Today is November 10th, 2006.

It was exactly 31 years ago today that the 729 foot-long freighter, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald was battling the waves and the weather on Lake Superior. Unfortunately, the waves and the weather were victorious. The Edmund Fitzgerald sank that day and took 29 crewmembers with it.

The late Richard Burton would be 81 years old today had he not died. The famous actor had appeared in over 70 films in his career.

A happy birthday wish goes out to the United States Marine Corps. The USMC was founded on this date in the year 1775.

Andfinally..

Our story today starts in a familiar location. It’s a place that I’m sure all of us have visited at one time or another. It’s a small, friendly neighborhood in New York City. The address is 123 Sesame Street.

That street name, of course, is the name of a popular, long-running children’s educational program. The cast of the show is a combination of real-life human actors mixed in with drawings and animations and, of course, everyone’s favorite: the Muppets!

We all remember Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Bert and Ernie, Grover, The Count, Kermit the Frog, Elmo and, of course, Big Birds not-so-imaginary friend, Snuffleupagus. But there are countless other lesser-known muppets that made occasional visits to the show. Many of these muppets had names that were derived from pop culture, such as: H.Ross Parrot, Polly Darton, Roosevelt Franklin, Professor Noble Price, Pat Playjacks, Sherlock Hemlock, and don’t forget the sheep muppet who was a detective. His name was Colambo.

The show was originally broadcast on the National Education Television network, otherwise known as N.E.T. That network would soon be replaced with the more familiar Public Broadcasting Service, or PBS.

When the show was initially invented, several names were considered for the show and the list includes some dull, yet descriptive names, such as: “The Video Classroom”, and some fun and silly names such as: “The Nitty Gritty Itty Bitty Kiddy Show”. And if that’s not enough to get your tongue all tangled up, they even considered a longer version ofthat name..wish me luck on this one, it was: “The Nitty Gritty Itty Bitty Dog and Kitty Farm and City Little Kiddy Show.” Fortunately, they went with the easy-to-remember Sesame Street name.

The influence of the long-running program stretches beyond television. In 1980, a theme park was constructed near Philadelphia called Sesame Place. Also, in 1980, a live traveling show by the name of Sesame Street Live was started. Both of those spin-offs are still going strong. And I’m sure that you remember the most popular toy of the 1996 Christmas shopping season was the Tickle Me Elmo doll and now, 10 years later, there is an updated version of the Elmo doll on store shelves all across the country.

On a more serious note, the Sesame Street program has helped countless children learn to deal with real-world issues. There were special episodes or skits dealing with problems in the real world such as deaths of friends or family members, the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the 2005 hurricanes of Rita and Katrina.

Did you know that over 4000 episodes of the children’s educational program have been broadcast over the years? That makes it one of the longest running shows in television history. The program has been broadcast in over 120 different countries. The show has received 109 Emmy Awards; more than any other television series. But it all started in a studio at the corner of 81st and Broadway in Manhattan. That is where the very first episode of Sesame Street aired exactly 37 years ago today, on this date, November 10th,in the year 1969.

…And that is just one of the things that has occurred on this day in history.