For several years in a row, if one encountered a television set on a Tuesday night in America, and if that television set was turned on, it was tuned to NBC and Texaco Star Theatre hosted by Milton Berle. On June 8, 1948, when the show and its new host made their debut, finding a television set was easier dreamed about than done: fewer than a million were owned in the entire country.

By the end of Berle’s run in 1956, some 30 million sets had been purchased in the subsequent years and many sources pay him at least partial credit for this sales success. The show had been a hit on NBC radio with Fred Allen as host; on TV, it was career-defining, for Berle certainly, but for the executives who hired him as well.
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Dorothy Parker died on this date in 1967. Because it is possible you have not heard her voice, here is a 1926 recording, found on “brainpickings,” of her reading “Inscription for the Ceiling of a Bedroom” (after the jump):

Daily dawns another day;
I must up, to make my way.
Though I dress and drink and eat,
Move my fingers and my feet,
Learn a little, here and there,
Weep and laugh and sweat and swear,
Hear a song, or watch a stage,
Leave some words upon a page,
Claim a foe, or hail a friend —
Bed awaits me at the end.
 
Though I go in pride and strength,
I’ll come back to bed at length.
Though I walk in blinded woe,
Back to bed I’m bound to go.
High my heart, or bowed my head,
All my days but lead to bed.
Up, and out, and on; and then
Ever back to bed again,
Summer, Winter, Spring, and Fall —
I’m a fool to rise at all!—”Inscription for the Ceiling of a Bedroom”

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Today is the 72nd anniversary of D-Day.

Allied forces began the fight to retake Europe from Nazi Germany with an invasion that began at the beaches in Normandy along the coast of France. The numbers are stunning: in one single day, more than 160,000 troops made the beach landing, with 5000 landing and assault craft, 289 escort vessels, and 277 minesweepers taking part. By the end of the day, more than 10,000 American and British troops were dead, as were more than 1000 Germans.

About a month after the invasion, General Dwight D. Eisenhower showed an aide a handwritten note he had written the night before Operation Overlord began. It was an “In case of failure” note and it is only four sentences long, but it gives a sense of the his integrity and how much was riding on the 150,000-man invasion of France. It reads (after the jump):
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