt-Russian novel about the world’s laziest, most diffident man, Oblomov.

Mae Busch, b. 1891. Actress. Appeared in several of Buster Keaton’s great two reel comedies. Later often played one of “the wives” in Laurel and Hardy films.

Pass the Geritol, Martha, "Beat the Clock" is on

Bud Collyer, b. 1908 A fixture in 1950′s TV game shows “To Tell the Truth” and “Beat the Clock”. I hadn’t realized he played Superman in the radio serials in the 40′s, and the voice of the character in Max Fleischer’s animated Superman series, too.