Today's Puzzle
What happened when the butcher sat on his meat grinder?
What Happened On
Stevie Ray Vaughan Killed in Helicopter Crash
August 27, 1990
Stevie Ray Vaughan and members of Eric Clapton's road crew are killed in a helicopter crash. They had just played at a concert with Clapton at the Alpine Valley Music Theatre in Wisconsin. The helicopter took off headed for Chicago when it crashed into a ski resort. Everyone on board was killed, which included Vaughan, pilot Jeff Brown, agent Bobby Brooks, bodyguard Nigel Browne, and tour manager Colin Smythe. It was foggy at the time of the flight and while the pilot was qualified to fly by instruments in an airplane, he was not qualified in a helicopter.
The day before the crash, Vaughan told his band members about a nightmare that he had in which he was at his own funeral and saw thousands of mourners.
USS Iowa
August 27, 1942
The battleship USS Iowa (BB-61) is launched. In 1943 it became the only U.S. Navy ship with a bathtub; which was installed to accommodate U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt who had difficultly using a shower due to the crippling effects of his polio.
In 1943, the USS Porter accidentally launched a torpedo narrowly missing the Iowa, which happened to have Roosevelt aboard at the time.
While everybody talked about the weather, nobody seemed to do anything about it
August 27, 1897
Charles Dudley Warner makes his famous quote in a Hartford Courant editorial, stating "A well known American writer said once that, while everybody talked about the weather, nobody seemed to do anything about it." While some believe the "well known American writer" may have been referring to his friend Mark Twain, most believe he was referring to himself.
The Sultan's harem after the bombardment
The Sultan's harem after the bombardment
World's Shortest War
August 27, 1896
The world's shortest recorded war occurs when the Anglo-Zanzibar War is fought between the United Kingdom and the Zanzibar Sultanate, lasting about 38 minutes. The war began after the death of the pro-British Sultan Hamad bin Thuwaini two days earlier and the subsequent succession of 29-year-old Sultan Khalid bin Barghash. Khalid was suspected of poisoning Sultan Hamad. The British authorities were opposed to Khalid and preferred Hamud bin Muhammed, who was more favourable to British interests. A treaty signed in 1886 required candidates for the sultanate to obtain permission from the British consul, and Khalid had failed to do this. The British considered this a cause for war and sent an ultimatum to Khalid demanding that he leave the palace. Khalid then called up his forces and barricaded himself inside the palace. His forces consisted of about 2,800 Zanzibaris, mostly civilians, but also included the palace guard and several hundred of his servants and slaves. The British began bombarding the palace at 09:02 along with sinking the Zanzibari royal yacht HHS Glasgow and two smaller vessels. The fighting ceased at 09:40. The sultan's forces sustained roughly 500 casualties, with only one British injury. The British then placed Sultan Hamud in power at the head of a puppet government. Khalid escaped to German East Africa after receiving asylum from the German consulate.
Krakatoa Eruption
August 27, 1883
The Indonesian volcanic island explodes with a force equivalent to 26 H-bombs, discharging 5 cubic miles of volcanic matter. The ensuing eruptions and tsunamis killed over 36,000 people. Over 70% of the island and its surrounding archipelago were destroyed as it collapsed into a caldera. The explosions could be heard from 3,000 miles away. This was one of the deadliest and most destructive volcanic events in recorded history.
Pennsylvania oil well c1862
Pennsylvania oil well c1862
First Successful U.S. Oil Well
August 27, 1859
Drilled near Titusville, Pennsylvania by Edwin Drake. He pioneered the use pipes to drill oil. He devised the idea to drive a pipe into the ground to prevent the drill hole from collapsing. Until then, oil production was limited to collecting surface oil. The ability to drill for oil launched the oil industry. The drilling of Drake's first well was slow, only progressing about three feet per day. Crowds would gather and jeer at his well, calling it "Drake's Folly." He drilled down to a depth of 69.5 feet (21 m) before striking oil, which was then hand pumped out of the well.
Unfortunately, while others grew rich from the oil industry he started, Drake died broke.
First Play in America
August 27, 1665
The Bare and Ye Cubb is performed by three local residents in the Fowkes Tavern in Accomack County in Virginia. One critic gave it such a bad review, it resulted in them being charged with performing a play "showing forth profane." They were subsequently forced to perform their play before the court, where the judge ruled that the play was not blasphemous due to the fact that it was entertaining. The judge then dismissed the charges and proceeded to fine the critic for wasting the court's time.
No copy of the play is known to exist, so we may never know just how bad or humorous it really was.
Lunar Eclipse Decides War
August 27, 413 B.C.
During the Peloponnesian War, an eclipse of the Moon frightened the Athenians into delaying the movement of their forces from Syracuse for twenty-seven days. This delay gave an advantage to their enemies, the Syracusans, who then defeated the entire Athenian fleet and army.
Guinness Book of Records
August 27, 1955
First copy of the Guinness Book of Records is bound. The book came about after Sir Hugh Beaver became involved in an argument over which was the fastest game bird in Europe, the golden plover or the red grouse. Realizing that it was impossible to confirm in reference books whether or not the golden plover was indeed Europe's fastest game bird, he figured there must be many other questions debated nightly in pubs, but there was no book in the world with which to settle these arguments. He then hired the twins Norris McWhirter and Ross McWhirter to compile such a book. It became the Guinness Book of Records and was an instant success.
First Celluloid Roll Film
August 27, 1889
The first celluloid roll film is produced, by the Eastman Dry Plate Co. of New York.
Black Hawk Surrenders
August 27, 1832
Indian chief Black Hawk surrenders ending the Black Hawk War.
First Hydrogen-Balloon Flight
August 27, 1783
By Jacques C. Charles (unmanned).
Birthdays
Lyndon B. Johnson (Lyndon Baines Johnson)
Born August 27, 1908 d. 1973
American politician. 36th U.S. President (1963-69) and 37th U.S. Vice-President (1961-63). He was the first president to use the Washington-Moscow Hotline. Quote: "Making a speech on economics is a lot like pissing down your leg. It seems hot to you, but it never does to anyone else."
Real-Life Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Ed Gein
Born August 27, 1906 d. 1984
American murderer. The character Leatherface in the 1974 film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was based partly on his crimes. He confessed to killing two women and robbing graves from which he made trophies and keepsakes from the body parts.
The movie Psycho was based on Robert Bloch's novel of the same name, which was also loosely based on Ed Gein. The character Norman Bates and Ed Gein each had deceased, domineering mothers, had sealed off a room in their home as a shrine to their mother, and dressed in women's clothes.
Other famous movie killers were also loosely based on his crimes, such as Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs.
Co-Founder of Rolls-Royce and First English Airplane Fatality
Charles Stewart Rolls
Born August 27, 1877 d. 1910
English auto maker, aviator, co-founded the Rolls-Royce automobile company (1904). He was the first person to fly across the English Channel (1910). He was killed a month later at an air show making him the first British airplane fatality.
Charles Gates Dawes
Born August 27, 1865 d. 1951
American politician. 30th U.S. Vice-President (1925-29). He was a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925 for his work on the Dawes Plan for World War I reparations.
Paul Reubens
Born August 27, 1952 d. 2023
American comedian. Known for his character Pee-wee Herman. The Pee-wee Herman character was developed by Reubens and Phil Hartman into a sold-out stage act which became an HBO special in 1981. This led to the movie, Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985) and then the Emmy-winning children's show Pee-wee's Playhouse (1986-91). In 1991, Reubens was arrested for masturbating during a film at an adult movie theater.
Barbara Bach (Barbara Goldbach)
Born August 27, 1947
American model, actress. Wife of Ringo Starr. Film: The Spy Who Loved Me (1977, KGB agent Major Anya Amasova) and Caveman (1981, Lana, and where she met future husband Ringo Starr).
Tuesday Weld (Susan Weld)
Born August 27, 1943
American actress. TV: The Many Lives of Dobie Gillis (Thalia Menninger, Dobie's unattainable desire).
Captain and Tennille
Captain and Tennille
Daryl Dragon
Born August 27, 1942 d. 2019
American musician, the Captain of Captain and Tennille. Dragon played keyboards with the Beach Boys from 1967 to 1972 and was given the nickname "Captain Keyboard" by Beach Boys lead singer Mike Love.
Music: Love Will Keep Us Together (1975, #1) and Muskrat Love (1976). TV: The Captain and Tennille (1976-77).
Tommy Sands
Born August 27, 1937
American singer, actor, teen idol. He was married to Nancy Sinatra (1960-65). Music: Teen-Age Crush. Film: Babes in Toyland (1960).
Ira Marvin Levin
Born August 27, 1929 d. 2007
American author. Writings: A Kiss Before Dying (1953), Rosemary's Baby (1967), The Stepford Wives (1972), and The Boys from Brazil (1976), which have been made into movies.
Martha Raye (Margaret Reed)
Born August 27, 1916 d. 1994
American actress, denture wearer. Film: Monsieur Verdoux (1947).
C.S. Forester (Cecil Louis Troughton Smith)
Born August 27, 1899 d. 1966
English novelist. Creator of Horatio Hornblower, depicting a Royal Navy officer during the Napoleonic wars. He also wrote The African Queen (1935; filmed in 1951 starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn).
Samuel Goldwyn (Samuel Gelbfisz)
Born August 27, 1882 d. 1974
Polish-American film maker. He was the most successful independent filmmaker of his time.
Film: Wuthering Heights (1939), The Little Foxes (1941), and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946, Best Picture Oscar).
Known for his "Goldwynisms", some of his quotes include:
• "I don't think anybody should write his autobiography until after he's dead."
• "I'm willing to admit that I may not always be right, but I am never wrong."
• "Include me out."
The quote, "An oral agreement isn't worth the paper it's written on" is often misattributed to him. It was a misreporting of an actual quote praising the trustworthiness of a colleague: "His verbal contract is worth more than the paper it's written on."
Hannibal Hamlin
Born August 27, 1809 d. 1891
American politician. 15th U.S. Vice-President (1861-65, under President Abraham Lincoln), U.S. Senator (1848-57, Maine), Governor of Maine (1857), U.S. House of Representatives (1843-47, Maine).
Deaths
Bennett Alfred Cerf
Died August 27, 1971 b. 1898
American publisher. He was the founder, president, and chairman of Random House publishers. Known for his wit, gags, and puns.
Cerf won "U.S. v. One Book Called Ulysses" (1933), a landmark court case against government censorship, and then published James Joyce's unabridged Ulysses for the first time in the U.S. Up to that time Ulysses had been banned in the U.S. as obscene, with one judge calling it "like the work of a disordered mind".
Cerf was a panelist on the TV show What's My Line? for 16 years.
Writings: Bennett Cerf's Treasury of Atrocious Puns (1968).
The Fifth Beatle
Brian Epstein
Died August 27, 1967 b. 1934
British impresario. He discovered and was the first manager of The Beatles. Paul McCartney referred to him as the "Fifth Beatle." Epstein's initial attempts to get a recording contract for the Beatles were rejected by virtually every label in London, until he secured a contract with EMI, who had also previously turned them down. He died at age 32 from an accidental overdose of sleeping pills and alcohol.
Brandon Tartikoff
Died August 27, 1997 b. 1949
American broadcast executive, head of programming at NBC.
Greg Morris
Died August 27, 1996 b. 1933
American actor. TV: Mission: Impossible (1966-73, electronics expert Barney Collier).
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Died August 27, 1990 b. 1954
American Hall of Fame guitarist, musician. He died in a helicopter crash, along with several members of Eric Clapton's road crew. He was considered one of the most influential blues guitarists of the 1980s.
Sam Levenson
Died August 27, 1980 b. 1911
American humorist. TV: This Is Show Business (1949-54, panelist) and The Sam Levenson Show (1959-64).
In 1950, he and fellow comedian Joe E. Lewis were the first members of the New York Friars Club to be roasted, initiating a long-lasting tradition.
Quote: Insanity is hereditary. You can get it from your children.
Charlotte "Lottie" M. Story
Died August 27, 1972 b. 1902
American mother. She and her husband Marion Story had 22 children and were interviewed on the radio show You Bet Your Life by Groucho Marx. Urban legend has it that Groucho made the following quip during the interview.
Groucho: "You have 17 children? Why do you have so many kids?"
Charlotte: "Because I love my husband."
Groucho: "I love my cigar too, but I take it out of my mouth every once in a while."
However, even though often attributed to him, Groucho denied the exchange ever occurred.
Burns and Allen
Burns and Allen
Gracie Allen (Grace Ethel Cecile Rosalie Allen)
Died August 27, 1964 b. 1895
America comedian. Wife and partner of George Burns. "Say good night, Gracie." Their career spanned vaudeville, radio, movies, and television. Allen had one green eye and one blue eye (heterochromia). TV: The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950-58).
W. E. B. DuBois (William Edward Burghardt DuBois)
Died August 27, 1963 b. 1868
American educator. Co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP, 1909). He was the first black to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard (1895).
Quote: "Either the United States will destroy ignorance or ignorance will destroy the United States."
Priscilla Lawson (Priscilla Shortridge)
Died August 27, 1958 b. 1914
American actress. Film: Flash Gordon movie serials (1936, Princess Aura the daughter of Ming the Merciless). She was Miss Miami Beach (1935).
Ernest Orlando Lawrence
Died August 27, 1958 b. 1901
American Nobel-winning physicist. He developed the atom smasher which produced the fuel for the first atomic bombs.
Mary Downing Barnes
Died August 27, 1898 b. 1850
American educator. The first woman faculty member of Stanford University (1891).
Sixtus V (Felice Peretti di Montalto)
Died August 27, 1590 b. 1521
religious leader, 227th Pope (1585-90).