To reform the world must begin with yourself

Today is the Feast day of St. Ignatius of Loyola.



Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuit order of Catholic priests and brothers, died in Rome on this date in 1556.


July 31, 1928 -
MGM’s Leo the lion roared for the first time on this date.



He introduced MGM’s first talking picture, White Shadows on the South Seas. The film was directed by W.S. Van Dyke and starred Monte Blue. It won an Oscar in 1928-29 for Best Cinematography


July 31, 1935 -
The British spy thriller, The 39 Steps, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Robert Donat, and Madeleine Carroll, was released on this date. Alfred Hitchcock regarded this as one of his favorite movies.



Before filming the scene where Hannay (Robert Donat) and Pamela (Madeleine Carroll) run through the countryside, Alfred Hitchcock handcuffed them together and pretended for several hours to have lost the key in order to put them in the right frame of mind for such a situation.


July 30, 1937 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Plenty of Money and You, directed by Friz Freleng, was released on this date.



Sloppy Joe's, a Key West fixture that was beloved by Ernest Hemingway, had its beginning just four years prior, when Prohibition was repealed in 1933.


July 31, 1966 -
The cult classic movie, The War of the Gargantuas (AKA ,Furankenshutain no Kaiju: Sanda tai Gaira) directed by Ishiro Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya, and starring Russ Tamblyn, Kumi Mizuno, Kenji Sahara, Yû Sekida and Haruo Nakajima, was release on this date, in Japan.



Haruo Nakajima, the man who played many of the Toho monsters, including Godzilla in 12 of his original 15 films, has said Gaira, the evil Green Gargantua, was his favorite to portray due to the flexibility of the costume and because his eyes were visible through the mask, allowing him to emote better.


July 31, 1968 -
The film adaptation of the 1940 novel of the same name by Carson McCullers, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, directed by Robert Ellis Miller, and starring Alan Arkin, Sondra Locke (in her film debut), Cicely Tyson, and Stacy Keach, was released on this date.



Montgomery Clift was approached to play Singer (Alan Arkin's character) in an early 1960s version that never got off the ground.


July 31, 1971 -
James Taylor's cover of the Carole King song, You've Got A Friend hit #1 on the Billboard charts on this date.



Taylor heard this song for the first time in November 1970, when he played a week of shows at The Troubadour in Los Angeles. By this time, his album Sweet Baby James had taken off, and Taylor was drawing large crowds. He asked his good friend Carole King to be his opening act, and King grudgingly accepted - she wasn't used to playing her own songs live and was very nervous.


July 31, 1976 –
Blue Oyster Cult single, from their album, Agents of Fortune, (Don’t Fear) the Reaper, was released on this date.



(Don't Fear) The Reaper was written and sung by Blue Öyster Cult's lead guitarist, Donald Roeser, also known as Buck Dharma. It was rumored to be about suicide, but it actually deals with the inevitability of death and the belief that we should not fear it. When Dharma wrote it, he was thinking about what would happen if he died at a young age and if he would be reunited with loved ones in the afterlife.

And don't forget -



Everything sounds better with more cowbells!


July 31, 1977 -
For a reason only known to CBS executives, the one hit wonder group Starland Vocal Band's show, The Starland Vocal Band Show debuted on CBS TV on this date.



The band started out as John Denver's backup group. The comedy was provided primarily by veteran D.C.-based satirist Mark Russell and David Letterman, who got his first national exposure with this program.


July 31, 1987 -
Timothy Dalton took on the mantle of James Bond in the John Glen helmed, The Living Daylights, also starring Maryam d'Abo and Joe Don Baker, which premiered in the US on this date. (Depending on how you are counting, this was the fifteenth entry in the film series.)



A stuntman was originally going to play the role of The Impostor, the Russian assassin in Gibraltar at the beginning, but after watching rushes, director John Glen decided that they needed a real actor for the part, and it was given to Carl Rigg. At the time, Rigg was out of work and staying home, taking care of his baby, while his wife was away on business. Upon getting the call, Rigg left the baby with a neighbor, left his wife a note telling her he'd gone to be in a James Bond movie, and caught the next plane to Gibraltar to start filming.


July 31, 1991 -
The Jim Abrahams spoof of Top Gun, Hot Shots!, starring Charlie Sheen, Cary Elwes, Valeria Golino, Lloyd Bridges, and Jon Cryer, premiered on this date.



During the eulogy scene, Lloyd Bridges mentioned the deaths of Moe Greene, Tataglia, Barzini, and the heads of five families. This is a reference to the movie The Godfather.


July 31, 1992 -
Miramax Films released the Mike Newell's film Enchanted April, starring Miranda Richardson, Josie Lawrence, Joan Plowright, Alfred Molina, and Jim Broadbent in the US on this date.



The film was made for British television in 1991, but was well-produced enough to be released in theaters in the United States in 1992.


Another unimportant moment. in history


Today in History:
July 31, 1485 -
Morte D'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory, was first published on this date.



Malory wrote this classic tale of knightly love and chivalry while in prison for armed assault and rape.


July 31, 1790 -
Samuel Hopkins was issued the first patent for a process of making potash, potassium carbonate, an ingredient used in fertilizer. The patent was signed by Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and President George Washington.

Since then, over 6 million patents have been granted by the US PTO.


July 31, 1944 -
Antoine de Saint-Exupery, French aviator and author best know for his novella The Little Prince, went missing while flying in a Lockheed P-38 Lightning on a reconnaissance mission over Marseilles, on this date.



In the days and weeks that followed, various parties speculated that Saint Exupéry was shot down over the Mediterranean, had a flight accident, or even committed suicide. The latter theory grew out of the fact that the flyer had felt isolated from his squadron and was pessimistic about the future.


July 31, 1945 -
Wearing a stolen army uniform, prisoner John Giles attempted to escape from Alcatraz island by boarding an outbound cargo boat. But instead of San Francisco, the vessel heads for Angel Island, where Giles was promptly captured.



When attempting your escape from prison, do not attempt to save money by purchasing a round trip ticket. Please confirm that you have boarded the correct escape craft.


It was on this day in 1954 that human feet first stood upon the summit of Pakistan's K2, the second-tallest mountain in the world.

K2 was known to the Chinese as the "Great Mountain," and to Indian and Pakistani locals as "That Big Thing Over There." It wasn't until 1856, when T.G. Montgomerie of Britain's Survey of India was mapping the mountains of the Karakoram Range, that it was designated K2 - the second peak surveyed in the Karakoram. This helped distinguish it from K1, to its left, and K3, to its right.

(K1 was later named Mount Masherbrum. K3 moved to Arizona, where ICE agents became convinced the mountain was assisting underage children in sneaking across the border.)

It was an Italian expedition led by Ardito Desio that first succeeded in reaching the peak of K2. Team members Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni achieved that distinction on July 31, 1954.

The summit wasn’t reached again until 1977, when a Japanese team - with more than 1,500 porters - found their way to the top.

The first American expedition reached the summit in 1978 - without the aid of a single porter.


July 31, 1948 –
At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport was dedicated by President Harry Truman on this date.



A 30 year old Congressman John F. Kennedy suddenly had a blinding headache that day and didn't know why.


July 31, 1964 -
The American space probe Ranger 7 transmitted the first photo moon’s surface ever taken by a U.S. spacecraft, mapping the surface for a future lunar landing, on this date. Ranger 7 carried six slow-scan vidicon TV cameras capable of transmitting high-resolution television pictures of the lunar surface.



A total of 4,308 photographs were taken before Ranger 7 crashed in Mare Cognitum (Sea of Clouds). The total cost of the mission was about $170 million (your tax dollars at work.)


July 31, 1966 -
The Beatles records were burned in Birmingham, Alabama on this date -- only because John Lennon innocently declared that the band happens to be "more popular than Jesus."



The record burning of course has the opposite effect, as sales of Beatles records dramatically increase (in part to burn them.)


July 31, 1971 -
One of the most expensive car rides occurred on this date,



Apollo 15 crew members, James B. Irwin and David R. Scott took the Lunar Roving Vehicle or "Moon Buggy" on its premiere jaunt on the surface of the Moon.


July 31, 1976 -
NASA released the famous Face on Mars photo taken by the Viking 1, on this date.

Later, after analysis of higher resolution photos from the Mars Global Surveyor, the face would be determined to be an optical illusion,



but until then, the face would spark imaginations and lead to rampant conspiracy theories.


Tomorrow is the festival of Lammas, an ancient harvest festival, (which we will have more to say about tomorrow.)



According to Shakespeare, Guiletta Capulet was born on "Lammas Eve at night," so Juliet's birthday is July 31st (sharing her birthday with Harry Potter and his creator, J. K. Rowlings.)


July 31, 1980 (I'm going with 1980 and not getting involved in the 1979 controversy) -
Harry Potter, an orphan who discovers that he is a wizard was born on this dates.



J K Rowlings, the Harry Potter brand author, and unfortunately loony bigot, shares a birthday with her creation (born 1965). Her 'children's stories' have made her a billionaire.

Who knew an orphaned kid with a facial birthmark could make someone so much money?


July 31, 2003 -
Felix Baumgartner, became the first man to glide across the English Channel without an aircraft when he jumped from a plane thirty thousand feet above Dover, England wearing carbon fiber wings attached to his back.

He glided 23 miles across the Channel in ten minutes at a starting speed of 220 mph and slowing to a speed of 135 mph. Baumgartner finished his flight using a parachute landing in Cap Blanc-Nez, France.



And so it goes.

Uniquely portable magic

Smaller than a breadbox, bigger than a TV remote, the average book fits into the human hand with a seductive nestling, a kiss of texture, whether of cover cloth, glazed jacket, or flexible paperback. - John Updike



Today is Paperback Book Day. The reason for the celebration today is that Sir Allen Lane started what would become Penguin Books, and they published their first paperback book on July 30, 1935. I just finished reading At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson.


July 30, 1932 -
Flowers and Trees is a Silly Symphonies cartoon produced by Walt Disney, directed by Burt Gillett and released to theatres by United Artists on this date. It was the first commercially released film to be produced in the full-color three-strip Technicolor process, after several years of two-color Technicolor films.



The original work was started in black and white. The black and white footage was scrapped when the decision was made to try Technicolor.


July 30, 1960 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Ready, Woolen and Able, directed by Chuck Jones, starring Ralph the Wolf and Sam Sheepdog, was released on this date.



Ralph the Wolf looks much like Wile E. Coyote. The difference is that Ralph Wolf's nose is red while Wile E. Coyote's nose is black.


July 30, 1965 -
London Records released the fourth US album of The Rolling Stones, Out Of Our Heads, on this date.



The American version contains the track, ( I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, which would be the band's first number-one US hit, and would go on to top the charts in 10 other countries, including the UK; in 2004 it was ranked as the second greatest song of all time by Rolling Stone.


July 30, 1966 -
The Dynamic Duo made the jump from the TV scene to the movie scene - Batman, The Movie, premiered in Austin, Texas on this date.



Originally planned as the pilot story for the TV series Batman, the film was then made and released between the end of season 1 of the TV series and the beginning of season 2 in order to cash in on its popularity after the TV series ended up both being produced and premiering months ahead of schedule. The producers took advantage of the film's larger budget (when compared to that of the TV series) to have a number of new Bat-vehicles constructed, such as the Batboat, the Batcopter, and the Batcycle.


July 30, 1966 –
The Troggs’ single Wild Thing went to No. 1 on the Billboard Charts on this date. The Troggs recorded this song and another, A Girl Like You, in about 20 minutes, at the end of a studio session booked for an orchestra that wrapped up 45 minutes early.



This was written by a songwriter named Chip Taylor, who has made tons of money from it because it has been recorded by many artists and is constantly being used in movies and TV shows. Taylor used a lot of this money to gamble – for years he bet about $10,000 a day and was kicked out of every casino in Las Vegas for card counting. He also wrote Angel Of The Morning, which was a hit for Merrilee Rush in 1968. Taylor is the brother of actor Jon Voight and the uncle of Angelina Jolie.


July 30, 1966 -
The Beatles' album Yesterday... and Today, went #1 and stayed #1 for five weeks, on this date.



The record was released just after John's infamous interview in which he stated that the Beatles were "bigger than Jesus", which angered Americans and provoked many bans on their music and public incineration of memorabilia. But Yesterday And Today would take public disapproval to a whole new level, as the original cover featured the band in butcher's smocks with baby doll parts and raw meat covering them. The record was pulled almost immediately - creating an instant collector's item - and in the confusion that followed, several replacement covers were issued.


July 30, 1972 -
The thriller, Deliverance, directed by John Boorman, and starring Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, and Ronny Cox, opened on this date.



This is the movie Burt Reynolds appeared in as opposed to The Godfather. He was being considered for the part of Michael Corleone, but Marlon Brando said that "if Burt Reynolds is in my movie, I will quit."


July 30, 1977 -
Andy Gibb's song, I Just Want to Be Your Everything, reached no. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, on this date.



This was the first of three #1 singles for Gibb, which made him the first male solo artist with three consecutive #1 singles in the US. The next single was (Love Is) Thicker Than Water, which was released when The Bee Gees were scoring huge hits from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. That song replaced Stayin' Alive at #1 and was bumped by Night Fever. Gibb's next single was Shadow Dancing, which he wrote with his brothers and also went to #1.


July 30, 1982 -
One of Ron Howard's early movie directorial efforts Night Shift, premiered on this date.



Henry Winkler was scheduled to begin principal photography for this movie in New York City during his holiday hiatus from Happy Days, and would resume the following year, following production of the ninth season of Happy Days. Winkler worked a total of nine days on-location in New York City before filming picked up again that day in California. Winkler worked on this movie Mondays through Wednesdays while concurrently shooting Happy Days on Thursdays and Fridays.


July 30, 1991 -
Metallica released one of their biggest hits Enter Sandman, on this date.



Pat Boone recorded a hilariously upbeat version of this for his In a Metal Mood album. He sang lyrics like "Dreams of war, dreams of fire" and "Exit lights" in an almost laughing manner. The music was jazzy and Vegas-esque, and the opening guitar riff was noticeably shorter.


July 30, 1999 -
Warner Bros. Feature Animation released the directorial debut of The Iron Giant, featuring the voice of Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick Jr., Vin Diesel, James Gammon, Cloris Leachman, John Mahoney, Eli Marienthal, Christopher McDonald, and M. Emmet Walsh, on this date



The scene the Giant's hand is in the living room watching a Maypo cereal advertisement was changed in the "Signature Edition" to an advertisement for the Disneyland attraction, Tomorrowland. Brad Bird originally wanted the Tomorrowland advert in the film as an homage to his mentors, but Disney would not give him clearance to use it. Bird ended up directing the film Tomorrowland.


July 30, 1999 -
Paramount Picture released the Gary Marshall Rom Com, Runaway Bride (a semi-remake of the Capra classic It Happened One Night) featuring the re-teaming of Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, and featuring the always funny Joan Cusack, on this date.



In development for 10 years. Actors attached at various times: Geena Davis, Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Michael Douglas, Demi Moore, Sandra Bullock, Ellen DeGeneres, Ben Affleck, Téa Leoni. Director Michael Hoffman was attached. Writers Elaine May and Leslie Dixon did unused rewrites.


July 30, 2004 -
The surprise hit stoner film, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, starring John Cho, Kal Penn, and the very funny Neil Patrick Harris, opened on this date.


<
Neil Patrick Harris plays a character named "Neil Patrick Harris" and is billed as such rather than being billed "as himself." According to an interview on NPR, this was done to make clear that he plays a parody of himself.


Another little known Monopoly card


Today in History:
Prague has always been a tough town for elected officials.



On July 30, 1419, Jan Želivský, a Hussite priest at the Church of the Virgin Mary of the Snows, led his congregation in a procession through the streets of Prague to the Town Hall. The town council had refused to exchange their Hussite prisoners, and an anti-Hussite threw a rock at one of the protesters. Enraged, the crowd stormed the Town Hall and threw seven council members from the windows onto the spears of the armed congregation below. Thus occurred the First Defenestration of Prague.



Lest you think that was the only defenestration in that tough old town, on May 23, 1618, at Prague Castle, an assembly of Protestants tried two Imperial governors, Wilhelm Graf Slavata (1572–1652) and Jaroslav Borita Graf von Martinic (1582–1649), for violating the Letter of Majesty, which had granted freedom of religion. They found the governors guilty and threw them, along with their scribe, Philip Fabricius, out the high windows of the Bohemian Chancellery. They landed on a large pile of manure and survived unharmed. Fabricius was later ennobled by the emperor and granted the title von Hohenfall (literally, "of Highfall").

Apparently, in medieval Prague, a pile of manure was the equivalent of an airbag.

But wait, there's more. Another defenestration (chronologically the Second Defenestration of Prague) occurred on September 24, 1483, when a violent overthrow of the municipal governments of the Old and New Towns ended with the Old Town's portreeve and seven aldermen being thrown from the windows of their respective town halls.

Sometimes the name Third Defenestration of Prague is used, although it has no universally accepted definition. For example, it has been used to describe the death of Jan Masaryk, who was found beneath the bathroom window of the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs on March 10, 1948 - allegedly murdered by the Communists, although the official Communist line maintained that he had committed suicide.

It's tough to be an elected official in Prague.



So, here are some quick rules for avoiding defenestration:

7. Don't throw stones at angry mobs.
6. Watch out for Catholics.
5. Watch out for Protestants.
4. Don't piss off really powerful people.
3. Surround tall buildings with piles of manure.
2. Never go to Prague.

And, of course,



1. Never leave home.

Again, it's a tough town for politicians, but it's the gravy train for glaziers.


July 30, 1729 -
Let's hit the road again and wish the happiest of Birthdays to the Crab Cake Capital of the World.



The city of Baltimore was founded on this date and is named after Lord Baltimore (Cecilius Calvert).


July 30, 1818 -
It's Emily Bronte's birthday.



The Brontes were three hideous sisters who dwelt in a cave and had to share a single eyeball between them. They were eventually outwitted and slain by wily Odysseus. (Unless that was the Gorgons, in which case the Emily Brontes were three Englishwomen who wrote poetry and novels in the middle nineteenth century.)



Women were not allowed to write books at the time because novels were still being written in the formal style, and it was feared that women would corrupt that classic form with their penchant for multiple climaxes. The Brontes therefore wrote under the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. Charlotte got to be Currer and this made the other girls jealous: Currer was the handsome and swarthy sailor, while Ellis was the stuttering librarian and Acton was the simpleminded shepherd.

As authors, the Emily Brontes were heavily influenced by the Romantics (What I Like About You), but most scholars contend that Emily's Wuthering Heights owes more to the Meteorologists.



She is perhaps best known for her invention of Heathcliff, most recently popularized by American cartoonist George Gately.


July 30, 1865 -
The Brother Jonathan, a paddle wheel steamer, sank off the coast of Northern California after it hit a rock near Crescent City, on this date. 225 passengers and crew died during the ensuing panic. There were only 19 survivors. It has been considered the worst US steamship disaster that had occurred.

The 220-foot, side-wheeled steamer was on route to Puget Sound and reportedly carried as much as $2 million in gold. In the 1990s, Deep Sea Research found and salvaged 1,207 gold coins from the ship. California received 20% of the treasure and the rest was put up for auction in 1999.


July 30, 1871 -
The boiler on the Staten Island Ferry Westfield exploded, killing as many as 100 people and injured hundreds of others as well, on this date.

The ferry was owned by the president of the Staten Island Railway, Jacob Vanderbilt, who was arrested for murder, but was not convicted.


July 30, 1938 -
In his Dearborn, Michigan office Henry Ford proudly accepts a Nazi medal on his 75th birthday, on this date. The Grand Cross of the Order of the German Eagle was the highest award the Reich can bestow on foreigners. The medal arrives with a note of personal greetings from Adolf Hitler.

A rabid anti-semite, Ford paid for copies of the racist hoax Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion to be deposited in major U.S. libraries.

Hopefully, there isn't a Ford in your future.


July 30, 1947 -
As the 'Siegfried' leitmotif from Act III of Wagner's opera played in the background - Arnold Schwarzenegger, the last gasp of the dream of the Aryan 'Uberman', was spawned on this date.



I'm not quite sure that an overly greased muscle man in a speedo (who would become the governor of a bankrupt US state and fathered children out of wed-lock) was what Hitler had in mind, but who knows.


July 30, 1965 -
As part of President Johnson's Great Society program, the president signed the Social Security Act of 1965 into law established Medicare and Medicaid in the United States, on this date.



Both older Americans and people living in poverty benefited from passage of the Social Security amendments. Medicare initiated a basic program of insurance for those aged 65 and over, funded by a tax on employees wages and matched by employer contributions. Medicaid provided grants to states to establish health care programs for low-income individuals and families. The act also lowered the age at which widows could begin collecting benefits and added certain divorced women to the list of benefit recipients.


July 30, 1975 -
Jimmy Hoffa was or wasn't killed on this date.



Jimmy is or isn't buried somewhere in the Meadowlands or a horse farm or was made into ground meat and consumed at some very unfortunate barbecue (the FBI still continue to try to sort it all out.)


July 30, 2003 -
The last ever 'old style' Volkswagen Beetle, #21,529,464, rolled off the assembly line at the Volkswagen de Mexico manufacturing plant in Puebla, Mexico on this date. The classic Volkswagen Beetle was produced in Mexico from 1955 where it was used as a taxi.



The Mexican government effectively ended the Beetle's production because street gangs would often raid two-door cars as the passenger in the back couldn't escape.



And so it goes.

Take life one layer at a time

Today is Lasagna Day. I'm not going to lie to you - I don't believe you can just whip up a lasagna together in a day. It's going to take you a day or two just to collect all of the ingredients. Why not have a nice family dinner this coming weekend by planning on making a nice tray of fresh homemade Lasagna this week. (Watch this video or check out the box of pasta on how to assemble it, if you don't know; I've linked my recipe for gravy.)



Start shopping for you ingredients today and enjoy your family this upcoming weekend.


July 29, 1939 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Snow Man's Land, directed by Chuck Jones, was released on this date



The main Mountie is voiced by Pinto Colvig, using his Goofy voice.


July 29, 1957 -
Jack Paar took over as new host of The Jack Paar Tonight Show on this date. Paar brought the show back to its in-studio interview format.



More a conversationalist than comedian, audiences were drawn to Paar's show because of the interesting guests be brought on, from entertainers to politicians, and for the controversy that occasionally erupted there.


July 29, 1961 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Compressed Hare, directed by Chuck Jones, starring Bugs Bunny and Wile E. Coyote, was released on this date



This marks the last Bugs Bunny cartoon of the Golden Age of Animations where Wile E. Coyote talks.


July 29, 1959 -
Another campy cult classic William Castle flick (this time featuring 'Percepto',) The Tingler opened on this date.



William Castle toyed with other ideas to frighten audience members, in addition to 'percepto'; among them: rolling bean bags to brush against the legs of audience members, speakers mounted at different areas that would give a 'screech' when the tingler appeared, and possibly even using 'shills' to operate some type of mechanical device to tickle the legs of the audience members; but the only viable way of doing it was by attaching buzzers in select seats to coincide with the appearance of the tingler- 'percepto'.


July 29, 1965 -
The Beatles movie Help! premiered in London on this date.



By Paul McCartney's and Ringo Starr's own admission, they were so stoned on pot the day they shot the scene where Dr. Foot (Victor Spinetti) and Algernon (Roy Kinnear) tried to blow them up in the Austrian Alps, that when George Harrison screamed his line "It's an fiendish thingy! Run Ringo!" both Ringo and Paul ran over the next hill.


July 29, 1965 -
The Columbia Pictures drama, Ship of Fools, directed by Stanley Kramer, and starring Vivien Leigh, Simone Signoret, Jose Ferrer, Lee Marvin, Oskar Werner, Elizabeth Ashley, George Segal, Jose Greco, Michael Dunn, Charles Korvin, and Heinz Rühmann, opened on this date.



Vivien Leigh was subject to bouts of depression and alcoholism and was abrasive to fellow actors. There was a rocky start to her relationship with Lee Marvin, complaining about his stale alcohol breath. Eventually, the two became highly unlikely good friends.


July 29, 1972 -
Gilbert O'Sullivan topped the charts with his hit Alone Again (Naturally) on this date. (I will not take responsibility for the following ear worm; listen to the clip at your own risk.)



This was Irish-born singer Gilbert O'Sullivan's only American #1. It sold 2 million copies, spent six weeks at the summit in America and earned him three Grammy Award nominations (Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year). It was the second best-selling single of the year in America behind Don McLean's American Pie. (I will not take responsibility for the following ear worm; listen to the clip at your own risk.)



(Let's take a moment to remember the late, great Biz Markie.)


July 29, 1976 -
The adventure film, Swashbuckler, directed by James Goldstone, and starring Robert Shaw, James Earl Jones, Peter Boyle, Geneviève Bujold, Beau Bridges and Geoffrey Holder, was released on this date.



In an interview, Geneviève Bujold talked about her nude swimming scene. "In Puerto Vallarta I had to dive naked from the pirate ship and swim to shore. They tried all sorts of camera angles - from above the surface, underwater and then with the camera shooting half above the surface and half beneath," Bujold recalled. "It took them two days to shoot that scene. I never knew a director to make so many retakes. I think perhaps if Jim had wanted, he could have done the whole thing in less than half a day. But I didn't mind. The nude scene was pleasant and the water was warm. The days were hot and I think the others envied me for being able to splash around. I wasn't self-conscious. In fact, I enjoyed it. It felt just right. I saw the rushes and the nude shots are quite circumspect."


July 29, 1982 –
Professional wrestler Jerry Lawler slapped actor Andy Kaufman in the face on the program Late Night with David Letterman, a staged event that prompted a several month ‘war’ between the two of them.



It remains among the greatest Letterman moments of all time. The video went viral long before the Internet gave rise to the term, with people across the country clamoring for bootlegged VHS and Beta tapes of the incident.


July 29, 1983 -
NBC's answer to MTV, Friday Night Videos, premiered on this date.



The show, created by Dick Ebersol, had some big-name artists and videos, and there was a fun segment called Video Vote, which pitted two artists/videos against one another to see who fans enjoyed the most (submitting their votes via a 900 number).


July 29, 2010 -
President Barack Obama made an appearance with Barbara Walters and the ladies of The View on this date.



It was the first time a sitting president appeared on a daytime talk show.


Another episode of ACME's Little Known Animal Fact


Today in History:
July 29, 1588 -
Phillip II of Spain sent his armadillo to invade England. This Spanish armadillo was defeated by the belly-buttons of Lord Howard and Sir Francis Drake in one of the greatest navel engagements of all time.



The defeat altered the balance of power in Europe irreversibly and marked the last use of armadillos in navel warfare.


July 29, 1900 -
Italian King Umberto I thought he was have a good day. It was a warm summer evening and he had just finished distributing prizes to athletes after a sporting competition. Umberto got back into his carriage and Gaetano Bresci, an Italian-born anarchist who had resided in America, burst from the crowd brandishing a revolver and fired four times, killing the king instantly.

The murder was believed to be due to the king’s decision to fire cannon rounds into a crowd of starving peasants and workers that had assembled asking the king for assistance; 100s were killed; Bresci was arrested, found guilty, and sentenced to a life of hard labor at Santo Stefano Prison on Ventotene Island. Umberto was succeeded by his son, Victor Emmanuel III. After serving less than a year of his life sentence, Bresci was found dead in his cell, in extremely suspicious circumstances. (One might suspect that you could get a passable lasagna at the prison.)


July 29, 1921 -
The Council on Foreign Relations was incorporated in New York City on this date by a group of bankers and other influential people, including John D Rockefeller. The CFR remains a vital component of the New World Order, and is surpassed in importance only by the Trilateral Commission.

Now that you have this information, you know too much and you'll probably have to be killed.


July 29, 1921 -
Adolf Hitler was selected as leader of the National Socialist Party on this date.

I'm guessing there are still a scant few Germans of a certain age that have regrets concerning this election.


July 29, 1945 -
After delivering parts of the first atomic bomb to the island of Tinian, the cruiser U.S.S.Indianapolis was torpedoed and sunk by the I-58 Japanese submarine around midnight on this date.



Some 900 survivors jumped into the sea and were adrift for four days. Nearly 600 died before help arrived. Most of its crew was ravaged by sharks.

Talk about karma.


July 29, 1948 –
After a hiatus of 12 years caused by World War II, Britain's King George VI opened the first Summer Olympics to be held since the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, in London, on this date.



Germany and Japan were not invited and the Soviet Union chose not to attend.



Alice Coachman became the first black woman from any country to win a gold medal in track and field. She surpassed the Olympic record of 5 feet, 4 3/4 inches held jointly by Americans Jean Shiley and Babe Didrikson since the 1932 Olympics.


July 29, 1958 -
President Eisenhower stopped playing golf long enough to sign the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which created NASA on this date.

Richard Nixon immediately gave Ike a rum toddy and let him take his afternoon nap.


July 29, 1966 -
Returning home from his manager Albert Grossman's house, Bob Dylan had some sort of motorcycle accident, on this date. The accident, which has become somewhat mythic, purportedly left Dylan with a broken vertebrae in his neck, but no ambulance was called and he was not admitted to a hospital. Dylan spent years recuperating and became something of a recluse, disappearing from the public spotlight for eight years.

He continued to write and record music, but with only a few exceptions, did not appear in public again until January 1974, when he launched his "North American Tour."


July 29, 1968 -
Pope Paul VI issues encyclical Humanae Vitae, prohibiting all unnatural forms of birth control.



This did not please many practicing Catholics, although it answers the age-old question ever priest knows - Altar boys can't get pregnant.


July 29, 1974 -
Cass Elliot (Ellen Naomi Cohen,) a seminal member of The Mamas and the Papas, died in London on this date.



Although initial reports ascribe the cause of death to choking on a ham sandwich, in actuality it was a heart attack.


July 29, 1981 -
In the fairy tale wedding of the century, Britain's Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer in an internationally televised ceremony at Saint Paul's Cathedral in London, England on this date.



The couple was later divorced in 1996, Diana was 'killed' in a car accident in 1997, and Charles , now finally gainfully employed as King of England, fulfilled his long time fantasy and became a feminine hygiene product when he married his mistress Camilla Parker Bowles in 2005.

Hey, fairy tales don't always have happy endings.


July 29, 1987 –
Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream signed a licensing agreement for their Cherry Garcia flavor, named after the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia, with Mr. Garcia on this date.

Ben and Jerry’s agreed to donate a portion of the proceeds to the Rex Foundation, the Grateful Dead Band's primary philanthropic outlet since 1984. For a month following the musician's death in 1995, the ice cream was made with black cherries instead of Bing Cherries as a show of mourning.



And so it goes.