1415

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Today in History 10/25/16

Today in History
(1415) Weary English soldiers outnumbered by French on St. Crispin’s Day
1415 England’s King Henry V charges into a battle that sees his troops dangerously outnumbered by the French on the fields of Agincourt. Thickets of longbows send arrows flying at the French and before the day’s end the English secure one of their greatest, and most improbable, military wins. .

The Battle of Agincourt was a major English victory in the Hundred Years’ War. The battle took place on Friday, 25 October 1415, near Azincourt, in northern France. Henry V’s victory at Agincourt, against a numerically superior French army, crippled France and started a new period in the war during which Henry V married the French king’s daughter, and their son, later Henry VI of England and Henry II of France, was made heir to the throne of France as well as of England.

Date: Oct 25, 1415

— Source: wiki/Battle_of_Agincourt
(1938) Big bands get a big boo from the Archbishop
Catholic Archbishop Francis J.L. Beckman of Dubuque, Iowa, lets it be known that he is not a fan of a newfangled national craze. He claims it is “turned loose to gnaw away at the moral fiber of young people,” and that swing music will catapult fans down a “primrose path to hell.”. 1938

Francis Joseph Beckman was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Lincoln and as Archbishop of Dubuque. Francis Beckman was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Francis and Elizabeth Beckman. He studied at St. Gregory’s Preparatory Seminary and Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Cincinnati, at the University of Louvain in Belgium, and at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 20, 1902. Following his ordination, he received a Licentiate of Sacred Theology and later a Doctor of Sacred Theology from the Gregorian.

Born: Oct 25, 1875 · Cincinnati, OH
Died: Oct 17, 1948 · Chicago, IL
Parents: Elizabeth · Francis

— Source: wiki/Francis_Beckman
(1978) Michael Myers goes home for the holiday
1978 Moviegoers in Kansas City, Missouri, attend the premiere of John Carpenter’s low-budget horror film, titled appropriately enough for the season, ‘Halloween.’ Those expecting a cheesy gore fest are instead treated to a masterful take on the genre, and some of the best scares since ‘Psycho.’.

Halloween is a 1978 American independent slasher film directed and scored by John Carpenter, co-written with producer Debra Hill, and starring Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut. The film was the first installment in what has become the Halloween franchise. The plot is set in the fictional Midwestern town of Haddonfield, Illinois. On Halloween night in 1963, a six-year-old Michael Myers inexplicably murders his sister and is committed. Fifteen years later, he escapes and returns home to kill again, all the while eluding his psychiatrist, Dr. Sam Loomis, who suspects Michael’s intentions, following him back to Haddonfield.

Halloween was produced on a budget of $300,000 and grossed $47 million at the box office in the United States, and $70 million worldwide, equivalent to roughly $267 million as of 2016, becoming one of the most profitable independent films. Many critics credit the film as the first in a long line of slasher films inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960). Halloween had many imitators and originated several clichés found in low-budget horror films of the 1980s and 1990s. Unlike many of its imitators, Halloween contains little graphic violence and gore. It was one of the first horror films to introduce the concept of the killer dying and coming back to life again within the same film. In 2006, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

Some critics have suggested that Halloween may encourage sadism and misogyny by audiences identifying with its villain. Other critics have suggested the film is a social critique of the immorality of youth and teenagers in 1970s America, with many of Myers’ victims being sexually promiscuous substance abusers, while the lone heroine is depicted as innocent and pure, hence her survival. Nevertheless, Carpenter dismisses such analyses. Several of Halloween’s techniques and plot elements, although not founded in this film, have nonetheless become standard slasher movie tropes. Years after its debut, Halloween enjoys a reputation as a classic and is considered one of the best horror films of all time.

Halloween spawned seven sequels and was rebooted in 2007.

Release date: Oct 25, 1978 (United States)
Director: John Carpenter
Gross revenue: $70 million USD
Estimated budget: $300,000 USD
Sequel: Halloween II

— Source: wiki/Halloween_(1978_film)
— IMDB: www.imdb.com/title/tt0077651/
(1983) Operation Urgent Fury sends US invasion force to Caribbean
The small Caribbean island nation of Grenada has been embroiled in a political power struggle for months, and with the revolutionary prime minister now murdered, the island is invaded by more than 7,000 troops in the largest US military engagement since Vietnam. The invading forces will claim victory within weeks.. 1983

The Invasion of Grenada was a 1983 United States–led invasion of the Caribbean island nation of Grenada, with a population of about 91,000 located 160 kilometres north of Venezuela, that resulted in a U.S. victory within a matter of weeks. Codenamed Operation Urgent Fury, it was triggered by the house arrest on 12 October 1983 and murder of the leader of the coup which had brought a revolutionary government to power for the preceding four years. The invasion resulted in the appointment of an interim government, followed by democratic elections in 1984.

Start date: Oct 25, 1983
End date: Dec 15, 1983

— Source: wiki/Invasion_of_Grenada
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