Be like Harold

A group of heirs is called an Expectation.



This is technically true and sounds like something from a Victorian novel, which is probably where it comes from.


July 16, 1948 -
John Huston's version of Maxwell Anderson's play, Key Largo, starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall premiered in New York on this date.



Lionel Barrymore was severely disabled by arthritis (clearly visible in his hands) and was confined to a wheelchair, making the scene in which his Mr. Temple character gets up and falls taking a swing at Toots more than a dramatic moment.


July 15, 1949 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Knights Must Fall, directed by Friz Freleng, and starring Bugs Bunny, was released on this date.



Bugs calls Sir Pants A Lot a new Dick Tracy character, Accordion Head. This is a nod to the unusual array of folks appearing in the popular comic strip.


July 16, 1951 -
One of the best adaptations of a Charles Dickens' novel, David Lean's Oliver Twist was released in the US on this date.



In his search to find the perfect Oliver, David Lean held an open audition at Victoria Palace in which he received around one thousand five hundred applications and interviewed all but eighty of them. Not one matched the image he had in mind for Oliver but in a stroke of luck, agent Ted Lloyd spotted the ideal candidate, John Howard Davies, at the home of an associate.


July 16, 1958 -
The classic Vincent Price Sci-Fi film, The Fly, opened in San Francisco on this date.



Although many people swear they have seen this film in black and white, they never have. This is sometimes referred to as the "Mandela Effect", which is simply a false memory. It's extremely common. The Fly was only ever filmed and shown in color. However, the sequels Return of the Fly and Curse of the Fly are in black and white. This is likely where the confusion comes from, or they might have watched it on a black & white television, which were common through the 1980s.


July 15, 1964 -
The Looney Tunes short, False Hare, directed by Bob McKimson, and starring Bugs Bunny, was released on this date.



This is the final Bugs Bunny short released during the classic Warner Bros. Cartoon period.


July 16, 1966 -
Tommy James and the Shondells' single Hanky Panky goes to No. #1 of the Billboard Charts on this date.



Tommy James & the Shondells initially formed in 1959 as Tom and the Tornadoes, with the then 12-year-old Tommy Jackson as lead singer. In 1963, he renamed the band The Shondells, after one of his idols, guitarist Troy Shondell. At first, they played straightforward rock and roll (as their first hit proves), but soon became involved in the budding Bubblegum music movement. From 1968, the group members tried themselves as songwriters, penning the psychedelic classic Crimson And Clover. The group carried on with constant success until early 1970, when James became exhausted from the strenuous touring and decided to drop out.


July 16, 1974 –
In TV’s first live suicide, news presenter Christine Chubbuck, during her TV broadcast, suddenly stopped reading the teleprompter and said, “In keeping with Channel 40’s policy of bringing you the latest in blood and guts, and in living color, you are going to see another first: an attempted suicide.”

She died about 14 hours later. You sick puppies, I'm not going to post the actual video.


July 16, 1976 -
The Universal sports comedy (produced by Motown Productions,) The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings, directed by John Badham (in his directorial debut), and starring Billy Dee Williams, James Earl Jones, Richard Pryor, Stan Shaw, and Tony Burton, was released on this date.



Richard Pryor's character pretends to be Cuban to join a Major League team. The first black major league baseball player joined in 1905. The team claimed he was Puerto Rican, even though he spoke no Spanish.


July 16, 1977 –
The Commodores'single Easy was No. 1 on the R&B Billboard Charts on this date.



Commodores lead singer Lionel Richie wrote this song, which became a crossover hit for the band, bringing them into pop and adult contemporary territory when they were previously pure funk. This led to more soft hits for the band like Still and Three Times A Lady. When Richie went solo in 1981, he became a soft rock superstar with similar songs.


July 16, 1982 –
A very silly movie, Young Doctors in Love, directed by Garry Marshall and starring Sean Young, Michael McKean, Harry Dean Stanton, Dabney Coleman, Patrick Macnee and Demi Moore, opened on this date.



The movie featured a number of cameos and guest appearances by television stars from the ABC network's soap operas. The film was produced by ABC Motion Pictures, the former feature film division of ABC TV. As a result, several actors from the ABC series General Hospital had cameos in the film including young Janine Turner and Demi Moore.


July 16, 1999 -
Stanley Kubrick final film, Eyes Wide Shut, was released on this date.



Due to Stanley Kubrick's fear of travel, virtually the entire film was shot in and near London (despite the movie's New York City setting). Elaborate street sets built at Pinewood Studios were used for all the scenes showing Tom Cruise walking around the city.


July 16, 2000 -
Coldplay went to No. #1 on the UK album charts on this date with their debut release Parachutes.



The album produced four singles: Shiver, Yellow, Trouble, and Don't Panic. Parachutes later went on to earn the British outfit their first Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 2002.


Another little known Monopoly card


Today in History:
July 16, 1054 -
The 'Great Schism' between the Western and Eastern churches began over rival claims of universal pre-eminence.



Remember kids, there's no schism like a great schism.

(In 1965, 911 years later, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I met to declare an end to the schism.)


Mary Baker Eddy was born on this date in 1821.



Ms. Eddy invented Christian Science, and was elected to the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1995 for having been the only American woman to found a worldwide religion without exposing her breasts.


July 16, 1860 -
A decree from Emperor Norton I of San Francisco, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, ordered the dissolution of the United States of America on this date.

(More on the good Emperor next month.)


July 16, 1945 -
...If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One - I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.... - thus began the Atomic Age.



Fittingly, in a desert named Jornada del Muerto (Journey of Death,) code-named Trinity, the first experimental plutonium bomb (The Gadget) was detonated in a United States test of an atomic explosion at Alamogordo Air Base, Los Alamos, New Mexico on this date. The explosion yields the equivalent 18,000 tons of TNT.



If you have the time and the chance, watch the bio-pix about Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project - Oppenheimer.


July 16, 1951 –

The Catcher in the Rye was published 75 years ago today. The book contained secret code words through which its author, J.D. Salinger, was able to transmit diabolical commands to his evil minions.



Exactly six years after the Trinity test—



and fourteen years later, the tunnel connecting France and Italy through Mont Blanc was opened to the public.

Draw your own conclusions.

Salinger was a one-hit wonder. (He did write several other books, but these are of interest only to insomniacs and people in need of furniture shims.) The Catcher in the Rye was published in 1951, and Salinger subsequently retreated to the hills of Vermont, emerging from his self-imposed cloister only twice; to serve as Prime Minister of Canada, and then again to appear as a corpse at his own funeral. For nearly three-quarters of a century, The Catcher in the Rye has captured the imagination of the American teenager like no other book without pictures.



Holden Caulfield, the hero and narrator of Salinger's slim classic, may be the finest portrait of twentieth-century American teenage angst bequeathed to posterity.



Either him or Archie, it's hard to say.

(Although Archie gave up his life to save a friend.)


July 16, 1964 -
In accepting the Republican presidential nomination in San Francisco, Barry M. Goldwater said "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice" and that "moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."



Goldwater's speech ultimately doomed his candidacy but revived the American Conservative movement and gave birth to the political rise of Ronald Reagan.


July 16, 1969 -
57 years ago on this date, the 363-foot-tall Apollo 11 space vehicle was launched from Pad A, Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center, at 9:37 a.m. (As I have gotten older, I have only now put it together that some sick puppies at NASA (probably some of the 'Good Germans') arranged to have the launch on the anniversary of the Trinity test.)



It carried Mission Commander Neil Alden Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin Eugene 'Buzz' Aldrin, Jr.

I couldn't afford the Revell kit,

so I had to satisfy myself with working on my 18-inch-tall Gulf Oil cardboard lunar module model kit while watching the launch.


July 16, 1973 -
In testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities (the Ervin Committee on Watergate), former presidential assistant Alexander Butterfield disclosed that President Richard Nixon had tape recorded all of his conversations in the White House and Executive Office Building.



Bad, Nixon, bad.


July 16, 1999 -
27 years ago today, John F.Kennedy Jr. was killed along with his wife Carolyn and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette when the aircraft he was piloting crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. (Don't hitch a ride with a Kennedy.)



He was flying a Piper Saratoga II HP from Essex County Airport in New Jersey to Martha's Vineyard. Kennedy and his wife were traveling together to the wedding of his cousin Rory in Hyannis, Massachusetts, while Lauren was to have been dropped off at Martha's Vineyard en route.



And so it goes.

At last, they got it right

A group of giraffes is called a tower.



Given that giraffes are the tallest animals on Earth, this is one of the more accurate collective nouns in the English language.


July 15, 1939 -
The Looney Tunes short, Porky's Picnic, directed by Bob Clampett, and starring Porky Pig, was released on this date.



This short is the first appearance of Petunia Pig not directed by Frank Tashlin; however, she had been originally scheduled to appear in Porky's Party and had a visual cameo debuting her new design prior in Scalp Trouble.


July 15, 1939 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Dangerous Dan McFoo, directed by Tex Avery, was released on this date.



Tex Avery would later do another parody of The Shooting of Dan McGrew at MGM called The Shooting of Dan McGoo, which starred Droopy as the mild-mannered canine protagonist, Slick Wolf as the lecherous antagonist, and Red as the female love interest known as Lou.


July 15, 1944 -
The Looney Tunes short, Brother Brat, directed by Frank Tashlin, and starring Porky Pig, was released on this date.



Porky wears pants in this cartoon, something he did not wear in most of his other cartoons.


July 15 1956 -
Although not in the same league as Plan 9 from Outer Space, It Conquered the World was released upon an unsuspecting public on this date. (American International released the film on a double bill with The She-Creature.)



Though the film was later featured and mocked on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, the writers praised the performance of Beverly Garland. She was invited to (and attended) the first convention dedicated to the show, and show writer Paul Chaplin included a short essay extolling her acting ability in this film: on the scene where she hurls insults at the monster, Paul wrote, "In that moment she IS a woman enraged at a pickle."


July 15, 1960 -
The Looney Tunes short, Mouse and Garden, directed by Friz Freleng, and starring Sylvester, was released on this date.



Except for a brief moment when he is sleeping, Sylvester lacks the white tip on his tail, much like some of his appearances in the 1940s shorts and most of the pre-1955 Robert McKimson shorts.


July 15, 1961 -
The Looney Tunes short, The Rebel Without Claws, directed by Friz Freleng, and starring Sylvester and Tweety Bird, was released on this date.



Carrier pigeons have been used to deliver wartime communications for centuries.


July 15, 1970 -
The very dark drama, Joe, directed by John G. Avildsen and starring Peter Boyle, Dennis Patrick, Audrey Caire, Susan Sarandon, K Callan, and Patrick McDermott, opened on this date.



Peter Boyle won the role of Joe with his ability to improvise in-character during his audition. The producers felt that Boyle was too young (34) for the role and wanted Lawrence Tierney cast instead, but John G. Avildsen insisted that Boyle was the best actor for the part.


July 15, 1972 -
Elton John's fifth studio album, Honky Chateau, reached No. #1 on the US Billboard Charts, on this date, making it the first of John's seven consecutive US No. #1 album.



The album was recorded at Château d'Hérouville, Hérouville, France, in January 1972. At the time, the studio was known as "Strawberry Studios," but after Elton dubbed it the "Honky Chateau" and named his album after it, that became its new moniker. The Château d'Hérouville lies northwest of Paris and is where Frédéric Chopin was believed to have conducted his affair with the novelist George Sand. In 1962 the composer Michel Magne bought it and converted it into a studio, which became a popular location doing the 1970s and 80s.


July 15, 1983 -
Woody Allen's technically inventive and very funny mocumentary, Zelig starring Woody Allen and Mia Farrow, premiered on this date.



In 2007, Italian psychologists discovered a rare form of brain damage which affects its victims much like Zelig's condition (without, of course, the accompanying physical transformations). Researcher Giovannina Conchiglia and associates have proposed the name "Zelig-like Syndrome" for the disorder, because of the parallels to the film.


July 15, 1988 -
The film that made Bruce Willis a star, Die Hard, co-starring Alan Rickman, and Bonnie Bedelia opened in limited release in the US on this date.





Only a couple of the actors who played the German terrorists were actually German and only a couple more could speak broken German. The actors were cast for their menacing appearances rather than their nationality. Nine of the 12 were over six feet tall.


July 15, 1989 –
Simply Red's single If You Don’t Know Me By Now went to No. 1 on the Billboard Charts, on this date.



The song was written by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, who were architects of the Philadelphia Soul sound. They credit their marital problems with allowing them to write such a heart-rending song.


July 15, 1998 -
The Farrelly Brothers career saving romantic comedy, There's Something About Mary premiered on this date.



After the financial losses suffered from Kingpin, the Farrelly brothers thought their next film would probably be their last. So they decided to go all out and deliver the most hysterically black comedy they could dream up. When this film became a box-office smash hit, the Farrelly's careers were safe to continue.


July 15, 2005 -
The Tim Burton remake of Roald Dahl's classic children's story, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, starring Johnny Depp, Freddie Highmore, Helena Bonham Carter, James Fox, Deep Roy, and Christopher Lee, went into general release in the US on this date.



To his surprise, Deep Roy played every Oompa Loompa, repeating the same movements several hundred times. While these were then put together digitally, each Oompa Loompa represents a separate performance by Roy. In recognition of this, Roy's salary was raised to $1 million.


July 15, 2009 -
45 years after he played at the Ed Sullivan Theater with The Beatles, Paul McCartney returned to the venue to appear on The Late Show With David Letterman.



Earlier in the day, McCartney plays a few songs from the theater's marquee, surprising the onlookers in Manhattan.


Another episode of ACME's Little Known Animal Facts


Today in History:
July 15, 1606 -
Rembrandt van Rijn was born in Leiden, Holland, on this date.

His father was a miller and his mother was a stay-at-home mom.



He is best known for his mastery of chiaroscuro and impasto, but his scampi was nothing to sneeze at.


July 15, 1799 -
The Rosetta Stone is an Ancient Egyptian artifact which was instrumental in advancing modern understanding of hieroglyphic writing. The stone is a Ptolemaic era stele with carved text. The text is made up of three translations of a single passage, written in two Egyptian language scripts (hieroglyphic and Demotic), and in classical Greek.



It was created in 196 BC, discovered by the Napoleonic expeditionary forces in 1799 at Rashid (a harbor on the Mediterranean coast in Egypt which the French referred to Rosetta) and contributed greatly to the decipherment of the principles of hieroglyphic writing in 1822 by the British polymath Thomas Young and the French scholar Jean-François Champollion.

Feel free to impress your friends with this bit of knowledge.


July 15, 1857 -
During an uprising in June of 1857, the group of British women and children being held by rebels in Cawnpore, India were cut to pieces with knives and hatchets. Then their remains are tossed into a well.



When British forces finally retook Cawnpore on this date, the captured rebels are taken back to the house where the slaughter took place. Then they are forced to lick the floors clean, after which they are hanged.

I hate to think what the penalty was for early withdrawal from your IRA.


July 15 1864 -
A train containing hundreds of Confederate prisoners passing through Shohola, PA crashed head on with a coal train on this date.



The trains were off schedule because of an escape attempt. 74 people, mostly prisoners, died.


July 15, 1869 -
During war with Prussia, French ruler Napoleon III commissions Hippolye Mege Mouries to find a butter substitute.

A patent for margarine was issued on this date, it being based on beef fat instead of milk fat.



He called it Margarine (but you can call it Oleo) because the French word for pearl was margarite and he apparently had difficulty distinguishing butter from pearls -



a handicap that goes a long way toward explaining his many divorces.



But even with the tactically superior spread, the war was still lost.


July 15, 1904 -
A small town Russian alcoholic doctor quietly succumbed to consumption, while in another room, his relatives sat around the house and wistfully bemoaned the lost opportunities of their lives. An old family retainer served tea to the unknowing mourners. Off in the distance, the guitar string of a peasant guitar broke, all on this date.



Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, died on this date but not as described above. As he lay dying of tuberculosis, in a German Spa, Chekhov called out for his doctor. The doctor examined him and prescribed him a glass of champagne. Chekhov finished his glass, commented on the taste, lay back down and died.

All in all, not a bad way to go.


July 15, 1946 -
I admire people's marriages, and I think it's a wonderful thing to have, but I don't think it's the only way to live. I think there are many ways to live and many ways to establish intimate support in your life that can be from family or friends or great roommates that you like.









Linda Maria Ronstadt, singer and actress was born in Tucson, Arizona on this date. (Send her your good thoughts)


July 15, 1979 -
President Jimmy Carter addressed the energy crisis and subsequent recession by discussing what he felt was the greatest threat to the United States in a speech later called the 'malaise' speech, on this date.



He believed that a lack of "moral and spiritual confidence" prevented the American people from recovering from the economic hardships and said, "this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation" were the basis for the negative economic climate.


July 15, 2007 -

The Philadelphia Phillies lost their 10,000th Major League Baseball game.





As of last check, the team still holds the record for the most games lost by any professional American sports team in history with 11,435.



And so it goes

If we were meant to be nude,

we would have been born that way.

Today is National Nude Day. I would say for the most part, there are very few people who should actually celebrate the holiday in public.

Please feel free to celebrate responsibly within the confines of your own home.


July 14, 1908 -
D.W. Griffith's first film, The Adventures of Dollie, opened in New York, on this date.



Although the location this film was shot is frequently given as Fort Lee, it was actually shot near Sound Beach in Connecticut.


July 14, 1933 -
The iconic Popeye the Sailor, appeared in his first eponymous titled cartoon, on this date. (Kids, Betty, who is probably underage in this film, is not wearing a bra - so avert your eyes.)



Popeye's appearance is based on that of a fighter named Francis "Rocky" Fiegel whom his creator, Elzie Segar, used to know. Because of this, a tombstone was put on his hitherto unmarked grave in 1996. Segar paid Fiegel a small fee for the use of his likeness, as he was still alive when Popeye first appeared.


July 14, 1951 -
The Looney Tunes short, The Wearing of the Grin, directed by Chuck Jones, and starring Porky Pig, was released on this date.



This was the final Porky Pig solo film of Warner Brother's Cartoons' classic period.


July 14, 1964 -
The Rolling Stones score their first #1 hit in the UK with their cover of Bobby Womack's It's All Over Now.



New York disc jockey Murray the K gave The Stones a copy of the original recording of the song by The Valentinos and suggested they record it. Murray was important enough to have the ear of The Rolling Stones and even The Beatles: Even before the British Invasion, Murray had been at the top of the rock station ratings for years.


July 14, 1969 -
Dennis Hopper's seminal '60s classic, Easy Rider, starring Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson, premiered in the US on this date.



Dennis Hopper was going through a very bad time during production (something he later put down to marijuana not being his "creative drug of choice"). He was in a state of drug-induced paranoia and he screamed at everyone. Crew members secretly recorded his tirades and sent the tapes to the production company in Los Angeles to explain why so many of them quit the film.


July 14, 1980 -
Glen Campbell and Tanya Tucker (his 21 year younger lover,) sang the national anthem at the Republican National Convention in Detroit, on this date. Also on the program were Pat Boone, Donny & Marie Osmond, Richard Petty and Vicki Lawrence.

Glen Campbell later admits they were "higher than the notes we were singing."


July 14, 1989 -
The 16th James Bond movies, License to Kill, starring Tomothy Dalton, Robert Brown, and Caroline Bliss in their final Bond appearance, premiered in the US on this date.



It was widely and incorrectly reported at the time that this was Timothy Dalton's last James Bond film due it being financially disappointing. In reality, Dalton was to star in a third James Bond film after this one, titled Property of a Lady, written by Michael G. Wilson and Alfonse Ruggiero and set to start shooting in 1990, with pre-production work having begun in May of that year. However legal issues with MGM beginning that year created long delays which eventually led Dalton to announce his retirement from the role in 1994, a year after his initial contract expired, paving the way for Pierce Brosnan's casting in GoldenEye.


July 14, 1989 -
Rob Reiner iconic rom-com , written by iconic writer, Nora Ephron, When Harry Met Sally, starring, Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher, and Bruno Kirby, opened in limited release on this date.



The orgasm scene was filmed at Katz's Deli, an actual restaurant on New York's E. Houston Street. The table at which the scene was filmed now has a plaque on it that reads, "Where Harry met Sally...hope you have what she had!"


July 14, 2000 –
20th Century Fox's first film of the successful franchise series, X-Men, starring the large ensemble cast, including - Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Bruce Davison, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, and Anna Paquin, premiered in the US on this date.



Hugh Jackman took ice cold showers every morning of filming, in order to help get into character. This tradition started when jumping into the shower at 5 a.m., before realizing there was no hot water. Shocked awake, but not wanting to wake his sleeping wife, he gritted his teeth and bore it, before realizing that this mindset, wanting to scream and lash out at something, but having to hold it in, was the mentality that Wolverine is in constantly. He then made cold showers his Wolverine preparation routine for each movie featuring the character.


Today's moment of Zen.


Today in History:
July 14, 1789 –
Paris was not a happy city in 1789. Paris has never been an especially happy city, especially for those who don't speak French, but in that fateful year it was especially grouchy. And it wasn't just the city, but the whole country. All of France was cranky and irritable, and all the other countries were like, "What?"



Finally, the queen said they should eat cake, and the nation snapped. The people rose up in protest, and, it being time for the French Revolution, they stormed the Bastille on July 14, 1789.



A mob of 20,000 people stormed the Bastille prison in Paris, killing several of its defenders and freeing all seven prisoners incarcerated therein: four forgers, two men judged insane, and an aristocrat imprisoned at his family's request. (The Marquis de Sade had actually been transferred to another prison ten days earlier. Yes, that guy.) The governor was decapitated, and his head was carried around on a pike. So began the French Revolution.



It quickly became clear that the peasants were revolting. (Not that anyone ever thought they were all that attractive.) The storming of the Bastille gave way to the Rain of Terror, a political cataclysm in its own right, which eventually led to Napoleon, Waterloo , and Able was I ere I saw Elba,, all of which have been covered in previous postings and can therefore be ignored for the time being. Eventually the French (who had always been whiners) immersed themselves in Bourbon.


On July 14, 1867, Alfred Nobel first demonstrated his newest invention: dynamite. Mr Nobel spent the rest of his life blowing things up in the interests of world peace.



Sadly, world peace was not achieved in his lifetime. Upon his death he therefore endowed a foundation with billions of dollars to give prizes to men and women of future generations who brought the world closer to peace by blowing things up. At the rate things have been blowing up lately, world peace is obviously just around the corner.


July 14, 1881 -
In the Summer of '81, at the New Mexico home of his friend Pete Maxwell, notorious outlaw Billy the Kid (Paul Newman/ Kris Kristofferson) stepped into a darkened bedroom and was shot dead by sheriff Pat Garrett (Thomas Mitchell/ James Coburn). Billy's last words were "Quién es?" (Who is it?).



How Jane Russell's breasts are involved in this story is another matter completely.


July 14, 1902 -
One day after workmen noticed a large crack in the structure, the Belltower of St. Mark's collapsed into a hill of white dust, on this date.

Ten years later, the city of Venice erected an exact duplicate of the tower on the same spot.


July 14, 1906 -
Tom Carvel, the gravelly-voiced ice cream mogul, was born on this date.



Please order a Cookie Puss or Fudgie the Whale ice cream cake in his honor.


July 14, 1913 -
Gerald Ford, 41st vice-president and 38th president of the United States, (having never been elected to either position) was born as Leslie King, Jr. in Omaha, Nebraska, on this date.



Gerald Rudolph Ford was age two when his mother divorced his father and moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan. She remarried Gerald Ford, Sr., who adopted the young boy and gave him his name. He became vice- president upon Spiro Agnew's resignation from office. Ford assumed the presidency on August 9, 1974, upon the resignation of Richard M. Nixon.


July 14, 1918 -
Arguably one the the greatest film directors ever, Ingmar Bergman, was born on this date.





In an interview in 2004, Bergman said that he was "depressed" by his own films and could not watch them anymore.


July 14, 1933 -
German chancellor Adolf Hitler banned every political party on this date, except his own Evil Nazi Bastards from winning elections.



The Evil Nazi Bastards swept the next elections, demonstrating the public's strong support for this measure.


July 14, 1943 -
Franklin Delano Roosevelt dedicated $30,000 to the George Washington Carver National Monument, on this date, the first US National Monument honoring a black man. The site, near Diamond, Missouri, is housed on the former plantation where Carver lived as a child.

It not only was the first US National Monument to honor a black man, but also only one of three to honor a non-president.


July 14, 1963 -
The Soviet spacecraft Vostok 5 is launched into orbit. Over the course of the next five days, Cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky will set a new record for the longest manned space flight in history.



The record will later be broken by the crew of Gemini 7, but Bykovsky will continue to hold the endurance record for a solo flight.


July 14, 1965 -
The space probe Mariner 4 flew by Mars, sending back the first photographs of the planet — they took eight hours to arrive.



They were the first ever close-up photos of another planet. The photos reveal that the planet’s surface is cratered.


July 14, 1969 -
El Salvador and Honduras fought a four-day conflict, known as The Football War, started on this date, which cost thousands of lives and displaced thousands more. The relationship between the two neighboring countries of El Salvador and Honduras was already acrimonious and it reached a low when El Salvador beat Honduras in an elimination football match as a preliminary to the World Cup.



Tensions escalated and on on this date, the Salvadoran army launched an attack on the Honduran army. The football war between El Salvador and Honduras was short, about 100 hours. But, it was no less a war for that. Men died, the property was destroyed, and refugees abandoned their homes.


July 14, 1969 -
The United States government, directed by President Nixon, eliminated $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 US Dollar bills from circulation on this date.

(There also was a $100,000 gold certificate in 1934 which featured Woodrow Wilson.)



Although they are still technically legal tender in the United States, they have virtually disappeared from everyday use. I would be happy to give a home to any wayward $1,000 bills.


July 14, 1986 -
You Don't Need a License to Drive a Sandwich.

I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready...



Today is Spongebob's birthday.



And so it goes.