Herman Melville’s novel, Moby-Dick, or, The Whale, was published by Harper & Brothers on this date in 1851 in the United States. A total of 3215 copies (in both America and England) were purchased between this date and Melville’s death 40 years later, which earned Melville a total of $1260 dollars in that time. Sales have picked up since.
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Youth: a Narrative, and Two Other Stories, a collection by Joseph Conrad, was published on this date in 1902 by William Blackwood & Sons. One of the “two other stories” in the title is a novella Blackwood’s Magazine had published in three parts in 1899: Heart of Darkness.

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Walt Disney’s film Fantasia opened in movie theaters on this date in 1940. One sequence, set to Claude DeBussy’s “Clair de Lune,” was finished but cut at the last moment to shorten the movie. Here it is (after the jump):
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American Airlines Flight 587 crashed soon after taking off from John F. Kennedy International Airport 15 years ago today. Two-hundred-fifty-one passengers, nine crew, and five people on the ground in the Belle Harbor area of Queens died.

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The Ellis Island Immigrant Station (photo at top) was closed as a processing center on this date in 1954.
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