Ends in 4: geeky anniversaries in 2014

Hey, little Ten Toes! Humans (at least those using the decimal system) like to observe anniversaries by the decade. This is a brief list of some of the geeky anniversaries happening this year. It is in no way comprehensive, and we certainly may add to it (and invite you to make suggestions by commenting on the post).

1964 was a particularly stand-out year for American geek-friendly television, as 1984 was for geek-friendly movies. We’ll also be observing the 50th anniversary of D&D in 2014.

One Hundred and Sixtieth anniversary (1864)

Literature

• Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne

One Hundred and Thirtieth anniversary (1894)

Literature

• The People of the Mist by H. Rider Haggard

One Hundred and Twentieth anniversary (1904)

Movies

• An Impossible Voyage (and several others) (Georges Méliès)

Literature

• The Food of the Gods by H.G. Wells
• The Marvelous Land of Oz (the first sequel to The Wizard) by L. Frank Baum

One Hundred and Tenth anniversary (1914)

Movies

• Gertie the Dinosaur (a very early animated movie)
• The New Wizard of Oz (directed by L. Frank Baum)
• The Patchwork Girl of Oz
• Cinderella (with Mary Pickford)
• Neptune’s Daughter
• The Ghost Breaker
• In the Year 2014
• His Prehistoric Past (Charlie Chaplin)
• The Primitive Man
• A Christmas Carol (Charles Rock)
• A Study in Scarlet (short)
• A Trip to the Moon (not Méliès)

Literature

• At the Earth’s Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs

One Hundredth anniversary (1924)

Birth Centennials

• Gene L. Coon
• Guy Williams
• Patrick Magee
• Marlon Brando
• Stanley Donen
• Faith Domergue
• Arthur Rankin Jr.
• Charlton Heston
• Ed Wood
• Rod Serling

Movies

• The Thief of Bagdad (Douglas Fairbanks)
• Peter Pan
• Siegried (directed by Fritz Lang)
• Aelita: Queen of Mars
• The Hands of Orlac
• The Enchanted Cottage
• The Last Man on Earth (Earle Foxe)
• Dante’s Inferno
• Alice’s Spooky Adventure (Walt Disney short)
• Trip to Mars (Koko the Clown)

Literature

• The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany

Nintieth anniversary (1934)

Movies

• The Black Cat
• Babes in Toyland (Laurel & Hardy)
• Tarzan and His Mate
• Men in Black…the only Three Stooges short to be nominated for an Oscar

Bufo’s Weird World

• The “Surgeon’s Photograph” of the Loch Ness monster surfaces

Literature

• Erewhon by Samuel Butler
• Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers

Eightieth anniversary (1944)

Movies

• Arsenic and Old Lace
• The Uninvited
• Captain America serial
• House of Frankenstein
• The Scarlet Claw (Sherlock Holmes)
• The Lodger
• Between Two Worlds
• The Canterville Ghost (Charles Laughton)
• The Mummy’s Ghost and The Mummy’s Curse
• It Happened Tomorrow
• The Monster Maker
• Black Magic (Charlie Chan)
• Cobra Woman
• The Return of the Vampire
• The Invisible Man’s Revenge
• Cry of the Werewolf
• Jungle Woman (Acquanetta)
• The Lady and the Monster
• Gildersleeve’s Ghost

Seventy-Fifth anniversary (1949)

• The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
• Mighty Joe Young
• The Rocking Horse Winner
• Batman and Robin (serial)
• King of the Rocket Men (serial)

Seventieth anniversary (1954)

Movies

• Godzilla (USA release)
• Creature from the Black Lagoon
• Them!
• Tobor the Great
• Monster from the Ocean Floor (the first geeky movie Roger Corman produced)
• Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
• Brigadoon
• The Naked Jungle (it’s a monster movie…it’s just that the monster is made up of many little organisms)

Debuting TV series

• Captain Midnight
• Flash Gordon
• Rocky Jones, Space Ranger

Literature

• I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
• The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov
• The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

Comic book first appearances

• Wendy the Good Little Witch

Bufo’s Weird World

• The first big wave of humanoid sightings in conjunction with UFOs in the modern era occurs in France
• Truman Betherum’s Aboard a Flying Saucer is released
• The UFO Evidence by Richard H. Hall and NICAP

Sixtieth anniversary (1964)

1964 was a great year for television! Shows debuting that year include:

• Bewitched
• The Addams Family
• The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
• Jeopardy
• Flipper
• Gilligan’s Island
• The Munsters
• Jonny Quest
• Underdog
• Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
• Stingray (supermarionation)
• My Living Doll (Julie Newmar as a robot)
• The Magilla Gorilla Show
• The Peter Potamus Show
• Hoppity Hooper
• Linus the Lion Hearted
• The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo (Magoo does the classics)
• R3 (a now obscure science fiction show with Oliver Reed)

The Rankin-Bass Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer debuted, and the Beatles set records appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Movies

• Mary Poppins
• Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
• Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

Literature

• Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Ian Fleming
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
• The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
• Doctor Who and the Daleks by David Whitaker (the first Doctor Who novel)
• Farnham’s Freehold by Robert A. Heinlein
• Bantam begins reprinting the Doc Savage adventures
• The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander (the first book of the Chronicles of Prydain)

Fiftieth anniversary (1974)

Movies

• Blazing Saddles
• Young Frankenstein
• The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
• The Man with the Golden Gun
• Zardoz
• Dark Star
• Flesh Gordon
• Phantom of the Paradise
• Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla
• Blood for Dracula (AKA Andy Warhol’s Dracula…the Udo Kier version)
• It’s Alive (Larry Cohen’s killer baby movie)
• Phase IV
• The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat
• The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires
• The Cars that Ate Paris (Peter Weir)
• Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter
• The Terminal Man
• The Groove Tube

Debuting TV series

• Land of the Lost
• Planet of the Apes
• The Six Million Dollar Man
• Kolchak the Night Stalker
• Shazam! (Captain Marvel)
• Hong Kong Phooey
• Happy Days (does it count? Well, arguably, Fonzie is supernatural ((or at least, a superhero)), but Mork & Mindy was also a spin-off)

Toys & Games

• Dungeons & Dragons (original version)

Literature

• Carrie by Stephen King
• Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick
• Icerigger by Alan Dean Foster
• The Mote in God’s Eye by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
• The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

Comic book first appearances

• Wolverine
• The Punisher
• Iron Fist

Fortieth anniversary (1984)

Movies

• Ghostbusters
• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
• The Neverending Story
• The Terminator
• The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
• The Karate Kid
• Gremlins
• Revenge of the Nerds
• Red Dawn
• Dune
• A Nightmare on Elm Street
• Splash
• This Is Spinal Tap
• Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes
• Conan, the Destroyer
• 1984 (the John Hurt version)
• Children of the Corn
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
• Star Man
• 2010
• Top Secret!
• The Last Starfighter
• Repo Man
• The Philadelphia Experiment
• Supergirl
• Firestarter
• Night of the Comet
• Sheena: Queen of the Jungle
• The Toxic Avenger
• The Muppets Take Manhattan
• Runaway (Gene Simmons and robots versus Tom Selleck)
• Silent Night, Deadly Night
• The Ice Pirates (which my Significant Other has named the worst movie ever made)
• C.H.U.D.
• Dreamscape
• Iceman
• The Company of Wolves
• All of Me
• The Brother from Another Planet

Debuting TV series

• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Jeremy Brett)
• V
• Airwolf
• Thomas (the tank engine) & Friends
• Highway to Heaven
• The Transformers
• Voltron: Defender of the Universe
• Muppet Babies
• The Master
• The Duck Factory
• Rainbow Brite

Toys & Games

• Chill
• Toon

Literature

• Neuromancer by William Gibson
• Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart

Thirtieth anniversary (1994)

Movies

• The Lion King
• Interview with the Vampire
• The Mask
• Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
• The Crow
• Stargate
• Ed Wood
• The Flintstones
• Junior (Arnold Schwarzenegger…pregnant)
• Frankenstein (the Robert De Niro version)
• Street Fighter
• Star Trek: Generations (Kirk and Picard)
• The Pagemaster
• Timecop
• Wolf (Jack Nicholson)
• The Shadow
• Blankman

Debuting TV series

• Babylon 5
• Touched by an Angel
• The Secret World of Alex Mack
• Gargoyles
• The Magic School Bus
• Aaahh!!! Real Monsters
• Weird Science
• Earth 2
• Duckman
• The Tick

Videogames

• Sony releases the Playstation in Japan
• Earthworm Jim

Twentieth-Fifth anniversary (1999)

Movies

• How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Jim Carrey)
• The Matrix
• Chicken Run
• The Family Man
• The Mummy (Brendan Fraser)
• The Green Mile
• Unbreakable
• The Iron Giant
• Mystery Men
• Dungeons & Dragons
• Bedazzled
• Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
• Dude, Where’s My Car?
• The Emperor’s New Groove
• Battlefield Earth
• Toy Story 2
• Tarzan (Disney)
• Stuart Little
• Heavy Metal 2000
• The Sixth Day
• Fantasia 2000
• Rugrats in Paris
• Inspector Gadget (Matthew Broderick)
• Godzilla 2000

Debuting TV series

• Total Recall 2070
• Batman Beyond
• So Weird
• Farscape
• Futurama
• SpongeBob SquarePants
• G vs E
• Sabrina: The Animated Series
• Relic Hunter
• Archie’s Weird Mysteries
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World
• Spider-Man Unlimited
• Angel
• Roswell
• Beastmaster
• 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd
• Courage the Cowardly Dog

Twentieth anniversary (2004)

Movies

• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• The Incredibles
• Shaun of the Dead
• The Polar Express
• The Butterfly Effect
• The Village
• 13 Going on 30
• The Day After Tomorrow
• Saw
• Hellboy
• Howl’s Moving Castle
• The Grudge
• Shark Tale
• Team America: World Police
• AVP: Alien Vs. Predator
• Mysterious Skin
• Catwoman
• The Manchurian Candidate (Denzel Washington)
• Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
• D.E.B.S.
• Night Watch

Debuting TV series

• Lost
• Battlestar Galactica
• The 4400
• Phil of the Future
• Bleach
• Wonderfalls
• Hex
• The Batman
• Ghost Hunters

Tenth anniversary (2014)

Movies

• The Nut Job
• I, Frankenstein
• The Lego Movie
• Vampire Academy
• Divergent
• Muppets Most Wanted
• Captain America: The Winter Soldier
• Godzilla
• X-Men: Days of Future Past
• Maleficent
• Edge of Tomorrow
• Earth to Echo
• Snowpiercer
• Lucy
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• Life After Beth
• The Maze Runner
• Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
• The Book of Life
• Ouija
• Interstellar
• Big Hero 6
• Penguins of Madagascar
• Into the Woods

Debuting TV series

• From Dusk till Dawn: The Series
• The 100
• TripTank
• Salem
• Penny Dreadful
• The Last Ship
• The Leftovers
• Extant
• The Strain
• Henry Danger
• The Quest
• Outlander
• BoJack Horseman
• Z Nation
• Gotham
• Star Wars Rebels
• The Flash
• Constantine
• Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero
• The Librarians

Literature

• Mr. Mercedes
• Station Eleven

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the The Measured Circle. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy  Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.