One of the traditions for me growing up was going to our neighbor’s house up the street to watch the annual showing of The Wizard of Oz. We (all the neighborhood kids) went there because they were the only house on the street to have a color TV (early 60s). On this date back in 1939 the movie had its premiere at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in LA. Two other musical events and one technological event also occurred on this date. In 1965 the Beatles performed in front of 60,000 fans at Shea Stadium in New York City, and four years later – in 1969 – the Woodstock Music and Art Fair opened in rural upstate New York. The estimated attendance over the four-day festival was 500,000. And in 1998 Apple introduced the iMac.
Two world events occurred on this day. After 190 years of East India Company and British crown rule the nation of India (with a current population of over 1 billion people) gained its independence in 1947. And the first republic of Korea (South Korea) was established in 1948.
Quite a number of notable individuals claim or claimed this date as their birthday. French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Corsica in 1769. English author Sir Walter Scott was born in the British Isles in 1771. 31st First Lady Florence Harding was born in the States in 1860. Chef and part-time spy Julia Child was born in 1912. And future former US Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer was born in 1938. This birthdate was also shared by composer Jimmy Webb (1946), British royal lady Princess Anne (sister to current King Charles III -1950), philanthropist and ex-wife of Microsoft founder Bill, Melinda Gates (1964), and Hunger Games actress Jennifer Lawrence.
The combo of part-Native American social commentator Will Rogers, and pilot Wiley Post both left us in 1935 in a plane crash over Alaska. And civil rights activist and politician Julian Bond exited the world stage in 2015.
Leave a Reply