"Rap History: This Day in 1987 Public Enemy release Yo! Bum Rush The Show."

In October of 1912, Theodore Roosevelt was about to give a speech in Milwaukee in support of his reelection campaign under the newly created Progressive “Bull Moose” Party when a bartender named John Flammang Schrank walked up and shot him in the chest. Roosevelt of course was not killed, but neither his survival nor Schrank’s claim that he was instructed by the ghost of William McKinley to prevent a third term for the two-term former president were the most extraordinary parts of the whole affair. It was the fact that Roosevelt decided to deliver his speech in the Milwaukee Auditorium anyway, for an hour and a half, with blood seeping through his clothes. “Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible,” he began, “I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.” READ MORE

Ten years ago today Winona Ryder stole several thousands of dollars worth of merchandise from the Beverly Hills Saks Fifth Avenue. I reacted to the news of the incident the way I react to most celebrity scandals—with unmitigated delight—and prepared myself to follow subsequent action with mild interest. READ MORE

It was 40 years ago today (more or less): "The Intel 4004 was a 4-bit central processing unit (CPU) released by Intel Corporation in 1971. It was the first complete CPU on one chip, and also the first commercially available microprocessor. Such a feat of integration was made possible by the use of then new silicon gate technology allowing a higher number of transistors and a faster speed than was possible before." And think of all the joys it's brought us! Seriously, think about it.

Don’t try to tell me you don’t like this song. Don’t try to say that it’s too earnest and simplistic or that the big dumb chord progression is too big and dumb or that Kevin Cronin sounds too much like a dweeb or that his clothes or his acting in this video are too ridiculous for you to take anything he’s ever done seriously ever. Don’t try to tell me that you never wrote this song’s lyrics into a love note to an old ex-girlfriend you were trying to win back. Don’t try to tell me that you don’t turn up the volume and sing along aloud every time it comes on the radio when you’re driving in a car by yourself. I won’t believe you. Because it’s just too perfect, this song. It's just too good at what it's trying to do to make you do anything but give in and swear your allegiance. And because you’re an American, and you lied about having lost your virginity before you actually lost it. 30 years ago this week, REO Speedwagon’s “Keep On Loving You” was the number one song in the country. And when you really think about, if you’re honest with yourself, it’s pretty much stayed that way since.

The Clash's London Calling came out thirty years ago today. It still stands as punk rock's crowning achievement. In fact, it's probably as responsible as any other work for the fact that the term "punk rock" seems kind of silly now. The Clash were a punk band, coming out of England with the Sex Pistols in the late '70s. But the music on London Calling ranges from reggae to rockabilly to snazzy pop tunes. It's thoughtful and refined, even gentle at times, and delivered with as much subtlety as spit. It rages and sneers, too, to be sure, but even in that, it proves the futility of thin definition and sub-categorization. It's all just rock n' roll, really, right? London Calling is just some of the very best of the stuff ever recorded. (Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go do a tango about the use of flying buttresses in gothic cathedrals.) Oh, and for perspective, 30 years before London Calling's release, it was December 14th, 1949, Elvis Presley hadn't recorded any songs and no one knew what "rock n' roll" was. So now rock has been dead and reborn for longer than it was alive in the first place. Or something.

It was 40 years ago tomorrow that photographer Iain MacMillan took the picture of the Beatles crossing Abbey Road outside Abbey Road studios that would be used for the cover of their final studio album, called, uh, Abbey Road. It has since become one of the most enduring images in rock-music history. Am I Right has collected 63 covers from other artists parodying the original, and the BBC is running a nice little segment about the endless stream of tourists who stop traffic to take their own pictures on the very crosswalk trod upon by Paul's bare feet-a place that now has a webcam monitoring the scene 24 hours a day.