Today in History: Life is Like a Box of Chocolates!

Happy Birthday Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama!

The first American League All Stars in 1933

With the 2013 MLB All Star Game coming up on July 16th, I will bring this post back to 1933, where the first MLB All Star Game was played in Comiskey Park, Chicago. The premise of this game was to lighten the mood and improve the reputation of baseball during the dark times of the Great Depression. In the 1920s, attendance at major league baseball games was high and mighty, but as the early 1930s rolled by, attendance fell over 40 percent. Fans would vote for their favorite players, with popular players such as Lefty Grove  Lou Gehrig and the Great Bambino, Babe Ruth in the first MLB All Star Game. On July 6th, over 47,000 fans scurried into Comiskey Park watching the first All Star Game ending in a 4-2 American League victory.

The famous quote from Forrest Gump

Is like really like a box of chocolates? Well, in hindsight I guess it would be, after watching  Forrest Gump, staring Tom Hanks, which was released on this day in 1994. The movie with a $55 million budget was a huge box office success, brining in over $677.3 million. Forrest Gump is actually based off a novel of the same name by Winston Groom. This movie was nominated for 13 Oscars, taking home six. With this movie, Tom Hanks won his second Academy Award for Best Actor, a year after he won his first for his lead role in the 1993 film, Philadelphia.