March 2 History, Trivia and Fun Facts |
March 2 History Highlights |
|
Dr. Seuss |
| Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, the author and illustrator of such beloved children’s books as The Cat within the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham, was born in Springfield in 1904. Geisel, who used his name (which was also his mother’s maiden name) as his nom de plume, wrote 48 books, including some for adults, that have sold overflow 200 million copies and been translated into multiple languages. Dr. Seuss’s books are known for his or her whimsical rhymes and quirky characters, which have names just like the Lorax and therefore the Sneetches and sleep in places like Whoville. Geisel graduated from Dartmouth College, where he was editor of the school’s humor magazine, and studied at Oxford University. There he met Helen Palmer, his first wife and therefore the one that encouraged him to become a knowledgeable illustrator. Back in America, Geisel worked as a cartoonist for a spread of magazines and in advertising. The first children’s book that Geisel wrote and illustrated, And to Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street, was rejected by over twenty-four publishers before making it into print in 1937. Geisel’s first bestseller, The Cat within the Hat, was published in 1957. The story of a mischievous cat during a tall striped hat happened after his publisher asked him to supply a book using 220 new-reader vocabulary words that would function an entertaining alternative to the varsity reading primers children found boring. Other Dr. Seuss classics include Yertle the Turtl, If I Ran the Circus, Fox in Socks and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. |
March 2 is… |
| Banana Cream Pie Day Dr. Seuss’s Birthday Old Stuff Day Read Across America Day |
March 2 Birthday Quotes |
“I stay fat because it just wouldn’t be fair to all the thin people if I were this good-looking, intelligent, funny, and thin. It’s a public service really.” “It is a matter of great satisfaction to me to hope that my children will be in circumstances to receive a good education. Mine was defective and I feel the inconvenience, if not the misfortune of not receiving a classical education. Knowledge is the food of genius, and my son, let no opportunity escape you to treasure up knowledge.” “I write stuff. Sometimes people pay me for some of it. “ “Nothing is as important as passion. No matter what you want to do with your life, be passionate. The world doesn’t need any more gray. On the other hand, we can’t get enough color. Mediocrity is nobody’s goal and perfection shouldn’t be either. We’ll never be perfect. But remember these three P’s: Passion + Persistence = Possibility.” “Life is beautiful in all its colors, even the darker ones, they’re here for a reason.” |
March 2 Birthdays |
| 1793 – Sam Houston, American soldier and politician, 1st President of the Republic of Texas (died in 1863) 1836 – Henry Billings Brown, American lawyer and judge (died in 1913) 1886 – Willis H. O’Brien, American animator and director (died in 1962) 1900 – Kurt Weill, German-American pianist and composer (died in 1950) 1904 – Dr. Seuss, American children’s book writer, poet, and illustrator (Theodor Seuss “Ted” Geisel d. 1991) 1917 – Desi Arnaz, Cuban-American actor, singer, and producer (died in 1986) 1919 – Jennifer Jones, American actress (died in 2009 1931 – Mikhail Gorbachev, Russian lawyer and politician, Nobel Prize laureate 1938 – Lawrence Payton, American singer-songwriter (died in 1997) 1942 – John Irving, American novelist and screenwriter 1948 – Larry Carlton, American guitarist and songwriter 1950 – Karen Carpenter, American singer (died in 1983) 1952 – Mark Evanier, American author and screenwriter 1952 – Laraine Newman, American actress and comedian 1953 – Russ Feingold, American lawyer and politician 1962 – Jon Bon Jovi, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor 1968 – Daniel Craig, English actor 1971 – Method Man, American rapper and record producer 1977 – Chris Martin, English singer-songwriter 1980 – Rebel Wilson, Australian actress 1981 – Bryce Dallas Howard, American actress 1988 – Laura Kaeppeler, Miss America 2012 1997 – Becky G, American singer |
March 2 History |
| 1657 – The Great Fire of Meireki in Edo (now Tokyo), Japan, caused more than 100,000 deaths and lasted three days 1807 – The US Congress passed an act to “prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States… from any foreign kingdom, place, or country.” 1863 – The US Congress authorized a track width of 4-feet, 8-1/2 inches as the standard for the Union Pacific Railroad, which became the standard width for most of the world. 1933 – King Kong (film) opened at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. 1944 – Train #8017 stopped in a tunnel near Salerno, Italy, and more than 500 people on board suffocated and died. In the midst of WW II, the story was very much covered up by the Italian government. 1949 – The first round the world nonstop airplane flight was completed in a US Air Force B-50 Superfortress bomber, the Lucky Lady II headed by Captain James Gallagher. They landed back at Carswell Air Force Base, Fort Worth, Texas, which they had left on February 26, about 94 hours earlier. 1957 – #1 Hit March 2, 1957 – March 29, 1957: Tab Hunter – Young Love 1960 – Lucille Ball filed for divorce from Desi Arnaz, ending their marriage as well as the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show franchise on CBS. 1962 – Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a single basketball game against the New York Knicks. Final score: 169-147, at the Hershey Arena. Although there were only about 6,000 tickets sold, guesstimates are that almost 50% of male sports fans born in the Philadelphia area between 1925 and 1958 claim to have been at the event. 1963 – #1 Hit March 2, 1963 – March 22, 1963: The Four Seasons – Walk Like A Man 1965 – The Sound of Music Premiered in NYC 1969 – The Concorde SST Supersonic jet aircraft, prototype 001, made its first flight from Toulouse airport in France. 1972 – US spacecraft Pioneer 10 was launched. 1974 – #1 Hit March 2, 1974 – March 22, 1974: Terry Jacks – Seasons in the Sun 1983 – Compact discs and players are released for the first time in the United States and other markets. (They had previously been available only in Japan.) 1978 – Charlie Chaplin’s body was stolen from a cemetery in the Swiss village of Corsier-sur-Vevey, near Lausanne, Switzerland. The grave robbers (and the re-buried body) were found a few weeks later. 1985 – Sheena Easton the first and still only recording artist to score top-10 singles on all five major Billboard singles charts: Pop, Country, Dance, Adult Contemporary and R&B with her hit Sugar Walls. March 2, 1987 – The Apple Macintosh SE & II was released. 1990 – Nelson Mandela was elected deputy President of the African National Congress. 1995 – Broadway Show – Smokey Joe’s Cafe (Review) March 2, 1995 2009 – Late Night with Jimmy Fallon premiered on NBC. 2013 – #1 Hit March 2, 2013 – April 19, 2013: Baauer – Harlem Shake #1 Hit March 12, 2022 – April 15, 2022: Heat Waves – Glass Animals |
Today’s Random Trivia and Shower Thoughts |
| Is your refrigerator running? Refrigerators that run at least 1 mile a day have a 30% reduced chance of heart disease and stroke, even if they smoke. A Welsh king, Morgan of Gla-Morgan, established trial by jury in 725 AD by declaring: “For as Christ and his 12 apostles were finally to judge the world, so human tribunals should be composed of the king and 12 wise men.” Useless Pronunciation: K as in knee Heard in our office: The Popeye’s restaurant chain was named after Gene Hackman’s character in “The French Connection” The McDonnell Douglas F-15 can reach 30,000 ft (9,100m) in 60 seconds and has a thrust-to-weight ratio that allows the aircraft to accelerate while flying straight up. It is also the only aircraft to ever shoot down a satellite orbiting in space. Scooby-Doo was basically CSI for kids. What are the strongest days of the week? There are some things money can’t buy, for everything else, there’s money. The chords to the AC/DC song “It’s a long way to the top (if you wanna rock’n’roll)” are A, C, D, C. The King’s Own Immemorial 1st Infantry Regiment of the Spanish Army is claimed to be the oldest continuously operating military unit in the world, formed in 1248. Rodney Dangerfield’s gravestone reads, “There goes the neighborhood”. Too late comes sooner than you think. #foodforthought Sexy Primes are prime numbers that differ from each other by six. Sexy Prime Triplets include: Sexy Prime Quadruptes include: The (only) Sexy Prime Quintuplet is: |
More Pop Culture History Resources |
