Live like today is your last day on earth and let your inner daredevil shine.
July 26, 1951 -
Walt Disney's 13th animated feature, Alice in Wonderland, premiered in the UK and New York City on this date.
Continuing the pattern of film versions of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland not being commercially successful, this movie was a huge box office failure. However, it did become something of a cult film during the 1960s, where it was viewed as a "head film". Several years later it became the Disney studio's most requested 16mm film rental title for colleges and private individuals. In 1974, the studio took note of this fact, withdrew the rental prints, and reissued the film nationally themselves
July 26, 1969 -
Johnny Cash released the single, A Boy Named Sue, on this date.
This was written by the multitalented Shel Silverstein, who later wrote several hits for Dr. Hook, including Sylvia's Mother and Cover Of The Rolling Stone. Silverstein also wrote several popular children's books. He got the idea for the song from his friend Jean Shepherd - a guy who had to deal with a girly name. Shepherd was a writer/humorist like Silverstein; he narrated the 1983 movie A Christmas Story, which is based on his writings.
July 26, 1980 -
The Rolling Stones started a seven week run at No.1 (the group's eighth US No.1,) on the US album chart with Emotional Rescue, on this date.
Mick Jagger sang much of this in a falsetto, which was the thing to do with disco songs. The Bee Gees did the same thing, but unlike The Stones, were never able to get back the fans they lost to disco.
July 26, 1986 -
Peter Gabriel's song Sledgehammer went to No.1 on the US singles chart, No.4 hit in the UK, on this date.
Gabriel used a horn section (the legendary Memphis Horns, who played on several hits from Stax Records) on this song, which led to criticism that he was trying to copy the style of Phil Collins to gain commercial success. Collins was using horns and getting a lot of radio play with songs like Easy Lover and Sussudio. Gabriel has said that this was never his intent and that he was more of an influence on Collins, his bandmate with Genesis.
July 26, 1991 -
One of Mel Brooks non-film parody movies, Life Stinks, starring Mel, Leslie Ann Warren, Howard Morris, and Jeffrey Tambor premiered on this date. (This was one of my father-in-law's favorite movies.)
The film's original title, Life Sucks, was changed at the studio's insistence.
July 26, 2006 –
The directorial debut of the husband-wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, Little Miss Sunshine, starring Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin, and Alan Arkin, went into limited release on this date.
The production crew made sure Abigail Breslin really was listening to music in her headphones to keep her from hearing Alan Arkin's profanity-laced scenes.
July 26, 2015 -
In a field just outside of Cesena, Italy, 1000 musicians and singers play Foo Fighters Learn to Fly simultaneously with the dream of attracting the band to play a show in their city for the first time in nearly 20 years.
On November 3, 2015, the Foo Fighters performed a 27-song set for the for the Rockin’ 1000, starting with Learn to Fly.
Word of the Day
Today in History:
July 26, 1753 O.S. (August 6, 1753 N.S.) -
Professor Georg Wilhelm Richmann, German physicist, died of electrocution in St. Petersburg, Russia on this date. He was attending a meeting of the Academy of Sciences, when he heard thunder. The Professor ran home with his engraver to capture the event for posterity. While the experiment was underway, a supposed ball lightning appeared and collided with Richmann's head leaving him dead in a red spot. His shoes were blown open, parts of his clothes singed, the engraver knocked out; the door frame of the room was split, and the door itself torn off its hinges.
July 26, 1775 -
The Continental Congress established a postal system for the colonies with Benjamin Franklin as the first postmaster general in Philadelphia on this date.
July 26, 1826 -
Schoolmaster Cayetano Ripoll was hanged in Valencia, Spain after uttering his last words: "I die reconciled to God and to man," on this date. He was the last person executed by the Spanish Inquisition.
Winsor McCay, an American cartoonist and animator, died on this date in 1934. A prolific artist, McCay's pioneering early animated films far outshone the work of his contemporaries, and set a standard followed by Walt Disney and others in later decades.
His two best-known creations are the newspaper comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland, which ran from 1905 to 1914, and the animated cartoon Gertie the Dinosaur, which he created in 1914.
July 26, 1943 -
Michael Philip Jagger, Golden Globe and Grammy Award winning singer, songwriter, occasional film producer and actor, was born on this date.
Deveraux Octavian Basil Jagger, Mick's eighth child (who is almost five years old) is the grand uncle to his half sister Jade Jagger Fillary's first granddaughter, Ezra Key, who is seven (although it is impolite to tell a lady's age.)
July 26, 1947 -
President Harry Truman signed the National Security Act, creating the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The act forbade the CIA from operating within the US.
July 26, 1956 -
A little more than 11 hours after colliding with the Swedish liner Stockholm, the Italian liner Andrea Doria, carrying 1,134 passengers and 572 crew, sank off New England coast.
46 people on the Andrea Doria and 5 crew members of the Stockholm died as a result of the crash. The SS Ile de France had been near the collision site and was able to assist in the rescue of many of the passengers of the Andrea Doria. Within four years, the Ile de France was used as a floating prop for the nautical disaster film, The Last Voyage, which had some plot similarities to the disaster involving the Italian liner SS Andrea Doria.
July 26, 1959 -
There was a partial nuclear reactor meltdown at Rocketdyne’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, on this date. Little known outside of the area, the nuclear accident released far more radiation that the Three Mile Island accident.
A report in 2006 said it may have caused hundreds of cases of cancer in the community, and that chemicals threatened to contaminate ground and water.
July 26, 1984 -
Serial killer, cannibal and flesh suit wearer Ed Gein died at the Mendota Mental Health Institute, a home for the criminally insane on this date.
July 26, 1991 -
And so it goes.
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