Jeff Wysaski
1824: Ludwig van Beethoven unveils his Ninth Symphony for the first time in Vienna, Austria. The great composer was completely deaf by this point in his life, and therefore Michael Umlauf conducted the performance under Beethoven’s supervision. Beethoven would later regret this decision, however, after Umlauf brazenly ignores Beethoven’s repeated mid-performance directions: “LOUDER! TELL THEM TO PLAY LOUDER!!”
1840: A tornado rips through Natchez, Mississippi and kills 317 people. As the 2nd-deadliest tornado in U.S. history, the catastrophe eventually became known as the Great Natchez Tornado of 1840, despite the fact that many locals would almost immediately come to consider the tornado as “not so great.”
1901: Acclaimed actor Gary Cooper is born. Though he acted in more than 100 film before his death in 1961, he will always be best remembered as “that dude Taco references in his hit single, Puttin’ On The Ritz” (super duper).
1915: More than 1,000 people aboard the RMS Lusitania die when the ship is sunk by a German submarine. The incident would have a significant impact on U.S. interest in the war, turning many previously passive Americans into a more aggressive group of flame-spitting winged centaurs for some reason.
1942: Felix Weingartner dies. Though a talented Austrian conductor and composer, Weingartner’s most important contribution to global society was popularizing the trend of looking stoically off-camera with one hand tucked inside the front portion of a buttoned coat.
1945: Sony is founded in Tokyo. However, the fledgling electronics behemoth would initially be known by a different name – Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo, or in English, “Tokyo Best Sex Robots.”
1992: Three McDonald’s employees in Nova Scotia are killed and another is injured during a robber. Despite a lengthy police investigation, the Hamburglar is still at large.
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