OCTOBER 11 — 1961 JFK gets advise on the Cong; 1868 Edison’s first invention: electric voice machine; 1793 1st Yellow Fever epedemic in Philly; 1975 Saturday night Live debuts
OCTOBER 11
1961 – JFK meets with advisers regarding the Cong.
…President John F. Kennedy met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff October 11, 1961, and was told that 40,000 US troops could take care of the Vietcong threat and another 120,000 should be able to deal with intervention from North Vietnam and Chinese communists. Kennedy sent General Maxwell Taylor to Vietnam to take a closer look and work with South Vietnam president Ngo Dinh Diem.
1868—Thomas Edison patents his first invention: the electric voice machine,
…which was a tin foil phonograph. Edison was trying to figure out how to upgrade his telegraph transmitter, when he noticed that the tape of the machine made a noise that sounded like spoken words when played at a high speed. So Edison wondered if he could record a telephone message. He got to work on this starting with attaching a need to the diaphragm of a telephone receiver. He figured the needle could prick paper tape to record a message, so he tried a stylus on a tinfoil cylinder, and booy-ya, Thomas Edison was able to hear the message he recorded, which was Mary Had a Little Lamb.
1793—First yellow fever epidemic hits Philly.
…In 1793, Philadelphia was the largest city in the country. It was also the nation’s capital. And I was the new home from a flood of fleeing emigrants from the Caribbean trying to escape a slave rebellion in Santo Domingo, who most likely brought the disease to Philadelphia. By October 101, 100 citizens were dying per day. Thomas Jefferson wrote to James Madison that everyone who could leave Philly should do so immediately. A town of 45,000 people, 5,000 would die. 17,000 would leave. But by late October, a cold front eradicated the mosquito population and the crisis went away.
1975 – SNL debuts.
…After all these years. Almost 800 of episodes of Saturday Night Live have been broadcast. Here comes the trivia. There have been here sets of brothers on Saturday Night Live: John and Jim Belushi, Dan and Peter Aykroyd, and Bill Murray and Brian Doyle-. Murray. The F bomb has been dropped several times throughout the years, notably by Paul Shaffer, Charles Rocket, Morris Day of the Time, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, Michael Stip of REM, Adam Horowitz of the Beastie boys, Nom MacDoanld, James Hetfield of Metallica and Jenny Slate. Speaking of the F bomb, a few episodes had a 7 second delay instead of being completely live. These episodes were hosted by Richard Pryor, Sam Kinison and Andrew Dice Clay. Because those guys just can’t be trusted to not swear on live TV.
Steve Martin was technical never a cast member, just a guest with repeated appearances. In fact Martin’s the only person to host a season premiere, a season finale, and a Christmas show and is the only person to host the show three times in a single season. When Eddie Murphy was first hired, he was not a regular cast member; he was a guest performer who was given nothing to do. He threatened to quit, until he was given a segment of Weekend Update to perform. He was so funny, he eventually appeared in sketches and became a regular cast member. Tina Fey is the first female head writer in the show’s history. John Goodman hosted SNL 11 years in a row. Goodman auditioned for the show way back in 1980 before his acting career got off the ground.