JULY

July 1

birthdays:  1725 – Comte de Rochambeau (French admiral at Yorktown)  /  1906 – Estee Lauder  /  1916 – Olivia de Havilland (actress – Gone With the Wind)  /  1945 – Deborah Harry (singer – Blondie)  /  1952 –  Dan Ackroyd  /  1961 –  Princess Diane  /  1961 – Carl Lewis (sprinter and long jumper – 9 Gold Medals at Olympics)  /  1967 – Pamela Anderson (actress –  Baywatch)  /  1971 – Missy Elliot (biggest hit – “Get Ur Freak On”)  /  1977 – Liv Tyler 

–  1097 –  Crusaders win the first battle of the Crusades –  Dorylaeum

–  1535 –  Sir Thomas More goes on trial in England for treason against King Henry VIII

–  1775 –  John Rutledge becomes second Chief Justice

–  1862 –  Battle of Malvern Hill

–  1863 –  Battle of Gettysburg begins

–  1873 –  Henry Flipper becomes first black to enter West Point

–  1874 – first American zoo opens in Philadelphia

–  1898 –  the Charge Up San Juan Hill

–  1903 –  first Tour de France begins

–  1904 –  first Olympics held in the U.S. (St. Louis)

–  1905 –  Einstein proposes his theory of relativity

–  1908 –  SOS becomes a worldwide symbol of distress

–  1916 –  Battle of the Somme begins with 20,000 British soldiers killed on this day

–  1932 –  NY Governor FDR nominated by Democratic Convention in Chicago

–  1939 –  Roy Plunkett files a patent for Teflon

–  1941 –  NBC airs the first TV commercial

–  1942 –  Battle of El Alamein begins

–  1963 –  zip codes introduced

–  1967 –  The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” goes #1 in U.S. and stays 15 weeks

–  1971 –  26^th Amendment is ratified

–  1972 –  Gloria Steinem’s Ms. magazine is published

–  1979 –  Sony introduces the Walkman

–  1982 –  Cal Ripkin begins his 2,216 game playing streak

Quote:   If I lose mine honor, I lose myself.  –  Shakespeare

July 2

birthdays:  1908 –  Thurgood Marshall  /  1925 – Medgar Evers (Civil Rights activist who was assassinated)  /  1932 –  Dave Thomas (founder of Wendy’s)  /  1937 –  Richard Petty (winner of 200 NASCAR races)  /  1947 –  Larry David (Curb Your Enthusiasm)  /  1964 – Jose Canseco (baseball player)  /  1985 –  Ashley Tisdale  /  1986 – Lindsay Lohan  /  1989 –  Alice Morgan (soccer player)  /  1990 – Margot Robbie 

–  1505 –  Martin Luther vows to become a monk after getting caught in a violent thunder storm

–  1644 –  Oliver Cromwell’s “Roundheads” defeat Prince Ruper’s Royalists  in the Battle of Marston Moor in the English Civil War

–  1809 –  Shawnee chief Tecumseh calls on all Indian tribes to resist white encroachment

–  1843 –  an alligator falls from the sky during a thunder storm in Charleston, S.C.

–  1850 –  American inventor B.J. Lane patents the gas mask

–  1853 –  the Crimean War begins

–  1863 –  second day of the Battle of Gettysburg

–  1864 –  Bill “Candy” Cummings pitches the first curve ball

–  1881 –  James Garfield shot by Charles Guiteau (he dies 79 days later)

–  1937 –  Amelia Earhart disappears in a flight across the Pacific

–  1941 –  Joe Dimaggio breaks Willie Keeler’s 44 game hitting streak

–  1947 –  supposed UFO crashes near Roswell, New Mexico

–  1962 –  Sam Walton opens his first Walmart in Rogers, Arkansas

–  1964 –  Pres. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964

–  1976 –  Vietnam officially becomes one country

–  1979 –  Susan B. Anthony dollar issued – first coin honoring a woman

–  1992 –  Stephen Hawking breaks British publishing records with A Brief History of Time

Quote:   It’s not enough to speak, but to speak true.  –  Shakespeare

July 3

birthdays:  1567 –  Samuel de Champlain (explorer)  /  1878 – George Cohan (Father of Musical Comedy)  /  1883 – Franz Kafka  /  1886 – Raymond Spruance (admiral at the Battle of Midway)  /  1943 –  Geraldo Rivera  /  1947 –  Dave Barry (humorist)  /  1962 – Tom Cruise  /  1971 – Julian Assange (founder of Wikileaks)  /  1980 –  Olivia Munn 

–  324 –   Battle of Adrianople

–  1187 –  Battle of Hattin

–  1608 –  Champlain founds Quebec

–  1754 –  George Washington surrenders Fort Necessity to the French

–  1775 –  Washington takes command of the Continental Army

–  1861 –  first Pony Express trip – a letter from San Francisco to NYC

–  1863 –  Battle of Gettysburg ends

–  1890 – Idaho becomes the 43^rd state

–  1920 –  Bill Tilden becomes the first American to win Wimbledon

–  1957 –  Nikita Khrushchev takes power

–  1962 –  Jackie Robinson becomes the first African-American inducted into the Hall of Fame

–  1971 –  Jim Morrison is found dead in a bathtub in Paris

–  1976 –  Israeli commandos rescue 103 hostages from Entebbe, Uganda

–  1985 –  “Back to the Future” premieres

–  1988 –  the USS Vincennes accidentally shoots down an Iranian jet liner in the Persian Gulf killing all 290

Quote:   History is the record of an encounter between character and circumstance.  –  Donald Creighton

July 4

birthdays:  1804 – Nathaniel Hawthorne  /  1807 –  Giuseppe Garibaldi  /  1826 –  Stephen Foster  /  1847 – James Bailey (Barnum’s circus partner)  /  1872 –  Calvin Coolidge  /  1883 – Rube Goldberg (Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist)  /  1916 – Tokyo Rose  /  1918 –  Ann Landers and Abigail Van Buren (twin advice columnists)  /  1927 –  Neil Simon  /  1946 – Ron Kovic (anti-war activist who wrote Born on the Fourth of July)  /  1995 – Post Malone (biggest hit – “Better Now”) 

–  1776 –  the Thirteen Colonies proclaim independence

–  1796 –  first Independence Day celebration

–  1802 –  West Point opens

–  1817 –  construction begins on the Erie Canal

–  1826 –  John Adams and Thomas Jefferson die on the 50^th anniversary of declaring independence

–  1845 –  Henry David Thoreau moves into a shack at Walden Pond

–  1855 –  Walt Whitman published “Leaves of Grass”

–  1862 –  Lewis Carroll creates “Alice in Wonderland” for Alice Liddell on a family boat trip

–  1863 –  Vicksburg surrenders to Gen. Grant

–  1879 –  British crush the Zulu’s at Ulundi in the last battle of the Anglo-Zulu War

–  1881 –  Booker T. Washington opens Tuskegee Institute

–  1883 –  Buffalo Bill Cody performs his first Wild West Show

–  1884 –  France presents the U.S. with the Statue of Liberty

–  1886 –  the first rodeo in held in Prescott, Arizona

–  1895 –  “America the Beautiful” is published as a poem

–  1964 –  “I Get Around” by the Beach Boys reaches #1

–  1970 –  Casey Kasem’s “American Top 40” debuts

–  1977 –  the Raid on Entebbe –  Israeli commandos rescue Israeli hostages in Uganda

Quote:   The best thing about the future is it comes one day at a time.  –  Lincoln

July 5

–  birthdays –  1801 – David Farragut (Union admiral)  /  1810 –  P.T. Barnum  /  1958 –  Bill Watterson (cartoonist – Calvin and Hobbes)  /  1905 –  Megan Rapinoe (MVP of 2018 Women’s World Cup)  /  1951 –  Huey Lewis (singer –  biggest hit =  “The Power of Love”)  /  1996 –  Dolly the Sheep (first cloned mammal) 

–  1687 –  Isaac Newton publishes Principia

–  1811 –  Simon Bolivar declares Venezuelan independence

–  1935 –  FDR signs the Wagner Act

–  1937 –  Hormel introduces Spam

–  1946 –  the bikini is introduced by designer Louis Reard in Paris

–  1994 –  Jeff Bezos founds Amazon

Quote:   You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take.  –  Wayne Gretzky

July 6

–  birthdays –  1747 – John Paul Jones  /  1923 –  Nancy Reagan  /  1925 – Bill Haley (singer – “Rock Around the Clock”)  /  1927 – Janet Leigh (actress – “Psycho”)  /  1946 – George W. Bush  /  1946 –  Sylvester Stallone  /  1975 – 50 Cent (biggest hit –  “In Da Club”)  /  1979 – Kevin Hart  /  1980 –  Eva Green (actress – “Casino Royale”) 

–  1189 –  Richard the Lionheart crowned King of England

–  1348 –  Pope Clement VII issued papal bull proclaiming that the Jews are not to blame for the Black Plague

–  1483  –  Richard III crowned King of England

–  1553 –  Mary I becomes the first queen of England to rule by herself

–  1699 –  pirate William Kidd captured in Boston

–  1853 –  William Wells Brown publishes the first novel by an African-American –  Clotel

–  1854 –  the Republican Party is created

–  1885 –  Louis Pasteur successfully tests a rabies vaccine on a boy infected by a rabid dog

–  1908 –  Robert Peary leaves NYC on his expedition to the North Pole

–  1917 –   Lawrence of Arabia captures the port of Aqaba

–  1923 –  the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is formed

–  1942 –  Anne Frank’s family goes into hiding

–  1945 –  Nicaragua becomes the first nation to ratify the United Nations charter

–  1947 –  the AK-47 goes into production in the Soviet Union

–  1957 –  Althea Gibson becomes the first African-American woman to win Wimbledon

–  1965 –  rock group “Jefferson Airplane” is formed

–  1971 –  the Plumbers is formed to plug leaks in the Nixon Administration

–  1976 –  the Naval Academy enrolls the first women

–  1994 –  “Forrest Gump” is released

–  2016 –  Pokemon Go is released

Quote:   It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.  –  Harry Truman

July 7

– birthdays –  1880 – Otto Rohwedder (inventor of the bread slicing machine)  /  1906 –  Satchel Paige (famous Negro League pitcher)  /  1907 – Robert Heinlein (sci-fi author)  /  1940 – Ringo Starr  (biggest hit =  “You’re Sixteen”)   /  1949 –  Shelley Duvall  /  1966 – Jim Gaffigan 

–  1802 –  the first comic book is published –  “The Wasp”  (it criticizes Republican politicians)

–  1865 –  Mary Surratt becomes the first woman executed in the U.S. for her involvement with the plot to kill Lincoln

–  1908 –  the Great White Fleet sets sail from San Francisco

–  1928 –  sliced bread first sold in Missouri

–  1930 –  construction begins on the Boulder (later Hoover) Dam

–  1942 –  Heinrich Himmler begins experiments on women at Auschwitz

–  1946 –  Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini becomes the first American canonized as a saint

–  1967 –  The Doors “Light My Fire” reaches #1

–  1987 –  Oliver North begins testimony in the Iran-Contra Affair

–  1989 –  CD’s outsell vinyl records for the first time

–  2019 –  U.S. women’s soccer team wins its fourth World Cup over the Netherlands 2-0

Quote:   All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered;  the point is to discover them. –  Galileo

July 8

–  birthdays –  1831 – John Pemberton (pharmacist who invented Coca-Cola)  /  1839 – John D. Rockefeller  /  1908 –  Nelson Rockefeller (Ford’s Vice President)  /  1948 – Raffi  /  1951 – Angelica Huston (actress – “Prizzi’s Honor”)  /  1958 – Kevin Bacon  /  1961 – Toby Keith (biggest hit –  “Beers Ago”)  /  1970 –  Beck (biggest hit –  “Loser”) 

–  1497 –  Vasco da Gama begins his voyage to India

–  1608 –  Samuel de Champlain establishes the first French settlement at Quebec, Canada

–  1835 –  the Liberty Bell cracks again

–  1853 –  Commodore Matthew Perry sails into Tokyo Bay

–  1856 –  first ice cream sundae served by Edward Berner in Wisconsin (named because he only offered it on Sundays)

–  1889 –  first issue of the Wall Street Journal

–  1896 –  William Jennings Bryan gives his “Cross of Gold” speech

–  1918 –  Ernest Hemingway is wounded while working as an ambulance driver in Italy in WWI

–  1936 –  the Spanish Civil War begins

–  1950 –  MacArthur becomes commander of the U.N. army in Korea

–  1959 –  Maj. Dale Ruis and Sgt. Chester Ovnand become first Americans killed in Vietnam

–  1960 –  Francis Gary Powers charged with espionage in the Soviet Union

Quote:   It is far better to be alone than to be in bad company.  –  George Washington

July 9

–  birthdays –  1819 –  Elias Howe (inventor of the sewing machine)  /  1887 –  Samuel Eliot Morison (historian)  /  1945 –  Dean Koontz (sci-fi author)  /  1946 –  Bon Scott (original lead singer for AC/DC)  /  1947 –  O.J. Simpson  /  1956 –  Tom Hanks  /  1964 –  Courtney Love (singer for Hole – biggest hit –  “Celebrity Skin”;  wife of Kurt Cobain)  /  1975 –  Jack White (of The White Stripes –  biggest hit –  “Seven Nation Army”)  /  1976 –  Fred Savage (actor –  The Wonder Years) 

–  1755 –  Battle of the Wilderness

–  1893 –  Dr. Daniel Hale Williams performs the first open-heart surgery (without anesthesia)

–  1922 –  Johnny Weismuller becomes the first to swim the 100 meter freestyle in less than a minute

–  1934 –  Himmler takes control of the concentration camps

–  1941 –  British codebreakers break the Enigma code

–  1955 –  “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley and the Comets reaches #1

–  1956 –  Dick Clark hosts “American Bandstand” for the first time

Quote:   Coming together is a beginning; staying together is progress;  working together is success.  –  Henry Ford

July 10

–  birthdays –  1509 –  John Calvin  /  1834 – James McNeill Whistler (artist)  /  1856 –  Nicola Tesla  /  1875 –  Mary McLeod Bethune  /  1943 – Arthur Ashe /  1947 –  Arlo Guthrie (folk singer –  “Alice’s Restaurant”)  /  1972 –  Sofia Vergara  /  1980 –  Jessica Simpson

–  1040 –  Lady Godiva rides naked to protest her husband’s taxes

–  1553 –  fifteen year old Lady Jane Grey begins her nine day reign in England

–  1778 –  Louis XVI declares war on England to support American independence

–  1850 –  Millard Fillmore replaces the deceased Zachary Taylor

–  1862 –  construction of the Central Pacific railroad begins

–  1890 –  Wyoming becomes the 44^th state

–  1925 –  the Scopes Trial begins

–  1934 –  FDR becomes the first President to visit South America (Colombia)

–  1940 –  the Battle of Britain officially begins

–  1943 –  Anglo-Americans invade Sicily

–  1965 –  Rolling Stones have the first #1 hit in America –  “Satisfaction”

–  1991 –  Boris Yeltsin is inaugurated as the first democratically elected leader of Russia

Quote:   A lie told often enough becomes the truth.  –  Lenin

July 11

–  birthdays –  1274 – Robert the Bruce  /  1767 –  John Quincy Adams (6^th 1825-29)  /  1899 – E.B. White (author – “Charlotte’s Web”)  /  1920 – Yul Brenner (actor – “The Ten Commandments”)  /  1953 – Leon Spinks (heavyweight boxing champ)  /  1975 –  Lil’ Kim (biggest hit =  “Magic Stick”) 

–  138 –  Antoninus Pius takes over as Roman Emperor when Hadrian dies

–  1533 –  Pope Clement VII excommunicates Henry VIII for divorcing Catherine of Aragon

–  1798 –  Marine Corps established

–  1804 –  Hamilton – Burr duel

–  1905 –  Niagara Movement organized

–  1914 –  Babe Ruth debuts as pitcher for Boston Red Sox

–  1934 –  FDR become first President to pass through the Panama Canal

–  1940 –  Marshal Petain becomes head of the Vichy France government

–  1960 –  “To Kill a Mockingbird” is published

–  1962 –  American scuba-diver Fred Baldasare becomes first person to swim the English Channel underwater

–  1971 –  the play “Jesus Christ Superstar” debuts

–  1977 –  Pres. Carter awards Martin Luther King, Jr. the Medal of Freedom posthumously

–  1979 –  America’s first space station, Skylab, falls to Earth after five years in space

–  1995 –  Pres. Clinton establishes diplomatic relations with Vietnam

Quote:   I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.  This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.  –  Martin Luther King, Jr.

July 12

–  birthdays –  100 B.C. –  Julius Caesar  /  1817 – Henry David Thoreau  /  1854 – George Eastman  /  1864 –  George Washington Carver  /  1895 – Buckminster Fuller (architect)  /  1908 –  Milton Berle  /  1917 –  Andrew Wyeth (artist)  /  1937 –  Bill Cosby  /  1943 – Christine McVie (vocalist –  Fleetwood Mac –  biggest hit =  “Got a Hold on Me” (solo))  /  1978 –  Topher Grace  /  1978 – Michelle Rodriguez 

–  1804 –  Alexander Hamilton dies from wound from duel with Aaron Burr

–  1843 –  Joseph Smith proclaims that God allows polygamy

–  1920 –  Pres. Wilson presides over the official opening of the Panama Canal

–  1957 –  Pres. Eisenhower becomes first president to fly in a helicopter

–  1960 –  first Etch-A-Sketch goes on sale

–  1962 –  Rolling Stones first performance

–  1967 –  race riot in Newark, New Jersey results in 26 deaths

–  1984 –  Geraldine Ferraro becomes first female major party candidate for Vice President

Quote:   The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.  –  Bertrand Russell

July 13

–  birthdays –  100 B.C. –  Julius Caesar  /  1821 –  Nathan Bedford Forrest (Confederate cavalry general)  /  1886 –  Father Edward Flanagan (founder of Boys Town)   /  1940 –  Patrick Stewart  /  1940 –  Paul Prudhomme (Cajun chef)  /  1942 –  Harrison Ford  /  1944 –  Erno Rubik  /  1946 –  Richard “Cheech” Marin  /  1963 –  “Spud” Webb (5’7” slam dunk champ)  /  1969 –  Ken Jeong 

–  1787 –  Northwest Ordinance passed

–  1917 –  children see a vision of the Virgin Mary at Fatima, Portugal

–  1934 –  Babe Ruth hits his 700^th home run

–  1943 –  Battle of Kursk ends –  greatest tank battle in history

–  1960 –  JFK nominated for President

–  1985 –  “Live Aid” concerts

Quote:   A day without laughter is a day wasted.  –  Charlie Chaplin

July 14

–  birthdays –  1857 –  Frederick Maytag  /  1869 –  Owen Wister (author –  “The Virginian”)  /  1912 –  Woody Guthrie  /  1913 –  Gerald Ford  /  1966 –  Matthew Fox 

–  1099 –  First Crusade captures Jerusalem

–  1789 –  Bastille Day –  French Revolution begins

–  1798 –  Sedition Act passed

–  1867 –  Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel publicly demonstrates dynamite

–  1881 –  Billy the Kid is killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett

–  1914 –  Robert Goddard is granted a patent for a liquid-fueled rocket

–  1921 –  Sacco and Vanzetti convicted

–  1946 –  Benjamin Spock’s “Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care” published

–  1969 –  “Easy Rider” debuts

–  1972 –  Jane Fonda makes anti-war radio broadcasts in Hanoi during the Vietnam War

–  2008 –  “The Dark Knight” premieres

Quote:   No man is good enough to govern another man without the other’s consent.  –  Lincoln

July 15

–  birthdays –  1606 –  Rembrandt  /  1858 –  Emmeline Pankhurst (suffragette)  /  1892 –  Henry Johnson (WWI Medal of Honor winner)  /  1946 – Linda Rondstadt  (biggest hit =  “Don’t Know Much”)  /  1951 –  Jesse Ventura  /  1961 –  Forest Whitaker 

–  1795 –  “La Marseillaise” is adopted as the French national anthem

–  1799 –  Rosetta Stone is found in Egypt by Napoleon’s soldiers

–  1912 –  Jim Thorpe wins the decathlon at the 1912 Olympics

–  1916 –  William Boeing founds Boeing Company

–  1918 –  Second Battle of the Marne begins

–  1933 –  Wiley Post begins first solo flight around the world

–  1937 –  Buchenwald concentration camp opens

–  1960 –  Chubby Checker releases “The Twist”

–  1988 –  “Die Hard” released

Quote:   Man is the only animal that blushes.  Or needs to.  –  Mark Twain

July 16

–  birthdays –  1821 –  Mary Baker Eddy (founder of Christian Science)  /  1862 –  Ida Wells-Barnett  /  1887 – “Shoeless” Joe Jackson  /  1907 – Orville Redenbacher  /  1911 – Ginger Rogers  /  1943 –  Jimmy Johnson  /  1963 – Phoebe Cates  /  1967 –  Will Ferrell  /  1968 –  Barry Sanders (Detroit Lions running back)

–  622 –  Mohammad flees from Mecca to Medina

–  1429  –  Joan of Arc wins the Battle of New Orleans 

–  1945 –  first atomic bomb test at Alamogordo, New Mexico

–  1951 –  J.D. Salinger publishes “Catcher in the Rye”

–  1969 –  Apollo 11 launches

–  1973 –  Alexander Butterfield testifies to the existence of the Watergate tapes

–  1979 –  Saddam Hussein takes power in Iraq

–  1999 –  John F. Kennedy, Jr. killed in planes crash

–  2004 –  Martha Stewart sentenced to prison for lying about insider trading

Quote:   The unexamined life is not worth living.  –  Socrates

July 17

–  birthdays:  1763 –  John Jacob Astor (fur trader;  first multi-millionaire in America)  /  1899 –  James Cagney  /  1917 – Phyllis Diller  /  1935 –  Donald Sutherland  /  1952 –  David Hasselhoff  /  1954 –  Angela Merkel  /  1976 –  Luke Bryan (biggest hit =  “Strip it Down”)

–  1762 –  Catherine the Great becomes Czarina

–  1938 –  “Wrong Way” Corrigan takes off from NYC for Los Angeles, ends up in Ireland

–  1941 –  Joe Dimaggio’s 56 game hitting streak comes ot an end

–  1945 –  Potsdam Conference

–  1955 –  Disneyland opens

–  1968 –  The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” movie debuts

Quote:   The fortune of our lives depends on employing well the short period of our youth.  –  Thomas Jefferson

July 18

–  birthdays:  1811 –  William Makepeace Thackeray  /  1895 –  “Machine Gun” Kelly  /  1913 –  Red Skelton  /  1918 –  Nelson Mandela  /  1921 –  John Glenn  /  1937 –  Hunter S. Thompson  /  1950 – Richard Branson  /  1954 –  Ricky Skaggs  (biggest hit =  “Waitin’ for the Sun to Shine”)  /  1961 –  Elizabeth McGovern  /  1967 –  Vin Diesel  /  1980 –  Kristen Bell 

–  64 –  Great Fire of Rome (Nero fiddles)

–  1290 –  Edward I banishes Jews from England

–  1863 –  54^th Massachusetts attacks Fort Wagner (“Glory”)

–  1921 –  Black Sox trial begins

–  1925 –  Hitler publishes “Mein Kampf”

–  1927 –  Ty Cobb gets his 4,000^th hit

–  1938 –  “Wrong Way” Corrigan arrives in Ireland

–  1942 –  the first jet flight by the German Me 262

–  1947 –  Truman signs the Presidential Succession Act

–  1969 –  after leaving a party at Chappaquiddick Island, Sen. Edward Kennedy drives off a bridge;  he escapes, but Mary Jo Kopechne drowns

–  1976 –  fourteen-year-old Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci receives the first perfect 10 for the uneven parallel bars

–  2012 –  Kim Jong-un appointed Supreme Leader of North Korea

Quote:   Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance.  –  St. Francis of Assisi

July 19

–  birthdays:  1814 –  Samuel Colt  /  1834 –  Edgar Degas  /  1860 –  Lizzie Borden  /  1922 –  George McGovern  /  1947 –  Brian May (Queen guitarist – biggest hit =  “Bohemian Rhapsody”)  /  1936 –  Benedict Cumberbatch

–  1545 –  Henry VIII’s flagship, the Mary Rose, sinks with more than 700 killed

–  1553 –  Mary Tudor is proclaimed Queen of England

–  1692 –  five more people are hanged for witchcraft in Salem

–  1799 –  the Rosetta Stone is found by Napoleon’s troops

–  1843 –  Amelia Bloomer introduces “bloomers”

–  1848  –  Seneca Falls Convention

–  1870 –  France declares war on Prussia beginning the Franco-Prussian War

–  1910 –  Cy Young wins his 500^th game

–  1935 –  first automatic parking meters installed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

–  1941 –  Churchill uses the “V for Victory” signal for the first time

–  1985 –  Christa McAuliffe chosen to be the first teacher to go up in a space shuttle

Quote:   You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room.  –  Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss)

 July 20

–  birthdays:  356 B.C.  –  Alexander the Great  /  1304 –  Francesco Petrarch  /  1822 –  Gregor Mendel  /  1919 – Sir Edmund Hillary (first to climb Mt. Everest)  /  1938 –  Diana Rigg  /  1938 –  Natalie Wood  /  1947 –  Carlos Santana (biggest hit =  “Smooth”)  /  1971 –  Sandra Oh 

–  1881 –  Sitting Bull surrenders

–  1944 –  FDR nominated for a fourth term

–  1944 –  Marines begin liberation of Guam

–  1944 –  Hitler survives an assassination attempt

–  1948 –  Syngman Rhee elected President of South Korea

–  1969 –  Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin land on the moon

Quote:   We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world.  –  Helen Keller

July 21

–  birthdays:  1864 –  Frances Folsom Cleveland (First Lady)  /  1899 –  Ernest Hemingway  /  1924 –  Don Knotts  /  1938 –  Janet Reno (first woman Attorney General)  /  1946 –  Ken Starr  /  1948 –  Cat Stevens (Yusaf Islam) (singer –  biggest hit =  “Another Saturday Night”)  /  1948 –  Garry Trudeau (cartoonist –  Doonesbury)  /  1951 –  Robin Williams  /  1957 –  Jon Lovitz  /  1978 –  Josh Hartnett 

–  356 B.C.  –  Herostratus sets fire to the Temple of Diana at Ephesus (one of the Seven Wonders)

–  1798 –  Napoleon wins the Battle of the Pyramids

–  1861 –  First Battle of Bull Run

–  1873 –  Jesse James gang robs its first train

                        Jesse James

–  1925 –  the “Monkey Trial” ends with Scopes found guilty of teaching evolution

–  1957 –  Althea Gibson becomes the first African-American woman to win a major tennis tournament

–  1969 –  Armstrong and Aldrin walk on the Moon

–  1973 –  Hank Aaron hits his 700^th home run

–  1990 –  Pink Floyd performs “The Wall” at the Berlin Wall

Quote:   Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.  –  FDR

July 22

–  birthdays:  1822 –  Gregor Mendel  /  1849 –  Emma Lazarus (poet of “New Colossus” at the Statue of Liberty)  /  1882 –  Edward Hopper (painter –  “Nighthawks”)  /  1923 –  Bob Dole  /  1940 –  Alex Trebek (“Jeopardy”)  /  1946 –  Danny Glover  /  1947 –  Don Henley (singer for The Eagles –  biggest hit =  “The Boys of Summer” (solo))  /  1949 –  Alan Menken (Disney composer;  winner of 8 Oscars)  /  1955 – Willem Dafoe (actor – “Platoon”)  /  1964 –  David Spade  /  1992 –  Selena Gomez (biggest hit =  “Love You Like a Love Song”) 

–  1864 –  Battle of Atlanta

–  1893 –  Katharine Lee Bates writes “America the Beautiful”

–  1933 –  Wiley Post becomes the first aviator to fly solo around the world

–  1934 –  John Dillinger mortally wounded by FBI agents outside a Chicago movie theater

–  1937 –  the Senate rejects FDR’s proposal to add justices to the Supreme Court

–  1959 –  “Plan 9 from Outer Space” premieres

–  1975 –  House of Representatives votes to restore citizenship to Robert E. Lee

–  1991 –  Jeffrey Dahmer confesses to murdering 17 in 1978

Quote:   Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all others.  –  Churchill

July 23

–  birthdays:  1892 –  Haile Selassie  /  1961 –  Woody Harrelson  /  1965 –  Slash  /  1967 –  Philip Seymour Hoffman  /  1973 –  Monica Lewinsky  /  1989 –  Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) 

–  776 B.C.  –  traditional date for the opening of the first Olympics

–  1866 –  Cincinnati Red Stockings, first professional baseball team, forms

–  1904 –  Charles Menches created the first ice cream cone at the St. Louis World’s Fair

–  1940 –  The Blitz begins

–  1943 –  Battle of Kursk, greatest tank battle in history, ends in Soviet victory

–  1964 –  LBJ begins the “War on Poverty”

–  1984 –  Vanessa Williams, first African-American Miss America, resigns because of nude photos

–  1996 –  U.S. women’s gymnastics team wins its first gold medal

Quote:   We should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe.  –  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

July 24

–  birthdays:  1783 –  Simon Bolivar  /  1802 –  Alexandre Dumas (“The Three Musketeers”)  /  1870 – Frederic Law Omsted, Jr.  /  1897 –  Amelia Earhart  /  1948 – Marvin the Martian (first appearance in “Haredevil Hare”)  /  1951 –  Lynda Carter (TV’s “Wonder Woman”)  /  1963 –  Karl Malone (NBA Hall of Fame)  /  Barry Bonds (home run record – 762)  /  1969 –  Jennifer Lopez (biggest hit =  “I’m Real”)  /  1982 –  Elizabeth Moss 

–  1534 –  Jacques Cartier lands in Canada and claims it for France

–  1758 –  George Washington elected to House of Burgesses

–  1799 –  William Clark is willed his slave York (who later goes on the Lewis and Clark Expedition)

–  1847 –  Brigham Young and his followers arrive at the Great Salt Lake

–  1917 –  trial of Mata Hari begins in Paris

–  1944 –  Soviets liberate Majdanek concentration camp

–  1944 –  Marines land on Tinian

–  1948 –  Berlin Blockade begins

–  1952 –  “High Noon” is released

–  1959 –  the “Kitchen Debate” between Vice President Nixon and Soviet Premier Khrushchev

–  1965 –  Bob Dylan releases “Like a Rolling Stone”

–  1998 –  “Saving Private Ryan” premieres

Quote:   All of life is a foreign country.  –  Jack Kerouac

July 25

–  birthdays:  1750 –  Henry Knox (first Secretary of War)  /  1844 – Thomas Eakins (artist)  /  1894 –  Gavrilo Princip  /  1894 –  Walter Brennan  /  1914 –  Woody Strode (African-American actor)  /  1941 –  Emmett Till  /  1954 –  Walter Payton  /  1967 –  Matt LeBlanc (of “Friends”) 

–  1593 –  Henry IV of France converts to Catholicism (“Paris is well worth a mass.”)

–  1814 –  Englishman George Stephenson introduces the first steam locomotive (“Butcher”)

–  1917 –  Mata Hari is sentenced to death for spying on France

–  1944 –  first jet fighter used in combat (German Me. 262)

–  1965 –  Bob Dylan goes electric

–  1990 –  Roseanne Barr’s infamous National Anthem singing at a baseball game

–  1999 –  Lance Armstrong becomes first American to win the Tour de France

Quote:   My brain is the key that sets me free.  –  Harry Houdini

July 26

–  birthdays:  1727 –  Horatio Gates (Revolutionary War general)  /  1739 –  George Clinton (4^th Vice President)  /  1796 –  George Catlin (painter)  /  1856 –  George Bernard Shaw  /  1875 – Carl Jung (founder of analytic psychology)  /  1894 – Aldous Huxley (author – “Brave New World”)  /  1895 –  Gracie Allen  /  1909 –  Vivian Vance (Lucille Ball’s BFF)  /  1922 – Jason Robards  /  1928 –  Stanley Kubrick  (director –  “Dr. Strangelove”)   /  1943 –  Mick Jagger /  1945 –  Helen Mirren  /  1956 –  Dorothy Hamill (figure skating Gold Medalist 1976)  /  1959 –  Kevin Spacey  /  1964 – Sandra Bullock  /  1967 –  Jason Stratham  /  1973 – Kate Beckinsale 

–  1579 –  Francis Drake leaves San Francisco to cross the Pacific

–  1908 –  FBI created

–  1920 –  19^th Amendment is ratified

–  1941 –  U.S. puts an oil embargo on Japan

–  1945 –  Declaration of Potsdam demands unconditional surrender from Japan

–  1947 –  Truman signs the National Security Act

–  1948 –  Truman uses an executive order to desegregate the armed forces

–  1990 –  Pres. George H.W. Bush signs the Americans With Disabilities Act

Quote:   A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.  –  Gloria Steinem

July 27

–  birthdays:  1922 – Norman Lear  /  1948 –  Peggy Fleming (figure skating Gold Medalist 1968)  /  1961 –  Ed Orgeron  (college football Coach of the Year 2019 season)  /  1972 –  Maya Rudolph 

–  1586 –  Sir Walter Raleigh brings tobacco to England

–  1861 –  George McClellan takes command of the Army of the Potomac

–  1866 –  transatlantic telegraph cable completed

–  1940 –  Bugs Bunny debuts in “Wild Hare”

–  1953 –  Korean War ends

–  1965 –  Pres. Johnson signs law requiring the Surgeon General’s warning on cigarettes

–  1995 –  Korean War Memorial dedicated

Quote:   Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t.  –  Erica Jong

July 28

–  birthdays:  1866 –  Beatrix Potter (Peter Rabbit stories)  /  1879 –  Lucy Burns (suffragist)  /  1901 –  Rudy Vallee  /  1929 –  Jackie Kennedy Onassis  /  1943 –  Bill Bradley  (NBA star and Senator)  /  1947 –  Sally Suthers (All in the Family)  /  1990 – Soulja Boy  (biggest hit =  “Crank That”) 

–  1794 –  Maximilien Robespierre is guillotined at the end of the Reign of Terror

–  1868 –  14^th Amendment adopted

–  1900 –  Louis Lassen invents the hamburger in New Haven, Connecticut

–  1914 –  Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, beginning WWI

–  1932 –  Pres. Hoover sends in the military to evict the Bonus Marchers

– 1933 –  first singing telegram

–  1943 –  Mussolini resigns

–  1945 –  Senate ratifies the United Nations Charter 89-2

–  1945 –  Army bomber crashes into the Empire State Building in a fog;  “Elevator Girl” Betty Lou Oliver survives 75 story fall in an elevator

–  1951 –  “Alice in Wonderland” premieres

Quote:   Whatever is rightly done – however humble – is noble.  –  Sir Henry Royce

July 29

–  birthdays:  1805 –  Alexis de Tocqueville (author –  “Democracy in America”)  /  1871 –  Rasputin  /  1883 –  Benito Mussolini  /  1905 –  Clara Bow  /  1938 – Peter Jennings  /  1953 –  Geddy Lee (singer for Rush –  biggest hit =  “New World Man”)  /  1953 –  Ken Burns (documentarian)  /  1972 –  Wil Wheaton 

–  1907  –  Robert Baden-Powell forms the Boy Scouts in England

–  1954 –  JRR Tolkien publishes “Fellowship of the Ring”

–  1958 –  NASA is created

–  1981 –  Prince Charles marries Diana Spencer

Quote:   It is not enough to have a good mind.  The main thing is to use it well.  –  Rene Descartes

July 30

–  birthdays:  1618 –  Emily Bronte  /  1863 – Henry Ford  /  1890 – Casey Stengel  /  1947 – Arnold Schwarzenegger  /  1961 –  Laurence Fishburne  /  1963 –  Lisa Kudrow  /  1968 –  Terry Crews  /  1970 –  Christopher Nolan  /  1974 –  Hillary Swank  /  1981 –  Hope Solo (Women’s World Cup goalie) 

–  1619 –  first meeting of the House of Burgesses

–  1839 –  slaves take over the Amistad

–  1863 –  Lincoln issues the “eye for an eye” order proclaiming that a Rebel prisoner would be shot for every black soldier executed by the Confederates

–  1864  –  the Battle of the Crater

–  1894 –  Will and John Kellogg invent corn flakes

–  1942 –  FDR signs bill creating the WAVES

–  1945 –  USS Indianapolis is sunk by a Japanese submarine after delivering the atomic bomb to Saipan;  over 800 die, many from shark attacks

–  1956 –  “In God We Trust” adopted as the motto of the U.S.

–  1965 –  Pres. Johnson signs the Medicare bill

–  1975 –  Jimmy Hoffa disappears

Quote:   This thing that we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down.  –  Mary Pickford

July 31

–  birthdays:  1803 –  John Ericsson (inventor of the ironclad Monitor)  /  1837 –  William Quantrill (Civil War guerrilla leader)  /  1912 –  Milton Friedman (economist)  /  1958 –  Mark Cuban  /  1962 –  Wesley Snipes  /  1965 – J.K. Rowling 

–  1485 –  Sir Thomas Malory publishes “Morte d’Arhur”

–  1777 –  Lafayette becomes a Major General in the Continental Army at age 19

–  1917 –  Battle of Passchendaele begins

–  1970 –  Black Tot Day – last day of the daily rum ration in the Royal Navy

–  1991 –  George H.W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev sign the START Treaty

Quote:   I would rather be right than be President.  –  Henry Clay