Today in History: First franchised McDonald's restaurant opens in Illinois
Today is Tuesday, April 15, the 105th day of 2025. There are 260 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On April 15, 1955, Ray Kroc opened the first franchised McDonald's restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois.
Also on this date:
In 1865, Abraham Lincoln died after being shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater the previous evening; Andrew Johnson was sworn in as the 17th president hours later.
In 1912, the British luxury liner RMS Titanic sunk in the North Atlantic off Newfoundland just over two and a half hours after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage. Over 1,500 people died; 710 survived.
In 1947, Jackie Robinson, baseball's first Black major league player of the modern era, made his official debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers on opening day at Ebbets Field. (The Dodgers defeated the Boston Braves, 5-3.)
In 1974, members of the Symbionese Liberation Army held up a branch of the Hibernia Bank in San Francisco; a member of the group was SLA kidnap victim Patricia Hearst. (Hearst later said she had been forced to participate in the robbery.)
In 1989, a crush of soccer fans at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England, caused 97 deaths and over 760 injuries.
In 2013, two bombs made from pressure cookers exploded at the Boston Marathon finish line, killing two women and an 8-year-old boy and injuring more than 260.
In 2019, fire swept across the top of the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral during renovation work on the landmark structure; the blaze collapsed the cathedral's spire and spread to one of its iconic rectangular towers. (The cathedral was restored and reopened to the public in December 2024.)
Today's Birthdays: Actor Claudia Cardinale is 87. Basketball Hall of Famer Michael Cooper is 69. Olympic track & field gold medalist Evelyn Ashford is 68. Actor-screenwriter Emma Thompson is 66. Singer Samantha Fox is 59. Olympic swimming gold medalist Dara Torres is 58. Singer Luis Fonsi is 47. Country singer-songwriter Chris Stapleton is 47. Actor Luke Evans is 46. Actor-writer Seth Rogen is 43. Actor Alice Braga is 42. Singer-songwriter Margo Price is 42. Actor Samira Wiley is 38. Actor Emma Watson is 35. Actor Maisie Williams is 28.
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Los Angeles Times
23 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
In Geoff Dyer's U.K. childhood, a Cadbury Milk Tray meant everything
A certain sort of British memoir takes education as its queasy, pivotal center. The narrators of these books — among them Robert Graves' WWI-scarred reminiscence, 'Good-Bye to All That' (1929), and Henry Green's WWII-era bildungsroman, 'Pack My Bag' (1940) — are often tortured by their schooling, with its wicked authority figures and cruel classmates. Importantly, they refuse to be tight-lipped about the experience. They usually — in the cases of the above, always — end up at Oxford, where their tenure at such an ideal of English education allows their adult selves to come into view. Geoff Dyer is among the great uncategorizable prose writers of the past several decades and he also went to Oxford, albeit at the end of the 1970s, with the war deprivations of yore in rearview. He was not reared by British public academies — the privileged equivalent of private schools in America — but instead at a grammar in suburban Cheltenham, 'a place famed for its Jane Austeny terraces,' he states in his new autobiography, 'Homework,' though his alma mater stuck out like a jagged edge: It 'was, by some distance, the most forbidding modernist building in town.' 'Homework' distinguishes itself like such a structure among the developed, dreary grounds of the British scholastic narrative. No fan of Dyer's, whose many books have ranged from a bizarre if thrilling immersion in the psyches of American jazz musicians to a volume about procrastinating while trying to write about D.H. Lawrence, will be surprised that he departs from precedent. But even if his latest never actually takes us to university ('Oxford lies beyond the boundaries of this book-map and inventory,' he announces), it reflects U.K. literary custom like nothing he's written. Dyer, now 67 years old and for a decade a USC professor, is a cosmopolitan author whose output — fiction, nonfiction, both — has often spanned far-flung locales. Yet this project's geography is circumscribed, its borders hedged. If Dyer has grown sentimental about the England of his upbringing, his nostalgia is a subtle critique of how optimism in big government has grown worse for wear — 'Homework' bursts with working-class pride, a fond and mournful belief in the possibility of the British welfare state. Still, the fact of remembering can sometimes feel more important to Dyer than how events translate. He leads us through a grove of anecdotes, some more meaningful than others. Dyer conjures a macabre, powerful image of his father in a hospital bed after a botched surgery, wearing a badge that reads 'Private Health Care Makes Me Sick,' and spends a few too many pages on the delight of eating 'sweets' (not candy — too Yankee), which nonetheless produces this glorious quip: 'During one discussion of various oral afflictions, my mum exclaimed 'I've had gum boils,' as if announcing an achievement that was in danger of being unjustly overlooked.' Humor is his life raft because he neglects to plot much of a course around the seas of memory. The book's languor can be ponderous and vintage, more 20th century than 21st. Yet the text's unhurried recollections reflect its content: 'Homework' feels leisurely as if to reflect the functional, socialist-adjacent government that allows its characters to subsist. If only, Dyer implies, Americans with the misfortune of paying for their own dental care could afford the rite of developing gum boils. Eventually, Dyer's aimlessness gets us somewhere — and, in the most English way, we find the book's emotional destination in what he neglects to proclaim outright. Dyer, an only child, spends a lot of time delving into his relationship with his parents, focusing on moments when he butts heads with his dad. Young Geoff, child of an expanding consumer economy, wants a guitar, a stereo, a Red Feather racing bike — 'If you didn't have a racer you didn't have a bike,' his older self declares with undiminished enthusiasm, 'but since no one who had a bike didn't have a racer this wasn't an issue.' He receives all of these things. His dad is a sheet metal worker, his mother a school cook, and they have limited financial means — still, the book's contrast, between familial impecunity and the minor damage of the narrator's disappointments, forces us to look past circumstance and consider how materialism relates to affection and if this conflict is generational. Dyer's father was traumatized by the austerity of growing up in England between two military cataclysms, and his daily satisfaction is bound in his ability to pinch pences. In one particularly memorable scene, he buys his son a tennis racket at a store that offers a 10% discount to members of an athletic club — to which he doesn't belong, but he argues his way into getting the deal regardless. In another, Dyer describes a Cadbury Milk Tray that his dad purchased for his mother each year on Valentine's Day though his mom didn't like chocolate. This did not dampen her gratitude, however: The gesture 'was an expression of indulgence unrestrained by any considerations of expense.' Naturally, most of the contents of the Milk Tray were eaten by me, first the ones I knew I liked from the top layer and then, when that top layer had been decimated, the same items from the bottom layer. This bottom layer also came to include what my Auntie Hilda called 'spit-backs' from the top layer: half-eaten choices that I'd liked the look of — based on the legend — but then turned against when I took a bite. And so, to avoid waste, they were returned to the box for someone else — my dad — to finish off. This moment sticks in the mind, the intimacy of a family in which a present for the mother becomes a treat for the child, whose chewed and discarded food is finished by the father. It points toward the book's core: a question of how to distinguish tenderness from frugality. Is 'Homework' about a child who took a remarkably frictionless path, aided by a nation that had invested in civic institutions, from monetary hardship to the ivory tower? Merely technically. Is it a story of how members of a family, protected by a social safety net from abject desperation, developed different ideas about how to relate to material circumstance? We're getting there. What 'Homework' does best is keep these possibilities open while never having an answer for whether the elder Dyer's annual ceremony with the Cadbury box was an act of love. The real homework is the labor that we do when we spend our whole lives wondering. Felsenthal is a fiction writer, poet, critic and essayist whose work has appeared in the New Yorker, the Guardian, the Atlantic and other publications.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Cynthia Erivo and The Vivienne among ‘LGBT+ changemakers' in 2025 Pride List
Wicked actress Cynthia Erivo and drag queen The Vivienne are among the stars who feature on a list 'celebrating the most influential LGBT+ changemakers of the past year'. The Independent's Pride List for 2025 also includes retired Olympic diver Tom Daley, actor Bella Ramsey, artist David Hockney, comedian Joe Lycett and author Juno Dawson. Erivo, 38, who won a Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (Glaad) Award earlier in the year, was placed at number four on the top 10 list while The Vivienne, the drag alter-ego of the late James Lee Williams, is seventh. The Vivienne, who won the first series of RuPaul's Drag Race UK and spoke publicly about prejudices faced by LGBT+ people and by the drag community, died in January at the age of 32 and is a posthumous inclusion on the list. Topping the 2025 Pride List is Victoria McCloud, a lawyer, former judge and transgender woman who announced she would take the Government to the European Court of Human Rights over the Supreme Court's ruling on the definition of a woman. Dr McCloud said: 'I'm delighted and honoured that The Independent has included me in its Pride List this year. 'In 2025, more than ever before, amidst increasing oppression and segregation at home, with court and state against us, people from the trans community yearn to be bathed in rainbow light. 'These are uniquely dark times but we will challenge those who wish to marginalise us, be they Government or activists with money and the odd mega-yacht to spare. 'We have been here for centuries; we will be here for centuries to come. The quiet majority walk with us.' In April the UK's highest court unanimously ruled that the terms woman and sex in the Equality Act 'refer to a biological woman and biological sex'. Chloe Hubbard, UK editor of The Independent, said: 'We are proud to champion our most influential LGBT+ changemakers once again on our annual Pride List in a year where the community has been further marginalised on both sides of the Atlantic. 'Visibility and pride within the queer community feels more vital than ever and we are dedicated to continuing to occupy our unique place in the media on LGBT+ issues.' In 2023, The Independent relaunched its Rainbow List as the Pride List, to recognise 50 extraordinary 'LGBT+ changemakers'. The 2024 list included Doctor Who and Sex Education star Ncuti Gatwa, commentator and former England footballer Alex Scott, Wicked and Bridgerton actor Jonathan Bailey and screenwriter Russell T Davies. To mark the publication of its Pride List, The Independent will host an event at Queer Britain on June 11. This year's top 10: 1. Victoria McCloud, former judge of the King's Bench2. Juno Dawson, author3. Bella Ramsey, actor4. Cynthia Erivo, actor and singer5. Wes Streeting, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care6. David Hockney, artist7. The Vivienne, drag artist, singer and television personality8. Joe Lycett, comedian, television presenter and artist9. Tom Daley, Olympic gold medallist and television personality10. Yasmin Benoit, model and activist
Boston Globe
3 hours ago
- Boston Globe
In the Trump era, where have all the protest songs gone?
Some of the most prominent and popular 21st-century songs with sharp political critiques are from the Black community, including Beyonce's 'Freedom,' Kendrick Lamar's 'Alright,' and Childish Gambino's 'This Is America.' They're all at least seven years old. No recent music has captured the current political climate, at least not in the way that civil rights anthems of the 1960s, rap hits of the '80s, or even the anti-Bush wave of the '90s and 2000s were able to. Some of those songs dominated the charts and set the cultural tone of social movements. Bob Dylan's 'Blowin' in the Wind,' the Temptations's 'War,' and Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On' were explicit in their purpose, and all were in the US Billboard Hot 100 Hits. But protest music has been on an inexorable decline since the highs of the '60s and '70s. Advertisement President Trump has taken office amid silence, centralizing power and influence while blaring 'YMCA' by Village People. There's plenty to protest: the detainment, without due process, of immigrants nationwide; the blatant self-enriching crypto schemes launched by the Trump family; the struggles of everyday Americans with inflation; even the COVID-19 pandemic (remember the disastrous 'The explanation is simple. You can't make much money off these songs,' Ted Gioia, a prominent music historian, Protest songs are now often met with indifference from a cautious music industry, while social media have opened up new opportunities to scrutinize even mildly controversial viewpoints. As mainstream audiences have become generally less receptive to musicians promoting causes, many listeners now shrug off entertainers who dabble in activism as performative, or, even worse, preachy. 'It is not just that people have lost faith in any performer to help bring about change, it is that they resent anyone who attempts to do so,' Dorian Lynskey But as Gioia points out, protest music hasn't totally disappeared — it's just flourishing outside the United States. Beyond the confines of American music charts, movements filled with music are still alive and continue championing global causes. Today, Palestinian rappers like Advertisement In Hong Kong, 'Glory to Hong Kong' became the soundtrack of the 2019 pro-democracy protests and was later This is the kind of music America needs, especially now that the Trump administration has actively targeted musicians. On May 19, Trump called for a Some protest music is still being made, such as Nemahsis's 2023 album 'Verbathim' and Macklemore's 2024 single 'Hind's Hall,' both independently released pro-Palestinian projects. But their impact and reach is limited. As Lynskey writes, 'The right question is not, 'Where have all the protest songs gone?' but 'Is anybody listening?'' In the age of filtered algorithms and tailor-made playlists, the only stars with enough cultural cachet to break through audiences' information siloes are juggernauts like Taylor Swift, Lamar, Beyoncé, Post Malone, Charli XCX, and Ariana Grande. They have little financial incentive to protest. Advertisement Now Swift and Grande stick to writing about their love lives. Post Malone is playing low-stakes pop country on tour with Jelly Roll. And despite a link with the Harris campaign, Charli XCX's 'Brat' is made for clubbing, not marching. In this era, if artists are globally popular, they're not singing protest songs. And if they're singing them, they don't reach the mass audiences they might have commanded in previous decades. The levers of mass media influence for political music don't seem to exist anymore, and if listeners want to tune out politics, they can. 'I began this book intending to write a history of a still vital form of music,' Lynskey concludes in an epilogue. 'I finished it wondering if I had instead composed a eulogy.' Rebecca Spiess can be reached at
