While it's normal to wash down the briny fish roe with champagne or iced vodka;
July 18, 1964 -
The Rolling Stones score their first American hit when their cover of Buddy Holly's Not Fade Away peaks at #48 on the Hot 100.
Their manager, Andrew Oldham, was convinced the Stones would be successful after hearing what they did with this. Said Oldham: "Although it was a Buddy Holly song, I considered it to be like the first song Mick and Keith wrote, in that they picked the concept of applying that Bo Diddley thing to it. The way they arranged it was the beginning of the shaping of them as songwriters. From then on they wrote. At that time, Mick, Keith, and I lived together. They were into the last half bottle of wine and going through, it was one of those magical moments. When Keith played that to me in the front room you could actually HEAR the record in that room. What basically made the record was that whole Bo Diddley acoustic guitar thrust. You heard the whole record in one room. We gotta record it! But there's no way if someone had just said coldly, Right, let's do "Not Fade Away" that we would have wanted to do it without hearing the way that Keith was playing it on the guitar. Keith just did it. And that was that. To me, they wrote the song. It's a pity we couldn't have gotten the money."
July 18, 1980 -
Closer, the second and final album from Joy Division, was released on this date, just two months after the suicide of founding member and singer Ian Curtis.
Despite or perhaps because of the tragedy surrounding Joy Division, the band has had an indelible effect on the post-punk music scene, which later morphed into the 1980s gothic rock, industrial and alternative rock genres inspiring bands such as The Sisters of Mercy and The Jesus and Mary Chain. Joy Division songs remain a firm favorite on the indie and goth circuits, and an be still heard in clubs and on the radio throughout the world.
July 18, 1980 -
Billy Joel held the top position of both the US albums and singles charts, on this date. His album Glass Houses contained his first and biggest No.1 hit, It's Still Rock 'n' Roll to Me.
In this song, Billy Joel was making a comment on musical styles and trends. At the end of the disco era, the music press began touting the New Wave sound, which included bands like The Police and The Cars. Joel thought that this new sound was just a variation on power-pop that had been around since the '60s. He didn't have a problem with the music, just the way it was being categorized. "I like it, but it's not particularly new," he said.
July 18, 1986 -
A Minnesota local news crew, KARE 11's chopper pilot Max Messmer and photographer Tom Empey, captured unbelievable footage of a tornado moving through the Twin Cities area, on this date.
The video, which was shown live during the 5 p.m. news, (which was the first time a tornado was broadcast live in the U.S.,) soon went global -- giving viewers a rare look at a twister from an above-ground vantage point.
July 18, 2008 -
Warner Bros. released the Christopher Nolan superhero film The Dark Knight, starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine and Heath Ledger, in US theaters, on this date.
While filming a chase scene on Lake Street, the Chicago Police Department received several calls from concerned citizens stating that the police were involved in a vehicle pursuit with a dark vehicle of unknown make or model.
July 18, 2008 -
Universal Pictures finally released it much planned ABBA jukebox musical, Mamma Mia! starring Christine Baranski, Pierce Brosnan, Dominic Cooper, Colin Firth, Amanda Seyfried, Stellan Skarsgård, Meryl Streep and Julie Walters in the US on this date.
Meryl Streep first saw the musical in October 2001 with her daughter Louisa, and her daughter's friends in Manhattan. Streep wrote to the producers to praise them for bringing a little happiness and fun to the lives of New York City's people following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Word of the Day
Today in History:
July 18, 64 -
Most of imperial Rome was burned to the ground because Emperor Nero had been playing the fiddle. This resulted in the persecution of Christians, many of whom were believed to have encouraged him.
You know how those early Christians love their city burning, fiddle playing, crazed Emperors.
Yes, I'm aware that Nero wasn't even in Rome at the time of the fire. At this time, I do not believe even the stringent libel laws in England cover this.
July 18, 1870 -
At the end of Vatican I, Catholic popes are proclaimed infallible by chapter four of the papal bull Pastor Aeternus. The pope's declarations on matters of faith are protected from error by the Holy Spirit. In a nutshell: whatever he says about the scripture, goes.
This is an interesting doctrine, considering how often St. Peter is himself contradicted by the Gospels.
July 18, 1913 -
Richard "Red" Skelton, was born in Vincennes, Ind., on this date. During a career that stretched through medicine shows, vaudeville, motion pictures, radio and television, the gentle Skelton created a host of characters from the silent tramp Freddie the Freeloader to the Mean Widdle Kid, who coined the catch phrase, "I dood it!"
In a People Magazine interview late in his life, Skelton admitted that he fudged his officially accepted birth year, but did not elaborate. The year 1910 is sometimes given instead of 1913, but Skelton's biographer Arthur Marx claims that the comedian told close associates he was really born in 1906.
July 18, 1918 -
I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.
Today is the 104th anniversary of the birth of Nelson Mandela.
July 18, 1925 -
Today marks the 97th anniversary of the publication of Adolf Hitler's best-selling political memoir, Mein Kampf (or, in English, "I'm Crazy and I'm Gonna Kill You"). The book remains extremely popular with genocidal sociopaths and is therefore experiencing a renaissance of sales.
Taking him at his word and assuming the little lance-corporal really had struggled against lies, stupidity, and cowardice for 54 months, one has to ask, in light of his later activities, if maybe lies, stupidity, and cowardice aren't so bad.
July 18, 1929 -
It's Screamin' Jay Hawkins Birthday.
Remember, get naked and dance around the house, just do it.
July 18, 1936 -
The first Oscar Mayer Wienermobile rolled out of General Body Company’s factory in Chicago (when Carl Mayer approached his uncle Oscar with the idea of driving a giant hot dog through Chicago streets.) on this date.
The Wienermobile started as a smallish 13-foot affair (Carl Mayer drove around with his head sticking through a hole in the roof)
July 18, 1939 -
Hunter S. Thompson's birthday is today.
He was once considered, armed, and dangerous. Now he is no more than soot on the window sills of his and his neighbors homes. Dr. Thompson founded the Gonzo school of journalism in the 1970s; graduates from that school can today be seen every night on cable news.
Bill Murray
and Johnny Depp.
July 18, 1947 -
British seized the Exodus 1947 ship of Jewish immigrants to Palestine on this date. The British Royal Navy intercepted the ship President Warfield, which had been renamed Exodus by its passengers, forcing the 4,000 Jewish would-be immigrants aboard back to Displaced Person camps in Germany.
Britain was still the ruling power in Palestine, which was being wracked by conflict resulting from Jewish national aspirations. The return of the Jewish immigrants, many of them survivors of Nazi persecution, heightened anti-British sentiment among Jews in Palestine and elsewhere.
On July 18, 1947, President Harry Truman signed the Presidential Succession Act. The original act of 1792 had placed the Senate president pro tempore and Speaker of the House in the line of succession, but in 1886 Congress had removed them.
The 1947 law reinserted those officials, but placed the Speaker ahead of the president pro tempore.
So now you now.
July 18, 1950 -
A passionate belief in your business and personal objectives can make all the difference between success and failure. If you aren't proud of what you're doing, why should anybody else be?
British music entrepreneur and recently returned space jockey Richard Branson was born on this date. It doesn't suck to be Richard Branson.
July 18, 1966 -
In Los Angeles, the beaten corpse of Bobby Fuller was found sprawled across the front seat of his mother's Oldsmobile. Fuller, whose band The Bobby Fuller Four released the hit I Fought The Law, was found to have died from "forced inhalation of gasoline."
Technically, Fuller died from huffing... although circumstances point to murder.
July 18, 1969 -
Driving home from a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Senator Ted Kennedy's car goes over the side of Dike Bridge and flips over into a pond. Kennedy manages to free himself from the automobile, but his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned.
(Once again - don't hitch a ride with a Kennedy.)
For some reason, Kennedy told no one about the accident for at least an hour, and waited until the following morning to notify local police.
July 18, 1976 -
Romanian Nadia Comaneci became the first gymnast to receive a perfect-ten score in 1976 Olympic competition.
In 2000, Comaneci was named as one of the athletes of the century by the Laureus World Sports Academy.
July 18, 1988 -
People think I'm not polite. But, what I have to say to people seems so unnecessary. I can't be forced. I'd rather just be what I feel. Even when I sing I try to imagine I'm all alone, there's nobody out there listening. I play with the notes, with the feeling. Each time the song is different for me.
Rock and Roll performer/ heroin addict Nico wiped out on her bicycle on Ibiza and died from a brain hemorrhage on this day - that, combined with a lack of medical treatment.
July 18, 1992 -
A picture of Les Horribles Cernettes was taken, which became the first ever photo posted to the World Wide Web, on this date.
And so it goes.
1 comment:
Indeed. don't hitch a ride with a Kennedy.
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