Randy Travis, "Always and Forever"

Born May 4, 1959, Randy Travis (Randy Bruce Traywick) has had many hits, including "Forever and Ever Amen", "On the Other Hand", "Diggin’ Up Bones" and "Always and Forever".

The "Misty Miss Christy"

In 1945, June Christy sang with the Stan Kenton band on one of the most famous of all big band hits, Tampico. The tune was waxed as Capitol record number 202.

This is "FUNNY FACE" Day

Edda Kathleen Hepburn van Heemstra was born on this day in Brussels, Belgium in the year 1929. This is quite a large name for the gamine-faced, petite charmer we knew as Audrey Hepburn. At the young age of thirteen, she had already developed the need to provide relief to the human suffering surrounding her and enlisted in the Dutch underground in their fight against the Nazi occupation of Holland.
Nine years later, performing on the Broadway stage, critics found her to be charming, honest and talented in the title role of Gigi. She achieved stardom a mere two years later with her Academy award-winning performance in Roman Holiday. Audrey married Mel Ferrer on September 25, 1954 and co-starred with him and Henry Fonda in War and Peace. A year later, Funny Face premiered with Fred Astaire as her co-star. (The title role stuck to her like glue.) Love in the Afternoon opened the same year with Gary Cooper sharing the spotlight.

Just your ordinary, normal family life

Nazi propaganda portrayed Adolf Hitler as a man minus family or private life. As a matter of fact, he kept in touch with his family--mainly to control them. There was shady half-brother Alois, a Berlin innkeeper who tried to profit from his name, and half-sister Angela, in charge of housekeeping at the Berghof retreat, who had neighbors chased away. His niece Geli, who called her uncle a "jailer", committed suicide. His "favorite nephew" was educated at an elite Nazi school. His sister Paula wanted to marry a surgeon and mass murderer. And his English-born nephew William Patrick, a playboy in Berlin, extorted money by threatening to expose family secrets.

Some People Thought It Would Run Forever

In 1960, the play, "The Fantasticks", opened at the Sullivan Playhouse in New York City. It would later become the longest-running off-Broadway play. Soon It’s Gonna Rain was one of the big hit tunes from the production. The show was the equivalent of London’s long-running play, "The Mousetrap". Unfortunately, though the British were familiar with "The Mousetrap" and might have known of the similarities between the two plays, when "The Fantasticks" opened in London, it failed miserably and closed after only 44 performances.

At the North Pole

The first airplane to land at the geographic location of the North Pole did so on this day in 1952. The crew may have missed the mark, as they saw no tall barber pole or little red house, no sign of elves and no Santa Claus. There was a report that there was loud, bellowing laughter from not far off and a few reindeer were seen frolicking about, however...
The Moon and Sun at the North Pole (For more information click the Link below)

Lord Byron Swam the Hellespont ??

On this day in 1810, Lord Byron swam the Hellespont. Pretty darn fast, too. It took just an hour and 10 minutes to do it, by Jove! *The Hellespont is now known as the Dardanelles. It is a 40 mi. (64 km) long, 1-5 mi. (1.6-8 km) wide strait between European and Asian Turkey, connecting the Aegean Sea with the Sea of Marmara. Did I miss something here ??

1933 : Loch Ness Monster sighted

Although accounts of an aquatic beast living in Scotland's Loch Ness date back 1,500 years, the modern legend of the Loch Ness Monster is born when a sighting makes local news on May 2, 1933. The newspaper Inverness Courier related an account of a local couple who claimed to have seen "an enormous animal rolling and plunging on the surface." The story of the "monster" (a moniker chosen by the Courier editor) became a media phenomenon, with London newspapers sending correspondents to Scotland and a circus offering a 20,000 pound sterling reward for capture of the beast.

Loch Ness, located in the Scottish Highlands, has the largest volume of fresh water in Great Britain; the body of water reaches a depth of nearly 800 feet and a length of about 23 miles. Scholars of the Loch Ness Monster find a dozen references to "Nessie" in Scottish history, dating back to around A.D. 500, when local Picts carved a strange aquatic creature into standing stones near Loch Ness. The earliest written reference to a monster in Loch Ness is a 7th-century biography of Saint Columba, the Irish missionary who introduced Christianity to Scotland. In 565, according to the biographer, Columba was on his way to visit the king of the northern Picts near Inverness when he stopped at Loch Ness to confront a beast that had been killing people in the lake. Seeing a large beast about to attack another man, Columba intervened, invoking the name of God and commanding the creature to "go back with all speed." The monster retreated and never killed another man.

In 1933, a new road was completed along Loch Ness' shore, affording drivers a clear view of the loch. After an April 1933 sighting was reported in the local paper on May 2, interest steadily grew, especially after another couple claimed to have seen the beast on land, crossing the shore road. Several British newspapers sent reporters to Scotland, including London's Daily Mail, which hired big-game hunter Marmaduke Wetherell to capture the beast. After a few days searching the loch, Wetherell reported finding footprints of a large four-legged animal. In response, the Daily Mail carried the dramatic headline: "MONSTER OF LOCH NESS IS NOT LEGEND BUT A FACT." Scores of tourists descended on Loch Ness and sat in boats or decks chairs waiting for an appearance by the beast. Plaster casts of the footprints were sent to the British Natural History Museum, which reported that the tracks were that of a hippopotamus, specifically one hippopotamus foot, probably stuffed. The hoax temporarily deflated Loch Ness Monster mania, but stories of sightings continued.

A famous 1934 photograph seemed to show a dinosaur-like creature with a long neck emerging out of the murky waters, leading some to speculate that "Nessie" was a solitary survivor of the long-extinct plesiosaurs. The aquatic plesiosaurs were thought to have died off with the rest of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Loch Ness was frozen solid during the recent ice ages, however, so this creature would have had to have made its way up the River Ness from the sea in the past 10,000 years. And the plesiosaurs, believed to be cold-blooded, would not long survive in the frigid waters of Loch Ness. More likely, others suggested, it was an archeocyte, a primitive whale with a serpentine neck that is thought to have been extinct for 18 million years. Skeptics argued that what people were seeing in Loch Ness were "seiches"--oscillations in the water surface caused by the inflow of cold river water into the slightly warmer loch.

Amateur investigators kept an almost constant vigil, and in the 1960s several British universities launched expeditions to Loch Ness, using sonar to search the deep. Nothing conclusive was found, but in each expedition the sonar operators detected large, moving underwater objects they could not explain. In 1975, Boston's Academy of Applied Science combined sonar and underwater photography in an expedition to Loch Ness. A photo resulted that, after enhancement, appeared to show the giant flipper of a plesiosaur-like creature. Further sonar expeditions in the 1980s and 1990s resulted in more tantalizing, if inconclusive, readings. Revelations in 1994 that the famous 1934 photo was a hoax hardly dampened the enthusiasm of tourists and professional and amateur investigators to the legend of the Loch Ness Monster.

This Englishman made them swoon

Ultrasmooth balladeer Engelbert Humperdinck was often billed as "the King of Romance," and for millions of fans around the world, he more than lived up to that title. Despite the strange name and the latter-day ads hawking his music on late-night TV, Humperdinck was one of the finest middle-of-the-road balladeers around, a sensitive lyric interpreter with excellent vocal technique and a three-and-a-half-octave vocal range. During his heyday in the late '60s and early '70s, Humperdinck cultivated the image of a mysterious heartthrob, sporting shaggy sideburns and a flamboyant wardrobe that, when coupled with his rich, silky crooning, drove female fans wild. He was especially popular in Europe and his native U.K., and his worldwide record sales — counting both albums and singles — eventually totaled well over 100 million.

Arnold George Dorsey was born May 2, 1936 in Madras, India. Raised in Leicester, England, and originally known as Gerry Dorsey, this singer had attempted to achieve mainstream success in the UK during the 50s. He was a featured artist on the television series Oh Boy!, toured with Marty Wilde and recorded a failed single, "I'll Never Fall In Love Again". It was during this period that he first met Gordon Mills, a singer in the Viscounts, who later moved into songwriting and management. By 1963, Dorsey's career had hit rock bottom. The beat boom hampered his singing career and to make matters worse, he fell seriously ill with tuberculosis. Mills, meanwhile, was beginning to win international success for Tom Jones and in 1967 decided to help his old friend Gerry Dorsey. Soon after, the singer was rechristened Engelbert Humperdinck, a name inspired by the composer of the nineteenth-century opera Hansel And Gretel, and relaunched as a balladeer. His first single for Decca Records, "Dommage Dommage", failed to chart, but received considerable airplay. There was no mistake with the follow-up, "Release Me", which sold a million copies in the UK alone, dominated the number 1 spot for five weeks and, most remarkably, prevented the Beatles from reaching the top with "Penny Lane"/"Strawberry Fields Forever". The single also reached number 4 in the Billboard Top 200. Humperdinck's follow-up, "There Goes My Everything", climbed to number 2 in the UK and by the end of the summer he was back at the top for a further five weeks with "The Last Waltz". The latter once again sold in excess of a million copies in the UK alone.

In a year dominated by psychedelia and experimentation in rock, Humperdinck was the biggest-selling artist in England. His strong vocal and romantic image ensured regular bookings and brought a further series of UK Top 10 hits including "Am I That Easy To Forget" (number 3, January 1968), "A Man Without Love" (number 2, April 1968), "Les Bicyclettes De Belsize" (number 5, September 1968), "The Way It Used To Be" (number 3, February 1969) and "Winter World Of Love" (number 7, November 1969)."After The Lovin'" gave him a number 8 US hit in October 1976. Although he faded as a hit-making artist after the early 70s, his career blossomed in America where he took up residence and became a regular on the lucrative Las Vegas circuit.

Don't Go in the Water !!

In 1974 filming got underway for the motion picture, Jaws, in Martha’s Vineyard, MA. What was to be a 58-day shooting schedule for the film inspired by the Peter Benchley novel soon gave way to 120 days. Costs soared from what was to be a $3.5 million project to $8 million. The director, Steven Spielberg, was able to explain away the rise in costs and the picture did very well at the box office and, later, on video cassette.

The Singer with the Voice that Soared

Judy Collins was born on this day in 1939. The singer's many hits included Both Sides Now, Amazing Grace and Send In the Clowns

The One and Only: Elton John

1970 - Elton John and lyricist Bernie Taupin combined for the first time on Elton’s first American album simply titled, Elton John. The LP contained Elton’s first hit, Your Song, which made it to the top ten on the music charts in December.

A Voice that would Echo through Eternity

In 1931, Singer Kate Smith began her long and illustrious radio career with CBS on this, her birthday. The 22-year-old Smith started out with no sponsors and a paycheck of just $10 a week for the nationally broadcast daily program. However, within 30 days, her salary increased to a more respectable $1,500 a week!

At 102 stories, it's still impressive

On May 1, 1931, with the press of a button in Washington, D.C., President Herbert Hoover turned on the lights of the Empire State Building. This event officially opened the edifice, at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street in New York City, to the public. At 102 stories, it reigned as the world's tallest skyscraper until 1974.

Among the clouds: Dubai skyline

Universal City Dubailand to open in 2010

Dubailand the world’s most ambitious Leisure, Tourism and Entertainment destination with over 3 Billion square feet of world class theme Parks, Culture, well being, Sports, Shopping, Hospitality and Entertainment set to launch its first phase in December 2010. The multitude of projects that make up Dubailand are divided into six themed worlds. Each world has been meticulously planned to offer both children and adults experiences that are simply unforgettable. From walking with dinosaurs to floating in space, if it's entertaining, exciting, informative or fun, you'll find it here.

Discovery and Godspeed

SETTING SAIL: Three replica ships, from left, the Discovery, Susan Constant and Godspeed, sail up the Hampton Roads on the way to Virginia Beach, Va., re-tracing the route the original Jamestown-era Godspeed took almost 400 years ago.
(AP)

We All Loved "Our Miss Brooks"

Eve Arden (Eunice Quedens) was born on this day in 1908. The Emmy Award-winning actress played the endearing "Our Miss Brooks" and so many other memorable characters in Anatomy of a Murder, Grease, Stage Door, and Tea for Two. She died Nov 12, 1990.

Changing a Boulder into a Hoover

Maps had to be changed as Boulder Dam was changed back to its original name, Hoover Dam. It was 1947 and some people, mostly those who live in the community of Boulder, Nevada, still refer to the dam as Boulder Dam. Many of them think that changing the dam’s name was a damn shame.

Say 'queso' for this group photograph

American photographer Spencer Tunick said he hoped to draw his largest crowd of nude people for a shoot next month in Mexico City's enormous Zocalo, which can hold more than 80,000 standing people. Tunick's record is his shoot in 2003 with 7,000 volunteer models in Barcelona, Spain. Shown above is one of his photos from a few years ago and that's not sheep grazing.
From Times Wire Reports
Here's another of his photos. I wonder if this is some kind of reaction to the performance.
This Spencer Tunick photo was taken in New York's Central Park.