It was on this date, in 1694, that William and Mary of England became William. Who wasn't really even English. But since Mary was, and she was the daughter of James II, and she wasn't an evil Papist like Dad, she got to take over when Dad was kicked out. Doesn't really seem like an "honor thy father" kind of gal, but what do I know.
In 1734, it was the turn of Robert MacGregor to die. Doesn't ring a bell? Well he often dropped his last name, and used his middle name. Along with an abbreviation of his given name. And thus we got to "Rob Roy". Sound better? Although it turns out the Scots knew him as Red Robert, or Railbert Ruadh, which apparently sounds kind of like Rob Roy. To those who know how to twist their tongues into a Scottish accent. He actually was just a guy, until an employee absconded with a lot of money intended to be used to buy cattle. Robbery victims not having much of an excuse for anything in those days, he lost everything else because he couldn't pay off the loan which he had taken to buy the cattle. In the end, he was pardoned for his crimes- which seem pretty mild- and achieved a measure of fame in his own lifetime. Probably would have preferred to have kept the cattle though.
And in 1983, Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys died. He was the brother of Carl and Brian, and played drums. Oh, and you know the whole "surfer meme" of the Band? Well Dennis was the only real surfer among them. More interestingly, he was for a time the friend and host to a "family" of people headed by, of course Charles Manson. I think we touched on this a while ago when Terry Melcher died, but Wilson finally decided that Manson was nuts, and rather than confronting the latter, Wilson just moved out of his own house. Manson responded by leaving a single bullet with Wilson's housekeeper. Probably a good thing that Dennis took that as a threat. He was apparently kind of odd, being married to his cousin and bandmate Mike Love's daughter. He was also married to the ex-wife of Chicago's Robert Lamm, and had a relationship with Christine McVie. She dumped him because he was an alcoholic. Speaking of which... he drowned when he apparently got good and drunk and decided to go swimming in order to recover some belongings out of the ocean. How did they get there? Apparently, he had gotten drunk and thrown them in the water a couple years before. Good thinking, eh?
Heigh-Ho Silver!!! Up, up and away!! Or something like that. RIP Clayton Moore, aka The Lone Ranger, who died in 1999. He didn't seem to be bothered by type-casting in the role, since he basically made it his life from the early 50s until his death. In fact, apparently his star on the Walk of Fame includes "The Lone Ranger", which is apparently unique. Thankfully, he won't have to see the Johnny Depp version which is rumored to be in the works if they can find someone willing to spend $200 million to make a crappy movie that will completely violate everything Moore represented and valued in his life. If they do make it, the stories I've heard suggest it'll be god-awful, so I suppose that would be The Revenge of Clayton Moore, and somebody will lose a ton of money. Frontier Justice will be served. At least I hope so.
And on that note, "Up, up and away!"
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