Tagged: Datebook

Victoria Woodhull was an American leader of the women's suffrage movement, an an advocate for women's freedoms in marriage and divorce. She and her sister were the first women to operate a brokerage firm in Wall Street; she was the first woman to start a weekly newspaper; and in 1872, became the first woman nominated for President of the United States, in the Equal Rights Party. She was arrested for obscenity a few days before the election, for publishing an account of an alleged affair involving a prominent minister and a young woman. She received no electoral votes.

The squawking, red-nose prince of slapstick named Mr. Punch made his first recorded debut on May 9, 1662 in the diary of English naval administrator Samuel Pepys. After a party at London's Covent Garden, he recorded that he enjoyed "an Italian puppet play that is within the rayles there, which is very pretty, the best that ever I saw." At the time, Mr. Punch was a stringed marionette called Pulcinella, but has since evolved into the stick-wielding puppet we know today. Puppeteers call him the lord of misrule, classic gallows humor, and in-tune with the social climate.

Paramount Pictures, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, was founded 100 years ago today as Famous Players Studios. Currently owned by Viacom, it is the third oldest film studio in the world and the last major film studio headquartered in Hollywood. The studio was founded by Hungarian-born Adolph Zukor, who saw that movies appealed to working-class immigrants. He sought to offer feature-length films that would appeal to the middle class.

The Battle of the Coral Sea was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II between the Imperial Japanese Navy and Allied naval and air forces from the United States and Australia. It was noteworthy for being the first action in which aircraft carriers engaged each other, as well as the first in which neither side's ships sighted or fired directly upon the other. Attempting to strengthen defensive positioning in the South Pacific, Japanese forces decided to invade Port Moresby in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

Alice Liddell was born on May 4, 1852 (and died November 16, 1934). She's best known for inspiring the children's classic Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Soon after her father became the Dean of Christ Church in Oxford, she met Charles Ludwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) photographing a cathedral. Carroll became family friends and entertained her with fanciful stories and riddles. As a young woman, she toured Europe with her sisters and became romantically involved with Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany. She married Reginald Hargreaves, a cricketer, and had three sons.

We're all busy planning our Cinco De Mayo / Kentucky Derby parties this weekend, and you'll probably be watching the Derby on television... Today marks the 60th anniversary of the first nationally televised Kentucky Derby, which was broadcast on WHAS, the then-CBS affiliate out of Louisville. That year, Hill Gail took the prize at 2:01.60. He was raced by the renowned Calumet Farm of Lexington. An injury kept him from racing Preakness and Belmont Stakes. This year, the show will be broadcast on NBC at 6:23 p.m. EST.