ON THIS DAY

On this date in 1720, Edmund Halley was appointed Second Astronomer Royal of England. He was a rising star in astronomy. More like a shooting star. OK, a comet. Halley's a comet. There, I said it.

In 1763, France ceded Canada to England under the Treaty of Paris.

• They just didn't like the look of their money.
• They got a couple of draft picks and a nation to be named later.

On this date in 1840, Britain's Queen Victoria married Prince Albert. As you know, he spent most of his life in the can.

In 1863, P.T. Barnum staged a wedding between General Tom Thumb and Mercy Lavina Warren (both of them little people) in New York City. It was the kind of wedding when the bride began walking down the aisle, the audience stood and you couldn't tell.

On this day in 1879, the very first electric arc light was used, in a California theater.

• The light was easy. The tough part was building that ark inside a movie theater. Especially since movies hadn't been invented yet.
• Most people's reactions? "Hey, can you turn that thing off! We're trying to watch a movie here!"
• Of course, by that time, no one really needed to light their arks.

In 1887, Nathaniel Carr became the first actor to perform in two cities on the same day (11:30am matinee in Boston/8pm performance in NYC) Of course, today, that's how a lot of actors make ends meet.

On this date in 1933, the first singing telegram was delivered by the Postal Telegram Company in New York. The song sung was a commercial jingle... so yeah, the first singing telegram was actually junk mail.