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, 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.
The aircraft carrier on which the movie takes place is actually a wooden deck built on the edge of a cliff at a deserted Marineland facility. The film was shot at an angle that made the deck look like a ship at sea.
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.
When she was cast as Mrs. Fisher, Dame Joan Plowright said that about twenty years earlier she and Dame Maggie Smith had planned an adaption of the same novel in which they would play the parts of Lottie Wilkins and Rose Arbuthnot.
Word of the Day
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.
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 mountain, the second-tallest mountain in the world.
K2 was known to the Chinese as "Great Mountain" and to Indian and Pakistani locals as "That Big Thing Over There." It was not until 1856, when T.G. Montgomerie of Britain's Survey of India was logging the mountains of the Karakorum range, that it was dubbed K2. 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 believed the mountain was assisting underage children to sneak into the country across the border.)
It was an Italian expedition led by Ardito Desio that first succeeded in ascending to the peak of K2. Team members Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni achieved that distinction on July 31, 1954.
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.
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.
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.
And so it goes.
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