Keep cool, and you command everything

July 9 1938 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Love and Curses, directed by Ben Hardawayand Carl Dalton, was released on this date.



It is the earliest known Merrie Melodies short in the 1937–38 season to update the closing "That's all Folks!" sequence.


July 9, 1955 -
Bill Haley & His Comets' single Rock Around the Clock became the first rock and roll recording to hit the top of Billboard’s Pop charts on this date, staying at No.1 for eight weeks. It became one of the biggest selling singles of all time.



In 1956, Bill Haley and the Comets starred as themselves in a low-budget movie called Rock Around The Clock, where they performed nine songs. The film was far from scandalous, but was targeted to teenagers and caused a stir among theater owners who feared bad behavior. Possibly spurred on by these reports, there were incidents of dancing in aisles and other breaches in etiquette that helped fuel the perception among many adults that rock music would lead to mayhem in America's youth.


July 09, 1955 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Shuffle Off to Buffalo, directed by Friz Freleng, and starring Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck, and Yosemite Sam, was released on this date.



This is the first of only four Warner Bros. cartoons in which Bugs Bunny is pitted against all three of his main antagonists, Yosemite Sam, Elmer Fudd and Daffy Duck.


July 9, 1966 -
The Beatles song Paperback Writer, topped the charts on this date.



The B-side to this single was John Lennon's Rain. Paul and John would always compete for the A-side of The Beatles singles.


July 9, 1968 -
The folk-rock band The Seekers' official farewell concert, The BBC Farewell Spectacular, premiered on this date, drawing 10 million viewers.



The special was shot in color but for some reason the BBC wiped their color copies of the concert and now only black and white recordings exist.


July 9, 1982 -
Buena Vista Pictures releases the sci-fi film Tron, directed by Steven Lisberger and starring Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, David Warner, Cindy Morgan, and Barnard Hughes, in the U.S. on this date.



Many Disney animators refused to work on this movie because they feared that computers would put them out of business. In fact, 22 years later Disney closed its hand-drawn animation studio in favor of CGI animation. Hand-drawn animation was ultimately resumed at Disney at the behest of new creative director John Lasseter, also head of Pixar- ironically a computer animation company.


July 9, 1983 -
The Police song Every Breath You Take topped the charts on this date.



This is one of the most misinterpreted songs ever. It is about an obsessive stalker, but it sounds like a love song. Some people even used it as their wedding song.


July 9, 1995 -
The Grateful Dead, who had been performing for 30 years, gave their last performance on this day, when they performed at Soldier Field in Chicago. During their 30 years, they performed more than 2,300 live concerts.



The lead guitarist and backbone of the band, Jerry Garcia, died one month after the final show.


July 9, 1999 -
Universal Pictures finally shined a light on the world of pastriality when American Pie, starring Jason Biggs, Chris Klein, Tara Reid, Seann William Scott, Eugene Levy, and Shannon Elizabeth was released in the US on this date.



Eugene Levy was told he could improvise much of the dialogue for his character, including the part when flipping through the pornographic magazines with Jim, forcing a noticeably muffled laugh from Jason Biggs with the "giant orgy" line.


July 9, 2001 -
The mockumentary The Office, created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, and starring Ricky Gervais and Martin Freeman premiered on BBC Two, on this date.



The series started as a small, home-made video by Stephen Merchant when he was trying to get a job at the BBC. He came up with the idea for making a documentary style format as it would be easier for him to film. He and his colleague Ricky Gervais came up with the series idea and used a local university to film it. Upon seeing the short video the BBC requested that they make a series out of it. Many of the jokes from this original film are recycled during the proper series for example, David Brent's opening speech about making employees' dreams come true.


July 9, 2010 -
The world was introduced to the Minions, when Universal Pictures released Despicable Me, voiced by Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Kristen Wiig, Miranda Cosgrove, Will Arnett, and Julie Andrews, on this date.



Originally, the minions were supposed to be more like henchmen (human-like), but the studio didn't have the money for that, so they redesigned them to be short.


Another little known Monopoly card.


Today in History:
July 9, 1776 -
New York finally got around to ratifying the Declaration of Independence on this date, making it the 13th colony to do so. The document was read aloud to Gen. George Washington's troops stationed in New York City.

Later that night, American troops destroyed a bronze-lead statue of Great Britain's King George III that stood at the foot of Broadway on the Bowling Green. Most of the statue pieces were sent to Connecticut where munitions makers turned them into 42,000 bullets.


On the Fourth of July in 1850, President Zachary Taylor snacked on cherries and milk while attending a ceremony at the Washington Monument. It was a hot day, and the heat made him sick.

He got sicker and sicker and died on July 9.

He remains the only U.S. president to have died from indigestion (with the possible exception of Warren G Harding, who may or may not have been poisoned by his wife - which could be considered death by extreme indigestion - but that's another story.)



His last words were, "I regret nothing, but I am sorry to leave my friends."

I firmly believe he actually regretted eating the cherries-and-milk that caused his fatal indigestion, but I'm not going to quibble with a man's dying words. He was succeeded by Millard Fillmore, possibly one of the worst president. Although Fillmore did oversee the installation of indoor plumbing in the White House, which made extreme indigestion a tad more comfortable there.


July 9, 1918 -
Two passenger trains crossing the Dutchman's Curve in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, collided at speeds of 50 to 60 miles per hour killing 101 people and leaving 171 injured, on this date.



The great wreck of 1918 is still considered the worst rail disaster in US history.


July 9, 1926 -
Mathilde Krim, geneticist, founder of the AIDS foundation, was born on this date.



Just want to remind you bunkies that one of America's most famous women doctors was in the Israeli military.


July 9, 1933 -
I was always the youngest boy in my class at high school. I have retained this feeling of being the youngest, even though now I am almost the oldest person I know.
I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and traveled and thought and written. I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers.



Oliver Sacks, neurologist, was born on this date.


July 9, 1945 -
... dirty money always brings sorrow and sadness and misery and disgrace. Said by a man who never took a bribe.



During a newspaper strike, New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia read the daily comic strips aloud on WNYC radio on this date.

Co-incidentally or not, yesterday was the 102nd anniversary of WNYC, which began as an AM radio station, 570 AM.


July 9, 1956 -
America's favorite actor, Thomas Jeffrey Hanks was born on this date.



Let's hope someday Tom finds himself and succeeds in a career.


July 9, 1958 -
A tsunami wave struck Lituya Bay in southeast Alaska on this date. The tsunami wave was 1,719 feet high - taller than the Empire State Building (1,470 feet tall). It was caused by an earthquake and descriptions by witnesses as moving at 600 miles per hour. It was later determined that this was the largest wave to ever strike land in history.



The wave destroyed 6-foot trees and stripped the shore down to bedrock. It killed two people when it sank their boat, while two other boats rode it out with all passengers surviving.


July 9, 1960 -
Seven-year-old Roger Woodward, who was wearing a life jacket, survived a 162-foot plunge over Niagara Falls after a boating accident, on this date. He became the first person to go over the Falls by accident and live.



Woodward, who later developed a love of boating, became a certified diver, even joined the Navy, suffered only a slight concussion, scrapes and bruises. His first word when rescued in Ontario by the tour boat at the bottom was reportedly, “Gosh”.


July 9, 1962 -
Pop-art pioneer Andy Warhol's 'Campbell's Soup Cans' exhibition opened at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles on this date.



The main exhibit consisted of 32 paintings of cans of every variety of Campbell's Soup. Great bar bet - The red and white label on a Campbell's Soup can comes from the colors of the Cornell University football team.


July 9, 1964 -
My number one thing to work on is not being reactive - but appropriateness doesn't come easily to me sometimes.



Courtney Michelle Love, rock musician and actress, was born on this date.


July 9, 1982 -
Michael Fagan, dressed in jeans and a dirty t-shirt, and bleeding from a fresh cut on his hand, walks into the private bedroom of Queen Elizabeth II while she was asleep and her personal guard out walking her dogs. Fagan had scaled the wall surrounding Buckingham Palace and gained entry without triggering any alarms. The two carried on a 12-minute conversation, while the intruder holds a jagged broken ashtray, before somebody finally apprehended him.



Who knew that the Queen could carry on a 12 minute conversation with one of her subjects?


July 9, 2005 -
Danny Way, a daredevil skateboarder, rolled down a large ramp and jumped across the Great Wall of China on this date.



He was the first person to clear the wall without motorized aid.


Before you go - As you well may know, while cash is the gift that shows you care, (highly-rated Muni Bonds are also acceptable) -

cards like this are absolutely not:

The anniversary of my 39th birthday is in just three days. The correlation between these two statements is for you to make.



And so it goes.

Just letting you know

You have 4 shopping days until my birthday -

Cash is always the gift that shows you care.


July 8, 1932 -
W.C. Fields' very funny political satire, Million Dollar Legs, opened on this date.



Writer Joseph L. Mankiewicz was inspired to write this film by the wild events of the 1928 Olympic games held in Amsterdam, particularly by an Albanian pole-vaulter who took to the field wearing a pair of goatskin shorts.


July 8, 1932 -
Tod Browning's groundbreaking shockfest Freaks, featuring genuine carnival sideshow performers, premieres at the Rialto theater in New York on this date.



Cast member Olga Roderick, the bearded lady, later denounced the film and regretted her involvement in it. Although Roderick was the most vocal in her dislike of the movie, many of the cast members expressed their disdain. Only Johnny Eck seems to have praised the film throughout his life.


July 08, 1933 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Shuffle Off to Buffalo, directed by Rudolf Isingand Hugh Harman, was released on this date.



In the sequence with the Jewish baby, the message received by the old man is in Yiddish, and says ">Saturday, May 19th. Send me five children. Mrs. Ginzburg." The dialogue between the baby and the old man is also in Yiddish; the baby asks the old man, "How are you doing? [Vus machst du]," to which the old man replies, "I'm getting by [Ich mach laybn]." Before sending the baby off, the old man stamps the baby's diaper "Kosher".


July 8, 1950 -
The Looney Tunes short, 8 Ball Bunny, dircted by Chuck Jones and starring Bugs Bunny, was released on this date.



8 Ball Bunny has a double connection to Humphrey Bogart: 1) Bogart's character from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre shows up three times in caricature, begging money from Bugs. 2) Bugs sings a song in calypso style summarizing the plot up to that point. This exact song formula was used a year later for the Bogart and Bacall radio series, BOLD VENTURE, after the commercial break.


July 8, 1964 -
Probably Jerry Lewis' most self-reflexive film about film making, The Patsy, premiered on this date. (This was Peter Lorre's last film; he died four days after completing his role. Lorre hated the experience and death must have seems a welcome release.)



This is the only Jerry Lewis solo film that mentions Dean Martin by name. Ed Sullivan includes Martin & Lewis in a list of famous acts that made their debuts on his show.


July 8, 1966 -
Universal Studios released Frankenstein Conquers the World (Furankenshutain tai chitei kaijû Baragon - Frankenstein vs. Baragon) directed by Ishiro Honda and starring Nick Adams, Tadao Takashima and Kumi Mizuno, to U.S. theaters on this date.



The film's story came from an unused 1962 screenplay titled King Kong vs. Frankenstein, written by King Kong special effects technician Willis H. O'Brien. In the story, Dr. Frankenstein's grandson created a 20 ft. monster from the remains of animals, and that monster ended up fighting Kong. The story never got past the screenplay, thought concept art depicting Kong and the Frankenstein monster exist.


July 8, 1988 –
A single from Sade's third studio album Stronger Than Pride, Paradise went to no.1 on the Billboard R&B charts, on this date.



The song became her most successful on the U.S. charts


July 7, 1989 -
The second single from their album The Raw & the Cooked, Good Thing by the Fine Young Cannibals, topping the Billboard Hot 100 chart on this date.



Fine Young Cannibals rose from the ashes of the UK band The Beat. Sometimes called "The English Beat" to distinguish them from the US Paul Collins' band, The Beat had a number of UK Singles hits including a cover of Smokey Robinson's Tears Of A Clown, Mirror in the Bathroom, and Too Nice To Talk To. When the band broke up in 1983, guitarists David Steele and Andy Cox went on to form FYC with a new vocalist, Roland Gift, whom they carefully chose after eight months of listening to cassettes.


July 8, 2010 -
Christopher Nolan's thought provoking sci-fi thriller, Inception, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Elliot Page, Tom Berenger, and Michael Caine, premiered in London, on this date.



During production, details of this movie's plot were kept secret. Christopher Nolan, who wrote the script, cryptically described it as a contemporary science fiction action thriller "set within the architecture of the mind."


July 8, 2011 -
A documentary about the early careers of James Taylor and Carole King, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Troubadours: the Rise of the Singer-Songwriter aired on BBC4 on this date.



Taylor and King’s first performance at the Troubadour was in November 1970. Thirty-seven years later, in November 2007, the two longtime friends, joined by members of their renowned original band – featuring guitarist Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar, bassist Lee Sklar and drummer Russ Kunkel – returned for a three-night, six-show run to celebrate the club’s 50th anniversary.


Another epsiode of ACME's Little Known Animal Facts.


Today in History:
July 8, 1115 -
Peter the Hermit died on this date. Peter is notable for his invention of The Crusades and never bathing. He whipped up support for the first Crusade as an attempt to dislodge the Seljuk Turks from Jerusalem: over three hundred thousand Christians perished in less than a year, during which they destroyed hundreds of villages throughout Europe and Asia Minor and killed tens of thousands of European Jews and fellow Christians on their way to a holy land they never reached.



As a result of this astonishing success, the Crusades were serialized and ran for several centuries.


July 8, 1497 -
King Emmanuel I of Portugal sent navigator Vasco da Gama out to discover a trade route into the Indian Ocean. Da Gama led a fleet of four ships with a crew of 170 men from Lisbon on this date. Vasco da Gama departs Portugal in search of a sea route to India.



Remarkably, ten months later Da Gama and his crew arrived in Calicut in India, becoming the first to sail the passage from Europe to India round Africa - actually reaching his destination rather than 'discovering' some tourist spot in the Caribbean. As reward, the Portuguese king confers on him the title of Admiral of the Indian Ocean.


July 8, 1776 -
In Philadelphia, the Liberty Bell rang out from the tower of the Pennsylvania State House (now known as Independence Hall), summoning citizens to the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence, by Colonel John Nixon on this date.



The bell had the inscription: proclaim liberty throughout all the land onto all the inhabitants thereof.



An interesting aside - On July 8, 1835, the Liberty Bell cracked (again) while being tolled during the funeral procession for Chief Justice John Marshall. It was never rung again.


July 8, 1800 -
The first smallpox vaccine was administered on this date in the U.S. Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse (no relation to Price) of Massachusetts introduced Edward Jenner's method of vaccination of cowpox serum to his five-year-old son Daniel and a household servant.

Neither ever contracted smallpox and the vaccination was determined to have been an udder success.


July 8, 1822 -
The Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, a month shy of his 30th birthday, along with two others, died on this date, when his boat went down in a sudden storm off the coast of the Gulf of Spezia.

It was ten days before the bodies were found, and by then Shelley was identifiable only by the clothes he wore, and the book of Keats’ poems he had in his pocket. His face and hands had been completely eaten away.

Maybe I shouldn't have shared that part of the story.


July 8, 1856 -
The crank-operated machine gun (US patent #15,315) was patented on this date by C.E. Barnes of Lowell, Massachusetts, and the revolving gun turret was invented exactly six years later by Theodore Timby.

Both inventions enabled mankind to kill itself off with unprecedented ease and efficiency, thereby launching the modern era.


July 8th was a Sunday in 1881, so when a hot young man entered Edward Berner's drugstore in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, and ordered an ice-cream soda, his request was denied. Ice-cream sodas could not be served on the Sabbath owing to the ancient Mosaic injunction against them.

The hot young man pleaded his case so eloquently, however, that Berner felt sympathetic and came up with a compromise: he plopped a scoop of ice-cream into a dish and poured the chocolate-flavored syrup directly over it.



This religious dodge quickly became popular and came to be known as the Ice Cream Sundae. (The spelling was later changed to conceal the heretical origins of the dish. And whatever you do, don't repeat this story in Ithaca, NY.)



Since that glorious day, hundreds of millions of Americans have consigned themselves to Hell.


July 8, 1896 -
Should this come up in conversation:
The overwhelming issue in the 1896 presidential election was one of economics — the U.S. government promised to pay the holder of one dollar bill one dollar in gold. Democrats, farmers and westerners demanded that the government redeem paper money in silver as well, while Republicans and easterners protested that this policy would destroy the economy.



William Jennings Bryan propelled himself to presidential candidacy when he stood before the Democratic Convention and made his famous “Cross of Gold" speech, on this date.

So now you know.


July 8, 1958 -
The center of the Hollywood Universe was born today in 1958.



Remember even you are only a few degrees away from Kevin Bacon.


July 8, 1969 -
The U.S. Patent Office issued a patent for the game Twister. (Yes smartpants, the game came out in 1966 but the patent wasn't issued until this date.)

Remember kids, if you are going to play nude Crisco Twister - always use protection.


July 8, 1976 -
Former President Richard M. Nixon was disbarred by the New York Bar Association. Nixon attempted to resign voluntarily, as he had from the California and U.S. Supreme Court bars, but New York refused to accept his resignation unless he acknowledged that he had obstructed justice during the Watergate coverup.

Bad, Nixon, Bad.


July 8, 1999 -
The last electric chair execution in Florida took place, when Allen Lee Davis ordered his last meal and walked his last mile on this date. His execution drew particular attention because his nose bled during the botched execution and he was burned on his leg, groin and head.

The US Supreme Court ruled death by electric chair was cruel and unusual punishment in 2008, ending the practice, which by then was only used in Nebraska.

(If you sick puppies want to - there are photos on the intraweb of Mr. Davis after his less than professional execution - you have to search them out yourselves. There's only so much of crap I'll look at - Geez.)


As I mentioned at the start of this posting, cash is always the gift that shows you care. This however, is not -

Does anyone think this is funny?



And so it goes.

Laughing because there's nothing to do about it

It's Father-Daughter take a walk together day,

(Once again, two teams of high priced (non-ACME) lawyers have confirmed that -

a.) I can refer to this as a 'digital image',
b.) the UN called in my mother to monitor the taking of this digital image, and
c.) I may or may not be related to two of the people in this ditigal image. (I am legally obliged to confirm that I am related to my mother.)

(Again, I was not even permitted to snap the photo.)

Such is life with young ladies.


Today is also Chocolate Day (If you're a chocoholic, then you have two more chocolate days to celebrate! World Chocolate Day is on September 4 and National Chocolate Day is on October 28.)



The date commemorates the introduction of Hershey's Kisses on this date in 1907 and the introduction of chocolate in Europe in 1550.



Remember kids, chocolate is actually the seed pod of the fruit of the cocoa tree - so it must be healthy for you, eat up.

And it's also National Strawberry Sundae Day

It's also Bonza Bottler Day - this happens every month when the day and the date are the same number. (May 5, June 6, July 7, etc.).

The holiday was invented by Elaine Fremont in 1985 (who died in a car accident in 1995.) Her friends and family have been keeping her holiday alive by posting announcements of the holiday every year (I didn't know Ms. Fremont but I like the idea.)

If all of that weren't enough, it's Richard Starkey birthday today. And all he has to show for it is a photograph.



And I believe he still won't sign it for you.


July 7, 1936 -
The first ever television show was broadcast by NBC/RCA on this date. It was seen by only a few hundred people who had access to the new television.



The first ever program featured newsreel items, as well as a variety show of sorts, which included female dancers performing a water lily dance, a fashion show and some comic bits.


July 7, 1939 -
Jean Renior's prescient masterpiece, Rules of the Game (La Règle Du Jeu,) starring Marcel Dalio, Nora Gregor, and Paulette Dubost, premiered in Paris, France on this date (because of World War II, the film did not officially open in the US until 1950.)



The fact the movie was almost lost during the war is a myth: actually, the EXTENDED version was almost lost. The original movie shown in 1939 was 113 minutes, or maybe more. It was a relative failure, so Renoir cut it down to approx. 100 minutes and then again to 90 minutes (and even 85 minutes for theatres showing two movies). It was these 23 minutes that were thought to be lost during a WWII bombing. The situation remained unchanged until as late as 1958, when most of the original rushes were discovered and the long version reconstituted to 110 minutes, which is still the version showed nowadays. The parts that have been definitively lost correspond to two scenes for which sound exists, but not images. 


July 7, 1944 -
Universal Pictures releases the sequel to The Mummy’s Tomb, The Mummy's Ghost, directed by Reginald Le Borg and starring Lon Chaney, Jr. and John Carradine, in U.S. theaters on this date.



Lon Chaney Jr. often said that being made up as the Mummy character was his least favourite make-up. There is a photo of the actor on set during production of The Mummy's Ghost where he is pinching his own nose in disgust.


July 7. 1956 -
The Looney Tunes short, Stupor Duck, directed by Bob McKimson and starring Daffy Duck, was released on this date.



The "tall building" that Stupor Duck leaps in "a single bound" is labeled "McKimson and Assoc.," in reference to the short's director.


July 7, 1960 -
Universal Pictures releases the horror film The Brides of Dracula, directed by Terence Fisher and starring Peter Cushing, in the UK on this date.



For the film's climax, Peter Cushing and director Terence Fisher had a difference of opinion over how the climax should be done. The actor wasn't happy about the idea of Van Helsing using powers of black magic in order to destroy Baron Meinster. Cushing explained that that went against everything his character represented.


July 7, 1977 -
The 10th film in the James Bond oeuvre, The Spy Who Loved Me, directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Roger Moore in his third outing as James Bond, (Barbara Bach and Richard Kiel co-starred), was released in the UK on this date.



A representative from the Egyptian government was on-set throughout the shoot in Cairo and Giza, to make sure that the country was not portrayed in an unflattering light. For that reason, when the scaffolding collapses on Jaws, and Bond quips "Egyptian builders",  Roger Moore merely mouthed the line, dubbing it in later. It went unnoticed by the official Egyptian minder, and ironically, got a great laugh from Egyptian audiences.


July 7, 1984 -
The single Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood became Britain's all-time best-selling single (at the time) on this date.



In America, any sexual innuendo contained in this song got little attention, but it caused plenty of controversy in the UK. The song entered the UK singles chart at #77 on November 12, 1983, and was at #35 when Frankie Goes To Hollywood performed it on Top Of The Pops January 5, 1984. The song jumped to #6, and on January 11, 1984, BBC Radio 1 DJ Mike Read announced on air that he refused to air Relax because of the single's controversial artwork and lyrics. He didn't know it at the time, but the BBC was planning to ban the single, and do so soon afterward.


July 7, 1984 -
Prince's song from his upcoming movie Purple Rain, When Doves Cry goes to #1 on Billboard's Hot 100, giving his first #1 hit, on this date.



There is no bass on this song. Prince took out the bass track at the last minute to get a different sound, though he hated to see it go. "Sometimes your brain kind of splits in two - your ego tells you one thing, and the rest of you says something else. You have to go with what you know is right," he told Bass Player magazine.


Today's moment of Zen


Today in History:
July 7, 1456 -
Pope Callixtus III retried Joan of Arc on this date; the trial acquitted her of heresy 25 years after her death.

The pile of ashes that was Joan was unsurprisingly silent upon hearing the news.


July 7, 1865 -
Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold and George Atzerodt, convicted co-conspirators of the Lincoln assassination were hanged in the Old Arsenal Penitentiary on this date.



Unfortunately, the conspirators dropped about five or six feet, which proved insufficient to break their necks. They were allowed to hang for 25 minutes to ensue the job, if not done well, was at least completed. Mary Surratt became the first woman executed by the United States.


July 7, 1928 –
Wonder no more where the expression came from -

Sliced bread was sold for the first time by the Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri, on this date.



It is described as “the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped".

Unfortunately Betty White is no longer with with us!


July 7, 1936 -
Apparently you can build a better mousetrap or improve on a screw.

John P. Thompson applied for the patent rights on a "Screw" (U.S. Patent 1,908,080) with an innovative “cruciform groove” and a matching "Screw driver" (U.S. Patent 1,908,081) in 1932. In 1933, Thompson's patents were transfers to a friend of his, Henry F. Phillips, the managing director of the Oregon Copper Company, a mining outfit in eastern Oregon.



Phillips made some improvements on the screw driver and was granted a patent (US patent 2,046,480) on this date.

The rest as they say, is history, therefore I've mentioned it. Otherwise, why would you care?


July 7. 1946 -
Our favorite, germophobe, bisexual billionaire, Howard Hughes was pulled out, barely alive, from the fiery wreckage of an XF-11 reconnaissance plane that Hughes was testing over Beverly Hills, by, William Durkin, a US Master Sergeant, who happened to be in the area, on this date.



Hughes' injuries were extensive;including a crushed collar bone, 24 broken ribs and numerous third-degree burns. Miraculously, he survives, although he is never quite the same. It's believed that Hughes' long-term addiction to codeine was a result of his convalescence from this near fatal accident.


July 7, 1947 -
The US Army sends a team of men led by Army Air Field Major Jesse Marcel to a reported crash site near Roswell, New Mexico on this date. They collected debris 75 miles northwest of Roswell, New Mexico, scattered over an area 300 miles wide and ¾ of a mile long. This 'recovery' has become the subject of intense speculation, rumor and questioning. There are widely divergent views on what actually happened and passionate debate about what evidence can be believed. The Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) issued a press release the next day, stating that personnel had recovered a crashed "flying disc" from a ranch near Roswell, sparking intense media interest, but later that day, a new press release was put out stating what was recovered was a top-secret research balloon that had crashed.



Many UFO proponents believe the wreckage was of a crashed alien craft and that the military covered up the craft's recovery. The incident has turned into a widely-recognized and referred to pop culture phenomenon, and for some, Roswell is synonymous with UFOs. It likely ranks as the most famous alleged UFO incident.



Perhaps, the Truth is out there but what about the Epstein files.


July 7, 1952 -
During her first Atlantic crossing, the SS United States crossed the finish line in the great race for the fastest Atlantic crossing ever.



To this day, no other liner has ever come close to her speed record in that maiden crossing - in a record 82 hours, 40 minutes. Unfortunately, the SS United States lies abandoned and rusting at Pier 82 in Philadelphia at the present time


July 7, 1981 -
The first solar-powered aircraft, Solar Challenger, crossed the English Channel flying 163 miles from the Pointoise Cormeilles airport, near Paris, to the Manston Royal Air Force Base, in Kent, England, on this date.



The aircraft weighs some 217 pounds. Its 2.7 hp engine is powered exclusively by 16,128 photovoltaic cells. It was created by Dupont and a team led by Dr. Paul MacCready of Pasadena, California.


July 7, 2005 -
21 years ago on this date, four bomb explosions struck London's transport system during the morning rush. Three Underground trains were hit within half an hour, and a double-decker bus joined the toll, thirty minutes later.



A group calling itself "The Secret Organization of al-Qaida in Europe" posted a claim of responsibility, saying they were in retaliation for Britain's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over fifty people were killed and more than 700 injured.


July 7, 2006 -
The Western Black Rhinocero, one of the rarest of the Black Rhinoceros species, was hunted to extinction, on this date. Its extinction can be attributed to the illegal poaching of the animal.

One group, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), continues to list it as "Critically Endangered" in the hopes that someone will discover a small isolated population somewhere. In 2011, with no sightings in a decade, the IUCN formally declared that the western black rhino had gone extinct.


Before you go - Just wanted to let you know that there are many lovely gifts one could get a person. And then there are inappropiate cards and gifts; this is one of them -

Perhaps, one should keep on top of their own weight program



And so it goes.