Oct 4-Vodka, Charlton Heston, Susan Sarandon, Triumph, Dakota Johnson, Melissa Benoist, Alicia Silverstone

0:19 Hello, I am Jeff and welcome to History and Factoids About Today. Today is October the 4th. Today is National Vodka Day. Vodka, it's the number one spirit in America. Actually, it's the number one spirit in the world. Now, that's a liquor that you mix with other mixed drinks, you know, and that kind of stuff. Now, vodka, it's ahead of tequila and rum. I bet tequila, it's coming on strong, though. Vodka, it's a Russian for water. It basically is. Vodka was created in Russia in the 5th century. Now, it does not have a taste or a smell, but it does kind of have a burn to it. Now, it is really potent, though. It can mess you up.

1:11 So you've got your Bloody Marys, Cosmopolitans, Screwdrivers, White Russians, Martinis, Long Island Iced Tea. I think you all know how to celebrate National Vodka Day. If you don't like vodka, yeah, it's National Cinnamon Bun Day today, too. Let's check out what's going on in entertainment on October 4th, back in 2020. Number one album was Folklore by Taylor Swift. Travis Young, Young Thug, and Mia had their number one song with Franchise. Gabby Barrett had the number one country song with I Hope. I hope it comes alive and hits every one of your plans.

2:21 That number one book was The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett. Top movie was The War with Grandpa. Peter, he is mad that he has to share his bedroom with his grandpa. So he declares war to try and get him out of there. Starts Robert De Niro, Uma Thurman, and Oaks Fegley. All right, let's see what happened in the world on October the 4th. In China, the largest naval battle in history was fought. It was the Battle of Lake Poyang. Yes, the largest lake over there in China. Now, over 850,000 sailors fought in the battle. Chinese rebel leader Zhu Yangjing, he defeated Chen Yuling. Yep, it was a huge upset. Vegas took it really beating on that one. 1675, in the Netherlands, Christian Huggins invented the pocket watch. Now, that was actually pretty huge. It might not sound like it today. I mean, today, you can get your time anywhere. Computer, your phone, your wall clock, wristwatch, microwave oven, bank buildings, anywhere.

3:15 Back then, you couldn't get the time of day from anywhere. 1873, the Toronto Argonauts Football Club formed. Now, they play in the Canadian Football League. They are the oldest pro sports team in North America that still uses their original name. 1883, the famous train that Orient Express left on its first trip went from Paris to Istanbul. Now they'd had luxury dining cars, luxury sleeping cars. The trip took 80 hours. Ran until 1977. Then people kind of thought, you know what? Screw 80 hours. I can take a plane and get there in three and a half hours. 1915, Dinosaur National Monument. It was established. It's in western Colorado, eastern Utah, along the border there. Pretty cool if you're into dinosaurs. Kind of a barren place, maybe if you're traveling on I-70 and want to take a break from the desert. South Dakota, Gutsman Borland. He started sculpting Mount Rushmore today in 1927.

4:06 Kept at it until 1941 when he died. Now, he wasn't done with his original plans, what he wanted to do, but nobody else wanted to finish it, so they just called it good. 1957, the Soviet Union, they launched Sputnik 1, the first man-made satellite to orbit the Earth. Now, it was the size of a beach ball, weighed 184 pounds. Took it 98 minutes to orbit the Earth. Now, it orbited for three months, and then it fell back to the Earth. All it did up there was send back a radio signal, kind of pinged, let everybody know it was there. 1965, Pope Paul VI, he became the first pope to leave Italy since 1809. Yeah, he came to the United States, New York City, more specific, first pope to actually go to the Western Hemisphere. So he gave a speech at the UN. He visited the World's Fair.

4:48 He held mass at Yankee Stadium. Yeah, it sounds like he had a good time. What's a fancy cat at the shop? Things are dry. Have you ever wondered with the R.E.M. song, what's the frequency Kenneth actually about? Well, in 1986, CBS newscaster Dan Rather, he was docking down the street in New York City when he was attacked and knocked to the ground. Now the guy who did it, he stood over him and he started shouting at him. Kenneth, what's the frequency? Kenneth, what's the frequency? Yeah, he was really irate and irrational. See, the guy believed that the TV networks were beaming signals into his brain. Now he wanted the frequency so he could block it. Well, he took off before the police showed up. Then in 1994, that same guy, he killed a stagehand when he tried to burst into the NBC studios.

5:43 It got him that time. Then after a lot of debate and a lot of studying the guy, the experts in authority, they all concluded that he had mental problems. His name was William Taggart. Okay, he was born on October the 4th. Rutherford B. Hayes, he was born in Delaware, Ohio in 1822. Now, he was a lawyer, then he became a brigadier general for the Union. Army during the Civil War. Then he became the 19th president of the United States, served from 1877 to 1881. Now, he did not win the popular vote, and no one running that year had enough electoral votes. That meant he went to the U.S. House of Representatives. Well, they picked Hayes, mainly because he said he would only serve one term.

6:34 He would end Reconstruction and the occupation of the southern states. Well, he did keep his word. He was married, and they had eight kids. He died from a heart attack in 1893 at 70 years old. Actor Charlton Heston. He was born in Wilmette, Illinois in 1923. He's in over 100 movies. Acted for 60 years. He won an Oscar for Being Her. Some of the other movies he starred in were The Ten Commandments, The Greatest Story Ever Told, Julius Caesar, Midway, Playing into the Apes. Now he served as president of the NRA for five years. He had married way back in 1944 and they had four kids. Heston, he died in 2008. 84 years old from Alzheimer's. Writer Anne Rice. She was born in New Orleans in 1941. Sold over 100 million books. Best known for her vampire books. The big ones were Interview with a Vampire and Queen of the Damned. She was married for 41 years when her husband died. Then she died, or they had a son and daughter together. Then Anne died from a stroke, 20-21 at 80 years old. Actress Susan Sarandon is 80. She was born in Queens, New York in 1946. Now Susan, she has been nominated for Best Actress Oscars for Atlantic City, Thelma and Louise, Lorenzo's Oil, The Client. Then she won one. Yeah, that's for Dead Man Walking. Now, she married a guy in college. They were married 11 years when they divorced, but she didn't want to do that again. So she had a daughter from a boyfriend. Then she dated actor Tim Robbins for 20 years, and they had two sons.

7:55 I'm young now, I'm wild now, I want to be free. I've got the magic power and the music in me. I'm young now, I'm wild. Now, That was Gilmore singing for the band Triumph. He also plays their drums. Gil's 73 today. He was born in Toronto, Canada. Now, Triumph, they are a really underrated band, probably because they're Canadian. But they may or may not have just finished their last tour. They're not quite sure yet. See, they actually retired in 1993, but they're actually still out there. They started in 1975. Some of their biggest hits are Lay It On The Line, Magic Power, Fight the Good Fight, World of Fantasy. Now, Gil, he's built one of the largest recording studios in the world. So over the last 30 years, pretty much everybody who records goes up there at least for a little bit to record with him.

8:51 Just some of the artists who've gone up to Canada recording Gil's studio. Guns N' Roses, Aerosmith, Katy Perry, Black Eyed Peas, Drake. I guess Drake didn't have far to go in Canada. Now, Gil, he has two daughters and one son. Actor Bill Fagerbeke. He was born in Fontana, California in 1957. That 69-year-old grew up in Idaho. He even played defensive end for the University of Idaho football team. Yeah, but then he blew his knee out, so he went in and ended up graduating with a degree in drama. He got famous playing Dobber on the sitcom Coach. Biggest success, though, he's been voicing Patrick on SpongeBob SquarePants since 1999. But since 2021, he also has his own show. It's called The Patrick Starr Show. Now, he was married for over 20 years when they divorced, and they had two daughters.

9:35 Actress Alicia Silverstone, she's 50. She was born in San Francisco. She first hit the movie Crush. She's only 16 years old. Then she starred in a couple of Aerosmith videos, Crying and Crazy. Then Clueless. She was Batgirl in Batman and Robin. She married once for 13 years, and she has a son from that. Actress Melissa Benoist. She was born in 1988 in Houston, Texas. 38 today. First got known on TV. She's Batgirl. known for TV, pretty much. She was on Glee. Then she was Supergirl for six years. So, because she was Supergirl, that means she had to make appearances on Flash and Arrow. Melissa, she married her second husband in 2019, and they have one son. Actress Dakota Johnson's 37. She was born in Austin, Texas in 1989. Her famous parents are actors Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith. Dakota, she was in her first movie when she was 10 years old. Yeah, she had a small part in her mom's movie, Crazy in Alabama. She made a name for herself, though, in all those Fifty Shades movies. She was also in Madame Webb and Splitsville.

10:32 She dated Chris Martin, the lead singer for Coldplay, for eight years. All righty, our quote of the day comes from Janis Joplin. Oh, Lord, won't you buy me? gianna's died today 1970 at 27 years old she said don't compromise yourself you've all you've got well thank you all for listening today don't forget to follow us on you listen to us on so we're easy to follow and make sure you go to the show description today down there so you can see all the links how to get in touch with this and all that fun stuff our country underground radio artist today it comes from trey down there in dallas he wants to hear clayton anderson's song better by the day You guys have an awesome day, and we'll talk tomorrow.

11:52 Bye. Bye. Bye. Every day's a dang good day that the good Lord lets us borrow. If today's any indication, what's waiting? I can't wait till tomorrow. Life's getting better by the day, by the day. Life's getting better by the day. Yeah, life's getting better by the day, by the day. Life's getting better by the day. Wish you could.