Friday, August 21, 2009

The first proms

The first proms were held in the late 1800s at elite colleges of the Northeast. The spring time events were held as a means of instilling social skills and etiquette in students. The dances were strictly chaperoned and were often restricted to only the senior class. The word prom is a shortened form of promenade, meaning a march of the guests at the beginning of a ball or other formal event.
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Thursday, August 20, 2009

The Flintstones

The animated cartoon series The Flintstones was the first successful prime time animated series in the U.S, airing on ABC from 1960 to 1966. The show was a takeoff of the 1950s series The Honeymooners, set in the town of Bedrock in the Stone Age era. The success of the Flintstones spawned other network prime time cartoon series such as The Jetsons, Top Cat, and The Alvin Show.
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Wednesday, August 19, 2009

The first modern mutual fund

The creation of the Massachusetts Investors' Trust in Boston, Massachusetts in 1924 is heralded as the first modern mutual fund. Assets of the fund grew from $50,000 to $392,000 when it went public in 1928. By 1929, there were nearly 750 mutual funds in operation. Today, there are more than 10,000 mutual funds with holdings measured in the trillions of dollars.
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Tuesday, August 18, 2009

The Beatles

The first performance of The Beatles took place at the Indra Club in Hamburg, Germany on August 18, 1960. The band members included John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Pete Best and Stuart Stutcliffe. The group earned £10 playing almost five hours of rhythm and blues and rock and roll cover tunes.
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Monday, August 17, 2009

First year of the twentieth century

Events from the first year of the twentieth century: the world celebrates the start of the new century; President McKinley is assassinated in Buffalo, New York; the Cadillac Motor Company is formed in Detroit; the first Nobel Prize ceremony is held in Stockholm; Marconi receives the first trans-Atlantic radio signal; oil is discovered in Texas.
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Sunday, August 16, 2009

Picador Porky

According to the Internet Movie Database, Mel Blanc is credited with having the most movie actor credits to his name. Known for his cartoon voices of Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig, Mel Blanc has performed in over 700 films and over 100 TV movies and video productions. Blanc's first character was a drunken bull in the 1937 Looney Tunes short Picador Porky.
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Saturday, August 15, 2009

Dance marathons

Dance marathons were first held in the U.S. during the 1920s as competitive events with paying spectators watching professional and amateur dancers. Marathon events garnered radio and newspaper coverage. By the late 1930s, dance marathons had faded from the cultural landscape, as World War II sent former marathoners and their audiences to work and to war.
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