James T. Aubrey, Jr. was an American television and film executive. As president of the CBS television network during the early 1960s, he put on the air some of television's most enduring series, including Gilligan's Island and The Beverly Hillbillies. Under Aubrey, CBS dominated American television the way General Motors and General Electric dominated their industries. The New York Times Magazine in 1964 called Aubrey "a master of programming whose divinations led to successes that are breathtaking." Despite his successes in television, Aubrey's abrasive personality and oversized ego—"Picture Machiavelli and Karl Rove at a University of Colorado football recruiting party" wrote Variety in 2004—led to his firing from CBS amid charges of improprieties. After four years as an independent producer, Aubrey was hired by financier Kirk Kerkorian to preside over Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's near-total shutdown in the 1970s, during which he slashed the budget and alienated producers and directors but brought profits to a company that had suffered huge losses. Aubrey resigned from MGM after four years, declaring his job was done, and then vanished into almost total obscurity for the last two decades of his life.

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

197: Septimius Severus defeated usurper Clodius Albinus in the Battle of Lugdunum, securing full control over the Roman Empire. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lugdunum)

1594: King Zygmunt III Vasa of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was crowned King of Sweden. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zygmunt_III_Vasa)

1942: Air raids on Darwin: The capital of Northern Territory, Australia was devastated by 242 bombers and fighters of the Imperial Japanese Navy. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_raids_on_Darwin%2C_February_19%2C_1942)

1942: U.S. Executive Order 9066 was signed, authorising the relocation and confinement of over 112,000 Japanese Americans to internment camps. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Executive_Order_9066)

1986: The space station Mir of the Soviet space program was launched, establishing the first long-term research station in space. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

"External success has to do with people who may see me as a model, or an example, or a representative. As much as I may dislike or want to reject that responsibility, this is something that comes with public success. It's important to give others a sense of hope that it is possible and you can come from really different places in the world and find your own place in the world that's unique for yourself." -- Amy Tan (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Amy_Tan)