Lenny Bruce died of a narcotics overdose on this day, August 3rd, 1966.
Born Leonard Alfred Schneider, in Long Island, N.Y., Bruce possessed a cynical, surreal, and intensely comic view of the world. He brutally satirized such sensitive areas of American life as sex, religion, and race relations. His comedy left no group unscathed, and his routines were replete with four-letter words.
Consequently, Bruce was at various times arrested and forbidden to perform; in 1964 he was convicted of obscenity charges stemming from a New York City performance. He was also arrested for narcotics violations.
After his death Bruce became a cult figure, considered by many to be a martyr to the cause of free speech. He was posthumously pardoned of his obscenity conviction by the governor of New York in 2003.
Michael Gerard Tyson, (Mike Tyson) was born on this day, June 30th, 1966. He is a former American World Heavyweight boxing Champion. Tyson, the youngest man to have won a heavyweight title belt, was rated in 1999 by Ring magazine as the fourteenth greatest heavyweight of all time.
At the height of his fame and career in the late 80s and throughout the 90s, Tyson was one of the most recognized sports personalities in the world. Apart from his many sporting accomplishments, his numerous outrageous and controversial behavior both in the boxing ring and in his private life has kept him constantly in the public eye.
Mike Tyson's Greatest Brain Explosions
Mike Tyson's Funniest Moments
Produced in 1988, before Tyson turned himself into a joke, it highlights Tyson during the brief period the great sporstman he was shone through.
Mike Tyson Greatest Hits HBO Channel 1988
10 years and 2 days ago today, during a boxing match between Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield on June 28, 1997, Mike Tyson bit off a portion of Holyfield's ear. (twice)
The fight was billed as "Holyfield-Tyson II, The Sound And The Fury". The fight began with Holyfield dominating the smaller Tyson but doing no real damage. Tyson seemed slow in the first two rounds and lost both.
In addition, Holyfield was headbutting Tyson above his right eye, and by the beginning of the third round had swelled the eye to grotesque proportions. Tyson complained to Mills Lane about the butting (which was also a problem in their first fight, which Holyfield won by TKO in the 11th round), but Lane ruled the butts unintentional.
At one point in the third round, Tyson and Holyfield were clenched, with Tyson holding Holyfield's arms at his sides. Then, out of nowhere, Tyson sought out Holyfield's right ear and bit it hard, causing Holyfield to yelp in pain and jump away. Tyson had actually bit part of the ear off, and spat it across the ring shortly thereafter.
Referee Mills Lane called time and examined Holyfield. Meanwhile, Tyson went to his corner and waited. After seeing the damage Tyson had caused, he went to ringside and told Nevada state athletic commissioner Bruce Ratner that he was going to disqualify Tyson immediately. However, Lane stopped himself and checked with ringside doctor Flip Homansky, who assured him that Holyfield could continue the fight. With that bit of information, Lane deducted two points from Tyson for the bite, and ordered the fight to continue.
After a few more seconds, Tyson sought out Holyfield's left ear and bit it, though not with as much force as the other ear. Lane immediately disqualified Tyson, who went ballistic in the ring, fighting off anyone who tried to control him. He even went as far as to shove Holyfield from behind, touching off a melee that the police had to be called in to control.
As a result of this and other behavior, Tyson was banned from boxing for one year and fined $3 million for biting Evander Holyfield on both ears. It also shocked the 16,000 people at ringside and the millions watching. Tyson's excuse was that Holyfield was headbutting and Tyson was retaliating. One of Tyson's former trainers, Teddy Atlas had actually predicted before the fight that Tyson would deliberately get himself disqualified.
On 27th June 2005 BTK serial killer Dennis Rader pleaded guilty to 10 murders in the Wichita, Kansas area. He was later sentenced to serve 10 consecutive life sentences without possibility of parole for 175 years.
Rader was particularly known for sending taunting letters to police and newspapers over the 30 years he remained at large. Ironically (or perhaps inevitably) one of these messages was traced to a personal computer at his Lutheran church resulting in his capture on February 5th 2005.
Dennis Rader Court Confession
This British documentary was produced just months before the arrest of BTK and gives a fascinating perspective on exactly what was known of this criminal prior to his arrest and provides an interesting contrast to the A&E documentary below, which was produced after the BTK trial and sentencing.
The BTK killer's last known communication with the media and police was a padded envelope which arrived at FOX affiliate KSAS-TV in Wichita on February 16 2005. A purple, 1.44-MB Memorex floppy disk was enclosed in the package. Police found metadata embedded in a Microsoft Word document on the disk that pointed to Christ Lutheran Church, and the document was marked as last modified by "Dennis". A search of the church website turned up Dennis Rader as president of the congregation council. Police immediately began surveillance of Rader.
This A&E documentary was produced post sentencing...
On August 18th 2005, Rader faced sentencing. The victims' families made statements, followed by Rader, who apologized for the crimes. He was sentenced to 10 consecutive life terms, which requires a minimum of 175 years without a chance of parole. Because Kansas had no death penalty at the time the murders were committed, this was the maximum sentence allowed.
He was sentenced to serve 10 consecutive life sentences (one life sentence per victim), without possibility of parole for 175 years. This includes nine life sentences each without the possibility for parole for 15 years, and one life sentence without the possibility for parole for 40 years.
On 21st June 1945 Japanese troops surrendered the Pacific Island of Okinawa to the United States after one of the longest and bloodiest battles of World War II. An estimated 150,000 civilians died during the almost 3 month long battle, many via mass suicide or at the hands of their own army.
The first 2 videos below are all original footage taken during battle and depict the Japanese view of the battle. Warning: includes some graphic scenes of death and what "appears" to be a war crime, where an injured and unarmed solidier is shot.
Battle of Okinawa pt.1 Filmed from Japanese point of view
Battle of Okinawa pt.2 Filmed from Japanese point of view
American Newsreel Report On The Start Of The Battle For Okinawa
This is a very detailed 105 minute UK documentary about the battle for Okinawa
On June 17th 1954 the fully televised Army-McCarthy hearings ended, where the U.S. Army had accused Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (Republican, Wisconsin), and his chief counsel, Roy Cohn, of pressuring the Army to give preferential treatment to former McCarthy aide and friend of Cohn's, G. David Schine.
The hearings were televised, and many believe that they contributed significantly to McCarthy's subsequent decline in popularity.
This 10 minute documentary was made for and presented at the 2007 National History Day competition.
A month before the hearings began, TIME featured a cover story March 22, 1954, picturing Cohn and Schine and subtitled "The Army got its orders. Ten years after the hearings, in 1964, the documentary film Point of Order! was released, which consists of 93 minutes of footage selected from the 187 hours of kinescope that covered the hearings. (Review of Point of Order at Rotten Tomatoes)
Hee Haw was a long-running television variety show hosted by musicians Buck Owens and Roy Clark and featuring country music and humor with rural "Kornfield Kounty" as a backdrop.
The show was equally well-known for its voluptuous, scantily clad women in stereotypical Southern farmer's daughter outfits and its cornpone humor. Hee Haw was a quintessentially American show.
Where Oh Where Are You Tonight? (with guest star Johnny Cash
"Where Oh Where Are You Tonight?", a nonsense duet which debuted on the opening show and is perhaps the most enduring image that most viewers have of the program. In early seasons, this was performed by Campbell and Tapp, in the vein of folk songs like "Oh! Susanna" and "Old Dan Tucker." In later seasons, Tapp would sometimes be replaced by that episode's guest singer, or other surprise celebrities. The guest/celebrity would stand with their back to the viewer while Campbell sang the new, humorous verse solo, holding a scythe. At the end of the verse, Campbell would elbow Tapp or the guest (as a comedic visual cue), who would then spin around (Tapp would react as if awoken by the elbow) to join him on the chorus: "Where, oh where, are you tonight?/Why did you leave me here all alone?/I searched the world over, and I thought I'd found true love,/Then you met another, and--pffft! you was gone!" The "pffft" would be done as a spitting "Bronx cheer", and occasionally, they would break up into laughter after the "pffft", unable to finish the song (Who got spat upon during the "pffft" would change each show.) Later, whole groups and even females would be part of the refrain, after Campbell's death in 1987. In some episodes, which had several major guest stars, the routine appeared several times in the show so that each guest would have the chance to be part of this tradition.
On 11th June 1991, during the Desert Storm offensive, there was a volcanic eruption in the Philippines.
The eruption of Mount Pinatubo is the largest volcanic eruption in 150 years. But many people know nothing of it, the world was watching the war in Iraq...
Three United States Military installations in the Philippines were evacuated; Cubi Point Naval Air Station, Subic Naval Station and Clark Air Force Base, they were subsequently abandoned by the U.S. due to political decisions in the Philippines.
Scenes of the Mt. Pinatubo Eruption (set to ACDC Thunderstruck music :\ )
"Mt. Pinatubo Evacuation of Clark Air Base Philippines" is a very intersting two-part, 40 mins long, visual trace along the route of thousands of evacuees from Clark Air Base and Subic Bay, Philippines, as they escape the destructive force of the pending eruption of the Mt. Pinatubo volcano June 1991.
Part 1 covers the evacuation from Clark Air Base to Subic Bay Naval Base; A week later evacuees board the massive aircraft carrier, USS Abraham Lincoln, for a three day voyage, arriving off shore and ferried to Mac tan Air Base, Cebu by helicopter. Stops include: Guam, Hickam Air Base, Hawaii and on to Travis Air Force Base, California.
Part One
Part 2 offers the viewer a rare, but memorable glimpse back at US military facilities as they were before this colossal event.
Videographer and former Clarkite, Virgil Hopper produced this Philippines Experience video series. He is a former member of the American Forces Radio and Television Service that served both Clark and Subic-area audiences with radio and television programming on FEN, the (Far East Network).
On 8th June, 1907 Florenz Ziegfeld produced the first Ziegfeld Follies revue on Broadway in New York City and the combination of seminudity, pageantry, and comedy proved successful until the 1930s when the Great Depression ended the show. Ziegfeld required that every woman in the Follies have a 36-inch bust, a 26-inch waist, and 38-inch hips. Some famous Ziegfeld girls include Eve Arden, Nora Bayes, Fanny Brice, Billie Burke, Paulette Goddard, Anna Held, Marilyn Miller, Ann Pennington, and Barbara Stanwyck.
Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic of 1920
Ziegfeld Beauties - Photos by Alfred Cheney Johnston
The Ziegfeld Showgirls - Photos by Alfred Cheney Johnston
Alfred Cheney Johnston's Ballerinas - Ziegfeld
Jazz Age Beauties - Alfred Cheney Johnston's Ziegfeld Photos
The Search For Beauty with Florenz Ziegfeld on Brunettes
"Hey Feller!" - Showboat (1929)
Very rare footage of the original Broadway production of Showboat at the Ziegfeld Theatre, which played from 27 December, 1927 to 4 May, 1929. This segment (along with the "Queenie's Ballyhoo" clip) was filmed for a special prologue to the 1929 Universal film version of the musical - one of three film adaptations of the show.
6th June 1944: D-Day, marks start of Europe invasion
Thousands of Allied troops have begun landing on the beaches of Normandy in northern France at the start of a major offensive against the Germans.
Thousands of paratroops and glider-borne troops have also been dropped behind enemy lines and the Allies are already said to have penetrated several miles inland.
The landings were preceded by air attacks along the French coast.
Operation Overlord, the Allied landings at Normandy, is a series of 4 short movies created from original news footage of the time. It accurately details the events prior to June the 6th and the insuing days that culminated in the break out.
Shortly after midnight on 5 June 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy (D-New York) was assassinated by Sirhan B. Sirhan in the ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California.
The Battle of Midway, fought Form the 4th to the 7th June 1942, over and near the tiny U.S. mid-Pacific base at Midway atoll, represents the strategic high water mark of Japan's Pacific Ocean war. Prior to this action, Japan possessed general naval superiority over the United States and could usually choose where and when to attack. After Midway, the two opposing fleets were essentially equals, and the United States soon took the offensive.
Japanese Combined Fleet commander Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto moved on Midway in an effort to draw out and destroy the U.S. Pacific Fleet's aircraft carrier striking forces, which had embarassed the Japanese Navy in the mid-April Doolittle Raid on Japan's home islands and at the Battle of Coral Sea in early May. He planned to quickly knock down Midway's defenses, follow up with an invasion of the atoll's two small islands and establish a Japanese air base there. He expected the U.S. carriers to come out and fight, but to arrive too late to save Midway and in insufficient strength to avoid defeat by his own well-tested carrier air power.
Yamamoto's intended surprise was thwarted by superior American communications intelligence, which deduced his scheme well before battle was joined. This allowed Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, the U.S. Pacific Fleet commander, to establish an ambush by having his carriers ready and waiting for the Japanese. On 4 June 1942, in the second of the Pacific War's great carrier battles, the trap was sprung. The perserverance, sacrifice and skill of U.S. Navy aviators, plus a great deal of good luck on the American side, cost Japan four irreplaceable fleet carriers, while only one of the three U.S. carriers present was lost. The base at Midway, though damaged by Japanese air attack, remained operational and later became a vital component in the American trans-Pacific offensive.
Perhaps the icon of macho movie stars, and a living legend, Clint Eastwood has become a standard in international cinema. Born on this day in 1930 in San Francisco, the son of a steel worker, Eastwood was a college dropout from Los Angeles College, prior to getting his start in acting.
Like most superstars, Clint Eastwood's success can be attributed to equal parts good fortune, tenacity, and talent. Eastwood may have been too young to fight in World War II, but he managed to miss out on action in Korea too. On leave as a G.I., his plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean and steely-eyed Clint swam three miles to shore. He later was made boot camp swimming instructor and missed out on action in Korea (confined to base). Encouraged to try acting by two of his Army buddies, David Janssen and Martin Milner, he landed a contract at Universal Studios in 1954, earning 75 USD a week playing bit parts in B-grade movies like Revenge of the Creature (1955) and Tarantula (1955). He was dropped when some studio execs decided his Adam's apple was too big. The determined Eastwood swallowed his pride and, over the next few years, he dug swimming pools between playing bit parts in movies and on TV. While visiting a friend at CBS, Eastwood was spotted by a network exec who cast him as cattle driver Rowdy Yates in the long-running western series "Rawhide" (1959). That, in turn, led to spaghetti stardom in a string of Sergio Leone westerns, beginning with Per un pugno di dollari (1964) ("A Fistful of Dollars").
On May 27, 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge connecting San Francisco and Marin County, Calif., opened to pedestrian traffic (vehicular traffic began crossing the bridge the next day).
American performer Al Jolson is most famous for his role in the 1927 film The Jazz Singer, which was the first major motion picture to successfully employ synchronized sound. Jolson also toured in vaudeville shows, where he performed minstrel-style singing in blackface makeup.
