It marks the birthday of General Tom Thumb who was born January 4, 1838. General Tom Thumb was the stage name of Charles Sherwood Stratton (January 4, 1838 – July 15, 1883), a dwarf who achieved great fame under circus pioneer P.T. Barnum.
Born in Bridgeport to parents who were of medium height, Charles was a relatively large baby, weighing 9 pounds 8 ounces at birth. He developed and grew normally for the first six months of his life, at which point he was 25 inches tall and weighed 15 pounds. Then he stopped growing. His parents became concerned when, after his first birthday, they noticed he had not grown at all in the previous six months. They showed him to their doctor, who said there was little chance Charles would ever grow to, or reach normal height.
By late 1842, Stratton had not grown an inch in height or put on a pound in weight from when he was six months old. Apart from this, he was a totally normal, healthy child, with several siblings who were of average size. By the time of his death at age 45 he was 3’4” tall.
in other history…
60 years ago today, RCA Victor announced it had developed a new recording format, the seven-inch 45-RPM single.
And on January 4, 1954 a truck driver paid Sun Records $4.00 to record two songs for his mother: "My Happiness" and "That’s When Your Heartaches Begin." The session took ten minutes. The truck driver’s name was Elvis – Elvis Presley.
The 101 number one song of the day was the most successful cover version of a Lennon/McCartney song of the rock era and the second number one song inspired by Julian Lennon.
The first of course was “Hey Jude” which Paul wrote to bolster Julian’s sagging spirits regarding the breakup of his parents’ marriage and the presence of Yoko Ono on the scene. The song you’re about to hear was the result of a picture he’d painted in school which contained stars and the depiction of a girl who was in his class. It was far more innocent than what many people assumed. Because of the initials of the title, observers thought it was a reference to LSD, which John adamantly denied. The little girl’s name was Lucy and the person who took it to number one on January 4, 1975 was Elton John – “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.”
No comments:
Post a Comment