What day is it today?

If I understand this correctly, because it's the 20th anniversary of Amazon (the company and not the river), Walmart have declared it Cyber Monday (in July.) So if you need to buy anything, apparently use your computer and shop at either Amazon (Prime) or Walmart - they are giving the store away.


July 15 1956 -
You think you're gonna make a slave of the world... I'll see you in Hell first!

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.



When leading lady Beverly Garland got her first look at the titular monster, her sarcastic remark was, "THAT conquered the world?".  American International released the film on a double bill with The She-Creature.


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



The dialogue between Mary and Ted about how there aren't enough meats on sticks was originally written for an episode of Seinfeld that never aired. The Farrelly Brothers liked it and bought it for use in the movie.


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 calamari 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 harbour 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, the group of British women and children being held by rebels in Chawnpore, India were cut to pieces with knives and hatchets. Then their remains are tossed into a well.



When British forces finally retook Chawnpore, 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 is 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 always say if music can't make you cry, you're a hopeless case. I don't cry very much myself, but it's my job to make you cry.







Linda Ronstadt, singer and actress was born in Tucson, Arizona on this date. (Hopefully Linda is feeling well these days.)


July 15, 1979 -
President 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.


On July 15, 2007,

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



As of last night, (and this is a crude estimate) the team holds the record for the most games lost by any professional American sports team in history with 10,613.


And so it goes