On this date in . . .

1850: Henry Wells and William Fargo formed America’s first stagecoach freight line. They called it the American Express, but later changed the name to Wells-Fargo.

1910: The first American horror film was patented, a one-reel Edison Studio production of Frankenstein.

1931: Electric razors were first manufactured by the Schick Corporation in Stanford, Connecticut.

1960: The Everly Brothers recorded "Cathy’s Clown." It would become their fifth million seller single.

1961: Poppin’ Fresh, the Pillsbury Doughboy was born.

1965: Farouk-I of Egypt died in Rome at age 45. The 300-pound deposed king had just eaten a dozen oysters, a leg of lamb, two oranges, beans, fried potatoes, and two Cokes, and smoked a Havana cigar.

1970: The NFL adopted a rule that required all players names to appear on the back of their jerseys. The rule had been borrowed from the merging AFL.

1982: Singer Teddy Pendergrass was paralyzed from the waist down after his Rolls Royce crashed into a tree in Philadelphia.

1985: Denver and Houston of the USFL set a pro football record with 112 passes in a game: Denver lofted 43 passes, Houston 69.

1989: Researchers in Giza, Egypt, discovered a 4,400-year-old mummy at the Pyramid of Cheops.

1994: Kenner, Louisiana, honored a native son by naming a street Lloyd Price Avenue. His hits included "Lawdy Miss Clawdy," "Stagger Lee," "Personality," and "I’m Gonna Get Married."

1996: Author John Young published The Good Code Book, the first book to list every telephone dialing code in the world from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. It was not a best-seller.

2001: Workers equipped with a bulldozer, face masks and a court order have removed 154 tons of garbage from a man's home outside Madrid, Spain. The job took two weeks, with 30 truckloads of trash hauled away from the house and surrounding lot. Police said the 58-year-old resident, who repeatedly refused requests to clean up the place,  lived in a tiny compartment in the back and reached it through a tunnel carved out of the garbage.

2002: The Sun Valley Mall in Concord, California, was closed temporarily due to popularity when 1,500 teenagers swarmed a music store to get autographs from the band B2K.

2005: Doctors removed the feeding tube keeping Terri Schiavo alive after an wide-ranging fight over the brain-damaged Florida woman's care that involved Congressional leaders. She died 13 days later.

Birthdays:

• singer Charlie Pride is 73;
• singer Irene Cara 53;
• singer James McMurtry 49;
• actor Kevin Dodson 67;
• singer-actress Vanessa Williams 48;
• musician Stuart Zender 37;
• rapper-talker-actress Queen Latifah 41;
• actor Malcolm Jamal Warner 41;
• skater Bonnie Blair 47;
• quarterback Brian Griese 36.

     Q: On two state championship basketball teams in high school, was Queen Latifah: (a) a power forward; (b) a shooting guard; or (c) a small forward?
     A: Power forward.

     Q: When he was 15, Charley Pride’s parents signed a baseball contract for him with: (a) the New York Yankees; (b) the Memphis Red Sox; or (c) the Missoula Timberjacks?
     A: The Yankees. One of their farm clubs in Lodi, California, cut him when he pulled a tendon in his shoulder. Later, he did pitch for both Memphis and Missoula.

     Q: According to old English tradition, which part of a chicken is called the "parson’s nose:" (a) the rump; (b) the beak; or (c) the comb?
     A: The rump. No one seems to know why.

     Heavy Theory: "America may be unique in being a country which has lept from barbarism to decadence without touching civilization." - John O’Hara

26 years ago today:

• The #1 U.S. song was "Can't Fight This Feeling" by REO Speedwagon.
• The #1 country song was "Seven Spanish Angels" by Ray Charles with Willie Nelson.
• The #1 R&B song was "Nightshift" by the Commodores.