From First Flight of Peter Pan to Man on the Moon

This Day in History:

As on any given day, many events have found their place in recorded history. This day is no exception with just a few being recognized below...playfully, musically, economically, comically and scientifically. Date yourself with recollections stored in your own memory bank. How much history do you remember? Which stories or characters were your all time childhood favorites?

1904 Peter Pan, by James Matthew Barrie, opens in London. The Peter Pan character first appeared in print in the 1902 novel The Little White Bird, written for adults. The character was next used in the stage play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up and became an instant success.  

"Some of my plays peter out, and some pan out!" 

~James Matthew Barrie

 Peter Pan Play Announcement

 

1927 The musical play "Show Boat," with music by Jerome Kern and libretto by Oscar Hammerstein II, opened at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York. Much has been written over the years about "Show Boat" with its opening revolutionizing Broadway paving the way for what would eventually become the modern American musical.

 Source: en.wikipedia.org

1932 New York City's Radio City Music Hall opened to the public in midtown Manhattan. Amid the Great Depression, thousands turned out for its opening. Radio City Music Hall is known as the showplace of the nation and is the largest indoor theatre in the world. 

When the stock market crashed in 1929, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. held a $91 million, 24-year lease on a piece of midtown Manhattan property properly known as "the speakeasy belt." Plans to gentrify the neighborhood by building a new Metropolitan Opera House on the site were dashed by the failing economy and the business outlook was dim. Nevertheless, Rockefeller made a bold decision that would leave a lasting impact on the city's architectural and cultural landscape. He decided to build an entire complex of buildings on the property-buildings so superior that they would attract commercial tenants even in a depressed city flooded with vacant rental space. The project would express the highest ideals of architecture and design and stand as a symbol of optimism and hope. Read MORE...

 Source: en.wikipedia.org

1947 The original version of the puppet character Howdy Doody made its TV debut on NBC's "Puppet Playhouse." Prior to this date, Howdy Doody was only a voice 'Buffalo' Bob Smith played on the radio. When Smith made an appearance on NBC's television program, the reception for the character was great enough to begin a demand for a visual character for television. It was a pioneer in children's television programming and set the pattern for many similar shows also being a pioneer in early color production.

1968 Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, made a safe, nighttime splashdown in the Pacific. The three astronauts, Frank Borman, James Lovell, Jr., and William Anders, returned safely to earth after an historic six-day journey. During the 10 lunar orbits, images were sent back to earth from the spacecraft via television. The astronauts were not only the first humans to view earth in its entirety from space but also the first to see the dark side of the moon.

'Earthrise,' as photographed by the Apollo 8 crew on Christmas Eve 1968. (Photo: NASA)

NASA recreates iconic Apollo 8 'Earthrise'
45 years later using orbiter data (video)

On July 20 of the following year, Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, 
astronauts of the Apollo 11 mission, became the first men to walk on the moon.