September 21

September 21 is the birthdate of Charles "Chuck" Jones, animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer and director of animated films, including Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for Warner Bros. He directed many classic, short animated cartoons starring Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck, Sylvester, Pepé Le Pew and other Warner characters. He helped create Bugs Bunny cartoons starting in the late 1930s, and in 1948 Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner sprang from his imagination. Jones' 1957 classic, “What's Opera, Doc?” placed Bugs and Elmer in a parody of Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen" (running less than seven minutes); it was later selected for preservation in the National Film Registry, the first cartoon short to receive that honor.