Oct 17th-Beer Flood of 1814, Eminem, Alan Jackson, Norm, Lenny, Granny, Gary Puckett, Earl Thomas Conley

0:19 Well, hi there. I am Jeff, and welcome to History and Factoids About Today. Today is October the 17th. Today would have been my mom's 80th birthday. For you longtime listeners, y'all know my mom had a favorite song. How many stars are in the sky? I'll never know. What fire lights a firefly? What happens to this heart of mine? I'll never know by Elvis Presley. So happy heavenly birthday, Mom. Well, the rest of you, you can celebrate National Pasta Day.

1:05 Woo-hoo! Yeah, big celebration today. Now, I'm everything from angel hair to Ziti. Z to Z. There's all kinds of pastas. Now get this, when they rank the top 10 most popular foods in America, chocolate chip cookies are number one, then lasagna is number two, spaghetti and meatballs is number five, ravioli is seven, and mac and cheese is eight. I guess us Americans, we love our pasta. Now, big deals today, of course, are Carrabba's, Olive Garden, Noodles and Company, Frizzoli's. Pretty much everybody that's selling pasta, yeah, they're having deals today. So go out there and have fun and enjoy some carbs today. Okay, let's see what happened to entertainment on October 17th back in 1962. That number one album was the West Side Story movie soundtrack. Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons had the number one song with Sherry.

1:51 I'm gonna make you mine. Sherry. Sherry baby. Sherry baby. Sherry baby. Marty Robbins had the number one country song with Devil Woman. Mary cried and forgave me, and Mary took me back again. Said if I wanted my freedom, I could be free evermore. But I don't want to be, and I don't want to see Mary cry anymore. Oh, devil woman, devil woman, laugh at me.

2:43 The number one book was Ship of Fools by Catherine Ann Porter. Top move was The Longest Day. Now, it's all about D-Day in World War II. It's told from the American point of view and the German point of view. Star John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Robert Mission, pretty much every big name in Hollywood was in that. All right, let's see what happened on October the 17th. The London Bear Flood of 1814. Now, the Horseshoe Brewery, it was one of the largest breweries in London. Now, one of his vats stood 20 foot tall, 22 feet, actually. Now, it was completely full of beer when one of the metal bands that held the wooden vat together slipped. Well, it caused the whole thing to explode. So now that knocked out another vat. That knocked out another vat. That knocked out another vat. Then 388,000 gallons of beer knocked out the back wall of the brewery. A 15-foot wave of beer swept through the street, knocking out houses, killed eight people. Yeah, another person did die later from alcohol poisoning, though. So now the whole thing was all over and they cleaned up and they went to court. Well, the court ruled that the brewery was not responsible. They were not at fault. Yep, they did not owe any compensation for the victims or pay any of the damages or anything. The court ruled the beer flood was an act of God. 1931, gangsta Al Capone, he was convicted of income tax evasion. Yeah, they couldn't get him on anything else that would stick.

4:00 So he was sentenced to 11 years in prison. He served seven and a half. He was fined $ 50, 000 in court costs and he had to pay $ 215, 000 in back taxes. 4.2 million today. 1933, Albert Einstein, he arrived in the United States. His immigration papers say that he was a refugee from Nazi Germany. Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. Now she was really big into horse racing. She even owned her own horses and raced them and everything. So how would you like to have been this guy, though? Today, in 1959, at the very last minute, the queen, she withdrew one of her horses before the race. Well, the guy had to go over and tell the queen that she was being fined $ 140 for the late scratch. 1961, at the New York Museum of Modern Art. Now, they had this huge gala celebration. They were displaying the paintings and the artwork of the great artist, Henry Matisse. Now, everybody with money, all the socialites, the big-time celebrities, anyone who wanted to be seen at all, they had to go to that Matisse exhibit. Now, the star of the exhibit was his piece, Le Bateau. Yeah, the boat. Now, get this. All the museum workers, all the media, all the art critics, over 116,000 people who walked by, spectators and stuff like that. Also, the artist's son. Now, they all oohed and aahed over Le Bateau. Now, after 47 days on display, a New York City stockbroker pointed out that Le Bateau was hung upside down. So they called in a whole bunch of experts.

5:25 Damnedest thing, the stockbroker was right. So yeah, the boat was floating upside down the entire time. Now, do you know that Blue Man Group? You pretty much see them in Las Vegas. Well, they played their first show today in 1991. Yeah, it was out in New York City. 1998 in Nigeria, a gas pipeline, it ran near the town of Jesse. Well, it leaked. So the locals, they would scavenge that leaked gasoline and sell it. Well, they think one of them might have been smoking today. Yeah, the pipeline exploded. Killed over 1,200 people that were in that village. In 2008, in Iran, now they tried to set the world record for the world's longest sandwich that was ever made. Now, they needed it to get to 1,500 feet or 1,500 meters, I mean. Yeah, that's a little short of a mile. Yeah, and then they could set that record. Well, before they could measure it, though, the crowd started eating the sandwich. They don't know how long it was. Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, shawty.

6:15 It's your birthday. We're going to party like it's your birthday. We're going to sip a card like. It's your birthday. And you know we don't give. Up because it's your birthday. Well, let's check out who was born on October the 17th. And listen to my story about a man named Jed. A poor mountaineer barely kept his family fed. And then one day he was shooting at some food. And up through the ground come a bubbling crude. Oil, that is. Black gold. Texas tea. Well, the first thing you know, old Jed's a millionaire. The kinfolk said, Jed, move. Away from there. Actress Irene Ryan. She was born in El Paso, Texas in 1902. Started out in Vaudeville then Broadway. Best known for TV though. She played Granny on the Beverly Hillbillies.

7:01 Now here's a piece of trivia. Do you know what Granny's actual name was on the show? She was Daisy Mae Moses. She was Jed's mother-in-law. Now Irene, she acted until she died in 1973 from a brain tumor. She was 70 years old. She was twice divorced. Actress Rita Hayworth. She was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1918. She made 61 movies. She was in top actress of the 1940s and one of the top pinup girls during World War II. Now, her second husband was Orson Welles, and they had a daughter. Then she had another daughter from her third husband. She ended up divorcing five times. Now, Rita, she died from Alzheimer's in 1987 at 68 years old. Now, it was Rita's death that brought Alzheimer's into the open and mainstream attention. See, most people never heard of Alzheimer's before she died. So because of that, yep, that's when Alzheimer's awareness actually began was her death. After Tom Poston, he was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1921. Tommy wasn't a star, but he holds the record for appearing in the most sitcoms. Yeah, he's most known probably for playing George Utley on New York. Did a lot of game shows.

7:59 He had one child from his second wife, married his third wife for eight years. They divorced, then they remarried for 18 years, and then she died. They had two children along the way. Then he married actress Suzanne Plachette. Yeah, the actress from the original Newhart show. They'd actually dated in 1959. Then they went their separate ways, married other people, had kids. Both their spouses died. Yep, they married each other in 2001. Were together until Tom died from respiratory failure. 2007 and 85 years old. Country singer Earl Thomas Conley.

8:50 He was born in Portsmouth, Ohio in 1941. In the 1980s, he had 18 number one songs. That was third. He was behind Alabama and Ronnie Millsap. Some of his number one songs are Your Love's on the Line, Holding Her, Loving You, Nobody Falls Like a Fool, What She Is is a Woman in Love. Now, he married once and they had two children. And Earl, he performed right up until he died. He died in 2019 at 77 years old from a cerebral atrophy. It's a brain kind of disease. Now, Earl, He is the only country artist ever to sing on Soul Train. That is Gary Puckett singing. He's 84. He still sings for Gary Puckett and the Union Gap. Now they're on tour right now, and they actually have shows scheduled all the way through next September. Now Gary is born in Hibbing, Minnesota. He grew up in Yakima, Washington.

9:56 Now Gary and the Union Gap, they formed in 1967. Now, when they'd be on stage, they would dress as Union Army officers in the Civil War. Some of their big hits were Young Girl, Woman, Woman, Don't Give Up, Don't Give Into Him, The Girl is a Woman Now. Broke up in 1971. Yeah, they weren't together too long. And then Gary just kind of hung around. And then he decided to open up for the Monkees on a routine Union show. Then he went and opened up for Ringo Starr on his all-star band show. And he thought, this is kind of cool, so he brought the union gap back together. Yep, still are. Now, he married his second wife in 2000. Now, for a long time, Gary, he followed Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. And one day, while he was doing his meditation, he heard the Lord tell him that there was a better path to follow. So, in 1990, he became a born-again Christian.

10:41 My baby fits me like a flesh-cut seal I like to sink her with my pink torpedo. That was Michael McKeon singing for Spinal Tap. He's 79. He was born in Manhattan, New York. First got known on the TV show Laverne and Shirley. Yeah, he played Lenny. If you remember, that was Lenny and Squiggy. Then he co-wrote, starred in, and sang in the mockumentary that this is Spinal Tap. Now get this. Most comedians, they join Saturday Night Live to make a name for themselves when they're starting to start out. Well, in 1994, Michael's career had really stalled. He couldn't get any roles at all. He'd been a successful actor for over 20 years, didn't know what to do. He went on Saturday Night Live for two seasons.

11:33 It worked. Jumpstarted his career like crazy. Been working steady ever since. He married his first wife for 23 years, and they had two children together. Married his second wife in 1999. Afternoon, everybody. No! What are you. Doing, Norm? What do you know? Not enough. No! After George Wendt, he was born in Chicago in 1948. Best known for playing Norm on Cheers. Saturday Night Live, he was on the Bears guys. Yeah, they did that skits in the 1990s. Some of George's movies are Fletch, Gung Ho, Never Say Die, Space Truckers. He got married in 1978 and they had one daughter and two sons. Now, though you never saw her, his wife was actually the voice of his wife Vera on the show Cheers. George, he had a lot of medical issues and stuff. Ended up dying in his sleep just on May 20th. 76 years old. Actress Margot Kidder. She was born in Yellowknife, Canada in 1948. She hit really big playing Lois Lane in four Superman movies. She was also in The Great Waldo Pepper, The Amityville Horror, The Little Treasure. Sadly, Margot, she struggled with mental illness her whole life. Yeah, she had undiagnosed bipolar disorder. She tried to commit suicide by the time she was 14 years old. She had a daughter from her first husband. She ended up divorcing three times. Now, Margo, she committed suicide in 2018 at 69 years old.

13:01 I don't feel like rockin' Since my baby's gone So don't rock the jukebox. Country singer Alan Jackson, 68. He was born in Noonan, Georgia. He sold over 75 million records. He's had 26 songs go to number one. Alan played his last concert on June 27th, so he just retired. Now, he married his high school sweetheart in 1979, and they have three daughters.

13:42 Comedian Norm MacDonald. He was born in Quebec City, Canada in 1959. Now, he was a really successful stand-up comedian. His specials won awards and stuff. He has really dry wit He did the weekend update on Saturday Night Live for six years. He had that Norm show for a couple years on regular TV. He's voiced a lot, though. Yeah, he's voiced a lot of movies. He married once for 11 years and had a son. And Norm, he died from leukemia in 2021, 61 years old. Please stand up. Please stand up.

14:27 Rapper Eminem, he's 54. He was born in St. Joseph, Missouri. He was born Marshall Mathers. Now, he sold over 220 million records. Now, that makes him the sixth biggest solo selling artist of all time. Yep, and he is the only artist, whether solo or in a band, to have 10 consecutive albums debut at number one. Now, he married Kim in 1999, and they divorced after two years. Then he remarried her again in 2006, and they divorced after a couple months. Now, they did have one daughter along the way. But Eminem, he has adopted two children that Kim had with two other guys. So Eminem, he's raising all three of her kids. All right, our quote of the day comes from Tennessee Ernie Ford. He died today in 1991 at 72 years old. He said, I was as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. Now you know who said it first.

15:35 All right. Thanks, y'all, for listening. Don't forget to follow us on you listen to us on. It makes it easy to find us. And don't forget to read the description or show notes at the bottom of the thing so you can figure out how to connect with us and messages and all that good, fun stuff. All right. A country underground radio artist of the day. It comes from Kelly down in Houston. She wants to hear Paige Rutledge's song, Ain't That Bad. You guys have an awesome day, and we'll talk tomorrow.

16:23 Breaking hearts, not caring what you think. Dancing all by myself, don't need anyone else. Cause this ball, it's hitting me. Different than it ever has. Boy, that hurt is fading fast. And I need a guy like you holding me back. Single, I've paid that back. No, it ain't, no, it ain't, no, it ain't that bad. No, it ain't, no, it ain't, no, it ain't that bad.