Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

March 4

1984
The Television Academy Hall of Fame announces its first inductees: Lucille Ball, Milton Berle, Paddy Chayefsky, Norman Lear, Edward R. Murrow, William S. Paley, and David Sarnoff.

1981
Money for Nothing: Joey Coyle's six day spending spree ends when he is arrested at a New York airport with $105,000 stuffed in his boots. He had found $1.2 million that had fallen out of an armored vehicle. He was acquitted by reason of temporary insanity. The 1993 movie was based on this event.

1966
The Beatles: The London Evening Standard publishes a quote by John Lennon stating that "We're more popular than Jesus now." This prompted Beatles Bonfires and the banning of their music by radio stations.

1933
Pres. F.D. Roosevelt at his inauguration proclaims "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself."

1933
First woman appointed to a U.S. president's cabinet, Frances Perkins becomes F.D. Roosevelt's Secretary of Labor.

1923
Butter: The much loved food product is defined by Congress.

1923
American Battle Monuments Commission is established.

1913
U.S. Department of Labor is established.

1913
U.S. Department of Commerce is established.

1905
Theodore Roosevelt becomes the only president not to use the word "I" in his inaugural address.

1861
Civil War: Flag of 7 stars and 3 stripes raised over the Confederate capitol of Montgomery, Alabama.

1857
Youngest U.S. vice president: John C. Breckinridge is inaugurated at the age of 36 years and 48 days.

1849
President for a Day: David Rice Atchison becomes president for a day, while waiting for president-elect Zachary Taylor to take the oath of office the following day.

1809
First presidential inaugural ball: Held for Pres. James Madison and Vice-Pres. George Clinton.

1791
Vermont becomes the 14th state.

1789
U.S. Constitution: It goes into effect after having been ratified the previous June.

1789
First Congress under the U.S. Constitution meets in New York.

1634
Boston's first tavern: Opened by Samuel Cole.

1969
Chastity Bono, daughter of Sonny and Cher.

1953
Kay Lenz, American Emmy-winning actress. TV: Reasonable Doubts (Maggie Zombro).

1939
Paula Prentiss (Paula Ragusa), American actress. TV: He & She (She - Paula Hollister).

1934
Jane Goodall (Baroness Vanlawick-Goodall), anthropologist.

1906     d. 1964
Phil Davis, cartoonist, drew Mandrake the Magician.

1901     d. 1991
Charles H. Goren, American bridge expert, columnist, Goren on Bridge.

1891     d. 1988
Lois Wilson, American founder of Al-Anon, the support group for friends and family of alcoholics. She was the wife of Alcoholics Anonymous cofounder Bill Wilson.

1889     d. 1938
Pearl White, American actress, starred in the movie serials The Perils of Pauline (1914-24). She was the most popular actress of her day.

1888     d. 1931
Knute Kenneth Rockne, Norwegian-born American football coach. His effective use of the forward pass, while a player at Notre Dame, forever changed college football. His record as Notre Dame coach (1914-31) was 105 wins, 12 losses, and 5 ties.

1877     d. 1963
Garrett Morgan, African-American businessman. He invented a gas-mask that was popular with American fire fighters. He was also, reportedly, the first African-American to own an automobile.  This led to another successful invention: An improved traffic light (1922).

1747     d. 1779
Casimir Pulaski, Polish general and American Revolutionary War hero.

1994     b. 1950
John Candy, Canadian Emmy-winning actor. Film: Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987) and Uncle Buck (1989, title role). TV: Second City TV, and Saturday Night Live.

1963     b. 1876
Édouard Belin, French engineer. He made the first telephoto transmission (1907). Using his own invention, he sent one from Paris to Lyon to Bordeaux and back to Paris.

1957     b. 1883
Dr. Evarts Ambrose Graham, performed the first lung removal operation. He removed the cancerous lung of a fellow physician, curing the patient. He was one of the first to note that almost all lung cancer patients were habitual smokers.

1952     b. 1857
Sir Charles Scott Sherrington, English physiologist. He shared the 1932 Nobel Prize in medicine with E.D. Adrian for the discovery of the neurons.

1950     b. circa 1898
Adam Rainer, giant (7 ft. 8 in. tall). At age 21 he was 3 ft. 10½ inches, making him the only known person to have been both a dwarf and a giant.

1938     b. 1852
George Foster Peabody, American banker, director of the Federal Reserve Bank at New York (1914-21). The Peabody broadcasting awards were created in his honor (1940).

1883     b. 1843
John Graham Chambers, British sportsman, defiined the Marquess of Queensberry boxing rules (1867), which established the mandatory use of gloves, the ten-count rule, and three-minute rounds.

561     b. ????
Pelagius I, Italian religious leader, 60th Pope (555-561).

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