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JUST FOR FUN |
Updated 7/28/10 |
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TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS...
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Cartoonist Jim Davis - 65
Actress Linda Kelsey - 64
TV Producer Dick Ebersol - 63
Actress Sally Struthers - 62
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Actress Georgia Engel - 62
Broadcast Journalist Scott Pelley - 53
Actress Lori Loughlin - 46
Actress Elizabeth Berkley - 38
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TODAY'S BIO...
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Earl Tupper
7/28/1907 - 10/5/1983
Inventor of Tupperware
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Earl Silas Tupper is the inventor of Tupperware, an airtight plastic container for storing food. Tupper was born on a farm in Berlin, New Hampshire. After school, Tupper began a landscaping and nursery business until the Great Depression forced it into bankruptcy. Tupper then got a job with the DuPont Chemical Company. Using inflexible pieces of polyethylene slag given to him by DuPont, Tupper purified the slag and molded it to create lightweight, non-breakable containers, cups, bowls, plates, and even gas masks that were used in World War II. He later designed liquid-proof, airtight lids by duplicating the lid of a paint can.
Tupper founded the Tupperware Plastics Company in 1938, and in 1946, he introduced Tupper Plastics to hardware and department stores. Based on a marketing strategy developed by Brownie Wise in the early 1950s, Tupperware was withdrawn from sale in retail stores and Tupperware "parties" soon became popular in homes within the United States and abroad, the first example of "party-plan" marketing which has since been successfully emulated by many others. After a falling-out with Wise, resulting in her 1958 dismissal, Tupper soon sold the Tupperware organization for $16 million to Dart Industries, which still operates it today. Shortly afterwards, he divorced his wife, gave up his U.S. citizenship to avoid taxes, and bought himself an island in Central America.
His patent expired in 1984—the year after he died.
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 More information...
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TODAY IN HISTORY...
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On this day 71 years ago, in 1939, accompanied by the Victor Young Orchestra, Judy Garland sang one of the most famous songs of the 20th century. "Over the Rainbow," recorded for Decca Records, became Garland's signature tune. "Rainbow" was featured as the musical highlight of the hit movie, "The Wizard of Oz".
On this day 58 years ago, in 1951, drive-thru restaurants made their debut. America's first drive-thru chain? Jack-in-the-Box.
 ALSO ON THIS DAY IN...
1750 - Composer Johann Sebastian Bach dies in Leipzig, Germany, at age 65.
1858 - Fingerprints are first used as a means of identification.
1865 - The American Dental Association proposes its first code of ethics. Procedures like using a welder's torch to shrink swollen gums were banned. The old string-on-the-doorknob trick to pull loosened teeth was also frowned upon.
1866 - The metric system is legalized by the U.S. Congress for the standardization of weights and measures throughout the United States. (Americans still haven't figured it out.)
1868 - Former slaves became citizens when the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified. Known as the "Reconstruction Amendment," it forbids any state to deny to any person "life, liberty or property, without due process of law" or to "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of its laws." With its broadly phrased language, the Fourteenth Amendment continues to provide a basis for civil rights claims in the United States.
1914 - The Foxtrot is first danced in NYC by Harry Fox.
1931 - Congress makes the "Star-Spangled Banner" our 2nd national anthem.
1933 - The first singing telegram is delivered to singer Rudy Vallee on his 32nd birthday.
1943 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces the end of coffee rationing in the U.S.
1945 - A B-25 bomber crashes into the 79th floor of the fog-shrouded Empire State Building in New York City. Over a dozen people are killed.
1973 - Lee Majors and Farrah Fawcett are married.
1998 - Monica Lewinsky receives blanket immunity from prosecution to testify before a grand jury about her relationship with President Clinton.
2000 - Kathie Lee Gifford makes her final appearance on "Live with Regis and Kathie Lee."
2002 - Nine coal miners trapped in the flooded Quecreek Mine in Somerset, Pa., are rescued after 77 hours underground.
2004 - The Democratic National Convention in Boston nominates Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry for president.
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THIS WEEK ON THE RADIO...
10 Years Ago
It's Gonna Be Me - 'N Sync
20 Years Ago
Vision Of Love - Mariah Carey
30 Years Ago
Magic - Olivia New-John
40 Years Ago
(They Long To Be) Close To You - The Carpenters
50 Years Ago
I'm Sorry - Brenda Lee
60 Years Ago
Mona Lisa - Nat King Cole
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AT THE MOVIES...
The Top 10 Movies at the Box Office
Updated every Monday (Tuesday on 3-day weekends).
Click a movie title to view its trailer. QuickTime® & broadband required.
* Latest weekend box office receipts, in millions of dollars.
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