Speed Racer Movie Released

 
Speed Racer was based on the comic book and television series in the 1960s. Warner Brothers had Larry and Andy Wachowski write and direct the movie. Emile Hirsch was the star behind the role of Speed. Speed is 18 years old and his family's business is making race cars. Speed has an older brother named, Rex, his brother died in a race called Crucible. Speed is trying to live up to his brothers name. The family's rival  made him a offer that he declined, for him to race for him. Speed is trying to save his family's business by racing with his rival, X,
to take on the Crucible, and the Grand Prix.

Earnhardt's first Victory at Daytona

Dale Earnhardt Sr, was trying for 20 years to win at the Daytona 500. The date was February 15 1998. He drove the number 3 Chevrolet, he won over $1 million in prize money. He was born on April 29 1951. His son (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) had dropped out of high school to follow in his fathers footsteps. Jr had become one of NASCARS most known and respected drivers, with 76 Winston cups. On February 18 2001 Earnhardt Sr had died from a crash of the age of 49. He was taken to the Hospital where he was pronounced dead from head injuries.

Beatles arrive in the U S

The first time the Beatles had visited the U.S. They were greeted by thousands of screaming fans, and they almost started a riot. The four of them, made an appearance on the " Ed Sullivan Show". It was very difficult to hear them over the screams of their fans. It was estimated that over 73 million viewers were watching them perform, or 40 percent of the U S were watching. The first public performance in the U S from the Beatles, was at the Coliseum of Washington D C  February 11, with over 20,000 fans. On February 22 the Beatles returned back to England.

Disney Announces Purchase of Pixar

On this day in 2006, Walt Disney Pictures announced that they were purchasing Pixar Studios for $7.4 billion. Disney and Pixar had paired up to make movies since 1993, making over $3 billion at the box office, and winning 19 Academy Awards.

According to History Channel, Pixar CEO Steve Jobs (who was also CEO of Apple and recently passed away) clashed with Michael Eisner of Disney. Worried that the deal would fall through, Roy Disney and the Board pushed Eisner out.

Here are some cool facts Pixar:

• Early on, Buzz Lightyear was known as Lunar Larry
• Billy Crystal was the first choice to play Buzz Lightyear, but he turned it down
• Billy later had the sense to be the voice of Mike in Monsters, Inc.
• George Lucas sold his share of Pixar for $5M.
• John Ratzenberger has been a voice in every single Pixar movie.

Mcdonalds Drive Thru Beijing

McDonald's Drive Thru was opened in Beijing on this day in 2007. It was located next to a gas station with Chinese lion dancers and a Chinese Clown. China has many foreign restaurants like in 1987 KFC was opened. China invented the Big Mac and the happy meal everyone knows and loves. The Beijing McDonald's was the 16th Drive thru to open in China. In 2008 China was announced the Nations number one growth for McDonald's with 960 restaurants and 60,000 workers.





P.S. Beijing is the capital of china. Just wanted to put that out there.

Teddy Roosevelt Declares Grand Canyon a National Monument

Native Americans are known to have lived in the area now known as the Grand Canyon as far back as the 13th Century. The first European sightings of the area were not until 1540, by Spanish explorers.

By the late 1800's, much activity, including mining, was happening in the Canyon. President Benjamin Harrison made several attempts to declare the Grand Canyon a National Monument, but failed to do so during his presidency.

Theodore Roosevelt first visited the park in 1903, and was very impressed. He wanted to preserve the area, and  after five years of effort, on this day in history, the Grand Canyon National Park came to be.

For more information about the Grand Canyon, check out this site.

"Rocky" Begins Filming

Sylvester Stallone was born in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood  of New York City. He was kicked out of many schools before the age of 15. Stallone attended high school in Philadelphia, and joined the University of Miami for drama. After he had finished school, he moved back to New York. Shortly after that, he headed to Los Angeles, hoping to become an actor.

When Stallone thought of Rocky, he was living in a apartment with his wife and dog. He wrote the screenplay casting himself as the lead  Stallone actually wrote the screenplay for this film in THREE DAYS! He trained 6 hours a day for 5 months to wear out his boxing gloves, downing vitamins to get his 46 inch chest, and 16 inch biceps.

This is a movie I made for this blog post :Rocky Movie