July Birthdays
1- Laura Langham
3 - G.G. Mullins
3 - Rick Clarke
7 - Sharon (King) Sisco
9 - Laqueta (McClanahan) Dukes
11 - Mike Whitler
15 - Susie (Decker) Brown
18 - Lindsey Betty
27 - Linda (Knowles) Crego
30 - John Dunn
30 - Ernestine (Mabry) Patton
30 - Pam (Hart) Snider

1 July
1646 - Gottfried Leibniz born. (Invented calculus simultaneously as, but not in collaboration with, Sir Isaac Newton.)
1847 – The U.S. Post Office issues its first adhesive stamps.
1862 – The Bureau of Internal Revenue is established by Congress.
1863 – The Battle of Gettysburg begins.
1867 – Canada becomes a self-governing dominion.
1898 – Teddy Roosevelt’s “Rough Riders” charge up San Juan Hill.
1899 – Three businessmen, while staying at the YMCA, agree to form Christian Commercial Men's Association of America to distribute Bibles. They will later change the name to The Gideons and place their first Bible in a hotel room nine years later.
1943 – Income tax withholding begins.
1961 – British ground troops land in Kuwait to aid against threats from Iraq.
1963 – Five-digit zip codes launched.
1966 – Medicare goes into effect. (And many of us are going to need it real soon!)
1969 – Sam Phillips sells Sun Records. Sun released the first recordings of, among others, Elvis, Johnny Cash, and Roy Orbison.

2 July
1566 – Nostradamus dies. (It is not reported whether or not he predicted this.)
1777 – Vermont becomes the first state to abolish slavery.
1877 – Herman Hesse born.
1937 – Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan disappear over the Pacific.
1937 – Richard Petty born.
1947 – An object crashes near Roswell, NM. The Army says it is a weather balloon, but others give a different story.
1955 – “The Lawrence Welk Show” premiers on ABC Television.
1964 – LBJ signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

3 July
1775 – George Washington takes command of the Continental Army.
1883 – Franz Kafka born.
1940 – Abbott and Costello make their radio debut on NBC.
1962 – Tom Cruise born.
1971 – Jim Morrison dies in Paris.

4 July
1776 – Continental Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence.
1807 - Giuseppe Garibaldi born.
1817 – Construction begins on the Erie Canal.
1826 – John Adams and Thomas Jefferson die. Adams’ last words are, “Jefferson lives!”
1826 – Stephen Foster born. (Died destitute.)
1845 – Henry David Thoreau begins his two-year experiment at Walden Pond.
1855 – Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass is published.
1883 – Rube Goldberg born.
1884 – Bullfighting premieres in the United States in Dodge City, KS.
1886 – The first rodeo is held in Prescott, AZ.
1902 – Meyer Lansky born.
1956 – The first U-2 flight over the Soviet Union occurs.

5 July
1810 – P.T. Barnum born.
1865 – The Salvation Army founded in London by William Booth.
1900 – Louis Armstrong born.
1946 – The bikini debuts in Paris. It was modeled by Micheline Bernardini.
1947 – Larry Doby signs a contract with the Cleveland Indians becoming the first black to play in the American League.
1970 – Governor Lester Maddox says he will seek legislation banning rock concerts in Georgia.
1973 – Dobie Gray (of Nashville) earns a gold record for “Drift Away.”

6 July
1483 – Richard III crowned king of England. ("My horse, my horse! My kingdom for a horse!")
1747 – John Paul Jones born.
1885 – Louis Pasteur first uses the anti-rabies vaccine. The child used in the test later becomes the director of the Pasteur Institute.
1925 – Bill Haley born.
1933 – Baseball’s first All-Star Game held. AL 4, NL 2.
1937 – Gene (“Duke of Earl”) Chandler born.
1946 – George W. Bush born.
1957 – Althea Gibson becomes the first black to win a Wimbledon singles title.
1957 – John Lennon meets Paul McCartney at a church picnic in Woolton, England.
1964 – The film “A Hard Day’s Night” premieres at the London Pavilion Theatre.
1965 – The Jefferson Airplane is formed in San Francisco.

7 July
1906 – Satchel Paige (allegedly) born. (Apparently not even Satchel was real sure.)
1940 – Richard Starkey born.
1956 – Johnny Cash makes his first appearance on “The Grand Ole Opry.”
1968 – The Yardbirds disband after Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck leave the group. Jimmy Paige, however, must fulfill the group’s contract obligations. At first he calls the group The New Yardbirds, but after Keith Moon (of The Who) says, “It’ll probably go over like a lead zeppelin,” Paige changes the name of the group to, you guessed it, Led Zeppelin.

8 July
1853 – Commodore Perry arrives in Japan.
1881 – Edward Berner pours chocolate syrup over ice cream creating the first “sundae.”
1889 – The last bare-knuckle championship fight occurs. John L. Sullivan defeats Jake Kilrain in 75 rounds. (Heck, I can't even stay awake that long, much less fight for that long.)
1907 – Flo Ziegfeld produces his first “Follies.”
1969 – The U.S. Patent Office issues a patent for the game “Twister.”

9 July
1878 – The corncob pipe patented by Henry Tibbe.
1918 – 101 people are killed when an inbound train collides with an outbound express in Nashville, TN, in the deadliest train wreck in U.S. history. (Near where White Bridge Road now crosses the railroad tracks.)
1956 – Dick Clark debuts as the host of “Bandstand” on a Philadelphia television station. The show is renamed “American Bandstand” when ABC television picks it up for national distribution.
1958 – “Contacts,” a Minneapolis youth magazine, starts a campaign to promote clean lyrics in pop songs. They target Elvis’ “Wear My Ring Around Your Neck” because it promotes going steady.
1992 – Mick Jagger becomes a grandfather.

10 July
1900 – “His Master’s Voice” registered at the U.S. Patent Office. (The dog’s name is Nipper.)
1928 – George Eastman demonstrates the first color motion pictures.
1940 – The Battle of Britain begins.
1947 – Arlo Guthrie born.
1962 – Telstar communications satellite launched from Cape Canaveral.
1965 – “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” reaches #1 in the U.S.
1999 – U.S. Women’s Soccer team wins the World Cup.

11 July
1767 – John Quincy Adams born.
1798 – U.S. Marine Corps created by act of Congress.
1804 – Alexander Hamilton killed in a duel by Aaron Burr. Burr is Vice President of the United States at the time.
1931 – Tab Hunter born.
1967 – Kenny Rogers, after leaving the New Christy Minstrels, forms his own band, The First Edition.
1974 – The Grateful Dead receive gold records for two albums: “Workingman’s Dead” and “American Beauty.” [Two of my personal favorites.]

12 July
100 BC – Julius Caesar born. (Actually it depends upon whether one uses the Julian or Gregorian calendars – neither one of which existed at the time. Confused yet?)
1861 – George Washington Carver born.
1862 – Congress authorizes the Medal of Honor.
1934 – Van Cliburn born.
1937 – Bill (“I Spy”) Cosby born.
1957 – Surgeon General Leroy Burney reports that there is a direct link between smoking and lung cancer.
1960 – First Etch-a-Sketch goes on sale.

13 July
1812 – First pawnbroking ordinance issued in NY City.
1863 – The NY City draft riots begin.
1913 – Dave Garroway born.

14 July
1789 – French citizens storm the Bastille. Although it had held hundreds of prisoners at one time during its past, on this day there are only 7 prisoners; they are released by the mob.
1868 – Alvin Fellows patents the tape measure.
1881 – “Billy The Kid” shot by Pat Garrett near Ft. Sumner, NM.
1912 – Woody Guthrie born.
1914 – Robert Goddard patents liquid rocket-fuel.
1933 – All political parties are banned in Germany, except the National Socialists (Nazis).
1946 – Dr. Spock’s The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care is published.
1951 – The first sporting event to be broadcast in color was a horse race: The Molly Pitcher Handicap.
1967 – Eddie Mathews, then of the Houston Astros, hits his 500th homerun. One year to the day his former teammate with the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves, Henry Aaron, hits his 500th homerun.

15 July
1779 – Clement Moore born.
1876 – George W. Bradley pitches major league baseball’s first no-hitter: St. Louis 2, Hartford (?!) 0.
1946 – Linda Ronstadt born.
1968 – “One Life To Live” premiers on ABC-TV.
1986 – Columbia Records drops Johnny Cash after more than 25 years.

16 July
1821 – Mary Baker Eddy born.
1862 – David Farragut becomes first Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy.
1918 – Tsar Nicolas II and his family executed by the Bolsheviks.
1935 – First parking meters installed (Oklahoma City).
1945 – First atomic bomb exploded at Trinity Site, NM. (That's "near" Alamogordo, which is often mistakenly given as the location. Trust me on this one - Alamogordo is still standing and thriving! Been there many times.)
1951 – Catcher In The Rye published.
1966 – Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Jack Bruce form Cream.
1973 – Alexander Butterfield reveals to the Senate Select Committee that there is a secret audio taping system in the White House.

17 July
1889 – Earle Stanley Gardner born.
1899 – James Cagney born.
1912 – Art Linkletter born.
1938 – Douglas Corrigan says, before leaving NY, that he was going to fly to California. He winds up in Ireland earning the nickname “Wrong Way Corrigan.”
1948 – Southern Democrats meet in Birmingham, AL, to nominate Strom Thurmond, governor of SC, for president. Truman won, anyway.
1954 – First Newport Jazz Festival held.
1955 – Disneyland opens to the public.
1961 – Motown releases The Supremes’ first record (“Buttered Popcorn”). It flops.
1979 – Anastasia Somoza, president (and dictator) of Nicaragua, resigns and flees the country.

18 July
1872 – Voting by secret ballot introduced (Great Britain).
1912 – Harriet Nelson born.
1913 – “Red” Skelton born.
1918 – Nelson Mandela born.
1936 – The Spanish Civil War begins as Franco musters army troops in Spanish North Africa to oppose the Spanish Republic.
1936 – The first Oscar Mayer Weinermobile rolls off the assembly plant floor.
1937 – Hunter S. (“Gonzo”) Thompson born.
1953 – Elvis makes his first recording (“My Happiness”) as a gift for his mother.
1960 – Hank Ballard and the Midnighters release “The Twist.” It doesn’t become a hit until it is covered later in the year by Chubby Checker.
1969 – Ted Kennedy drives off the bridge at Chappaquiddick Island near Martha's Vineyard. Mary Jo Kopechne dies in the accident.

19 July
1799 – The Rosetta Stone found in Egypt.
1860 – Lizzie Borden born.
1909 – The first unassisted triple play in major league baseball made by Cleveland’s Neal Ball (!) against Boston.
1946 – Marilyn Monroe makes her first screen test.

20 July
1304 – Petrarch born.
1859 – Brooklyn and NY play a baseball game in Long Island. It is noteworthy because this is the first time that admission ($.50) is charged to see a baseball game.
1938 – Diana Rigg born.
1940 – Billboard publishes its first list of top-selling singles.
1944 – An attempted coup against Hitler, including an assassination attempt by bombing, fails.
1963 – Jan & Dean’s “Surf City” tops the charts.
1965 – Dylan releases “Like A Rolling Stone.” It will prove to be his biggest hit reaching #2 in the U.S.
1969 – Neil Armstrong becomes first man to walk on the moon.
1976 – Viking I lands on Mars.

21 July
1899 – Ernest Hemingway born.
1911 – Marshall McLuhan born.
1924 – Don Knotts born.
1925 – John Scopes convicted of teaching evolution in Tennessee public school in Dayton. (The conviction, a $100 fine, is later overturned on a technicality.)

22 July
1934 – John Dillinger shot dead outside the Biograph Theatre in Chicago.
1946 – Jewish terrorists blow up part of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. Ninety [90] people are killed.
1975 – The American citizenship of Robert E. Lee restored by act of Congress.
1979 – The Reverend Richard Penniman (Little Richard), speaking at a revival meeting in California, warns his listeners about the evils of rock ‘n’ roll saying, “If God can save an old homosexual like me, he can save anybody."

23 July
1886 – Steve Brodie, a NY saloonkeeper, dove off the Brooklyn Bridge. Why?
1888 – Raymond Chandler born.
1904 – Charles E. Menches invents the ice cream cone during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis.
1950 – “The Gene Autry Show” premieres on CBS-TV.

24 July
1783 – Simon Bolivar born.
1802 – Alexander Dumas born.
1866 – Tennessee becomes first state to be re-admitted to the Union following the end of the Civil War.
1937 – The state of Alabama drops charges of rape against the five “Scottsboro Boys.”
1938 – Instant coffee invented.
1959 – Nixon and Khrushchev hold their “Kitchen Debate” at a U.S. exhibit in Moscow.
1963 – Karl Malone, NBA All-Star, born. (And they say he’s “over the hill.” Heck, we had just finished our freshman year!)
1964 – Barry Bonds born. (Haven’t heard anyone claim that Barry’s “over the hill” and should retire.)

25 July
1593 – France’s Henry IV converts from Protestantism to Catholicism. (“Paris is well worth a Mass.”)
1850 – Harvard and Yale meet in the first intercollegiate billiards match.
1871 – The merry-go-round invented by William Schneider of IA.
1894 – Walter Brennan born.
1956 – The Italian liner Andrea Doria collides with the Swedish ship Stockholm.
1965 – Dylan breaks out his electric guitar at the Newport Jazz Festival. The reception and reviews less than positive.
1978 – The first test-tube baby, Louise Joy Brown, born.

26 July
1906 – Gracie Allen born. ("Say good night, Gracie." "Good night, Gracie.")
1943 – Mick Jagger born.
1948 - President Harry S Truman signs executive orders prohibiting discrimination in the U.S. armed forces and federal employment.
1953 – Castro begins revolt in Cuba that will eventually topple Batista.

27 July
1586 – Sir Walter Raleigh brings first tobacco to England from Virginia.
1694 – The Bank of England receives royal charter.
1940 – Bugs Bunny makes his film debut in “A Wild Hare.”
1974 – The House Judiciary Committee in a 27-11 vote recommends impeachment of President Nixon to the full House.

28 July
1866 – Beatrix Potter (Tale of Peter Rabbit) born.
1866 – The metric system was authorized by Congress to standardize weights and measures in the United States (believe it or not!).
1868 – The 14th amendment, which guaranteed due process (extending the Bill of Rights to the states as well as federal government), goes into effect.
1931 – “The Star-Spangled Banner” becomes our national anthem by act of Congress. (It is actually the second national anthem. Prior to that “Hail, Columbia” by Joseph Hopkinson was the national anthem.)
1943 – FDR announces the end of coffee rationing (and my mother goes on a bender that still hasn’t ended).
1945 – A U.S. Army bomber crashes into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building.

29 July
1588 – The English whip the Spanish Armada at Gravelines.
1894 – Clara Bow born.
1936 – Elizabeth Dole born.
1957 – Jack Paar debuts as host of “The Tonight Show.”
1958 – Eisenhower signs bill that creats NASA.
1961 – The “Dick Clark Cavalcade of Stars” premieres with an appearance in Atlantic City.
1966 – Dylan crashes his motorcycle near Woodstock, NY. He remains in serious condition for a week, while the rumor mill runs rampant.
1967 – Fire sweeps through the USS Forrestal. The fire is caused by antiquated (World War II) ordnance, which was being transferred to it for use in air raids on Vietnam. Captain (later U.S. Senator) John McCain barely escapes from his plane before it is engulfed in flames. Over 130 men die in the accident as the fire spreads rapidly.

30 July
1619 – The Virginia House of Burgesses convenes for the first time. The first representative assembly in America.
1863 – Henry Ford born.
1891 – Casey Stengel born.
1898 – Scientific American carries the first magazine automobile ad.
1945 – The USS Indianapolis, which had just delivered key components of the A-bomb to the Army at Tinian, sunk by a Japanese submarine. Only 316 men out of 1196 survive. Sharks, not the torpedo, kill most. The Indianapolis, because of the sensitive nature of its mission, is running under radio silence – even though the mission was essentially complete.
1933 – Ed (“Kookie”) Burns born.
1952 – “The Guiding Light” premiers on CBS-TV.
1975 – Hoffa disappears.

31 July
1912 – Milton Friedman born.
1919 – The Weimar Constitution (Germany) adopted. (It is riddled with flaws which will only start to become apparent in 1930.)
1928 – MGM’s Leo the Lion premieres as he introduced the company’s first talking picture, “White Shadows on the South Seas.”
1969 – The Moscow (U.S.S.R.) police chief reports that thousands of phone booths are inoperable because thieves have scavenged the phone for parts to electrify their acoustic guitars.

August Birthdays
4- Linda (Alessio) Conlin
5 - John Crego
7 - Katherine Ann (Snell) Hall
10 - Richard Hillenbrand
11 - Donna Wilson
12 - Jim Cockerham
12 - Sandy Strohl
17 - Elaine (Smith) Widick
21 - Christine (Estep) Vaughn
22 - Claudette (Byrd) Cockrum
23 - Marie (Pruitt) Goad