A Brief History On October 17, 1814, a bizarre incident occurred involving our favorite potable, the noble brewski. Perhaps you have heard of drowning your sorrows in beer or some other alcoholic beverage? Well, in London in 1814, a giant vat of beer failed, and 135,000 Imperial gallons of beer surged out, crashing into other huge vats and breaking those open as well. A total of well over 300,000 gallons of beer flowed out of the brewery and into the street like a tidal wave, crushing or drowning at least 8 unsuspecting people in an event known to history as…
Browsing: October 17
A Brief History On October 17, 2001, Jay Livingston, American composer of famous songs for movies and television, died at the age of 86. Livingston is one of several famous musicians that died on October 17th, and today we honor these wonderful writers and singers by telling you a little about them. Even if you do not know the people, you almost assuredly know the music. (Okay, some are before your time.) Digging Deeper 1. Jay Livingston, composer, 2001. Born Jacob Levison in Pennsylvania in 1915, Jay wrote famous songs featured in movies such as “Tammy” (Patti Page), “Mona Lisa” (Nat…
A Brief History On October 17, 1979, an Albanian (Kosovan) Roman Catholic nun was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, certainly one of the highest honors any living person can be awarded. Does she deserve that Prize and all the other accolades afforded to her? Many think not! Digging Deeper Made a Saint by the Roman Catholic Church in an expedited process in September of 2016, Mother Teresa is one of the most revered women of the past few decades. Born Anjeze Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in 1910 in what was then part of the Ottoman Empire, little Agnes (anglicized) dreamed of a…
A Brief History On October 17, 2003, the pinnacle was placed upon the top of the 101 story Taipei World Financial Center (the original name), making it (at the time) the tallest building in the world at a whopping 1667 feet tall, a full 184 feet taller than the previous record holder, the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia. Digging Deeper The Petronas Towers held the record from 1998 to 2003 (or 2004 if you want to wait until Taipei 101 was actually opened), and Taipei 101 held the record until 2010 when the even taller Burj Khalifa in…
A Brief History On October 17, 1931, Mobster Al “Scarface” Capone was convicted of income tax evasion and later sent to Alcatraz Federal Prison. Authorities had long sought to arrest and convict this famous gangster for the murders, extortion and bootlegging he was involved in, but they never had enough evidence. Finally, law enforcement hit on the idea of going after him on income tax evasion. It is not a surprise that a career criminal would have income-reporting irregularities, but what about seemingly non-criminal people? Here we look at 9 celebrities, not from the criminal underworld, who have had problems…
