The Saint Christopher feast day, celebrated on July 25, was removed from the Roman Catholic calendar of saints in 1969. But by all means, please feel free to continue to pray to this beleaguered saint (or non-saint.)
July 25, 1953 -
The Merrie Melodies cartoon, Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century, starring Daffy Duck as space hero Duck Dodgers, Porky Pig as his assistant and Marvin the Martian as his opponent, was released on this date
Considering the period in which the cartoon was produced (the Second Red Scare was in full swing during the 1950s era), some scholars have used the cartoon to parallel the futility of the Cold War and the arms race.
July 25, 1960 -
When The Everly Brothers and Elvis Presley decided not to record his tune, Roy Orbison decided to record the song Only the Lonely himself. It reach reached the No.2 spot on the US Billboard's singles chart on this date.
This was one of the first songs Roy Orbison and Joe Melson wrote together. The inspiration for the lyrics came from Melson, who as a teenager fell in love with a girl who left him brokenhearted. Melson says that she took off in a Cadillac and the words to this song came to him naturally. Melson also says that the song was his proudest moment as a songwriter, as it was his first hit with Orbison. The pair would write many more hits for Orbison, including Running Scared, Crying and Blue Bayou.
July 25, 1966 -
The Supremes release the single You Can't Hurry Love, on this date.
This was written by the prolific songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland. It was based on a gospel song entitled You Can't Hurry God, which was sung by Dorothy Love Coates and the Gospel Harmonettes, a gospel group based in Birmingham, Alabama.
July 25, 1980 -
The very silly movie, Caddyshack, premiered on this date (watch it - you'll laugh in spite of yourself.)
As it was his first directing job and he wanted to make sure the production was successful, Harold Ramis avoided fraternizing with the cast and crew's late night parties to focus on the next day's shoot. However when filming wrapped, Ramis had gone to the wrap party and partied so heavily and early into the party, that he had to be carried back to his hotel room.
July 25, 1980 -
AC/DC released their seventh studio album Back In Black, on this date. It was their first since the death of the band’s lead singer Bon Scott.
The album has sold an estimated 49 million copies worldwide to date, making it the second highest-selling album of all time, and the best-selling hard rock or heavy metal album.
July 25, 1986 -
Paramount Pictures released the Mike Nichols version of the Nora Ephron novel, Heartburn, starring Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson and Kevin Spacey (in his film debut) on this date.
Jack Nicholson replaced Mandy Patinkin as Mark Forman. Patinkin was originally cast as the male lead but was suddenly replaced by Nicholson after two days of shooting when director Mike Nichols realized there was no chemistry between Patinkin and lead actress Meryl Streep.
July 25, 1989 -
After leaving Def Jam, Beastie Boys release their second album, Paul's Boutique, on Capitol Records, on this date.
Paul's Boutique was a very big deal because it determined the whether the Beastie Boys were going to be a short-lived novelty act (not a stretch considering their big hit (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party)) or a group with staying power. The album didn't sell very well compared to their first effort, but it earned them the acclaim they badly needed at that point and paved the way to their Hall of Fame career.
July 25, 2010 -
An undated television series based on Arthur Conan Doyle's tales of his famous detective Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, premiered on the BBC, on this date.
Many of the crew in Sherlock are related. Sherlock's parents are actually actor Benedict Cumberbatch's parents, Wanda Ventham and Timothy Carlton; Amanda Abbington (Mary Morstan) and Martin Freeman (John Watson) were real-life partners; producer Sue Vertue is writer Steven Moffat's wife, and co-producer and writer Beryl Vertue is his mother-in-law; writer Mark Gatiss' husband is the barrister in The Reichenbach Fall; Steven Moffat's son plays Sherlock Holmes as a child in a few episodes.
Today's moment of Zen
Today in History:
July 25, 1184 -
A feud between Louis III, Landgrave of Thuringia (an area in Central Germany) and Archbishop Conrad of Mainz also in Central Germany) which had existed since the defeat of Henry the Lion intensified to the point that King Henry VI (of Germany) was forced to intervene while he was traveling through the region during a military campaign against Poland. Henry decided to call a diet in Erfurt where he was staying to mediate the situation between the two and invited a number of other figures to the negotiations. On this date, a number of European nobles from across the Holy Roman Empire were at the meeting in a room at the Church of St. Peter at Erfurt, when their combined weight caused the floor to collapse into the latrine beneath the cellar and led to about 60 of nobles drowning in liquid excrement.
Others were luckier, being only injured or even leaving with minor contusions. This was the case of Louis III, who, although he fell into the cesspool, was able to get out and overcome the imaginable infections he might have suffered from his wounds and scrapes. His opponent, Archbishop Conrad, also survived, sitting on a window sill and holding on to the stained glass frame until he was rescued. Henry VI himself was saved for the same reason, remaining there until they were able to lower him down a ladder. By the way, he left the city immediately.
It is referred to as the "Erfurt latrine disaster." This disproved the Monty Python axiom concerning the ability to discern who was royalty but I'm sure you could care less.
July 25, 1689 -
King Louis XIV of France, a few years after his anal fistula surgery (See Nov. 18) declared war on Britain on this date, for having joined the League of Augsburg and the Netherlands in order to oppose the French invasion of the Rhenish Palatinate.
July 25, 1848 -
British statesman Arthur James Lord Balfour was born on this date. In 1917, as Foreign Secretary of the British Government, Lord Balfour declared that "His Majesty's Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."
This came to be known as the Balfour Declaration, acknowledged by scholars throughout the world as the beginning of the Middle East Peace Process.
July 25, 1865 -
Dr. James Barry, British military medical officer and senior inspector general, died on this date.
As the good doctor was being laid out, a charwoman, Sophia Bishop noticed that Barry was a 'perfect female'. She satisfied her curiosity and also noticed what appeared to be stretch marks on Barry's stomach indicating the doctor had once been pregnant. It was soon revealed that Dr. Barry was likely a female, born Margaret Ann Bulkley.
July 25, 1909 -
French aviator Louis Blériot became the first person to fly across the English Channel when his aircraft (a 28hp wooden monoplane tied together with piano strings) landed in Dover, on this date.
The 36-year-old took off at 5:00 am from an airstrip near Calais and landed 43 minutes later. Blériot had followed his course by looking at ships below, having no compass in the airplane. Blériot claimed his prize of £1,000, offered by the newspaper Daily Mail for this feat.
July 25, 1917 -
Margaret Zelle, also known as Mata Hari, was found guilty of spying and was sentenced to death, on this date.
There is no actual evidence that she is a spy, although she may have slept with half of the German army (and the French had a thing about that.)
July 25, 1920 -
English chemist Rosalind Franklin, the unsung hero of DNA research, was born on the date.
James Watson and Francis Crick got the Nobel Prize for discovering the double helix after Franklin's lab partner showed Watson one of her best images — an X-ray labelled ‘photograph 51'. Some believe she should have shared in their Nobel Prize.
July 25, 1936 -
After NYC's 'Master Builder' Robert Moses had millions of yards of brown and white sand shipped from the Rockaways, Northport and Sandy Hook to Pelham Bay Park, Orchard Beach, the Bronx Rivera, was opened to the public on this date.
July 25, 1943 -
Benito Mussolini attempted to resign as Head Rat Bastard of Italy on this date. He did not receive a gold watch. His 401(K) was in tatters (and had not yet matured.) (I like to remind folks that one of our loyal bunkies is related to one of the carabinieris who arrested Il Duce on this date.)
July 25, 1946 -
The US conducted the first underwater test of the atomic bomb, as part of the Operation Crossroads series of nuclear bomb tests at the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.
The bomb, called Baker was detonated 90 feet underwater. Its explosion contaminated the target ships so badly that the Navy had to cancel the one remaining nuclear weapon test called Charlie.
July 25, 1956 -
Yes, I know that the ships Andrea Doria and Stockholm collided off Nantucket on this date
July 25, 1965 -
The ever-changing Bob Dylan plugged in for his headlining set backed by the Butterfield Blues Band at The Newport Folk Festival in Newport, Rhode Island, on this date. Dylan's electric performance at the Newport Folk Festival surprised his audience — and not in a good way.
The crowd booed, even when he played his classic song Like A Rolling Stone. Regardless, his artistic direction was the beginning of a new plugged-in era in folk and rock music.
July 25, 1978 -
Lesley and Peter Brown, had tried for years to have a baby, but Lesley suffered from blocked fallopian tubes. Their doctors, a British gynecologist named Patrick Steptoe and a scientist named Robert Edwards, successfully developed the world's first in-vitro fertilization procedure and helped the Browns conceive. Their daughter, Louise Brown was born in Oldham, England on this date.
Though it was controversial at the time, the procedure now is considered mainstream; hundreds of thousands of babies have been conceived via IVF.
July 25, 1984 -
Russian astronaut Svetlana Savitskaya performed a space walk while stationed on the Soviet space station Salyut 7, becoming the first woman who walking in space.
She also was the second woman in space - the first was Russian astronaut Valentina Tereshkova, 17 years earlier.
July 25, 1990 -
Please rise for the singing of our National Anthem -
At a baseball game, actress Roseanne Arnold warbled the Star Spangled Banner, grabbed her crotch and endeared herself to an entire nation on this date.
July 25, 1999 -
Woodstock '99 festival ended on this date with looting and rioting, leaving 12 trailers burned, towers toppled, and several women attacked during the course of the show.
About 500 state troopers were needed to quell the mass uprising of peace and love, apparently triggered by overpriced vendors and commercialization.
July 25, 2000 -
A right tire explosion on the Concorde caused the plane to crash after takeoff from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris on this date, leaving 113 dead.
It is the first crash in Concorde's history, and the only supersonic commercial flight to ever crash.
And so it goes.
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