Red Rock On Air

TODAY IS: Thomas Crapper Day: Though credited by many as the inventor of the flush toilet, Crapper was not, but he did hold numerous patents that helped modernize indoor plumbing.

BIRTHDAYS

James Cromwell-70
Bridget Fonda-46
Mikhail Baryshnikov -62
John Roberts (Chief U.S. Justice)-55
Mimi Rogers-54

TODAY IN HISTORY
1880 Thomas Edison patents electric incandescent lamp
1888 National Geographic Society organizes (Washington DC)
1918 “Tarzan of the Apes”, 1st Tarzan film, premieres at Broadway Theater
1948 1st tape recorder sold
1961 “Sing Along with Mitch” [Miller] premieres on NBC TV
1964 “Introducing the Beatles” album released in US
1968 The Bee Gees perform their first American concert.
1973 “Superstition” by Stevie Wonder peaks at No. 1.
1976 “Laverne & Shirley” spin-off from “Happy Days” premieres on ABC TV
1977 President Carter pardons most Vietnam War draft evaders (10,000)
1977 1st broadcast of “Roots” mini-series on ABC TV
1984 Michael Jackson is burned during filming for Pepsi commercial
1992 Presidential candidate Bill Clinton (D) & Genifer Flowers accuse each other of lying over her assertion they had a 12-year affair
1998 Hillary Clinton appears on the “Today” show and charges all allegations against her husband were the work of a “vast right-wing conspiracy.”
2004 A jury in New York hears opening arguments in the trial of Martha Stewart, who was accused of lying about a stock sale. She was convicted in March 2004 and sentenced to five months in prison.

METAL HEADS CENSUS
Heavy Metal fans are being encouraged to register their religion as Metal Heads in the March census. The campaign, launched by Metal Hammer magazine, has already attracted nearly 10,000 followers to a Facebook group. In the last census, a similar campaign led to 390,000 UK residents listing their religion as Jedi.

ORANAGUTAN AUCTION
Nonja the orangutan photographer has put her work up for sale on the internet to raise cash for her relatives in the wild. Nonja’s handiwork has been viewed by tens of thousands of fans on Facebook after keepers at Vienna’s Schoenbrunn zoo in Austria gave her a digital camera and set up a Facebook account for her. You can now buy them on Ebay signed by Nonja with her trademark thumbprint signature.

AVATAR MOUNTAIN
Tourism officials in China have renamed a mountain to Avatar Hallelujah Mountain. The mountain inspired the floating mountains in the mega-film. Hunan’s official website now boasts that tourists can now join a “Magical tour to Avatar-Pandora” or a “Miracle tour to Avatar’s floating mountain.”

RIPPING OFF THE “O’s”
The crook got the wrong “O’s.” Police in Oregon report a thief broke into a drug store and grabbed the prescriptions in the “O” section. Investigators believe the outlaw was after oxycodone. But the drugs are filed alphabetically — by the customers’ last names. Uh, oh. A local paper (The Mail Tribune) reports police are investigating whether the break-in is related to other recent pharmacy rip-offs in Medford.

GOLF COURSE LANDING
No one was injured when a small plane with engine trouble made an emergency landing at a Texas golf course, the pilot said. Brendon Ford said he was flying from Lafayette, La., to Columbus, Texas, Monday when the engine started sputtering only about 40 minutes from his destination. “They have a wonderful golf course,” Ford said of Hermann Park. “Very smooth fairways and it’s a nice place to land your plane if you have to land short.”

MJ PRISON DANCE
Michael Jackson’s long-time choreographer said about 1,500 prisoners in the Philippines performed a dance for the DVD release of the documentary “This Is It.” Travis Payne said the prisoners at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center performed a dance routine to “The Drill,” the final song Payne collaborated with Jackson on before his death June 25

USELESS TRIVIA

Life of a Beatle: John Winston Lennon of The Beatles fame came into the world on October 9, 1940 in Liverpool, England. He was born during a World War II German air raid, and he died at the hands of gunman Mark David Chapman in New York City on December 8, 1980.

Nacre is popularly known as Mother-of-pearl.

The chemical element known as selenium has the symbol Se.

The NBC station in Chicago aired the first-ever TV daytime soap opera, “These Are My Children,” in 1949. It was not a success and prompted the critic from Television World to declare “there is no place on television for this type of program; a blank screen in preferable.”

Whitney Houston performed “The Star –Spangled Banner” at Superbowl XXV in 1991. The crowd loved her version so much, it was released as a single and quickly hit #20 on the charts!