Warning: May cause extreme happiness.

It's National Fried Clam Day today. Unlike most of these so called 'holidays', this one is actually based on an event. The story goes that Lawrence “Chubby” Woodman of Essex, Massachusetts was the first person to make deep fried clams, in 1916. As one if Woodman’s specialties was making potato chips, he already had the vats and oil, so frying the clams was not a far stretch. Especially in Massachusetts, which is on the eastern coast of the US, where clam digging is especially popular.



This event is noted to have taken place on July 3, one day prior to American Independence Day, so Chubby and his wife, Bessie, decided to set up a stall to sell them to the people of their community. They were an instant hit and grew in popularity from that time. The rest, as they say is history.


July 3, 1944 -
Billy Wilder's film noir classic, Double Indemnity, starring Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck premiered in Baltimore, Maryland, on this date.



Edward G. Robinson's initial reluctance to sign on largely stemmed from the fact he wasn't keen on being demoted to third lead. Eventually, he realized that he was at a transitional phase of his career, plus the fact that he was getting paid the same as Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray for doing less work.


July 3, 1951 -
An under-appreciated Hitchcock classic, Strangers on a Train, was released on this date.



In the scene where Ruth Roman and Patricia Hitchcock are watching the tennis match, Ruth gives Patricia a real U.S. ten dollar bill. Showing real U.S. money in movies then was illegal without permission from the U.S. Treasury Department. The Treasury Department later removed the prohibition for Psycho and later movies.


July 3, 1962 -
John Frankenheimer's biography of Robert Stroud, Birdman of Alcatraz, starring the amazing Burt Lancaster, premiered on this date.



Robert Stroud really should be known as the "Birdman of Leavenworth," since it was there that he kept his birds and did his research. He was not actually allowed any birds during his time at Alcatraz.


July 3, 1973 -
At the Hammersmith Odeon in London, after 182 Ziggy Stardust concert performances, David Bowie appears as Ziggy Stardust for the last time, explaining: "Not only is this the last show of the tour, but it's the last show that we'll ever do." Many take this to mean Bowie was retiring from music altogether, though Bowie just means he is retiring Stardust.



Only his guitarist Mick Ronson knew about the announcement, which came as a complete shock not only to the audience but the rest of Bowie's band and crew. This show is later made into a movie directed by D.A. Pennebaker called Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars.


July 3, 1985 -
Universal released Robert Zemeckis' sci-fi comedy Back To The Future, starring Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson and Crispin Glover on this date.



When this movie was previewed for a test audience, Industrial Light and Magic had not completed the final DeLorean-in-flight shot, and the last several minutes of the movie were previewed in black and white. It didn't matter, as the audience roared in approval of the final scene anyway.


July 3, 1996 -
One of the great summer popcorn movies, Independence Day, was released on this date.



Production designer Patrick Tatopoulos presented Roland Emmerich with two concepts for the aliens. Emmerich liked both designs so much, he came up with the idea to use one design as the actual alien and the other to be a bio-mechanical suit the aliens could wear. Both of Tatopoulos's concepts appear in the film.


Another job posting from The ACME Employment Agency


Today in History:
Siriusly - The Dog Days of Summer begin today. (That's an inside joke for astronomers.)

The following is provided for the benefit of non-astronomers.

Sirius is the name of the brightest star in the night-time sky (the brightest star in the day-time sky is called "the sun"), and it's known as the dog star because it's located in the constellation Canis Major - or, in English, Major Dog. The hottest days of the year in the northern hemisphere happen to coincide with the period during which Sirius rises with our own Sun, and ancient man therefore concluded that Sirius was contributing to the heat.

Like most men, they were wrong, but like most modern idiots, we continue to cherish their timeless wisdom anyway. Plus, having "Dog Days" of summer is a great boon to advertising copywriters, whose creativity is surely the driving force behind western civilization.


Joyeux anniversaire au Québec, vous ne cherchez pas un jour plus de 400.

On this date in 1608, the very manly French explorer Samuel de Champlain invented Quebec. Since then, the French Canadians have been even more obnoxious than the French themselves.


July 3, 1844 -
Museums and collectors, wanting the rare penguin-like Great Auks' skin and eggs, hunted the bird to extinction on this date. The last pair of known birds was found in Iceland by three hunters, Jón Brandsson, Sigurður Ísleifsson and Ketill Ketilsson.

The birds, which were incubating eggs, were strangled by Brandsson and Sigurour while Ketilsson smashed the eggs. There was one more reported sighting of a lone Auk in Newfoundland in 1852, which some scientists accept as the last sighting.

(Wow, would I hate to be the relatives of these three guys.)


July 3, 1863 -
The long three day Battle of Gettysburg ended on this date, marking the bloodiest battle the country had yet seen.



The fighting in the small Pennsylvania town marked a pivotal point in the Civil War and although both sides losses were essentially equal, helped turn the outcome toward the Union forces.


July 3, 1940 -
(Things your teacher never told you)
Following the German invasion and occupation of France, French warships fled to the port of Mers-el-Kebir in Algeria. Britain gave the french Vichy government the options of the following for it's French Navy:

1. Join British naval forces in the fight against Germany.
2. Hand the ships over to British crews.
3. Disarm the French Navy Ships.
4. Scuttle the ships.



The French refused, so Britain fearing the French Ships would be used by the Germans to help with an invasion of England circled the port with British Warships and opened fire on the French fleet, killing 1,250 French sailors, damaging the battleship Dunkerque and destroying the Bretagne and the Provence.


July 3, 1962 -
Happy Birthday Tom Cruise (Mapother IV), who turns 62 today.



Word to the wise: with the seventh film in the franchise opening in 2023, the mission is probably not impossible.


July 3, 1965 -
Roy Rogers' horse, Trigger, died at 25 on this date. His mounted body (bunkies, the preferred term is 'mounted'; stuffed is more like the plush toy on your bed.) was placed on display at Rogers' Museum in Victorville, Ca. (It then moved to a Roy Rogers' museum in Branson, Missouri.)



Trigger was not alone; Buttermilk (Dale Evans' horse) and Bullet (the Rogers' German Shepherd) were displayed alongside. (The Branson musuem closed in 2010 and Trigger, Buttermilk and Bullet were then residing in the lobby of the RFD-TV building -- just across the street from the former Branson museum. The former TV stars were shuffled around to various exhibitions by the TV station until a few years ago. RFD-TV acquired Don Imus' Ranch in New Mexico, making it a luxury resort and giving Trigger, Buttermilk and Bullet their new home.)


On July 3, 1969, Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones drowned in his own swimming pool on this date.



Although he was the first Rolling Stone to do so, Mr Jones is just one of millions of people to have drowned in their own swimming pools. As a public service I have therefore chosen to help American readers prepare for the long holiday weekend with some advice on how not to drown in one's pool:

1. The easiest way not to drown in your own pool is not to have one. Readers without pools may enhance their safety further by consulting the previous articles, "How Not to Kill Yourself: Don't throw your toaster into your bathtub!" and "How to cross the street without being run over."

2. If you insist upon owning a pool, don't swim, walk, or nap in its vicinity.

3. Pools don't drown people: water does. A drained pool is a safe pool. In troubling times like these, it's also worth noting that empty pools may be put to good use as bunkers or bomb shelters.

4. Avoid the use of electronic equipment while swimming. Today's multi-tasking professionals may feel inclined to save time by checking their email or drafting a Powerpoint presentation while taking a few laps, but this can prove ruinous for one's telecommunications equipment and, in the case of desktop computers or mainframes, not much better for one's own health.

5. Wait at least 45 minutes before swimming after the ingestion of mind-altering substances.

6. Don't be a rock star. Scientific research has proven that rock stars are seven times more likely than the general population to drown in swimming pools, bathtubs, or pools of their own vomit.

7. Do not attempt to convert the water in your pool to Jell-O. Jell-O is just as deadly as chlorinated water when ingested by the lungs, but far more likely to attract insects and vermin. It is one thing to drown in your own pool: it is quite another to drown in your own pool and then be devoured by maggots.

8. Avoid poisonous snakes.


July 3, 1971 -
Kids, apparently even bathtubs are not safe for rock stars.

Jim Morrison was found dead of an apparent heart attack in his Paris apartment bathtub on this date.



That's what he wants us to think, anyway.


July 3, 1986 -
President Ronald Reagan presided over a gala ceremony in New York Harbor that saw the relighting of the renovated Statue of Liberty.



The restoration efforts, led under the direction of Lee Iacocca, cost $87 million dollars.


July 3, 1987 -
British millionaire Richard Branson and Swedish-born Per Lindstrand, the balloon's designer, became the first hot-air balloon travelers to cross the Atlantic on this date.



The two men were forced to jump into the sea as their craft went down off the coast of Scotland. Let's hope his intergalactic flights go a tad better.



And so it goes.