The Calcutta Rugs

AND NOW, at #19 in Dollar Bill's 28 Days of Oscar, proof positive that Hollywood can destroy even the best material (ie Tchaikovsky and Dumas) with little effort, BEHOLD, "The Nutcracker in 3D." Sporting a normally serviceable cast (with the exception of Elle Fanning) including John Turturro and Nathan Lane this turd-in-a-stocking is the final word in the argument against making a holiday film post-Rankin-Bass. Scoring 0% on the Tomato meter, if there isn't agent malpractice in California law, there should be......

ARRIVALS: in 1959, 16 year old Jimi Hendrix made his stage debut when he played a show at the Temple De Hirsch Sinai synagogue in Seattle. In 1977, Grammy winners included Stevie Wonder for best album with 'Songs In The Key Of Life', and best vocal performance for 'I Wish.' Best album went to Chicago for 'Chicago X' and Best new artist went to the Starland Vocal Band.

DEPARTURES: in 2003, 100 people died after pyrotechnics ignited a club at a Great White show in Rhode Island. Great White guitarist Ty Longley also perished in the accident.

On this day in 1962, Col. John Glenn, USMC, becomes the first American to orbit the Earth. The Mercury-Atlas 6 (MA-6) spacecraft, named Friendship 7, was carried to orbit by an Atlas LV-3B launch vehicle lifting off from Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. After three full orbits comprising four hours, 56 minutes in flight the spacecraft re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, splashed down in the North Atlantic and was safely taken aboard the destroyer USS Noa.

Before joining NASA, Glenn was a distinguished fighter pilot in WW2, the Chinese Civil War and Korea. He shot down three MiG-15 aircraft, and was awarded six Distinguished Flying Crosses and 18 Air Medals (for a time in Korea his wingman was one Ted Williams). In 1957, he made the first supersonic transcontinental flight across the US. His on-board camera took the first continuous, panoramic photograph of the United States.

As devotees of “The Right Stuff” may recall, he was one of the Mercury Seven, military test pilots selected in 1959 by NASA as the United States' first astronauts. He received the NASA Distinguished Service Medal and was feted at a ticker-tape parade in New York City in 1962, received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978, was inducted into the US Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1990, and was the last surviving member of the Mercury Seven.

After serving as a US Senator from Ohio for 24 years, in 1998, Glenn returned to space on the Shuttle Discovery (STS-95) as a Payload Specialist. According to The New York Times, Glenn "won his seat on the Shuttle flight by lobbying NASA for two years to fly as a human guinea pig for geriatric studies." Hence Glenn became the second sitting senator and oldest known earthling to fly in space.

Glenn blasted off for his final flight December 8, 2016, and it is here our lesson endeth. Or does it?

ARRIVALS: in 1972, Harry Nilsson started a four week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with his version of the Badfinger song 'Without You.' His vocal was recorded in a single take and his performance was rewarded with Nilsson's second Grammy Award. In 2004, Johnny Cash's family blocked an attempt by advertisers to use his hit song 'Ring of Fire' to promote haemorrhoid-relief products.

DEPARTURES: in 1980, Bon Scott of AC/DC dies from "death by misadventure" at 33 in London.

The State of Michigan looms in the internment story through the person of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Frank Murphy, who famously opposed the scheme as a stain on our nation’s history...Returning from Germany after WWI, Murphy acted as a Recorder’s Court Judge, Mayor of Detroit, Governor of Michigan and US Attorney General before his appointment to the SCOTUS. Duty so drove Murphy, in fact, that while a sitting Justice he still reported to Fort Benning, GA during court recesses, serving as an infantry officer.

From Honolulu to Harbor Beach in 636 Words On February 19, 1942, 10 weeks after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066…

Twain made a last global lecture tour, entitled “At Home Around the World.” This roadshow took him to points including Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa and North America, where he perfomed in the Michigan burgs of Petoskey, Mackinac and Sault Ste. Marie. Noting that Twain had recently been confined with “a carbuncle that at one time threatened his life,” The Petoskey Daily Resorter reported “Every seat was sold and over a hundred chairs were brought in to try to accommodate those who wished to see America’s great humorist." The night's gate was $524.

The Mississippi in Michigan On February 18, 1885, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain’s famous and infamous tale of the antebellum South, was first…

ARRIVALS: 1960---Elvis Presley won his first Gold record for his second studio album 'Elvis'. It spent four weeks at No.1 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart, making Presley the first recording artist to have both albums go straight to No.1 in the same year. 1966---Nancy Sinatra was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'These Boots Are Made For Walking', Frank's eldest daughter's first No.1. Written by Lee Hazlewood, Sinatra's recording of the song was made with the help of Los Angeles session musicians known as the Wrecking Crew. 1979---Blondie scored their first UK No.1 album when 'Parallel Lines' started a four-week run at the top of the charts, featuring the singles 'Heart Of Glass.'

DEPARTURES: 2014---American musician and sound engineer Bob Casale, best known as a guitarist and keyboardist in the new wave band Devo died of heart failure in Los Angeles. 2020---American blues piano player and singer Henry Gray died age 95. He performed with many artists, including Robert Lockwood Jr., Billy Boy Arnold, Morris Pejoe, The Rolling Stones, Muddy Waters, and Howlin' Wolf.

Picking up the fork in our trail for a piece, being Jefferson’s fascination with the West, we first note he is ranked among the most brilliant of our presidents, with an IQ of 160. The erudite writer, philosopher, inventor, biologist, musician, architect and patent-holder spoke six languages, including French, German, Greek and Latin. And while he spent a sum total of five years in Europe, replete with crossings, he never ventured further west than Falling Spring Falls, VA, 75 miles from his birthplace.

President Paradox: Thomas Jefferson and Our American Horizon On February 17, 1801, Thomas Jefferson was elected the third president of the United States, bringing about the first peaceful transfer of…

SATURDAY!! SATURDAY!! FEBRUARY 24TH!! JOIN YOUR INDESTRUCTIBLE CALCUTTA RUGS FOR WORLD BARTENDER DAY!! COME SALUTE THOSE ESSENTIAL WORKERS AND FIRST-RESPONDERS WHO BIND THE EARTH TOGETHER IN WORLD PEACE AND CONSTRUCTIVE INNEBRIATION!! LOOK ON AS THE RUGS ATTEMPT TO RECALL CHORDS AND LYRICS FROM LONG AGO IN 2023!! TWIST CONTEST, BURP CONTEST, NO CONTEST!! REGISTERED NURSES WILL BE STANDING BY!! BE THERE, ALOHA AND DON'T YA DARE MISS IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Show at American Legion See The Calcutta Rugs at American Legion on February 24th

On this day in 1923, in Thebes, Egypt, English archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter enters the sealed burial chamber of the 18th Dynasty Pharaoh, Tutankhamun.

As the ancient Egyptians saw their pharaohs as gods, they carefully preserved their bodies after death, burying them in elaborate tombs containing rich treasures to accompany the rulers into the afterlife. In the 19th century, archeologists from all over the world flocked to Egypt, where they uncovered a number of these tombs. Many had long ago been broken into by grave robbers and stripped of their riches.

When a 17-year-old Carter arrived in Egypt in 1891, he became convinced there was at least one undiscovered tomb--that of the little known Tutankhamen, or King Tut, who lived around 1400 B.C. and died when he was still a teenager. Nine years later he he discovered the tombs of Hatshepsut and Thutmose IV in the Valley of the Tombs of Kings.

Backed by a wealthy Brit, the 5th earl of Carnarvon, in 1907 Carter commenced searching for Tut for nearly 15 years without success. By early 1922, Lord Carnarvon wanted to call off the search, but Carter convinced him to hold on one more year.

In November 1922, the wait paid off, when Carter’s team found steps hidden in the debris near the entrance of another tomb. The steps led to an ancient sealed doorway bearing the name Tutankhamen. When Carter and Lord Carnarvon entered the tomb’s interior chambers on November 26, they were thrilled to find it virtually intact, with its treasures untouched after more than 3,000 years. The men began exploring the four rooms of the tomb, and on February 16, 1923, under the watchful eyes of a number of important officials, Carter opened the door to the last chamber; the items revealed and not been seen by human eyes since 1,323 years before the birth of Christ.

In the years following the discovery, not less than 11 people present or associated with the dig perished, including Lord Carnarvon himself, who died six weeks after the opening of the final chamber; four additional personnel expired inside of one year. Coincidence? We think not.

Meanwhile, a mere 10 years later, the discovery spawned "The Mummy," a Universal picture starring Boris Karloff. Following the glide path of most horror franchises, the Mummy series devolved with the casting of Lon Chaney, Jr. in the title role, and eventually, Abbott and Costello as the protagonist explorers. And the Steve Martin bit still stings the ears and nostrils.

And here our lesson of Egypt, avarice and the Curse of Tutankhamun endeth.

AND NOW, at #24 on Dollar Bill's 28 Days of Oscar, BEHOLD: "The Conqueror" (not William) An epic, $6 million-dollar-dud featuring a wig-and-fake-mustache-wearing John Wayne as Mongolian chieftain Genghis Khan and redheaded Susan Hayward as a Tatar princess. Rating 10% on the Tomatometer, it was shot downwind from the Nevada Test Site where 11 above-ground nukes went off that year alone, and blamed for the latter deaths of scores of the cast and crew, including Hayward, Wayne, Agnes Moorehead, Pedro Armendáriz, and director Dick Powell. If only cancer had killed the casting director first.....

ARRIVALS: Born this day in 1941, Brian Holland, of Holland/Dozier/Holland, producer and songwriter who wrote many hits for Motown artists such as The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Four Tops, Martha Reeves & The Vandellas. Also born this day in 1942, Glyn Johns, English musician, recording engineer and record producer who worked with many artists including Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Beatles, ('Let It Be' sessions), Eagles, the Faces and Led Zeppelin.

DEPARTURES: Gone this day in 1965, Nat King Cole, American singer and pianist of lung cancer (Chesterfields). Hits included 1943's 'Straighten Up and Fly Right', the 1955 US No.2 single 'A Blossom Fell' and 1957 UK No.2 single 'When I Fall In Love' plus over 20 other US & UK Top 40 singles.

At #25 on Dollar Bill's 28 DAYS OF OSCAR: featuring dancing, duncing, Travolta and dispensing with plot points and character development, it's STAYING ALIVE! The Bee Gees' song may have charted #1, but this dancing hippo scored a full 0% on the Tomatometer. BONUS: written & directed by Sylvester Stallone, it features his brother Frank (who?)......

On this day in 399 BC, the condemned philosopher Socrates happily drinks a hemlock mixture administered as his sentence for corrupting the minds of the youth of Athens; the libertine genius somehow believed he was sampling an ouzo slushie concoction.

Born circa 470 BC in Athens, Greece, Socrates was the son of Sophroniscus, an Athenian stone mason and sculptor, and Phaenarete, a midwife. Because he wasn't from a noble family, he probably received a basic Greek education and learned his father's craft at a young age. It is believed Socrates worked as mason for many years before he devoted his life to philosophy.

Contemporaries differ in their account of how Socrates supported himself as a philosopher. Both Xenophon and Aristophanes state Socrates received payment for teaching, while Plato writes Socrates explicitly denied accepting payment, citing his poverty as proof.

Athenian law required all able bodied males serve as citizen soldiers, on call for duty from ages 18 until 60. According to Plato, Socrates served in the armored infantry—known as the hoplite—with shield, long spear and face mask. He participated in three military campaigns during the Peloponnesian War, at Delium, Amphipolis, and Potidaea, where he saved the life of Alcibiades, a popular Athenian general.

Socrates was known for his courage in battle and fearlessness, a trait that stayed with him throughout his life. After his trial, he compared his refusal to retreat from his legal troubles to a soldier's refusal to retreat from battle when threatened with death.

In his trial, the jury was not swayed by Socrates's defense and convicted him by a vote of 280 to 221. Possibly the defiant tone of his defense contributed to the verdict and he made things worse during the deliberation over his punishment. Athenian law allowed a convicted citizen to propose an alternative punishment to the one called for by the prosecution. Instead of proposing he be exiled, Socrates suggested he be honored by the city for his contribution to their enlightenment and be paid for his services. The jury was not amused and sentenced him to the fullest extent they wished.

Before Socrates's impending ex*****on, friends offered to bribe the guards and rescue him so he could flee into exile. He declined, evidencing unawareness of his fate, and felt he would be no better off if in exile, as his place was decorated just the way he liked it, and he knew all the hipsters, swank bars, bohemian resale shops and best dry-cleaner in the area. While his loyal young followers looked on in awe at his apparent bravery, Socrates' favorite barkeep Nick handed him the hemlock-ouzo slushie.

Plato described Socrates's ex*****on in his Phaedo dialogue: "Socrates drank the hemlock mixture without hesitation. Numbness slowly crept into his body until it reached his heart. Shortly before his final breath Socrates looked up from his death bed, stunned, and said 'nobody told me hemlock was poison.' Greece's greatest mind was dead."

The End.

ARRIVALS: 1968---Manfred Mann were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with their version of the Bob Dylan song 'The Mighty Quinn' which was also a No.10 hit in the US....1972---John Lennon
John Lennon and Yoko Ono started a week long run as co-hosts on 'Mike Douglas' US TV show....1987---Bon Jovi started a four week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Livin' On A Prayer', the group's second US No.1, a No.4 hit in the UK.

DEPARTURES: 2002---English drummer and singer Mick Tucker with glam rock band Sweet died of leukaemia aged 54. Sweet had the 1973 UK No.1 single 'Blockbuster', plus 14 other UK Top 40 singles including 'Ballroom Blitz' and 'Love is Like Oxygen.'

On a local note, Bell helped the Stars to three NNL pennants before splitting the abbreviated 1932 season with Kansas City and Detroit of the East-West League. Bell batted .365 with the Detroit Wolves...at 43, Bell returned to Michigan and played for his last team, the semipro Detroit Senators, for a few dollars a game.

The Cool of Cool Papa Bell On February 13, 1974, James “Cool Papa” Bell was inducted in the the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Said to be the fastest man to ever run the base paths, he played in the National Negro League and…

ARRIVALS: 1961 - The Miracles' 'Shop Around' became Motown Record's first million-selling single. It was also the label's first No.1 hit on Billboard's R&B singles chart. In the following ten years, The Miracles would have six more million sellers. 1972 - Al Green went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Let's Stay Together', his only US chart topper. It was ranked the 60th greatest song of all time by Rolling Stone magazine on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

DEPARTURES: 2000 - American singer, songwriter, musician Screamin' Jay Hawkins died aged 70 after emergency surgery for an aneurysm. A Golden Gloves boxing champion at 16, he was married nine times, fathered over 30 children, spent two years in jail and was temporary blinded by one of his flaming props on stage in 1976. He recorded 'I Put A Spell On You' in 1956.

On this day in 1924, George Gershwin's opus Rhapsody in Blue is performed live for the first time in New York City's Aeolian Hall. The entire evening's program, billed as an “Experiment In Modern Music," was organized by Paul Whiteman, the immensely popular leader of the Palais Royal Orchestra, and intended to demonstrate that the relatively new form of music called jazz deserved to be regarded as a serious and sophisticated art form. The program first featured didactic segments intended to make this case, and segments with titles like “Contrast: Legitimate Scoring vs. Jazzing.” It bored the audience to near tears.

Enter 25-year-old George Gershwin, and an unforettable opening refrain. “It starts with an outrageous cadenza of the clarinet,” wrote Olin Downes of the New York Times.“It has subsidiary phrases, logically growing out of it . . . often metamorphosed by devices of rhythm and instrumentation.” Downes was in emphatic agreement with Whiteman’s original premise: “This is no mere dance-tune set for piano and other instruments,” he judged. “This composition shows extraordinary talent, just as it also shows a young composer with aims that go far beyond those of his ilk.”

Gershwin, often with the assist from lyricist brother Ira, penned multiple pieces and scores for Broadway, film and orchestral presentation, including Blue Monday, Shall We Dance, You Can't Take That Away From Me, Nice Work If You Can Get It, Porgy & Bess and An American In Paris. Gershwin was struck down by a brain tumor at 38, and The Guardian, using "estimates of earnings accrued in a composer's lifetime" concluded that he was the wealthiest composer of all time.

In September 2013, a partnership between the estates of Ira and George Gershwin and the University of Michigan was created, providing the university's School of Music, Theater, and Dance access to Gershwin's entire body of work, which includes all of Gershwin's papers, compositional drafts, and scores.

Now known as the Gershwin Initiative, this direct access to all of his works will provide opportunities to musicians, composers, and scholars to analyze and reinterpret his work with the goal of accurately reflecting the composers' vision in order to preserve his legacy. Befitting the spirit, in 2019, U of M unveiled Gershwin's 1933 Model A Steinway, fully restored, as part of the Initiative.

And here, the refrain endeth.

1967 --The Monkees set a new record when their second album, More Of The Monkees jumped from No.122 to the top of the US chart. The album then stayed in pole position for eighteen weeks. 1972--Led Zeppelin scored their third US Top 20 hit single with 'Black Dog / Misty Mountain Hop', peaking at No.15, and taken from their fourth album. 1989--Paula Abdul started a three-week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Straight Up'. Her debut studio album Forever Your Girl (1988) became one of the most successful debut albums at that time, selling seven million copies in the United States and setting a record for the most No.1 singles from a debut album on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

DEPARTURES: 2012--Whitney Houston was found dead in suite 434 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, submerged in the bathtub. Beverly Hills paramedics arrived at approximately 3:30 p.m. and found the singer unresponsive and performed CPR. Houston was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m. Local police said there were "no obvious signs of criminal intent." 2020--American drummer Paul English died after a bout of pneumonia age 87. He was Willie Nelson's long-time drummer and was the titular "Paul" of the Willie Nelson album Me.

Dollar Bill's 28 Days of Oscar begins NOW: At number 28, an unintentional disaster movie, scoring 34% on the Tomato-Meter and losing $40.6 million at the box office. Behold... ISHTAR!

On this day in 1990, the South African government of President F.W. de Klerk releases Nelson Mandela from prison. Shortly after his release, Mandela was chosen deputy president of the African National Congress; he became president of the party in July 1991. Mandela led the ANC in negotiations with de Klerk to end apartheid and bring about a peaceful transition to nonracial democracy in South Africa; he and de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts in 1993.

Nelson Mandela was the son of Chief Henry Mandela of the Madiba clan of the Xhosa-speaking Tembu people. After his father’s death, Nelson was schooled by a regent, but renounced his claim to the chieftainship to become a lawyer. He attended South African Native College (University of Fort Hare), studied law at the University of the Witwatersrand, and passed the qualification exam to become a lawyer. In 1944 Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC), a black-liberation group, became a leader of its Youth League and subsequently held other ANC leadership positions.

After the National Party's white-only government established apartheid, a system of racial segregation that privileged whites, he and the ANC committed themselves to its overthrow. Mandela was appointed President of the ANC's Transvaal branch, rising to prominence for his involvement in the 1952 Defiance Campaign and the 1955 Congress of the People. He was repeatedly arrested for seditious activities and was unsuccessfully prosecuted in the 1956 Treason Trial.

Influenced by Marxism, he secretly joined the banned South African Communist Party (SACP). Although initially committed to non-violent protest, in association with the SACP he co-founded the militant Umkhonto we Sizwe in 1961 and led a sabotage campaign against the government. He was arrested and imprisoned in 1962, and was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiring to overthrow the state following the Rivonia Trial.

Amid growing domestic and international pressure, and with fears of a racial civil war, President F. W. de Klerk released Mandela after 27 years served in three prisons, and the two men laid the framework for a peaceful transition to a non-racial democracy.

In the subsequent 1994 multiracial general election, Mandela led the ANC to victory and became president. Leading a broad coalition government which promulgated a new constitution, Mandela emphasized reconciliation between the country's racial groups and created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate past human rights abuses.

Economically, Mandela's administration worked within a center-left liberal framework despite his own socialist beliefs, also introducing measures to encourage land reform, combat poverty, and expand healthcare services. Internationally, he acted as mediator in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial and served as Secretary-General of the Non-Aligned Movement from 1998 to 1999.

Mandela declined a second presidential term, and in 1999 was succeeded by his deputy, Thabo Mbeki. Mandela became an elder statesman and focused on combating poverty and HIV/AIDS through the charitable Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Broadly regarded as an icon of democracy and social justice, Mandela has received more than 250 honors, including his Nobel Peace Prize, and became the center of an affectionate cult of personality. Passing away in 2013, he is held in high esteem within South Africa, the continent at large and the world, where he is often referred to by his Xhosa clan name, Madiba, and described as the "Father of the Nation."

ARRIVALS: 1971--American singer-songwriter Carole King released her second studio album Tapestry. It is one of the best-selling albums of all time, with over 25 million copies sold worldwide. 1978--Van Halen released their self-titled debut studio album. Peaking at No.19 on the Billboard 200 the album went on to sell more than 10 million copies in the US. The album contains some of Van Halen's most well-known songs, including 'Runnin' with the Devil', 'Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love', 'Jamie's Cryin'', and their cover of The Kinks' 'You Really Got Me'. 1984--Frankie Goes To Hollywood were at No.1 on the UK singles chart for the third week with 'Relax.' Eurythmics had the UK No.1 album with 'Touch.' 2008--Amy Winehouse won five prizes at this year's Grammy Awards, including song of the year and record of the year, both for her single 'Rehab', and best new artist.

DEPARTURES: 2002--American folk singer Dave Van Ronk died aged 65. An important figure in the American folk music revival and New York City's Greenwich Village scene in the Sixties, he was nicknamed the "Mayor of MacDougal Street".

On this day in 1763, The Seven Years’ War, a global conflict known in America as the French and Indian War, ends with the signing of the Treaty of Paris by France, Great Britain, and Spain. This New World conflict marked another bitter chapter in the long imperial struggle between Britain and France, with the British colonists supported at various turns by the Iroquois, Catawba, and Cherokee, and the French colonists supported by Wabanaki Confederacy members Abenaki and Mi'kmaq, and Algonquin, Lenape, Ojibwa, Ottawa, Shawnee, and Wyandot.

Fighting took place principally along the frontiers between New France and the British colonies, from Virginia in the south to Newfoundland in the north. It began with a dispute over control of the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers called the Forks of the Ohio, and the site of the French Fort Duquesne within present-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The dispute erupted into violence in the Battle of Jumonville Glen in May 1754, during which Virginia militiamen under the command of 22-year-old George Washington ambushed a French patrol. In certain respects, then, Washington was the u***d father of our country, two decades before he took command of the Continental Army.

In the first year of the war, the British suffered a series of defeats at the hands of the French and their broad network of Native American alliances. However, in 1757, British Prime Minister William Pitt (the elder) recognized the potential of imperial expansion that would come out of victory against the French and borrowed heavily to fund an expanded war effort. Pitt financed Prussia’s struggle against France and her allies in Europe and reimbursed the colonies for the raising of armies in North America.

By 1760, French combatants had largely been expelled from Canada, and by 1763 all of France’s allies in Europe had either made a separate peace with Prussia or had been defeated. In addition, Spanish attempts to aid France in the Americas had failed, and France also suffered defeats against British forces in India. The Seven Years’ War ended with the signing of the treaties of Hubertusburg and Paris in February 1763.

In the Treaty of Paris, France lost all claims to Canada (with the exception of the French fishing islands of St. Pierre and Milquelon which I've previously tortured you all about), and gave Louisiana to Spain, while Britain received Spanish Florida, Upper Canada, and various French holdings overseas.

The treaty ensured the colonial and maritime supremacy of Britain, strengthened the 13 American colonies by removing their European rivals to the north and south, and made the Pontiac nameplate a big seller for General Motors. Fifteen years later, French bitterness over the loss of most of their colonial empire contributed to their intervention in the American Revolution on the side of the Patriots.

And here endeth the lesson.

The following September 9th, the boys performed before 30,000 screeching Metro Detroit fans at the Red Wings’ Olympia Stadium...The Beatles' 12-song set included "Twist and Shout," "Can't Buy Me Love" and "Hard Day's Night." The band would return to Olympia's boards in August of '66 to perform selections including "Day Tripper," "Nowhere Man" and "Paperback Writer"...closing out that US campaign two weeks later at San Francisco's Candlestick Park, the band would never tour again.

The Beatles Take America, and Old Fort Detroit On this day in 1964, 60 years ago, The Beatles made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, marking the opening salvo of the…

ARRIVALS: 1964 - The Kingsmen with 'Louie Louie' by The Kingsmen under FBI investigation for containing obscene lyrics, the song's publishers offered $1,000 to anyone who could definitively distinguish the dirty words. 1981 - R.E.M. made their first ever-recording sessions at Bombay Studios Smyrna, Georgia. Tracks included 'Gardening At Night', 'Radio Free Europe' and '(Don't Go Back To) Rockville.'

DEPARTURES: 2005 - American rock drummer, vocalist, and songwriter Keith Knudson from with The Doobie Brothers died of pneumonia aged 56. The Doobie Brothers scored the 1979 US No.1 single 'What A Fool Believes' and 1993 UK No.7 single 'Long Train Runnin.' He founded the band Southern Pacific with fellow Doobie Brother John McFee. 2023--American composer, songwriter, record producer, pianist, and singer Burt Bacharach died of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 94. With Hal David he wrote many classic songs including, 'Close To You', '24 Hours From Tulsa', 'Make It Easy On Yourself', 'Magic Moments', 'I Say A Little Prayer'. He won two Oscars for the film score to Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, and for the song 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head'. Bacharach's songs have been recorded by more than 1,000 different artists and as of 2014, he had written 73 US and 52 UK Top 40 hits.