1862: The first paper money is issued in the United States. The three denominations printed are the $20 bill, the $10 bill, and...the $5 bill, the amount that pops up the most often in Al projects such as The Authorized Al, UHF, and "Why Does This Always Happen To Me?" In 2007 Al would finally print his own money, specifically $100 bills to rain over the crowd during live performances of "I'll Sue Ya."

1876: Inventor Alexander Graham Bell makes the very first phone-y call, as he rings up his assistant Mr. Watson in the next room. Claiming that he spilled acid on his pants, Alex simply said "Mr. Watson, come here. I want you." into the phone. Whether or not that really happened (the acid part) is open to debate, so Allie might have made the very first prank phone call, an activity Al analyzes in his song ironically called "Phony Calls."

1948: Jan and Dean singer Dean Torrence is born in Los Angeles. Jan and Dean, as you may recall, would be one of Al's influences for the surf-flavored "Trigger Happy."

1964: Actress and A Different World star Jasmine Guy, Al's co-presenter on MTV's 1989 Video Music Awards, is born in Boston.

1972: The police action drama Dirty Harry opens in West Germany. It is Clint Eastwood's famous "I know what you're thinking..." soliloquy that Al is alluding to in "Trigger Happy" with the line "You better ask yourself, do you feel lucky, punk?"

1975: Papa Roach guitarist Jerry Horton is born. Not only does this former drywall-stacker share Al's abstinence from alcohol and tobacco, but his group's hit "Last Resort" would kick off Al's 2003 medley "Angry White Boy Polka."

1983: Gandhi II's prequel, the flop Gandhi, opens in Argentina, where surely he knows how to party. In addition to the UHF connection, in October 2005 Al would appear on VH1's mini-series I Love the '80s 3D to suggest that the movie should have been made in 3-D. "Watch out, there's Mr. Passive Resistance comin' atcha!"

1984 - Concert Date: Al's only King Biscuit Flower Hour show is taped at a concert during the Tour of the Universe in 3-D. This show at Buffalo's Tralfamadore would air on April 8, with only about half of the setlist making it on the air. The broadcast album of the show (backed on Side 2 by an episode with Jason and the Scorchers) has since become a collector's item. The only song from these recordings that would be released on a non-promo album or compilation would, ironically, be a song that was not broadcast on the show. "It's Still Billy Joel To Me" would eventually turn up on Dr. Demento's fifth Basement Tapes compilation from 1996.

1992: Scotti Bros. and BMG reissue Al's critically overlooked 1989 album UHF/Original Motion Picture Soundtrack And Other Stuff on CD and cassette. Unlike other BMG Al rereleases, UHF retains some of its insert's album notes and original copyright date. Also reissued on this day by the two companies is The Transformers: The Movie soundtrack, which features Al's song "Dare To Be Stupid" as the last track.

1995 - Concert Date: Continuing the Canadian leg of the AlCan Tour, the guys perform at The Walker Theater in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

1997: The "hip," scary, sexy, gothic, movie-based, teen-beloved quasidrama Buffy the Vampire Slayer premieres on The WB, ushering in a new era of supernatural prime time action soap operas. Starring Sarah Michelle Gellar in the title role (for those of you really hungry for trivia, the headshot of Sarah that would appear in the "It's All About The Pentiums" video is a Buffy publicity photo), the show would last seven seasons, even surviving a network jump to UPN after its fifth year. In January 2005 Al would appear on the "1998" episode of VH1's mini-series I Love the '90s Part Deux to discuss the show's popular bookworm-turned-lesbian-turned-witch Willow, played by Alyson Hannigan. Al concluded that Willow is proof that "reading is a gateway to witchcraft and lesbianism."

1998: The Marcy Playground single "Sex And Candy" is released over a year after its source, the group's self-titled debut album. Although the song had already hit #1 on Billboard's "Modern Rock Tracks" chart, the single would go on to hit #8 on the "Hot 100" and then would land in the top five on the "Top 40 Adult Recurrents" (#2), "Top 40 Mainstream" (#3), "Mainstream Rock Tracks" (#4), and "Adult Top 40" (again #4) charts. And it would be about another year before Al placed the song near the end of his Running With Scissors medley "Polka Power!"

2000: The quirky black comedy Being John Malkovich opens in Mexico. On the December 1999 MTV special ALTV2K, Al presented a clip from the little-known follow-up Being Corey Feldman. Al would resurrect the joke in January 2005 while discussing the movie during the "1999" episode of VH1's I Love the '90s Part Deux.

2000 - Concert Date: Al continues his comeback conquest of Texas during Touring With Scissors, as he goes to San Antonio to do a show at Laurie Auditorium.

2003: The drama series Without a Trace premieres in Denmark. Focusing on that special group of unsung law enforcement heroes, the FBI's Missing Persons Squad, the show would be one of the most recent shows mentioned in Al's Eminem parody "Couch Potato."

2007 - Concert Date: Here it is, tour #11 for album #12! It's the first date of the STRAIGHT OUTTA LYNWOOD TOUR, Al's first concert tour in three years! The first show in this international trek is in none other than Auckland, New Zealand at the St. James Theatre, which would be followed by a small Australian leg. This marks not only the first time Al and the band have performed in New Zealand, but also their first tour to stop in more than two countries...and the first tour to begin outside of the United States (not even the AlCan Tour can make that claim!). Obviously a lot of the new setlist is dominated by songs from the recent Straight Outta Lynwood album, but Al is nevertheless able to throw in a few surprises along the way. The suppressed online hit "You're Pitiful" is featured in the first half of the show, complete with Al approximating a sort of live music video by removing a series of t-shirts as he sings, including (usually) a custom one declaring "Atlantic Records Sucks" and a final, yellow shirt emblazoned with the face of SpongeBob SquarePants (Al then proceeds to remove his pants, revealing fishnet stockings and a tutu to complete the final outfit). Al also continues the apparent tour tradition of including a never-before-performed-live song from the previous album, in this case "Bob" from Poodle Hat complete with Al wearing a Dylan-esque cowboy hat and playing the harmonica! In fact, practically every single song in the setlist warrants some sort of costume change, ranging from simply putting on a new hat to a full-blown new outfit. Such numbers from SOL as "Canadian Idiot" and "I'll Sue Ya" also bring some new innovations to an Al tour, from exploding streamers to falling "Al dollars" (or "Yankobucks," if you prefer), combined with the entire band dressed in Green Day or Rage Against the Machine-esque garb, respectively. The central parody medley becomes a spectacle in of itself with Al in a gradually changing costume. Starting off in an Eminem hoodie for "Couch Potato," Al then proceeds to strip down little by little to lead into "Do I Creep You Out," and then so on and so on, eventually even requiring a jacket for the entire second verse of "Trapped In The Drive-Thru." The medley also has a surprise or two inside, such as the unreleased T-Pain parody "I'm In Luv Wit Da Skipper," about Gilligan's supposed attraction to his best friend. Al even dresses up in a red shirt and fisherman's hat for the role, while suggestive clips from Gilligan's Island play on the video screens (three connected screens this time on the tour, by the way). The medley also includes a brand new verse for none other than "Headline News," this time focusing on Britney Spears and her habit of showing up in public without underwear. Al also shakes things up a little to surprise the die-hard fans, moving "The Saga Begins" and "Yoda" from the encore and into the second half of the normal setlist and omitting such veteran tour numbers as "Money For Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies" and the uberclassic "One More Minute," with the latter being replaced by "Wanna B Ur Luvr" as the interactive "Al wanders into the audience" song (in fact, as a sign of the longevity and strength of Al's constantly growing career, only three of the songs in the setlist were released before 1990!). Obviously, "White & Nerdy" becomes a highlight later in the show, complete with Al showing up on stage riding his Segway and newly shot clips of Donny Osmond appearing on the video screens (the album's other single, "Don't Download This Song," doesn't turn up in the concert at all). As if there weren't enough surprises and treats for fans by now, for the encore Al comes out in his normal Hawaiian shirt attire (actually, the first time he shows up in a Hawaiian shirt for the whole show), taunts folks with a little of "Close To You" by the Carpenters, and then launches into the entire eleven-plus minutes of the epic original "Albuquerque," which ends with a veritable explosion of confetti. The 2007 leg of the tour would last through October.

Is there an event I forgot? By all means let me know!!!!

Recording dates and tour dates available at Weirdal.com, compiled by Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz. Most release dates, birthdays, and chart positions according to the Internet Movie Database, the Library of Congress, and the All Music Guide.