What is the greatest Academy Award snub in history?

 My idea of the greatest snub involved one of Hollywood’s greatest films.

It happened on Thursday night, March 2 1944 at Grauman’s Chinese Theater (seen above), where the 16th Academy Awards ceremony was in full swing.

Casablanca, a top contender, had already won “Best Screenplay” and “Best Director”. Then the winner for “Best Picture” was called out …

Jack Warner accepts Casablanca’s “Best Picture” Academy Award from Oscar host Jack Benny

… and producer/ awards participant Hal B. Wallis described what happened next.

After it was announced that Casablanca had won the Academy Award for Best Picture of the Year, I stood up to accept when Jack [Warner] ran to the stage ahead of me and took the award with a broad, flashing smile and a look of great self-satisfaction.

I couldn’t believe this was happening. Casablanca had been my creation. Jack had absolutely nothing to do with it. As the audience gasped, I tried to get out of the row of seats and into the aisle, but the entire Warner family sat blocking me. I had no alternative but to sit down again, humiliated and furious ... Almost forty years later, I still haven't recovered from the shock.

Oscar night: Jack Warner elated; Hal Wallis suppressing his anger

Hal Wallis had worked at Warner Bros. for 20 years. The head of film production for a decade, he’d stepped down from the job in 1941 because he “had no rest, had no home life”. Wallis then negotiated his own independent production deal with the studio, creating his own unit inside Warners where he would only produce four pictures a year.

One of those four was Casablanca, and Mr. Wallis had overseen every aspect of its production, from choosing the property and developing the script, to selecting actors and director, supervising the final edit, and signing off on the music and sound mix.

So, yeah. Wallis was ticked off at Jack Warner. Hugely.

And the snub by Warner was obvious. So obvious that it got noted in the L.A. Times, which caused Wallis (maybe under company pressure?) to fire off a note to Times columnist Edwin Schallert on March 4:

I have been with Warner Bros. for twenty years and during this time it has been customary here as elsewhere for the studio head to accept the Academy Award for the Best Production. Naturally I was glad to see Jack Warner accept the award this year for “Casablanca”. … I am happy also to have contributed my bit toward the making of that picture. Your comment in your column this morning on rivalry at Warner Bros. is totally unjustified. …

But Wallis was, of course, spewing misinformation. He was neither “happy” nor “glad”. And a month later, he resigned from Warners, though there was still two years left on his production deal:

I … felt I could no longer work under the conditions imposed upon me by Jack Warner. … Jack did not live up to the terms of our contract. He often acquired material I never saw and never had an opportunity to consider for my own productions. … Jack began to inject himself into my company’s decision making. Matters came to a head that Oscar night. …

I broke clean, left for New York without any plans, and holed up at the Waldorf Towers for eight weeks. ...

Word of the rupture got around, with tales and jokes about the Wallis-Warner breakup circulating widely. Five years after the fact, novelist and screenwriter Raymond Chandler related one of them to his British publisher:

My favorite Hollywood story is about the Warner Brothers, Jack and Harry. The day after Hal Wallis ankled and left them flat, there was deep gloom and a horrid sense of catastrophe at the executive lunch table. … Jack and Harry come in. Jack turns to Harry.

Jack: That sonofabitch, Wallis.

Harry: Yes, Jack.

Jack: A lousy fifty dollar a week publicity man. We built him up from nothing. We made him one of the biggest men in Hollywood. And what does he do to us? He picks up his hat and walks out and leaves us cold.

Harry: Yes, Jack.

Jack: That’s gratitude for you. And take that sonofabitch Zanuck. A lousy hundred a week writer and we took him in hand, built him up and made him one of the biggest men in Hollywood. And what did he do to us? Picked up his hat and walked out on us cold.

Harry: Yes, Jack.

Jack: That’s gratitude for you. Why, we could take any sonofabitch we liked and build him up from nothing and make him one of the biggest men in Hollywood.

Harry: Yes, Jack.

Jack: Anybody at all. (Jack turns and looks at writer/associate producer Jerry Wald, sitting there at the executive table.) What’s your name?

Wald: Jerry Wald, Mr. Warner.

Jack: (to Harry) Jerry Wald. Why, Harry, we could take this fellow here, this Jerry Wald, and build him up from nothing to be one of the biggest men in Hollywood, couldn’t we, Harry?

Harry: Yes, Jack. We certainly could.

Jack: And what would it get us? We build him up to be a big man, give him power and reputation, make him one of the biggest names in Hollywood, and you know what would happen? The sonofabitch would walk out on us and leave us flat.

Harry: Yes, Jack.

Jack: So why wait for that to happen, Harry? Let’s fire the sonofabitch right now.

In actual fact, Jack Warner did his share of seething. He commenced making snide comments about his former studio chief, and allegedly refused to let his one-time studio head have a picture taken with the Casablanca Oscar. It got to the point where Jack Warner’s actual brother Harry fired this cable off to him, soon after Wallis ankled the Warner Bros. lot.

MY ADVICE TO YOU IS NOT TO MENTION THAT PARTY’S NAME [Hal Wallis] EVEN IN FORM OF KIDDING. ATTEND TO YOUR OWN BUSINESS. I ASSURE YOU HE WILL DO VERY WELL. IT COMES ACROSS THE WIRE MANY PEOPLE SEE IT AND THEY THINK YOU ARE JEALOUS. YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE A BIG MAN.

Harry Warner’s predictions regarding Hal Wallis proved correct. Soon after resigning from Warner Bros., Wallis set up a production unit at Paramount Pictures, and went on producing highly regarded films into the 1970s.

And somewhere along Hal W.’s new road to further success, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences sent Mr. Wallis his own Casablanca “Best Picture” Oscar, along with a letter of apology.

End Note: Yeah, this isn’t a “snub” in the way the question intends, but a snub nevertheless.

End Note Too: Warner was technically justified in getting up to accept the “Best Picture” award, since other studio heads had done it. But elbowing out the person who actually did the work was incredibly bad form. Independent producers had accepted Oscars before, and Wallis was within his rights being ticked off at Jack Warner. (Academy rules didn’t officially acknowledge individual producers until 1951.)

What’s the most savage line ever said in history? One man said it straight to Hitler’s face

 In 1935, Adolf Hitler approached a man and offered him the position of ambassador to the United Kingdom.

That man was Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck—one of Germany’s most legendary generals from World War I. He had led a remarkably successful guerrilla campaign in Africa, fighting until the very end of the war without ever being defeated in battle. As a result, he received Germany’s highest military honors and became the commander of the only German army to surrender undefeated after World War I. At the time, he was widely regarded as one of the greatest German military figures still alive.

Lettow-Vorbeck had also been notably progressive for his era. Commanding many soldiers of African descent, he treated them as equals, defended them from racial discrimination by white officers—even those above him—and earned their fierce loyalty in return.

With his pragmatic, stubborn views on race and leadership, Lettow-Vorbeck had little admiration for Hitler.

So when Hitler personally asked whether he would accept the role of ambassador to Britain, Lettow-Vorbeck turned him down—forcefully.

How forcefully?

In the 1960s, one of Lettow-Vorbeck’s former officers was interviewed by British author Charles Miller. During the conversation, this exchange took place:

MILLER: “I understand von Lettow told Hitler to go to hell.”
OFFICER: “Yes… though his actual words were far less polite.”

This man stood up, face to face with Adolf Hitler—one of the most powerful and terrifying figures in history—and bluntly told him to go fuck himself.

That’s not just refusal.

That’s brutal.

Brief history of Vijaynagar Empire ?

 The history of the Vijaynagar Empire constitutes a glorious chapter in the history of India.

The Vijaynagar kingdom constitutes four dynasties which were-

1. Sangama (1336–1485)
2. Saluva (1485–1503)
3. Tuluva (1503–1570)
4. Aravidu (1570–1646)

SANGAMA DYNASTY

Harihara and Bukka established the Vijayanagar Empire. Originally they were feudatories of the Kakatiyas of Warangal. They were in Kampili where they were imprisoned and converted to Islam by Muhammed Bin Tughlaq.

Later, they returned to Hinduism at the initiative of Saint Vidyaranya. They proclaimed their independence and founded a new city on the banks of river Tughbhadra. It was called Vidyanagar or Vijaynagar meaning the city of victory.

Deva Raya 2 was the greatest ruler of the Sangama dynasty. He took the title of Gajbetegara which means the hunter of Elephants.

He was a great patron of literature, he himself authored Sobagine Sone, Amaruka, and Mahanatak Sudhanidhi. Persian traveller Abdur Razzak visited his empire.

SALUVA DYNASTY

This dynasty was founded by Saluva Narasimha and it ruled only for a short period of time.

Immadi Narasimha was ruler of vijayanagar when Vasco Da Gama landed in India.

TULUVA DYNASTY

It was founded by Vira Narasimha Raya in 1505 AD.

KRISHNA DEVA RAYA

He was the greatest of all vijayanagar rulers. Krishna Deva Raya was also known as Andhra pitamah, Abhinav Bhoj, Andhra Bhoj.

Battles fought by him-

1. Battle of Diwani
2. Bijapur
3. Against Gajapati ruler Pratap rudra

He patronized eight eminent scholars of Telugu who were known as Ashta diggaja.

1. Allasani Peddana
2. Tenali Rama
3. Pingali Suranna etc.

He constructed famous Hazara Rama temple and Vitthalaswamy temple.

Sada Shiva Raya

He was the last ruler of Tuluva Dyansty who puppet in the hands of his minister Aliya Rama Raya who was the de-facto king.

BATTLE OF TALAIKOTTA

It is also known as battle of bannihatti and rakshasa thangadi.

It was fought on 26 jan 1565 .The combined forces of Bijapur, Ahmednagar, Golconda, Bidar, defeated the Vijayanagar Kingdom .

It was watershed moment in the history of south india. Vijaynagar was destroyed and Rama raya was executed.

ARAVIDU DYNASTY

After battle of talikotta , Vijaynagar empire existed for about another one century.

Aravidu Dynasty was founded by Thirumala.It’s last ruler was Sri Ranga 3 .The empire slowly shrunk and aravidu dynasty ended in 1646.

Thus one of greatest kingdoms in India became history.

What is surprising about the history of the internet?

 Here are some records in the history of the internet:

• The first search engine was WebCrawler.com in 1994.
• The first change on Wikipedia was made by Jimmy Wales (founder) writing "Hello, World!".
• The first domain in history is symbolycs .com and was registered on March 15, 1985 by Symbolics, a company that produced computers

• The first Instant Messenger chat was ICQ launched in 1996 and still used today.
• The first website in history (still online here) was put online by CERN in Geneva in 1990 and contains information for the World Wide Web Project J.
• The first e-mail was sent in 1971 by Ray Tomlinson. The message was sent before the creation of the Internet network and before the introduction of the "@" symbol in the e-mail addresses!
• The first online bank was Stanford Federal Credit Union. In October 1994, it provided all its customers with Internet banking services.
• The first Blog is dated 1994 and was written by the American journalist Justin Hall.

• The first spam e-mail was apparently sent by Gary Thuerk, on Arpanet, in 1979. It was an advertisement sent to 393 people at once.
• The first web browser, released in 1993, was called Mosaic and can still be downloaded!
• The first podcast was by Dave Winer, an American software developer who in 2001 added audio content to his blog's RSS feed.
• The first mobile phone with Internet access was the Nokia 9000 Communicator (launched in 1996 in Finland).
• The first e-commerce website is called NetMarket.

• The first item sold on eBay was a broken $14.83 worth of laser pointer sold by one of the co-founders of the well-known e-commerce.
• The first video uploaded to YouTube was titled "Me at the Zoo" and was published on April 23, 2005 by YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim. It's still online and you can see it.
• The first Hacker attack in history took place in 1990. Object of the attack: the websites of the US Department of Justice, the US Air Force, the CIA, NASA and some others.
• The first Social Network was born in 2000 and it's called FriendUnited.
• The first GIF in history was created by Compuserve in 1987.

What are some rare photos of world history?

 18 Year old Vladimir Putin

17 Year old Pelé before the 1958 World Cup

Steven Spielberg lying in the mouth of "Bruce the shark" on the set of Jaws, 1975

In 1949 an official boxing match between a bear and a man was held. The bear won.

East German soldier helping a boy cross the new Berlin Wall, to reunite with his family. 1961.

Easter gifts for Hitler

Painters on the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge, 1914

Ruby Bridges, first African-American to attend a white elementary school in the South. November 14th, 1960

A liberated Jewish Holocaust survivor turning the tables around

Ducklings being used as part of medical therapy, 1956.

African-American policeman protects a KKK member, as protesters were closing in on them in at a rally in Austin, Texas. 1983.

An Indian woman carrying a British man on her back, West Bengal, India, circa 1900

Operation Babylift: In 1975, over 3300 Vietnamese orphans were evacuated and transported by airplanes to the US.

Economy Class on Pan Am 747 in the late 60's

New Yorkers stop to watch the ‘’Seinfeld’‘ finale in Times Square, 1998.

Construction of the Berlin wall

Disneyland Employee Cafeteria in 1961

Measuring bathing suits – if they were too short, women would be fined, 1920’s

Mother hides her face in shame after putting her children up for sale, Chicago, 1948

Woman sitting with her pet cheetah having tea at a café in Paris.

Source - History Pics on Twitter

What are some things every Indian should know about Indian history?

 13 Things You Didn’t Know About India's Contribution To World War 1

1. India contributed with more soldiers than Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa combined.

In fact, every sixth soldier fighting for the British Empire was from the Indian subcontinent. Nearly 800,000 combatants took part in the war.

2. Indian soldiers won 11 Victoria Cross honors, Britain’s highest military honors. Overall 13,000 medals were won by the Indian Corps.

3. Troops from India fought in all the major theatres of war, from the Western Front in Europe to Africa and China.

After the war, Indian soldiers continued to be engaged in various conflicts like the Third Afghan War and Waziristan Campaign.

4. 53,486 Indian soldiers lost their lives, 64,350 were wounded and 3,762 went missing or were imprisoned.

5. Mesopotamia proved to be the deadliest battle ground, with 30,000 Indian casualties and 32,000 wounded.

6. It wasn’t just the wounds of battle that killed the Indian soldiers. Nearly 9,000 died due to severe winters in France.

7. Apart from men and material, India also contributed with 100 million pounds of wealth.

8. Not just combatants, there were 43,737 men who worked in the Indian Labor Corps.

9. Indian Royalty served in the war as well.

Maharaja Sir Ganga Singh, the Maharaja of Bikaner, commanded the Bikaner Camel Corps that served in France, Egypt and Palestine. He also represented British India in the Imperial War Cabinet. Maharaja Of Patiala, Bhupinder Singh fought in the Gallipoli Campaign, in present day Turkey.

10. Within weeks of the war being declared, India also supplied 70,000,000 rounds of small arms ammunition, 600,000 rifles, motors and machine guns.

11. During the four years of war, the Army Clothing Department produced 41,920,223 garments.

12. By the end of the war, 1,302,394 personnel, 172, 815 animals and 369.1 million tonnes of supplies had left Indian shores.

13. The total value of India’s war contribution amounted to £ 80,000,000. That's about ₹ 7,420,800,000 in today's money.