You get one more chance this evening,

if you missed seeing Manhattanhenge last night (it was too cloudy).

Those Illuminati are generous, aren't they? (And hey, pay attention to the traffic lights. Don't ruin my birthday by getting run over by a car!)


July 12, 1912 -
The first foreign-made film to premiere in America, Queen Elizabeth (Les Amours de la Reine Élisabeth), starring Sarah Bernhardt premiered on this date in NYC.



Rumors that Bernhardt performed in the film uniped are untrue. Bernhardt did lose her leg to gangrene in 1915.


July 12, 1962 -
The Rolling Stones, (or more precisely, the group that they became) gave their first concert on this date. The concert was held in London at the Marquee Club.

At the time, the band was called The Rollin' Stones - they got their current name in 1963. One of the most successful groups in history, the band has sold more than 200 million albums and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.


July 12, 1984 -
Madonna's Like a Virgin video premiered on MTV on this date and became an instant hit.



Nile Rodgers produced this and recorded it using real musicians instead of relying on synthesized tracks that were characteristic of Madonna's first album. Rodgers had several hits in the '70s with his disco group Chic, and used many of the same musicians on this album. Rodgers has also worked with Peter Gabriel, Al Jarreau, David Bowie, and Sister Sledge.


July 12, 1986 -
The band, Simply Red's hit Holding Back the Years topped the charts on this date.



Simply Red went on to record 10 UK Top 10 hits, including Fairground a 1995 #1. In the US, their cover of Harold Melvyn's If You Don't Know Me by Now became their second American chart topper and the best selling British single in the US in 1989.


July 12, 1991 -
John Singleton directorial debut, Boyz N the Hood, starring Ice Cube, Cuba Gooding Jr., Morris Chestnut, Larry Fishburne, Nia Long, Regina King, and Angela Bassett, went into general release on this date. (John Singleton's Oscar nomination for Best Director at the age of 24 made him the youngest director to ever receive such an accolade, beating Orson Welles by a good two years.)



Writer and director John Singleton based Tre Styles' (Cuba Gooding Jr.) childhood on his own. Singleton's father was a mortgage broker like Furious Styles (Laurence Fishburne). When he was twelve, Singleton moved in with his father in South Los Angeles, California. Like Trey, Singleton stayed out of trouble with his father's guidance and went to college.


Word of the Day


Today in History:
July 12, 100 BCE -
Julius Caesar was born on this date. He is famous for fighting the Garlic Wars and dying of the unkindest cut. His death so shocked the people of Rome that they buried him instead of praising him, although this may have been because he was a Proud Man.



Interesting to note that in between, fighting across most of Europe, Caesar was quoted as saying, It is easier to find men who will volunteer to die, than to find those who are willing to endure pain with patience.


July 12, 1908 -
Milton Berle was an Emmy-winning American comedian who was born Milton Berlinger, on this date. As the manic host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater (1948-1955), he was the first major star of television. He became known as Uncle Miltie to millions during TV's Golden Age.



That's all well and good but the real thing you want to know about Uncle Miltie is his prodigious member.



Seabiscuit, she said -

now try getting that out of your mind's eye.


Other notable July 12 birthdays include:
Henry David Thoreau (1817)




George Washington Carver (1861 - there is no actual documentation on his exact birth date)



(God bless you Dr. Carver, for your work on alcohol.)


Oscar Hammerstein II (1895)




R. Buckminster Fuller (1895)




"Curly" Joe DeRita (1909)




Christine McVie (1943)




Richard Simmons (1948)

Me (1960)

(make sure you check out this year's

Godzilla's Atoll LPs.)


Kristi Yamaguchi (1971)




Nobel Peace laureate Malala Yousafzai (1997)

July 12, 1843 -
Mormon numero uno Joseph Smith discloses a divine revelation instructing his followers to take multiple wives, in what the LDS Church calls "plural marriage" but everyone else calls polygamy.



The Mormons are ultimately forced to disclaim the practice in September 1890.


On July 12, 1957, Dwight D. Eisenhower became the first president to employ a helicopter while in office. The first helicopter put into presidential service was the HMX-1 "Nighthawks."

Though helicopters had been in operational use by the American military since 1944, concerns over their safety caused the Secret Service to bar their use for the nation’s chief executive except in case of emergency.


July 12, 1960 -
In 1955, a French electrician named André Cassagnes got an idea for a new toy after seeing how an electrostatic charge could hold aluminum powder to glass. He worked up a prototype for the toy—based on the design of a television screen—in his basement workshop and called it L’Ecran Magique, or the Magic Screen.



The first Etch-A-Sketch went on sale on this date.


July 12, 1979 -
Bonanno crime boss Carmine Galante, the "cigar problem", was whacked at Joe and Mary's Restaurant in Brooklyn on this date. Galante died with a cigar still in his mouth.

Almost everyone in the New York mob feared the ruthless crime boss, so the killing was sanctioned by the consensus of Paul Castellano, Joe Bonanno and Santo Trafficante.


July 12, 1979 -
Bill Veeck, owner of the White Sox, decided to have "Disco Demolition Night" at Chicago's Comiskey Park, where baseball tickets cost only $.98 if the purchaser brought along a disco record for the bonfire on this date.



During the second game of the doubleheader, thousands of vinyl LPs flew onto the field, generating enough chaos that the White Sox are forced to forfeit. (One of our bunkies shared with us that Mike Veeck, Bob Veeck's son, along with Bill Murray, owns a string of independent baseball teams. Their motto: "Fun is Good."



And so it goes.