February 18 -

1943 - William D. Cox buys the Philadelphia Phillies from Walter O’Reilly.  The deal almost falls apart when O’Reilly whispers to his attorney at the closing that “Cox is a sucker”.  Thinking he had been called a cocksucker, Cox storms out of the meeting.  The misunderstanding is eventually cleared up and the deal is finalized. Later, the two businessmen enjoyed cigars and aged scotch, while laughing about how good it is to be rich and white.

1954 – Actor John Travolta was born. One of Travolta’s first big roles was on the sitcom ‘Welcome Back Kotter’, where he played Vinnie Barbarino.  Tragedy struck the ‘Kotter’ set in season 3 when fellow actor Gabe Kaplan handed out cigars to all the ‘Sweathog’ actors after filming one day. The group enjoyed their cigars, but the smoke wafted to the other side of the studio where 2 children were playing. The smell of the cigar smoke dropped both kids dead on the spot, because second hand smoke is very deadly and will kill you on contact.

1965 – NFL star Frank Gifford holds an unconventional press conference wearing sunglasses and smoking a cigar.  Gifford announces his retirement from football to focus on his broadcast career, and “ho-ing around.” Nobody knew what that meant until 1997 when Gifford was found to be cheating on his wife, Kathie Lee Gifford.

1970 – Legendary cigar smoker, forum member (boomerd35/Troysephus), and founder of 'This Day in Cigar History' Troy Taormina was born. In 2006, President George W Bush issued an Executive Decree that all able bodied cigar smokers should send Troy a few of their finest cigars each year on February 18. Canadians were initially exempt from the decree, but in 2008, Canada’s Prime Minister agreed that Canadians should also honor the US decree to increase US-Canada relations.

February 8-

1922 - Radio arrives at the White House.  President Warren G. Harding would stop all business at 4:30 pm each day so that he could sit by the fireplace listening to the radio.  While listening to the radio, he would smoke a cigar and chat with his friends on the internet.  Harding’s daily routine became known as the “Fireside Chat”.

1926 - Walt Disney Studios forms.  The first Disney characters were quite different from the ones we have come to love over the years. Originally, Mickey Mouse smoked a cigar and cursed like a sailor. And Donald Duck (who has never worn pants) was originally named “Donald Dong”. Donald Dong was drawn with a large wang hanging down, but nobody noticed until the late 1950’s.

1991 - Roger Clemens signs record $5,380,250 per year Red Sox contract. His contract had a rider provision that the Red Sox would provide one box of Cohiba Cuban cigars for each start.  Clemens’ former trainer reported that Roger would inject the cigars with steroids and shove them up his ass just before he took the mound.

1992 - "I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred peaks at #1. Many music fans were pushed to the edge of suicide by the constant barrage of this shitty song on the radio.  Then in 1995, the Macarena pushed those music fans over the edge. RIP, music fans.

February 1-

1901 – Actor Clark Gable is born.  In his later years, Gable smoked cigars to keep his cigarette addiction under control.  Although Gable’s most famous movie line was “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.”, this line was added in post-production of ‘Gone With The Wind’ by the studio.  The original line was originally quite different.  In the original filming, when Scarlett asks “What shall I do?”, Rhett replies,”Fuck if I know. I got 99 problems, but a bitch aint one.”

1948 – Singer Rick James is born in Chicago, Illinois.  His father, Eldon James, gave cigars to everybody in the Parkdale Hospital waiting room telling each person as he handed out the cigar, “It’s Rick James, bitch!!!”.

1974 – ‘Good Times’ (spinoff from ‘Maude’) premieres on CBS. During the first week of taping, the actor who played Bookman was busted in real life for selling counterfeit Cuban cigars.  He only appeared on the show when he could obtain a work release from jail.  ‘Good Times’ floundered in the ratings during the first season and was almost cancelled.  The show only became a hit during the second season, after an episode where little Penny’s nipple accidentally slipped out of her shirt as JJ and the gang watched the Super Bowl.

1992 - Barry Bonds signs baseball's highest single year contract - $4.7 million. Bonds’ agent Jeff Boris pulls out 2 Montecristo Habanos from his coat pocket, and hands one to Bonds to celebrate the signing. Out of habit, Bonds injects the cigar full of steroids.  That Montecristo belted 43 home runs in the 1992 season, a new world record for a cigar.

January 25- ("I Love The 80's" entry today)

1985 – The #1 hit "We are the World" is recorded by a group of pop stars calling themselves “USA For Africa”. The recording brought together many of the most famous singers in the world, including Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Diana Ross, Bruce Springsteen, Huey Lewis, and others.  Producer Bob Geldorf was a cigar smoker and attempted to light a cigar during the recording session.  Huey Lews and Bruce Springsteen, both disgusted with the cigar smoke, instructed their bands to physically beat Geldorf into a coma in what is now known in music circles as “The E- Street News Massacre”.

1988 - Vice President Bush and Dan Rather clash on "CBS Evening News" as Rather attempts to question Bush about his role in Iran-Contra affair. After hearing all the facts, Rather concedes that the Iran-Contra fiasco was no fault of the Vice-President, and concludes that it must be the fault of his son, George W Bush.

1989 - Michael Jordan scores his 10,000th NBA point in his 5th season. At a press conference after the game, Jordan lights up a Cohiba Cuban cigar on national television. When asked by a reporter if the rumors of his addiction to hookers and illicit gambling are true, Jordan replied “I would never do anything illegal.”

1989 - New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner meets with Pope John Paul II. During their meeting, His Holiness noticed that Steinbrenner had 3 cigars in his shirt pocket, and inquired about the stogies. Mr. Steinbrenner asked the pontiff if he would like one of his cigars. Without missing a beat, the Pope replied, “Do I wear a funny hat?”

January 19-

Some days, there's just not much cigar history...

1910 – Germany ends a commerce/friendship treaty with Bolivia. Bolivia follows by unfriending Germany on Facebook and changing its status to ‘Looking for Commerce/Friendship’.

1939 - Ernest Hausen of Wisconsin sets chicken-plucking record-4.4 sec.  An unfortunate typographical error in the Milwaukee Gazette headline causes a rash of angry phone calls to the paper.   

1958 - Canadian Football Council renamed Canadian Football League. 53 years later, nobody still gives a shit aboot Canadian Football, eh.

1961 - 1st episode for "Dick Van Dyke Show" is filmed. The original sponsor of the show was Lorrillard Tobacco Company, which made cigarettes and premium long filler cigars.  One scene from the first episode was cut and has never been seen on television.  The lost scene featured a violent attack where Rob beats the shit out of Laura for not having dinner ready when he got home from work. Network executive Robert Fuller later recalled, “We were fine with the violent act, but we thought it was not realistic enough because there’s no way a wife would be stupid enough to make the mistake of not having dinner ready.”

1971 – Shawn Wayans was born. Shawn’s father handed out cigars with custom-made labels that said, “It’s another fu*king Wayans brother!”

January 17-

 

1893 - Hawaii's monarchy was overthrown as a group of businessmen and sugar planters forced Queen Liliuokalani to abdicate.  Queen Latifah assumed power and reigned over Hawaii until she was removed from power for making that shitty Taxi movie with Jimmy Fallon.

1899 - Al Capone , the American gangster and prohibition era crime leader , was born. Capone enjoyed the finest cigars and had them imported from a special factory in Florida.  The famous gangster also enjoyed bootlegging, running prostitution, tax evasion, organized crime, bribing government officials, murder, and extortion.  But he got me a fiver of Tatuaje Franks once, so he’s a good guy.

1917 - U.S. pays Denmark $25 million for Virgin Islands.

1918 – U.S. attempts to get its money back from Denmark complaining, "Those f**king whore islands weren’t virgins.”

1928 – The first fully automatic photographic film developing machine was patented by George Winston.  The first photograph processed on the machine was a portrait of US President Calvin Coolidge smoking a cigar.  The second photograph processed was a picture Winston took of his own penis.

1959 - Susanna Hoffs, lead singer for The Bangles, is born.  Nothing cigar related about this entry, but damn, what guy didn’t want to nail her after that sexy eyes shift in the “Walk Like An Egyptian” video? That was HAWT!

1998 - President Bill Clinton became the first U.S. president to testify as a defendant in a criminal or civil suit when he answered questions from lawyers for Paula Jones, who had accused Clinton of sexual harassment. Clinton vehemently denied ever using a cigar as a sex toy with Paula Jones. In a rare moment of levity during his testimony, Clinton even joked that, “…they don’t make cigars that big, if you know what I mean.”

January 14-

1948- Actor Carl Weathers was born.  Weathers is most famously known for his portrayal of Apollo Creed in the ‘Rocky’ movie franchise.  Weathers is an avid cigar smoker, as is his former co-star Sylvester Stallone.  Once during filming of Rocky III, Weathers challenged Stallone to a long ash contest.  Weathers won the contest and told Stallone “Aint gonna be no rematch.” However, at the beginning of filming for Rocky IV, there was indeed a rematch of the long ash contest.  This time, Stallone was the winner and Weathers was quoted in the Philadelphia Enquirer to say, “He beat me by .5 of an inch on the ash contest. That’s very hard for a man of my intelligence to accept.”

1993- Late-night TV talk show host David Letterman announced he was moving from NBC to CBS. Although normally a quiet and extremely private person, Letterman admitted in a 1993 Oprah interview his fondness of cigars and interns.  In fact, it was the quality of fresh young female interns at CBS that sealed the deal. Quipped Letterman, “Outside of Bill Clinton’s Oval Office, I’ve got the best collection of cigars and hot interns in the country.”

2004- President George W. Bush unveiled a plan to send astronauts to the moon, Mars and beyond.  President Bush does not normally indulge in cigars, but made an exception at a celebration dinner after the press conference.  The dinner was hosted by then NASA Director Ted Showells, an avid collector of vintage cigars.  According to Showells, the evening’s discussion focused on how long term travel to Mars would be very difficult, partly due to the fact that Mars has no ozone in the atmosphere. It has been generally accepted in recent years that President Bush’s policies and his fat cat friends in big oil companies are largely responsible for Mars having no ozone.

January 12-

Okay, this is a day late. But here is a sample of what kind of information you might find on this blog. Some of the information is not related to cigars directly, but trust me- there's a correlation somewhere.

On this day, January 12-

1737 – American Revolutionary John Hancock is born. Known for his unique signature, he is also responsible for the first limited edition cigar. The first draft of the Declaration of Independence originally included the text, “… that all men are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of limited rools of tobacco that create an internet following and can be sold for multiple times their inert value. That upon an adequate period of time, such tobacco may be released in greater quantity at the inflated price and later sold by individuals on cigar forums for even more than the already inflated value.”

1951 – Actress Kirstie Alley and radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh are both born on the same day. Limbaugh is well known for his love of cigars, especially Cohiba Esplendidos, and Alley is well know for her love of eating large quantities of food. A little known fact is that during the final season of ‘Cheers’, Alley ate co-stars George Wendt and Rhea Perlman.

1971 - The sitcom "All in the Family" premiered on CBS. The show featured a bigoted, loudmouthed, cigar smoking asshole named Archie Bunker. Bunker would have fit in nicely on most cigar forums, had Al Gore invented the internet prior to 1971.

1991 - A deeply divided Congress gave President George H.W. Bush the authority to use force to expel Iraq from Kuwait. Although the President’s son George W. Bush was not in public office at the time, it is generally agreed that it is the son’s fault that the United States went to war in 1991. It is also the younger Bush’s fault for Vietnam and Korea.

Welcome to This Day in Cigar History

Welcome. This blog is to celebrate This Day in Cigar History. It is a slanted (and hopefully humorous) view on history and cigars, and how cigars are an integral part of our culture and civilization. I can't post these every day, but I will try to post as often as possible. There may be some foul language and disgusting references, but hey- that's our civilization for ya. 

I hope you enjoy.  My motto and money-back guarantee for this blog is: "Contains at least 10% actual truth"

Troy Taormina
Troysephus/boomerd35