On This Day

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On This Day In 1941, Singer-Songwiter Bob Dylan was born in St Mary's Hospital in Duluth, Minnesota.💽🇺🇲 In my opinion an absolute Living Legend
 
On This Day In 1971, quintessential Australian actor Chips Rafferty died, in Sydney. 🦘 He was a wonderful actor, you couldn't get any more Australian than him in a movie.
 
On This Day In 1971, quintessential Australian actor Chips Rafferty died, in Sydney. 🦘 He was a wonderful actor, you couldn't get any more Australian than him in a movie.
On this day 2022, Ray Liotta died in his sleep aged 67. (Heard it on the radio this morning) Was currently working on another movie.
Great actor.
 
On this date in 1973, DEEP PURPLE released the single SMOKE ON THE WATER (May 26th 1973).
First released on their 1972 album Machine Head, the song was not released as a single until a year later.
The band members have said that they did not expect the song to be a hit, but the single reached number 4 on the Billboard pop singles chart in the United States during the summer of 1973 and it propelled the album to the top 10 more than a year after its release.
However, by this time, Deep Purple had another album out (Who Do We Think We Are) and the Mark II lineup that recorded the song had broken apart, with Ian Gillan and Roger Glover leaving the band.
The song was ranked number 434 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.
'Smoke on the water' took inspiration from a fire in the Casino at Montreux, Switzerland on December 4, 1971. The band was going to start recording their Machine Head album there right after a Frank Zappa concert, but someone fired a flare gun at the ceiling during Zappa's show, which set the place on fire.
Deep Purple was in the audience for the show, and lead singer Ian Gillan recalls two flares being shot by someone sitting behind him that landed in the top corner of the building and quickly set it ablaze. Zappa stopped the show and helped ensure an orderly exit.
Deep Purple watched the blaze from a nearby restaurant, and when the fire died down, a layer of smoke had covered Lake Geneva, which the casino overlooked. This image gave bass player Roger Glover the idea for a song title: "Smoke On The Water," and Gillan wrote the lyric about their saga recording the Machine Head album.
The band was relocated to the Grand Hotel in Montreux, where they recorded the album using the Rolling Stones' mobile studio. They needed one more song, so they put together "Smoke On The Water" using Gillan's lyric and the riff guitarist Ritchie Blackmore came up with. The result was a song telling the story of these strange events just days after they happened - the recording sessions took place from December 6-21.
"We set the gear up in the hallways and the corridors of the hotel, and the Rolling Stones' mobile truck was out back with very long cables coming up through the windows," explained Ian Gillan.
"We tried to re-create an atmosphere in a technical sense the best we could. And when we went to write the lyrics, because we were short on material, we thought it was an 'add-on track.' It was just a last-minute panic.
"So, the riff and backing track had been recorded on the first day as a kind of soundcheck. There were no lyrics. The engineer told us on the last day, 'Man, we're several minutes short for an album.' So, we dug it out, and Roger and I wrote a biographical account of the making of the record: 'We all came out to Montreux...'"
The session where they put down the backing track took place at a dance club in Montreux called the Pavilion, where they tried to record after the casino burned down. The "Smoke On The Water" track was all they accomplished there because locals complained about the noise and police shut them down. The rest of the album, and the "Smoke On The Water" vocal, was recorded at the Grand Hotel.
Frank Zappa, who is mentioned in the lyrics, lost all his equipment in the fire. He then broke his leg a few days later when a fan pulled him into the crowd at a show in England. This prompted Ian Gillan to say "Break a leg, Frank," into the microphone after recording this for a BBC special in 1972.
 
Mount Everest summit reached by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay
Following numerous failed attempts by other climbers, Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Tibet surmounted Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world (29,032 feet [8,849 metres]), on this day in 1953.
An achievement all the more amazing as it was done without supplemental oxygen
 
Since the topic of climbing Everest has been raised:

A couple go on holiday with an amazing tour guide.

First up they go bungy jumping, but they are worried about the bungy cord snapping. No problem at all says the tour guide, I have done this personally 426 times. So the couple bungy jump.

With their adrenalin rushes kicking in, they want more. So next it is parachuting. But they worry about oxygen & heights. No problem at all says the tour guide. I have done this 974 times. So the couple parachute.

Deciding they dont want to overdo it, the tour guide takes them hang gliding. But they fear it might crash or get in a wind gust. No problem says the tour guid, I have done this personally over 1,000 times. So the couple hang glide.

Now wanting the extreme again, they decide they might climb Mt Everest, but reading all about the deaths over the years they are nervous. No problem says the tour guide, I have climbed Mt Everest 37 times. So the couple climb Mt Everest.

Once back down at the foot of the mountain they thank the tour guide before they return home from this amazing adrenalin trip. They say, all this time we have done all of these amazing things with your expertise, we never asked your name.

The tour guide replies, my name is Bindair Dundat.
 
Constantinople, capital of the Roman Empire. fell to the Turks, ending the Byzantine Empire (1453)

Charles ll restored to throne on his 30th birthday after death of Cromwell (1660) and Charles' return from exile in the Netherlands.

Wreck of the Queen Elizabeth off Gibraltar with many deaths (1874).

Christening of future Queen Elizabeth 1926

Goldierocks has a Sun newspaper for that date, mentioning Hilary and Tenzing in a small block on the back sports page.
 

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