December 4, 2022
QUOTE
A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it is not open.
--Frank Zappa
BIRTHDAYS
1912 – Pappy Boyington, Colonel and pilot, Medal of Honor recipient
1920 – Michael Bates, English actor
1923 – Charles Keating, Lawyer and financier
1937 – Max Baer, Jr., Actor, director, and producer
1949 – Jeff Bridges, Actor
IN MEMORY
1214 – William the Lion, Scottish king
1902 – Charles Dow, Journalist and publisher, co-founded the Dow Jones & Company
1976 – Tommy Bolin, Guitarist and songwriter
1993 – Frank Zappa, Singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
IN ON THIS DAY
1872 – The crewless American brigantine Mary Celeste, drifting in the Atlantic, is discovered by the Canadian brig Dei Gratia. The ship has been abandoned for nine days but is only slightly damaged. Her master Benjamin Briggs and all nine others known to have been on board are never accounted for.
1881 – The first edition of the Los Angeles Times is published.
1918 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sails for the World War I peace talks in Versailles, becoming the first US president to travel to Europe while in office.
1945 – By a vote of 65–7, the United States Senate approves United States participation in the United Nations.
1956 – The Million Dollar Quartet (Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash) get together at Sun Studio for the first and last time.
1971 – During a concert of Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention at the Montreux Casino, an audience member fires a flare gun into the venue’s ceiling, causing a fire that destroys the venue. Rock band Deep Purple, who were to use the Casino as the site for the recording of their next album, witnesses the fire from their hotel; the incident would be immortalized in their best known song, “Smoke on the Water”.