17 October-Eminem

Eminem is a rapper, record producer and songwriter who is a native of the USA. He has had 10 number-one albums during his career to date and is one of the world’s best-selling artists. In 2002 Eminem became the first rapper to receive an Academy Award.

Eminem was born Marshall Bruce Mathers III was born in St. Joseph, Missouri in 1972. Also known as Slim Shady he began rapping with a friend at the age of 14. In 1999 he won his first Grammy Award for Best Rap Album with his ‘Slim Shady’ LP. Since then Eminem has become one of the world’s best-selling artists of all time.

Eminem, rapper, record producer and songwriter was born in the year 1972 On This Day.

Eminem – Lollapalooza 2011

Eminem crowd

27 June-Atari

Atari is a video game company which was founded in 1972. It was a pioneer in the development of game consoles and home computers. Atari was also responsible for the development the arcade video game Pong, which became one of the first popular games. Atari released its first home video console, the Atari 2600 on September 11th 1977.

Atari was founded by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney in Santa Clara, California. Apart from the development of Pong other games included Pac-Man and Asteroids. Atari is credited with the development of gaming hardware which could play games that were not physically built into the computer. The Atari 2600 had joystick controllers, paddle controllers and game cartridges.

Atari was incorporated in the year 1972 On This Day.

Atari 2600

 

 

15 March-The Godfather

The Godfather is a gangster movie. It is based on a best-selling novel of the same name written by Mario Puzo. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. It tells the story of a fictional New York crime gang war in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s.

The Godfather was directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The screenplay was written by Mario Puzo and Coppola. Marlon Brando plays the part of the patriarch of the mafia crime family. He transfers control of the family to his son played by Al Pacino. Rival crime families see the transfer as an opportunity to take control of the aging patriarch’s crime business. His son who is a captain in the US Marines and a war hero is reluctant to take over the family business at first. However when he does take over, he ruthlessly kills the heads of the other families and takes on the role of ‘don’.

When the Godfather was released in 1972 it became a box office success. It also became one of the highest grossing films ever made. It was nominated for eleven Academy Awards in 1972 and won three Oscars. It won Best Picture, Best Actor (Marlon Brando) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola). Two sequels to The Godfather have been made, The Godfather Part II (1974) and The Godfather Part III (1990).

The film, ‘The Godfather’ was released in the year 1972 On This Day.

The Godfather Movie

The Godfather

22 January-Ireland joins EU

Ireland first applied to join the EU (European Union) in 1961. The EU was then the EEC (European Economic Community). An Taoiseach Sean Lemass, sent a letter of application to the President of the Council of the EEC, Ludiwg Erhad on July 31st 1961. The application was rejected just a few weeks later.

One of the grounds for rejection was that Ireland was considered economically underdeveloped. It was also rejected because Ireland had failed to support the Allies during World War II. Ireland continued to retain its neutrality after World War II and this was not popular with the European Community’s NATO members.

Ireland however continued to seek membership. Efforts failed again when Charles de Gaulle indicated, in 1963, that he did not want the United Kingdom or Ireland to join the European Community. In 1967 President de Gaulle blocked another application by Ireland.

In 1969 de Gaulle’s successor George Pompidou indicated that France would not block the applications of Ireland and the United Kingdom. Negotiations began in 1970 and lasted until early 1972 when it was declared that agreement had been reached on all matters. In May of that year 83% of the Irish people voted in a referendum to join the EEC. Ireland together with the United Kingdom and Denmark formally became members of the EEC on January 1st 1973.

The signing ceremony for Ireland’s accession to the EEC was held at the Palais d’Egmont in Brussels in the year 1972 On This Day.

European Flag

Ireland

07 December-Apollo 17

The Apollo Programme was an American spaceflight programme which ran from 1961 to 1972. The aim of the programme was ‘landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth’. This was proposed by President John F Kennedy on May 25th 1961.

Apollo 11 was the first to achieve the goal, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed successfully on the Moon in July 1969. Five further Apollo Missions (Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17) succeeded in landing humans on the Moon and bringing them safely back to Earth.

Apollo 17 was the sixth and last of the United States landing of humans on the moon. The three member crew of Apollo 17 consisted of Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans and Harrison Schmitt. Cernan and Schmitt spent over three days carrying out experiments and collecting samples on the Moon. When the mission was complete Cernan was the last human to date to leave the lunar surface.

Apollo 17, the final mission to the moon, was launched at Cape Canaveral in the year 1972 On This Day.

Apollo 17, Earthrise over Moon by NASA Goddard Photo and Video on 2005-08-18 08:21:34