This Day in Pop Culture for May 24

2023: The Queen of Rock and Roll Dies

After years of medical issues and even close calls, it was on this day in 2023 that Anna Mae Bullock, aka Tina Turner died in her home in Switzerland. Although highly successful and well-respected, she did not live a charmed life. Tina was born the youngest of three girls in Brownsville, Tennessee on November 26, 1939. In her autobiography, I, Tina, she stated that her parents had never loved her. When she was just 11 years old, her mother left her abusive husband She and her sisters were then sent to live with their grandmother. Tina once sang in her Baptist church’s choir. In high school, she was a cheerleader and a basketball player, and she worked as a nurse’s aide after graduation.

In 1957, Tina met Ike Turner at the Manhattan Club in East. St. Louis. After taking control of the microphone during an intermission, Tina not only got the attention of the audience but Ike as well. She soon became a vocalist for the band. In 1962, they married. In 1971, she sang her iconic rendition of the song “Proud Mary” which became the band’s biggest hit. In 1976, after a physical fight with her husband, Tina left Ike with just 36 cents in her pocket. It was then that she started her solo career.

Over the years, Tina produced nine solo albums quickly becoming known as the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll. She appeared in two movies (Tommy in 1975 and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome in 1985) and filled in for the singing voice for Angela Bassett who portrayed Turner in the 1993 film, What’s Love Got to Do with It.

On this day in 2023, she passed in her home in Switzerland at the age of 83. (Image: Wikimedia)

1978: The Glass Ceiling

It was during a speech that she gave on this day in 1978 that Marilyn Loden first uttered a phrase that would not be forgotten. Known as a writer, management consultant, and diversity advocate, Loden was speaking about the role of gender discrimination in the workplace, and she invented the term “glass ceiling” referring to invisible career barriers for women. (Image: Pexels)

1844: The First Telegraph Message

Samuel Morse was a part-time painter, part-time inventor. In late 1842 during a visit to Washington, D.C., he strung wires between two different rooms in the Capitol building and began to send messages back and forth demonstrating his telegraph system.

Impressed, congress appropriated $30,000 for the construction of a 38-mile-long telegraph line between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. On May 1, 1844, news of Henry Clay’s nomination for U.S. president was telegraphed from the Whig Party’s convention to the Capitol Building. Then, on this day in 1844, the line was officially opened when Morse sent the phrase “What hath God wrought” from the Capitol building to the B&O’s Mount Clare Station in Baltimore. The quote is from the Bible in Numbers 23:23. (Image: Wikimedia)

1830: Mary Had a Little Lamb…for Real

It was on this day that the nursery rhyme, “Mary Had a Little Lamb” was published for the first time. It is a poem written by Sarah Joseph Hale that was based on a true tale.

The story is about Mary Sawyer from Sterling, MA, who indeed had a pet lamb and did bring it to school. “Visiting school that morning was a young man by the name of John Roulstone, a nephew of the Reverend Lemuel Capen, who was then settled in Sterling,” said Mary.

“It was the custom then for students to prepare for college with ministers, and for this purpose Mr. Roulstone was studying with his uncle. The young man was very much pleased with the incident of the lamb; and the next day he rode across the fields on horseback to the little old schoolhouse and handed me a slip of paper which had written upon it the three original stanzas of the poem…” (Image: Wikimedia)

1995: ‘Braveheart’ Owns the Multiplex

Directed, produced and starring Mel Gibson, Braveheart was inspired by Blind Harry’s poem, The Actes and Deidis of the Illustre and Vallyeant Campioun Schir William Wallace. Gibson portrayed Scottish warrior William Wallace during the First War of Scottish Independence against King Edward I of England. The film also starred Sophie Marceau, Patrick McGoohan and Catherine McCormack.

Although Braveheart received some negative criticism for historical inaccuracies, it was a huge success in the movie theaters (earning $209 million against a budget that ranged from $53-$72 million) and won multiple awards. The movie was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and won five for Best Picture, Director, Cinematography, Makeup and Sound Effects Editing. (Image: Wikipedia)