It could go on all day!

Remember that today's NYC Gay Pride parade, (the 50th annual one - the city is hosting WorldPride, a massive, monthlong celebration of the LGTBQ community around the globe,) making it's way in some direction (they've changed the route yet again) this afternoon, actually commemorates the Stonewall riots, which launched the gay-rights movement.

Last year's parade had more than 550 organizations participating, and it’s likely to be even bigger this year,  drawing approximately 2.5 million spectators, all in recognition of the fight against AIDS and to remember those lost to illness, violence and neglect. Again this year WABC NY will be covering the parade live from Noon until 4 PM. It should be a beautiful day today and I understand the parade may run an unprecedented nine hours.



And do not forget the fireworks over the Hudson River.


Today is National Ice Cream Soda day. Remember to pour the soda over the ice cream (you get a thicker ice cream soda foam.)



If you added a little Kahlua in first, even better.

(Everything ain't for the kids folks.)


June 30, 1972 -
The sci-fi film Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, the third sequel in the Planet of the  Apes oeuvre, directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Roddy McDowall, was released in U.S. theatres on this date.



The film is the most violent film of the Planet of the Apes film series: 59 people are killed in the film. This is the only film from the original Planet of the Apes series of five films, that was not rated G, and the only entry released without a pre-title sequence. Reason: the opening was deemed too violent, and the producers wanted to avoid an R rating. The opening showed police on night patrol shooting an escaped ape and discovering his body covered with welts and bruises that are evidence of severe abuse. (Governor Breck and MacDonald refer to this incident in a scene that survived the final cut.) That and many other bloody images were deleted after a pre-release print was shown to a preview audience. The opening scene appears in the novelization and the comic book adaptation of the movie. On November, 2008, the Blu-Ray unrated version restored many of those graphic scenes, but not the pre-credit opening.

(To celebrate, the world added a leap second to UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) time  system for the first time.)


June 30, 1989 -
One of Spike Lee's big early films, Do The Right Thing, went into limited release in the US on this date.



In the original scripted ending, Sal and Mookie reconcile. Sal, although upset, tells Mookie that he understands that Mookie had to do the right thing. Spike Lee changed the ending during filming, and has never explained why.


June 30, 1995 -
Ron Howards' film about the ill-fated 13th Apollo mission bound for the moon, Apollo 13, premiered on this date.



Over the course of lunch with his idol Billy Wilder, Ron Howard has said that he was thrilled to learn that Wilder deemed this movie to be Howard's best work as a director  because it was about a guy who did NOT realize his dream, and that's what made it so remarkable.


June 30, 2006 –
The 20th Century Fox comedy, The Devil Wears Prada, starring (the lousy actress) Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci and Adrian Grenier,  premiered on this date.



On the first day of filming, Meryl Streep told Anne Hathaway, "I think you're perfect for the role. I'm so happy we're going to be working together." Then she paused and followed it up with, "That's the last nice thing I'll say to you." And it was.


I'm heading to the beach next week ...


Today in History:
June 30, 1520 -
... And as the gloom begins to fall ...

After witnessing the murder of Montezuma II (or committing the murders themselves,) the Conquistadors, led by Hernan Cortes, did what any red-blooded Spaniard would do and looted Tenochtitlan, the ancient Mexican capital of the Aztec empire on this date. The retreating Spaniards were attacked by an angry Aztec mob. Tied down by armor and treasure, they are no match for the natives and nearly half of Hernan Cortes' men lose their lives.


June 30, 1837 -
England outlawed the use of the pillory on this date.

That still left the British Navy the three things they loved the most - the lash, sodomy and rum.


June 30, 1859 -
Charles Blondin (Jean François Gravelet,) a French acrobat became the first person to walk  across Niagara Falls on a tightrope on this date. Blondin walked a 1,100 feet long rope  that was 160 feet above the water.



The entire walk from bank to bank to bank took 23 minutes, and Blondin immediately announced an encore performance to take place on the Fourth of July (which he gave and survived.)


June 30, 1882 -
Charles Guiteau, the assassin of President Garfield, was hanged on this date.



Tickets for the event went for as much as $300. Proving once again, give the people what  they want and they'll show up.


June 30, 1894 -
Under a cloudless sky and as part of a pageant which delighted tens of thousands of people, the new Tower-Bridge, which deserves to be reckoned among the greatest engineering triumphs  of the Victorian age, was declared open for traffic by land and water... - The Times of  London,  July 2, 1894



One of London's most iconic symbols, The Tower Bridge was officially opened on this date by The Prince of Wales (Teddy, the future King Edward VII, took time out of his unofficial  profession of Royal Whore Monger, to officiate on this date.)


June 30, 1908 -
An explosion near the Tunguska River in Siberia on this date, incinerated some 300 sq. km. that encircled the impact of an estimated 60 meter diameter stony meteorite. It flattened  some 40,000 trees over 900 sq. miles and caused damage equivalent to a 15-megaton hydrogen  bomb.



The explosion in Siberia, which knocked down trees in a 30-mile radius and struck people unconscious some 40 miles away, is believed by some scientists to be caused by a falling  fragment from a meteorite.


June 30, 1934 -
Acting on behalf of the Fuhrer, SS troops around Germany arrested hundreds of loyal SA stormtroopers under the charge of treason in order to eliminate the group.



One squad descends on a Bavarian resort, where it interrupts a contingent of SA men engaged  in homosexual festivities. Lieutenant Edmund Heines was caught in bed with a teenaged boy, and shot to death on the spot. The rest were taken into custody. Hitler sacrificed Ernst  Rohm (his pal and head of the SA stormtroopers) rather than lose the support of the  military. He personally confronted Rohm in a jail cell and left a single shot pistol in the cell. Ten minutes later, Rohm had killed himself (unless he didn't, in which case, he was  executed at point blank range by Hitler's goons - reports are sketchy.)



Nobody ruins a good sodomy and lederhosen party in like Hitler's goons.


June 30, 1936 -
It's the 83rd anniversary of publication of Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind on this date.



Despite spending 10 years of her life working on the tome, Mitchell didn’t really have much  intention of publishing it. When a “friend” heard that she was considering writing a book  (though in fact, it had been written), she said something to the effect of, “Imagine, you writing a book!” Annoyed, Mitchell took her massive manuscript to a Macmillan editor the  next day. She later regretted the act and sent the editor a telegram saying, “Have changed  my mind. Send manuscript back.”



It had been extensively promoted, chosen as the July selection by the Book-of-the-Month Club, and so gushed about in pre-publication reviews -- "Gone With the Wind is very  possibly the greatest American novel," said Publisher's Weekly -- that it was certain to  sell, though few predicted the sustained, record-breaking numbers. Though she had been  eager and active for her fame, Mitchell too was caught off guard.


June 30, 1953 -
The first Corvette rolled off the production line on this date.  The car only came in white  with a black top and red interior. Optional features included a curtain instead of roll-up  windows and interior door handles.



300 cars were made the first year and sold for $3,498.


Tomorrow is Canada Day, and ACME, in an effort to fulfill its legal obligation to broadcast  a quota of Canadian content, er... I mean, to honor our sister of the north:

June 30, 1987 -
The Royal Canadian Mint introduces the $1 coin, affectionately known as the Loonie, on this date.



It bears images of a common loon, a bird which is common and well known in Canada, on the  reverse, and of Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse. It is produced by the Royal Canadian Mint at its facility in Winnipeg.

And now you know.


June 30, 1997 -
Hong Kong was acquired by Britain in 1842, when it was ceded in perpetuity by China as a base for Britain's trading ventures. Under the First Convention of Peking, signed in 1860,  the tip of the Kowloon peninsula and Stonecutters' Island were ceded to Britain.

In 1898, China granted Britain a 99-year lease for a much larger stretch of land north of Kowloon and a large number of islands, known collectively as the New Territories. The lease ran out on this date, in 1997. The handover ceremony occurred on the following day. Hong Kong became a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the PRC.

(I haven't mentioned Mr. Teeny as of late (he gets moody when we get ready to leave for our early July vacation) and he likes to relax with a bowl or two of beef chow mein.

He has asked me to refrain from insulting the Chinese for the time being. Take it from me, you don't want to try to reason with an edgy chain smoking monkey.)



And so it goes.


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