On this day in history as it relates to the movies...
1793 Jean-Paul Marat, a famous political activist and journalist during the French Revolution, is murdered. The crime is dramatized in the famous play Marat/Sade (also known as The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade which was made into a film in 1968 starriing Patrick Macgee and Ian Richardson. I once saw a production of this play in Harlem and it was just fascinating.
1863 British Egyptologist, "Grandmother of Wicca" and proto-feminist Margaret Alice Murray is born in India. I only mention this because so many fascinating, influential and controversial women exist in history but we only ever get biopics of men. Why doesn't she have a biopic? It could be great.
1923 The iconic HOLLYWOOD sign is officially dedicated in California. It originally says "Hollywoodland" but the "land" is dropped twenty-six years later.
more marvels after the jump
1941 Happy 75th birthday today to Oscar nominee Robert Forster (Jackie Brown)
1942 Superstar Harrison Ford is born in Chicago. Originally has no plans to become an actor
1949 Oscar winners, actress Jennifer Jones and producer David O Selznick are married
1951 Didi Conn, "Frenchie" of Grease and Grease 2, as well as You Light Up My Life fame is born
1955 Convicted murderer Ruth Ellis is hanged on this day. If you've never seen Miranda Richardson play her in Dance With a Stranger (1985) you must!
1957 Filmmaker Cameron Crowe is born, probably with classic rock soundtrack already playing
1977 NYC experiences a chaotic blackout making the 'Summer of Sam' even more terrifying. Spike Lee was in college in Atlanta at the time.
1985 The Live Aid concert makes millions for Africa with a who's who of rock stars performing in both London and Philadelphia
1990 Ghost opens in theaters, turns into a massive sleeper hit and ends its run with an initially improbable Oscar run with a Best Picture nomination and a supporting actress win for Whoopi Goldberg
1994 Actor Matti Pellonpää, a regular player in Finnish auteur Aki Kaurismäki's filmography dies suddenly at only 44 of a heart attack
2001 Legally Blonde debuts in theaters, turning Reese Witherspoon into a superstar
2013 George Zimmerman is found "not guilty" of murdering Trayvon Martin in one of the many insane hellish things that have happened this century already due to the gun culture/racism of the United States. How long till someone makes a movie about this incident? Movies always spring up from such things eventually. Corey Monteith of Glee fame also dies on this day. Halle Berry marries for the third time on this day (to French actor/looker Olivier Martinez) and divorces for the third time two years later.