This Day In History

[The Poet]

Today in 2015 I am having internet problems, so this may be truncated. In 1613 The Globe Theater burned down, a midsummer's nightmare to all Shakespeareans. In 1972 the Supreme Court struck down the death penalty. Yeah, right. By "popular demand", and in time to celebrate our Bicentennial, it was reinstated in 1976. And there was a double-dip in 1967. Firstly, Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones went on trial for allowing his Redlands estate to be used for the purpose of smoking Indian hemp. The case for the prosecution hinged upon two main points . . . the smell of incense, and the fact that Marianne Faithfull was found clad in a bearskin rug. For these heinous crimes, Richards was sentenced to a year in prison. Secondly, on the same day, actress and pinup bombshell Jayne Mansfield was killed in a car accident on her way from Biloxi to New Orleans, though her three-year-old daughter (Mariska Hargitay) and two siblings survived the wreck. This was in the days before airbags . . . as if Ms. Mansfield needed those.