Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans, a work of 32 canvases each measuring 20''x16'' and depicting a painting of a flavor of canned soup debuted on this day in the Ferus Gallery of Los Angeles. The individual paintings were made by a printmaking method - a semi-mechanized screen printing process, with a deliberately mundane aesthetic designed to generate controversy over the definition of art.
"Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, lovely Spam! Wonderful Spam!" ...Some of the best lyrics ever written (Monty Python). Spam is a canned precooked meat product by Hormel Foods, introduced on this day in 1937.
She was the largest ocean liner constructed in the US and the fastest liner to cross the Atlantic in either direction. Even still, the SS United States retains the Blue Riband, given to the passenger liner crossing the Atlantic with the highest record speed.
Sam Walton began his career at a J.C. Penney store in Iowa. In 1945, he met the owners of a chain of stores called Ben Franklin, and offered him one in Newport Arkansas. While Walton was successful in running the store, he felt he could be more profitable in Bentonville. So, there, he opened a store called "Walton's Five and Dime." It did so well that on this day 50 years ago, he opened a store in Rogers called "Walmart Discount City." And thus, Walmart was born.
Samantha Reed Smith was an American schoolgirl, peace activist, and child actress. She became famous in the Cold War-era United States and Soviet Union for writing a letter to CPSU General Secretary Yuri Andropov, in which she received a personal reply that included an invitation to visit the Soviet Union, which she accepted.
Holyfield-Tyson II: The Sound and the Fury. There was a little bit of both that night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas; the night Iron Mike infamously chomped down on The Real Deal.
