Happy National Creamsicle Day! In 1905 the Popsicle was “invented” when 11-year-old Frank Epperson left his drink outside all night with a stick in it. I can’t imagine he was the first person to do so and find his drink had frozen overnight, but apparently he was one of the first to think he could sell the hell out of it.

It’s unclear when that led to encasing ice cream in a Popsicle shell, but it’s hard to argue with the results.

This is The Reset Button from Classic Nerd, resetting your day.

August 14 in Nerd History

Here are 5 things that happened on August 14th at the intersection of nerd and pop culture.

I.

Birthdays of honor: Steve Martin (1945), Gary Larson (1950), Mila Kunis (1983), Magic Johnson (1959), Halle Berry (1966), David Crosby (1941), Danielle Steel (1947), Doc Holiday (1851).

II.

I think we all learned an important lesson when Can’t Buy Me Love came out today in 1987, which taught us that even though you can’t buy love, you CAN buy popularity. And a resurgent career in a medical drama.

Before you enter it, you must learn its way. In 1972, The Way of the Dragon (or Return of the Dragon, as it was originally billed in the U.S.) was released. It’s the only movie fully directed by Bruce Lee and grossed over $130 million globally — compared to just $130,000 in budget.

And yes, there is an epic fight between Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris.

And while it’s fairly recent in terms of movie history, we can’t let a Miyazaki movie pass us by. In 2009, Studio Ghibli’s Ponyo hit theaters in the U.S.

III.

In 1989 the Console Wars began in earnest when the Sega Genesis was released in North America — well, New York and Los Angeles to kick things off, but then spreading across the rest of the country like a plague of locusts hungry for NES owners.

When Sega was trying to break into the North American market, it first offered Atari the rights to market the system — Atari declined, otherwise, we might have ended up with an Atari Genesis. It was a bit of a slow build-up, but after introducing Sonic and other aggressive marketing tactics (plus tons of arcade ports), the Genesis owned 65% of the 16-bit market by 1992.

IV.

Today we need just a little more room to talk about movies — specifically, a cult classic released today in 1987, The Monster Squad.

No one else can really put this movie’s greatness into words, except for us. So, here’s what we had to say:

“In a completely transparent attempt to cash in on the success of movies like The Goonies and E.T., we have The Monster Squad, where possibly every ’80s trope from the ‘adults don’t believe the kids so they have to complete some whacky adventure themselves’ genre is packed in from end-to-end.

There’s the kid wearing Robotech pajamas (um, want), the ‘cool’ kid who wears fingerless gloves, and of course the one who looks like Sean Astin and acts as the leader of the squad with all kinds of inspiring speeches.

The Monster Squad really is pure ’80s gold, and still entertains with both the very of-its-time references and legitimately funny writing.”

V.

The number one song on this day in 1986 was “Papa Don’t Preach” by Madonna. Luckily, like all things Madonna, there was zero controversy whatsoever around this song…