This Day in Pop Culture for May 6

2005: The Controversial ‘Crash’

Many people were surprised when the film Crash win for Best Picture at the 78^th Academy Awards beating out Good Night, and Good Luck, Capote, Brokeback Mountain and Munich. Even the film’s director, Paul Haggis didn’t agree but said, “Crash, for some reason, affected People, it touched people.”

Haggis said that he got inspired to make the film about racial tensions after he was carjacked by two African American men in 1991. He has said that he had wanted to “bust liberals” who made the outrageous claim that America had become free of racial preference, discrimination and prejudice.

The movie’s story begins with Graham (Don Cheadle), a detective and his partner, Ria (Jennifer Esposito) become involved in small collision. Ria and the woman who hit them go back and forth with racial insults at each other. Later, Graham attended a crime scene where a dead child had been discovered. The movie goes back two days’ time to show how the madness all began. The movie also starred Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon, Brendan Fraser, Terrence Howard, Ludacris, Thandiwe Newton, Michael Pena and Ryan Phillippe.

In addition to winning the Best Picture Oscar, Crash also won for Best Original Screenplay (Haggis) and Best Film Editing.

1983: The Hitler Diaries is Ruled a Hoax

Many people wondered just want was going through Adolf Hitler’s mind, so imagine what it must have been like to have discovered 60 volumes of journals from the German leader.

In early 1983, West German magazine Stern purchased these diaries for 9.3 million Deutsche Marks ($3.7 million) which then sold serialization rights to numerous new organizations.

One publication, The Sunday Times, asked the historian Hugh Trevor-Roper to authenticate the diaries, which he did. However, during a press conference announcing the publication of the diaries, he changed his mind which led to other historians doubting the credibility of the diaries.

After forensic analysis, it was confirmed on this day that the journals were fakes written by Konrad Kujau known for having a history of petty crimes and deception. (Image: Wikimedia)

1954: First Mile Run in Less than Four Minutes

After coming in 4^th place during the 1500 meters run at the 1952 Olympics, Roger Bannister was determined to run the mile in less than four minutes. He achieved his goal on this day at Iffley Road track in Oxford with three minutes and 59.4 seconds.

1940: John Steinbeck Awarded

John Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath (which was based on various newspaper articles he had written regarding agricultural migrant workers) was the best-selling book of 1939 just months later was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

2004: The Last ‘Friends’ Episode

NBC’s hit sitcom Friends ended its 10-year run on this day with 52.5 million viewers tuning in to see Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer star in “The One Where They Say Goodbye.”

2013: The House of Horrors

It was on this day in 2013 when people all over the world were shocked to learn that three women were now free after being kidnapped by Ariel Castro in Cleveland, Ohio for over ten years. Castro offered each woman a ride home but instead took them to his home and restrained them in his basement. Michelle Knight was 21 years old when she disappeared in 2002 on the day that she was supposed to appear in court for a child custody case.

Amanda Marie Berry disappeared just before her 17^th birthday on April 21, 2003. She had called home to say that she was getting a ride home from work, but she never arrived. Then on April 2, 2004, Georgina Lynn DeJesus disappeared after leaving her middle school. The women were rescued when Berry escaped with her six-year-old daughter (Castro was the father) from the “home” that they were living in. Within hours, the other two women were freed, and Castro was arrested. He was sentenced to life plus 1,000 years in prison without the possibility of parole.