The U.S. Congress recognizes the contributions of the more than 180,000 black Americans who fought to preserve the Union during the Civil War, by passing legislation known as the Army Organization Act, establishing six regular Army regiments of black enlisted soldiers. Of those six units, the 9th and 10th Cavalry regiments become two of the most highly decorated units in American military history.
Today is also Milk Chocolate Day. American eat on average 12 lbs of chocolate per year; The Swiss on the other hand eat a little more than 26 lbs a year (that works out to about 450 bars of chocolate.)
If you don't continually gorge on chocolate, the terrorist have won.
(Psst, I've mentioned this before - it is a conspiracy organized by a large Mid Western Syndicate of Big Sugar corporations and dentists.)
July 28, 1932 -
The first film to feature the theme of Zombie-ism, White Zombie starring Béla Lugosi premiered in NYC on this date.
The film was thought lost until its rediscovery in the 1960s. A court battle was fought between film distributor Frank Storace and the estate of Stanley Krellberg, the copyright owner of the film. Storace had wished to produce a restored version but the estate refused him access to original footage in their possession. Storace gave up the court battle and did not win his access to his original footage.
July 28, 1948 -
Bud and Lou's biggest box-office success, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, opened on this date, (this was one of my favorite childhood films.)
The scene in which Wilbur (Lou Costello) is unknowingly sitting on the lap of Frankenstein's monster (Glenn Strange) required multiple takes. The scene allowed Costello to improvise wildly, which caused Strange to constantly break up laughing during the takes.
July 28, 1954 -
The Elia Kazan classic, On the Waterfront, premiered in New York on this date.
As part of his contract, Marlon Brando only worked till 4 every day and then he would leave to go see his analyst. Brando's mother had recently died and the conflicted young actor was in therapy to resolve his issues with his parents.
July 28, 1954 -
One of Humphrey Bogart's best late work, The Caine Mutiny, premiered in New York on this date. (Bogart was already seriously ill with esophageal cancer, although it would not be diagnosed until January 1956.)
The US Navy was never happy about the depiction of Capt. Queeg as a madman in the novel, with the implication that it would hire or keep in place someone so clearly deranged. The film version skirted around that rather contentious issue by making Queeg a victim of battle fatigue or PTSD.
July 28, 1957 -
Jerry Lee Lewis appeared of TV for the first time when he performed on the Steve Allen Show on this date.
Only a year earlier, Allen humiliated Elvis by making him appear in a tuxedo, singing Hound Dog to a dog, in an attempt to desexuallize Elvis' performance, Well, Jerry Lee Lewis gives a performance far more threatening than anything Elvis ever did live on television, just by the way he kicks that stool.
July 28, 1973 -
Bill Graham produced the Summer Jam at Watkins Glen Rock Festival at the Watkins Glen International Raceway, that featured the Allman Brothers, the Band, and the Grateful Dead. The concert was estimated to have drawn some 650,000 people,
Many rock critics claim the event was the largest gathering of people in the history of the United States. 150,000 tickets were sold for $10 each, but for all the other people it was a free concert. The crowd was so huge that a large part of the audience was not able to see the stage.
July 28, 1973 -
Grand Funk Railroad releases their biggest hit We're An American Band on this date.
Grand Funk was one of the best-selling bands of the '70s, and this was their biggest hit.Critics were often very harsh, especially Rolling Stone magazine, but they had a huge fan base and got lots of radio play.
July 28, 1988 -
The second film in the autobiographical series (Trilogy, The Long Day Closes,) from the phenomenal Terence Davies, Distant Voices, Still Lives opened in the US on this date. Please find time to watch this film.
Pete Poslethwaite found it hard to believe that Terence Davies' father (on whom his character was based) could have been so violent and cruel to his family. It wasn't until Davies asked his sister to tell him about being beaten in the cellar with a broomstick by their father (which is depicted in the film) that he accepted it was true.
July 28, 2007 -
Plain White T's single, Hey There Delilah goes to No. 1 on the Billboard Chart, on this date, two years after it was first released.
The "Delilah" refered to in the song is the runner Delilah DiCrescenzo, who lead singer Tom Higgenson was trying to impress with a song.
Another unimportant moment in history
Today in History:
July 28, 1540 -
King Henry VIII married his fifth wife, Catherine Howard on this date.
To celebrate his nuptials, Henry had his chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, executed.
It must have been some reception.
July 28, 1586, (the date is sometimes noted as December 3.) -
Sir Thomas Herriot introduced Colombian potatoes to England. Before this date, potatoes were merely glimpsed from afar, shyly smiling but never saying hello.
July 28, 1794 -
Maximilien "The Incorruptible" Robespierre who had dominated the Committee of Public Safety during the 'Reign of Terror,' was having an extremely bad day. The day before, crustaceous mobs led by lobsters throughout France, drove around Paris, protesting of his dictatorial ways and staged the Coupe of Thermidor, relieving him of his power.
Maximilien Robespierre was then relieved of his head and guillotined for having ravaged the French meteorological cycle with his nefarious Rain of Terror on this date.
July 28, 1835 -
King Louis Philippe of France survived an assassination attempt by Giuseppe Maria Fieschi, who rigged 25 guns together and fired them all with the pull of a single trigger, killing approximately 18 people but not his intended target
Perhaps he should have spent more time on the practice range.
July 28, 1841 -
James Boulard and Henry Mallin pull the decomposed body of a young woman from the Hudson River near Hoboken, New Jersey. Mary Cecilia Rogers, who worked at a popular cigar store, was initially thought to have been killed in the course of a brutal gang rape, but ultimately it seems more likely that she died from a botched abortion.
July 28, 1914 -
One month after the recent assassination of the Archduck Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, on this date.
World War One was underway. In just four years, it would claim 8.5 million lives and leave 21.2 million wounded, and lay the groundwork for an eventual rematch.
Sometimes family feuds just get out of hand.
July 28, 1932 -
(More things your teacher never told you ...)
Federal troops under the order of President Hoover forcibly dispersed the "Bonus Army" of (17,000 World War I veterans) who had gathered in Washington, D.C. on June 17th to demand money they weren't scheduled to receive until 1945.
The troops under the command of General Douglas MacArthur and Major George S. Patton are ordered to charge into the veterans and were sent to destroy the temporary shacks in the Bonus Army's camps in Hooverville on the Anacostia Flats forcing the marchers out. By the end of the day hundreds of veterans were injured, and several were killed.
July 28, 1945 -
A US Army B-25 bomber crashes into the Empire State Building between the 78th and 79th floors. An engine plunges down an elevator shaft, sparking a fire in the basement. Eleven people in the building were killed, in addition to the three man bomber crew. Elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver survived a plunge of 75 stories inside an elevator, which still stands as the Guinness World Record for the longest survived elevator fall recorded. (Kids, please, do not try this at home.)
And as of this morning, from down the street from my home, I can see that it's still standing.
July 28, 1957 -
A C-124 Globemaster II cargo plane of the US Air Force left Dover AFB in Delaware, carrying three nuclear weapons jettisoned its precious cargo into the Atlantic, somewhere east of Delaware and New Jersey, on this date. The bombs were never recovered.
Remember every time you go to a beach off the Jersey Shore, a 200 foot radioactive mutant Blue Crab is lurking somewhere, beneath the waves.
And so it goes.
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