TODAY IS ... 23 OCTOBER

TODAY IS ... 23 OCTOBER

BIRTHDAYS:

1959 - Sam Raimi: - Highly inventive US film director/producer/writer/actor Sam Raimi first came to the attention of film fans with the savage, yet darkly humorous, low-budget horror film The Evil Dead (1981).

Sam Raimi

1959 - Novelty singer and accordionist "Weird Al" Yankovic is born in Lynnwood, Calif. Among his parodies are ``Like a Surgeon,'' a parody of Madonna's ``Like a Virgin,'' and ``Eat It,'' a parody of Michael Jackson's ``Beat It'' that sells more than 1 million copies and reaches No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. The two videos on the bottom are Weird Al Yankovic's video, "Eat it". The video on top is Micheal Jackson's video, "Beat it". I Re-Edited "Beat it" to match with "Eat it" scene for scene. 1954 - Ang Lee is an Academy Award-winning Taiwanese American film director.[1] Lee has directed a diverse set of films such as Eat Drink Man Woman (1994), Sense and Sensibility (1995), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Hulk (2003), and Brokeback Mountain (2005) for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director. 1940 - Pele: real name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento - Soccer Player, Guitarist, Brazilian, became a professional soccer player at 16, joining the Santos team of Brazil; Pele' is generally regarded as the greatest player in the history of soccer and is largely responsible for a worldwide resurgence of the sport; led Brazil to 3 World Cup titles (1958,62,70); came to U.S. in 1975 to play for NY Cosmos in NASL; scored 1,281 goals in 22 years. 1931 - Diana Dors - was an English actress and sex symbol. She was born Diana Mary Fluck in Swindon, England. She was considered the English equivalent of the blonde bombshells of Hollywood.

Diana Dors

OTHER EVENTS:

2003 - Mambo Italiano is released in Australia - The son of Italian immigrants to Canada struggles to find the best way to reveal to his parents that he's gay.

2001 - Apple releases the iPod. 2000 - Universal Studios Consumer Products Group (USCPG) and Amblin Entertainment announced an unprecedented and exclusive three-year worldwide merchandising program with Toys "R" Us, Inc. The deal was for the rights to exclusive "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" merchandise starting in fall 2001. The film was scheduled for re-release in the spring of 2002. 1998 - New in U.S. movie theatres: "Apt Pupil", from Tristar Pictures, Ian Mckellen, Brad Renfro and David Schwimmer; and New Line Cinema’s "Pleasantville", with Joan Allen, William H. Macy And Reese Witherspoon. 1995 - Former Selena fan club president Yolanda Saldivar is convicted of murdering the Tejano star outside a Texas motel on March 31, 1995. The jury deliberated only 2 1/2 hours before handing down their guilty verdict.

Selena

1988 - For only the second time in UK chart history each of the Top 3 singles is by a woman: Enya's 'Orinoco Flow' at No. 1, Kylie Minogue's 'Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi' at No. 2, and 'One Moment in Time' by Whitney Houston at No. 3 1980 – No. 1 Chart Toppers Pop Hit: “Woman in Love,” Barbra Streisand. The single appears on the album “Guilty,” which sells more than 20 million copies worldwide. 1968 - Elvis Presley's movie, "Live A Little, Love A Little" is released, 1965 - The Byrds' "Turn! Turn! Turn!" is released. 1965 - Canberra, capital city of Australia, begins operation of its first two sets of traffic lights 1961 - "Runaround Sue" by Dion topped the US charts and stayed there for 2 weeks.

1958 – The Smurfs, a fictional race of blue dwarves later popularized in a Hanna-Barbera animated cartoon series appear for the first time, in the story Le flute à six schtroumpfs, a Johan and Peewit adventure by Peyo which is serialized in the weekly comics magazine SpirouThe Smurfs

1906 - Woman suffragists demonstrate in the outer lobby of the British House of Commons. Ten of the demonstrators are charged the following day and sent to prison. 1823 - Oxley departs Sydney to search north for a site for a new settlement, eventually discovering Moreton Bay.