Bram Bram Bram

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Happy Birthday Bram Stoker!!!!

Abraham "Bram" Stoker was born November 8, 1847 in Ireland. Until he started school at the age of seven — when he made a complete, astounding recovery — Stoker was an invalid. In 1878 Stoker married Florence Balcombe, a celebrated beauty whose former suitor was Oscar Wilde. The couple moved to London, where Stoker became business manager of Irving's Lyceum Theatre, a post he held for 27 years. The collaboration with Irving was very important for Stoker. Through him he became involved in London's high society, where he met, among other notables, James McNeil Whistler and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In the course of Irving's tours he got the chance to travel around the world.
According to NPR (National Public Radio), one night Bram had a dream that a woman was attempting to kiss him on the neck when a Count said "Wait, he's mine!!!". This began his interest in the folklore of the vampire. He supplemented his income by writing a large number of sensational novels, his most famous being the vampire tale Dracula which he published in 1897. Before writing Dracula, Stoker spent eight years researching European folklore and stories of vampires. Dracula is an epistolary novel, written as collection of diary entries, telegrams, and letters from the characters, as well as fictional clippings from the Whitby and London newspapers.


Dracula was not a household name until 1922 when the first of the Dracula movies appeared. Dracula has been the basis for countless films and plays. His inspiration for the story was from a visit to Slains Castle near Aberdeen. The first and perhaps most famous was Nosferatu directed by F.W Murnau and starring Max Schreck as Count Orlock. Nosferatu was produced while Florence Stoker, Bram Stoker's widow and literary executrix, was still alive. Represented by the attorneys of the British Incorporated Society of Authors, she eventually sued the filmmakers. Her chief legal complaint was that she had been neither asked for permission for the adaptation nor paid any royalty. The case dragged on for some years, with Mrs. Stoker demanding the destruction of the negative and all prints of the film. The suit was finally resolved in the widow's favour in July 1925. Some copies of the film survived, however, and the film is now widely regarded as an innovative classic.
Stoker wrote several other novels dealing with horror and supernatural themes, but none of them achieved the lasting fame or success of Dracula. His other novels include The Snake's Pass (1890), The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903), and The Lair of the White Worm (1911).

1519 - Hernán Cortés enters Tenochtitlán and Aztec ruler Moctezuma welcomes him with great pomp as would befit a returning god.

1520 - Stockholm Bloodbath begins: A successful invasion of Sweden by Danish forces results in the execution of around 100 people.

1602 - The Bodleian Library at Oxford University is opened to the public.

1793 - In Paris, the French Revolutionary government opens the Louvre to the public as a museum.

1861 - American Civil War: The "Trent Affair" – The USS San Jacinto stops the United Kingdom mailship Trent and arrests two Confederate envoys, sparking a diplomatic crisis between the UK and US.

1864 - U.S. presidential election, 1864: Abraham Lincoln is reelected in an overwhelming victory over George McClellan.

1889 - Montana is admitted as the 41st U.S. state.

1892 - U.S. presidential election, 1892: Grover Cleveland is elected over Benjamin Harrison and James B. Weaver to win the second of his non-consecutive terms.

1895 - While experimenting with electricity Wilhelm Röntgen discovers x-rays.

1899 - The Bronx Zoo opens

1917 - People's Commissars gives authority to Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin

1923 - Beer Hall Putsch: In Munich, Adolf Hitler leads the Nazis in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government.

1933 - Great Depression: New Deal - US President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveils the Civil Works Administration, an organization designed to create jobs for more than 4 million of the unemployed.

1937 - The Nazi exhibition Der ewige Jude ("the eternal Jew") opens in Munich.

1939 - Venlo Incident: Two British agents of SIS are captured by the Germans.

1939 - In Munich, Adolf Hitler narrowly escapes an assassination attempt while celebrating the 16th anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch.

1942 - Holocaust: In Ternopil, western Ukraine, German SS deport about 2,400 Jews from Ternopil ghetto to the Belzec death camp, so called "Second Aktion". When the Germans captured Ternopil, about 18,000 Jews lived in the city.

1942 - World War II: Operation Torch - United States and United Kingdom forces land in French North Africa.

1950 - Pope Pius XII witnesses the "Miracle of the Sun" while at the Vatican"

1960 - U.S. presidential election, 1960: John F. Kennedy is elected over Richard M. Nixon, becoming the youngest man elected to that office.

1965 - The 173rd Airborne is ambushed by over 1,200 Viet Cong in Operation Hump during the Vietnam War.

1965 - The soap opera Days of Our Lives debuts on NBC in the United States.


1971 - The fourth album of British rock group Led Zeppelin (Led Zeppelin IV) is released, including one of the group's most well known songs, "Stairway to Heaven".

1973 - The right ear of John Paul Getty III is delivered to a newspaper together with a ransom note, convincing his father to pay 2.9 million USD.

1974 - In Salt Lake City, Utah, Carol DaRonch narrowly escapes abduction by serial killer Ted Bundy.


Happy Birthday:
1622 - King Charles X of Sweden (d. 1660)
1656 (N.S.) - Edmond Halley, British astronomer and mathematician (d. 1742)
1723 - John Byron, British naval officer (d. 1786)
1836 - Milton Bradley, American lithographer and game manufacturer (d. 1911)
1847 - Bram Stoker, Irish novelist (d. 1912)
1866 - Herbert Austin, English automobile pioneer (d. 1941)
1927 - Patti Page, American singer
1945 - Don Murray, American drummer (The Turtles)
1946 - Roy Wood, English songwriter and musician (Electric Light Orchestra)
1949 - Bonnie Raitt, American singer
1952 - Christie Hefner, CEO of Playboy Enterprises; daughter of Hugh Hefner
1961 - Leif Garrett, American singer and actor
1975 - Tara Reid, American actress
1985 - Jack Osbourne, American TV-star, son of Ozzy Osbourne

Deaths on this day:
1887 - Doc Holliday, American gambler and gunfighter (b. 1851)
1978 - Norman Rockwell, American illustrator (b. 1894)