Friday, May 20, 2011

My mother was a tailor, she sewed my new blue jeans

May 20th
On this day in 1956 the United States dropped a hydrogen bomb over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. The significance of this event was that it was the first h-bomb to be dropped from a plane by the US and raised the stakes in the cold war. Before this test the bulky hydrogen bomb had to be brought to a destination and detonated on site. The Soviet Union also had an h-bomb and had conducted tests from planes in Siberia, but nothing on the scale of this. We had the bigger bomb and now had a way of bringing destruction anywhere on earth. This test also brought about environmental repercussions and forced the two countries to sign a treaty to end open air and underwater testing of nuclear weapons                                                                          
On this day in 1873 Levi Strauss, along with the help of Jacob Davis received a patent on blue jeans. Davis added the trademark rivets at key points to Strauss' jeans. It took nearly 80 years for the jeans to catch on as a fashion statement, but I can't imagine a college campus or a high school without jeans. What would everyone wear, corduroy? Would these guys look cooler in cargo pants?
And yet another cool story about the Who, on this day in 1966 in Windsor, England, Pete Townshend and Roger Daultrey grew tired of waiting for Keith Moon and John Entwistle and decided to go on stage with the drummer and bassist from their opening band. When Moon and Entwistle arrived in the middle of the show a fight broke out that involved Townshend hitting Moon over the head with his guitar. The band broke up for a week after this incident.

1 comment:

  1. Rock n' Roll + Cargo pants = lame image.
    Thank god for Levi!

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