Subject to Change

1991 – Apple released Quicktime Version 1. They’ve been pestering me to go Pro ever since.

2001 – Enron filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Look how far we’ve come.

I got a lot of complaints about this feature. That’s not why I stopped doing it, though. I really enjoyed doing it.

There were a number of reasons I started the feature:

It was easy, cheap material.

It was a history lesson for me, and I found lots of great trivia.

I thought it would be something I could improve over time, by expanding on the posts each year. Of course, I was optimistically assuming that I’ll be here next year.

I stopped because it wasn’t living up to my own expectations. It was too much work to provide the level of commentary and research that I really wanted to have. I also noticed a number of conflicting entries on the site I’d been using as a reference, and that was starting to annoy me.

Maybe I’ll revive it some day, or I’ll use it to fill time when I know I’ll be AFK. I did enjoy writing it, after all. There were some good You Tube moments.

From BrainyHistory

1726 People’s revolt due to increase in gin/brandy tax
Should’ve raised the gas tax instead

1830 “Mary Had A Little Lamb,” is written

1844 Samuel FB Morse taps out “What hath God wrought,” the first telegraph message
“God doesn’t know Morse Code,” was the response.

1899 1st auto repair shop opens
First customer received a complimentary bottle of blinker fluid.

1915 Thomas Edison invents telescribe to record telephone conversations
One of Edison’s first recordings, when he invented the phonograph was “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

1954 IBM announces vacuum tube “electronic” brain that could perform 10 million operations an hour
And it can download porn in a little over a week.

1976 1st commercial SST (super sonic transport) flight to North America

1980 Iran rejects a call to World Court to release U.S. hostages

1989 “Indiana Jones and Last Crusade” premieres

From BrainyHistory

1774 Chestertown tea party occurs. Tea dumped into Chester River

1785 Benjamin Franklin announces his invention of bifocals

1867 Jesse James-gang rob bank in Richmond Missouri: 2 die, $4,000 taken

1883 Baseball game between one-armed and one-legged players

Before the ACLU and ADA, this was just a friendly game of baseball.

1894 William Love hosts ground breaking ceremonies for Love Canal

1900 Associated Press News Service forms in New York

1903 1st direct primary election law in U.S. adopted, by Wisconsin

1908 Dirigible explodes over San Francisco Bay, 16 passengers fall, none die

1922 Walt Disney incorporates his 1st film company Laugh-O-Gram Films

Was Reel Komedy taken? 

1945 Winston Churchill resigns as British PM

1945 Heinrich Himmler, German Nazi leader and Chief of Police, committed suicide

1953 Schools 1st use Cliff’s Notes

By 2012 all public schools will use Cliff’s Notes as text books. 

1971 Rock group Iron Butterfly disbands

1991 U.S. Supreme Court bars subsidized clinics from discussing abortion

From BrainyHistory

1761 1st life insurance policy in U.S., issued in Philadelphia

1807 Former VP Aaron Burr is tried for treason in Richmond Virginia (acquitted)

1863 War Department establishes Bureau of Colored Troops

1888 Leroy Buffington patents a system to build skyscrapers

1906 Wright Brothers patent the aeroplane

1931 Canned rattlesnake meat 1st goes on sale in Florida

1933 Loch Ness Monster is 1st reportedly sighted by John Mackay

1941 British troops attack Baghdad

1943 1st jet fighter is tested

1947 1st U.S. ballistic missile fired

1947 “Truman Doctrine” goes into effect, aiding Turkey and Greece

1953 President Eisenhower signs Offshore Oil Bill

1961 1st revolving restaurant (Top Of The Needle in Seattle), opens

1965 “Super-cali-fragil-istic-expi-ali-docious” hits #66 (Something tells me that it doesn’t translate well)

1973 President Nixon confesses his role in Watergate cover-up

1978 Creator/author of “Subject to Change” blog is born

1986 Cher called David Letterman an asshole on Late Night on NBC

1990 Microsoft releases Windows 3.0

1992 Johnny Carson’s final appearance as host of Tonight Show

From BrainyHistory

1832 1st Democratic National Convention

1908 1st horror movie (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) premieres in Chicago

1914 Greyhound Bus Co begins in Minnesota

1941 1st U.S. ship sunk by a U-boat

1944 Hitler begins attack on English/U.S. “terror pilots”

1945 German war criminal Heinrich Himmler captured

1961 Governor Patterson declares martial law in Montgomery

1966 Louie Louie by The Kingsmen reentered the chart and hits #97 (Watch the video. At about the 1:45 mark the song “skips.” It was recorded that way. Since lip-synching was standard practice, The Kingsmen perform the skip.)

1969 Robert Kennedy’s murderer Sirhan Sirhan sentenced to death

1979 Elton John becomes 1st western rocker to perform live in U.S.S.R.

1983 “Bang The Drum All Day” by Todd Rundgren hits #63

1990 Last episode of “Newhart” airs on CBS-TV (I’m Larry. This is my brother Darryl… Oh nevermind.)

1996 Blackout in many areas of Queens, New York

From BrainyHistory

1310 Shoes were made for both right and left feet (one hundred years later, they’re sold in pairs)

1498 Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrives at Calcutta India (There’s a name I haven’t heard since third grade!)

1830 D. Hyde patents fountain pen

1830 1st railroad timetable published in newspaper

1874 Levi Strauss markets blue jeans with copper rivets, price $13.50 doz

1892 George Sampson patents clothes dryer (everyone’s jeans shrink a size)

1895 1st commercial movie performance

1916 Codell, Kansas hit by tornado. Struck again this day in 1917 and 1918.

1930 University of California dedicates $1,500 to research on prevention and cure of athlete’s foot

1959 Japanese-Americans regain their citizenship

1960 Baseball game in Milwaukee postponed due to dense fog

1980 Drummer Peter Criss quits Kiss

1989 Toonces The Cat takes the wheel on Saturday Night Live

1994 Bobcat Goldthwait charged with misdemeanors for fire on Tonight Show

1995 CBS News fires co-anchor Connie Chung

From BrainyHistory

1848 Mexico gives Texas to U.S., ending the war (In 2007, the US is trying to give it back)

1848 1st department store opens

1857 William Francis Channing and Moses G Farmer patents electric fire alarm (works much better than previous, coal-fired model)

1884 Ringling Brothers circus premieres

1892 Charles Brady King invents pneumatic hammer

1898 Post Office authorizes use of postcards

1921 Congress sharply curbs immigration, setting a national quota system

1964 U.S. diplomats find at least 40 secret microphones in Moscow embassy (This one’s for Sean Hackbarth)

1975 Farm truck packed with wedding party struck by a train, killing 66 in truck, 40 miles south of Poona, India

1992 Dan Quayle sites Murphy Brown as a poor example of family values

1992 Amy Fisher shoots Mary Jo Buttafuoco

2005 Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith is released

From BrainyHistory

1804 Napoleon Bonaparte proclaimed Emperor of France1860 Republican Party nominates Abraham Lincoln for president

1917 U.S. passes Selective Service act

1927 Ritz Hotel opens in Boston (I can’t help myself!)

1951 U.S. General Collins predicts use of atom bomb in Korea

1951 U.N. moves headquarters to New York City

1964 Supreme Court rules unconstitutional to deprive naturalized citizens of citizenship if they return to home country for more than 3 years

1983 Senate revises immigration laws, gives millions of illegal aliens legal status under an amnesty program

1989 Lisa Strawberry files for divorce from Darryl (Strawberry Files would be an excellent stripper stage name)

1990 Return To Green Acres TV movie airs

From BrainyHistory

1673 Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette begin exploring Mississippi

1750 Tax revolt in Gorinchem (Time to celebrate?)

1804 Lewis and Clark begin exploration of Louisiana Purchase

1845 Rubber band patents (Appropriate Far Side cartoon on this page)

1883 Buffalo Bill Cody’s 1st wild west show premieres in Omaha

1916 British Summer Time (Daylight Savings), 1st introduced (sigh…..)

1932 Congress changes name “Porto Rico” to “Puerto Rico” (Nobody cared)

1960 1st atomic reactor system patents

1961 Castro offers to exchange Bay of Pigs prisoners for 500 bulldozers (and three goats?)

1970 Hank Aaron becomes 9th player to get 3,000 hits

1973 Senate Watergate Committee begins its hearings

1987 USS Stark hit by Iraqi missiles, 37 sailors die

1993 Intel’s new Pentium processor is unveiled (with a minor flaw in it)