MAY 29 — 1848 — Wisconsin joins the Union; 1962 Centralia begins burning uncontrollably; 2005 Danica Patrick takes lead in Indy 500; 1903 Happy Birthday Bob Hope; 1953 Happy Birthday Danny Elfman
MAY 29
1848—Happy birthday Wisconsin!
… The 30th state of the union contains the nations’ largest water park, Noah’s, Ark, as well as the nations’ largest music festival, Summerfest. But here are some lesser known facts about Daireyland, according to whoonew.com. Wisconsin is the Ginseng capital of the world; making more than 10% of the world’s supply. There’s 280 acres of it in Marathon County. The Ginsing was brought over by the Fromme brothers from Germany in 1904.
Now, before we texted, we did something called type. And there was an invention called the typewriter that was perfected from Milwaukee 1868. Notice I didn’t say originated, there were some variations of the typewrite before, but the first commercially successful typewriter came from Milwaukee. Newspaper editor and printer Christopher Latham Sholes came up with the QWERTY layout we see and use to this day. Supposedly, Sholes placed the letters in a way so our finger could alternate, jams could be prevented, and there was more room to help type faster.
Guess what else was invented in Wisconsin! In Two Rivers, during the early 1800s a soda fountain shop owner named Ed Berners was not allowed to sell soda on Sundays for religious reasons, but he could serve ice cream. One of his customers one Sunday named George Hallauer who asked for a dish and then suggested Berners pour some chocolate syrup he normally used for soda toppings instead! And thus was created the first ice cream Sunday.
Now you know how why it’s called a Sunday.
Meanwhile in Bloomer, Wisconsin, a coach and schoolteacher named Wally Mohman came up with some exercise you can do when it’s snowing 30 feet outside. And that’s how he with the jump rope, which is why Bloomer Wisconsin is called the Rope Jump Capitol of the World.
Finally, America’s first kindergarten was established in Watertown by Margaret Schurz, wife of famous statesman Carl Shurtz.
Happy birthday Wisconsin.
1962 – Centralia begins burning uncontrollably.
…This small Pennsylvania mining commonwealth was a bustling little town until hell quite literally broke loose in 1962 during a trash fire. The town council met on May 7th to discuss how to clean up for the upcoming Memorial Day parade, and decided on May 27th to light it on fire. That night, they put out the fire with hoses, or so they thought. On this day, two days after the initial fire, a blaze was found down the street a little ways. A week later, another smoldering further down the street. Apparently coal caught fire deep underneath the city and it looks like it’s going to burn until it burns itself out.
Throughout the 60s, people slowly started evacuating after dealing with daily occurrences of deadly carbon monoxide poisoning through people’s basements and businesses. Asphyxiation, fires, and collapsing grounds made the town unlivable. Since it was a mining town, there are miles of tunnels underneath the city, and they all got consumed by fires. Todd Damask was a little boy when he got sucked into one of these holes 100 feet deep, right in front of his mother. Luckily he had his hands in the air, and rescuers so his hands sticking out of the sunken pit. And as an adult Rodd wrote a book about it. Deer was often seen halfway caught in a sinkhole, burned alive. Other boys were not so lucky getting sucked underground, and when a gas station nearly exploded after getting pulled under, the US Government finally stepped in and officially evacuated the town.
By the late 1980s only 20% of the town remained. It was like living on the surface of Saturn, if you’ve ever done that. It’s livable, but not without getting black lung. It’s actually worse than smoking. It used to be kind of cool, though dangerous place because of the sinkholes, to trick or treat during Halloween. Not much candy, but definitely scary. In 1992 the governor put the town under eminent domain, and by 2002 it zip code was revoked, and two years later the Penn Dept. of Environmental Protection announced publicly to stay away from the town.
A few remain to this day. They were given permission by the city to live there at their own risk, and once they die their properties will be condemned. These days, smoke still spews out of the ground, and all the signs pointing to the town are gone. The few remaining resident don’t get mail, since there is no zip code anymore. Pizza delivery is out of the question since there are no signs pointing to Satan’s inferno. There are no tourists in this area of Pennsylvania that’s really not a town anymore. Satan’s Pit had nearly 2,000 tourists in 1980. In 1990, it had 63. In 2010, it had maybe 10. If you are one of those people who love visiting areas where the ground literally can kill you at any step, keep in mind if you do find Centralia and make it there, there are locals that still live there and have a right to enjoy their lives peacefully and in privacy, so please be respectful of their property in Satan’s Pit.
1979-Woody Harrelson’s dad
…gets arrested for murder. Yes everyone! Woody’s dad was a hitman! Just when you thought you heard everything. Charles Harrelson was hired by drug kingpin Jimmy Chagra, whose case was about to come up before Judge Wood. He was paid $250,000 for the hit.
On May 29 1979, he shot US District Judge John H. Wood Jr, in the parking lot outside his San Antonio TX townhouse. Wood was the first federal judge of the 20th century to be murdered.
Woody’s father also claimed to have shot JFK, incidentally. He was sentenced to a maximum security cell and died from a heart attack on March 15 2007.
2005—We’ve seen Danica Patrick’s
…sexiness of the cover of Sports Illustrated, HAPE and ESPN Magazines. We’ve seen her in GoDaddy.com commercials and the Jay-Z video Show Me What you Got. But on May 29, 2005, this 23 year old became the first female driver to take the lead in the Indy 500. She didn’t win the race, but did earn Rookie of the Year.
1903 – Happy birthday Bob Hope.
He was an American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer, dancer athlete and author. With a career spanning nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in over 70 files and shorts. He’s hosted the Academy Awards 14 times. Bob Hope passed away at age 100 at his home in Toluca Lake, California.
1953 – From Los Angeles, happy birthday Danny Elfman.
…Aside from being a frontman for 80’s band Oingo Boingo, Elfman has been nominated for four Academy Awards and won a Grammy for Best instrumental composition written for a motion picture, television or other visual media for Tim Burton’s Batman, and an Emmy Award for his Desperate Housewives theme.