Hugh Hefner Born: Playboy's Controversial Publisher
Hugh Hefner launched Playboy in December 1953 with ,000 borrowed from friends and a nude calendar photo of Marilyn Monroe he bought for . He didn't know if there would be a second issue, so he didn't put a date on the first one. By 1959 he was living in the Playboy Mansion, rarely leaving it, working from bed. The magazine published Norman Mailer, Ray Bradbury, and Kurt Vonnegut alongside the photographs. Born April 9, 1926.
April 9, 1926
100 years ago
What Else Happened on April 9
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Sixteen legions marched out of Illyricum, not to defend the frontier, but to burn down the old guard. While Commodus lay dead in Rome, Severus's soldiers realiz…
He handed out a letter promising peace by erasing the word "two natures." Emperor Basiliscus, backed by his wife and the powerful Patriarch Peter the Fuller, de…
1,600 cavalrymen arrived, mostly Huns and Slavs with bows that could punch through Gothic armor. Belisarius didn't wait for supplies to fill his bellies; he str…
Mongol tumens crushed a coalition of Polish and German knights at the Battle of Liegnitz, securing a total tactical victory through superior mobility and feigne…
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