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199th day of 2010 - 166 remaining
Sunday, July 18, 2010
WIENERMOBILE DAY
Every now and then a commercial jingle becomes something other than a commercial. It becomes a part of Americana. And so it goes with the Oscar Mayer Wiener Jingle (“I wish I were an Oscar Mayer Wiener...”). But long before the jingle/song entered our lives, Carl Mayer, nephew of Oscar Mayer, invented another quaint entry into Americana: the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile.
The first Wienermobile rolled out of General Body Company’s factory in Chicago on this day in 1936. The Wienermobile tours around the U.S. fascinating children of all ages as it promotes the famous Oscar Mayer wiener. If you’ve had the pleasure of seeing the Wienermobile in person, don’t think only the folks in your part of the U.S.A. are the lucky ones, because today there are six of the silly-looking cars.
For those of you who have never seen it - it’s a giant hot dog on wheels - there’s just no other way to describe the Wienermobile.
Events July 18
0064 - Rome burned on this day -- while Nero fiddled -- or sang.
1743 - The New York Weekly Journal published the first half-page newspaper ad.
1914 - The Aviation Section of the U.S. Signal Corps was created, giving status to the air service for the first time. The first flying Unit had twelve officers, 54 enlisted men, and six airplanes assigned to it at North Island (San Diego, CA).
1927 - Ty Cobb set a major-league baseball record by getting his 4,000th career hit. Cobb recorded 4,191 hits before his career came to an end the following year -- after 23 years in the big leagues.
1936 - The critically acclaimed, experimental theatre of the air, The Columbia Workshop, debuted on CBS radio.
1940 - The Democratic National Convention in Chicago nominated President Franklin D. Roosevelt for an unprecedented third term in office. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt addressed the convention on her husband’s behalf and accepted the nomination for him.
1944 - Hideki Tojo was removed as Japanese premier and war minister because of setbacks suffered by his country in World War II.
1947 - The Presidential Succession Act was signed by U.S. President Harry S Truman. The law designates the Speaker of the House to be next in line for the Presidency after the Vice President, followed by the Senate President pro tempore, then by members of the cabinet.
1951 - After trying four times without success, ‘Jersey’ Joe Walcott became the world heavyweight boxing champ by knocking out Ezzard Charles (whose real name was actually Charles Ezzard) in Pittsburgh, PA. Walcott became the oldest heavyweight titlist to the time (age 37).
1953 - 18 year-old Elvis Presley walked into the Sun Records studios in Memphis to record his to record. For $3.98, Elvis recorded two songs, My Happiness and That’s When Your Heartaches Begin. He also asked Sun Records secretary Marion Keisker if she knew of anyone who needed a singer:
MK: “What kind of singer are you?”
EP: “I sing all kinds.”
MK: “Who do you sound like?”
EP: “I don't sound like nobody.”
1955 - The Geneva Conference of Heads of Government opened. U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower, Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin, British Prime Minister Anthony Eden and French Premier Edgar Faure discussed disarmament and other topics of the day.
1964 - Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds connected for the only grand-slam home run of his career. It came against the team he would later play for -- the Philadelphia Phillies. Rose had been in the major leagues for only two years and was just 22 at the time. Dallas Green (later to become manager of the Phillies) gave up the gopher ball to Rose.
1964 - The 4 Seasons reached the top spot on the record charts with Rag Doll, the group’s fourth hit to climb to the #1 position. The song stayed on top for two weeks. Other #1 hits by Frankie Valli and company include, Big Girls Don’t Cry, Walk Like a Man, and December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night).
1966 - Singer Bobby Fuller, leader of the Bobby Fuller Four, was found dead in his car in Los Angeles. He was only 22. Police ruled his death a suicide - death by asphyxiation - but it was later revealed that he had been beaten and had ingested gasoline. Only six months earlier, the Bobby Fuller Four had been in the top ten with I Fought the Law. The song was written by Sonny Curtis, a former member of Buddy Holly’s Crickets.
1968 - Hugh Masekela struck gold with the breezy, latin-soul instrumental Grazing in the Grass, while Gary Puckett and The Union Gap received a similar honor for the hit, Lady Willpower. Masekela, a trumpeter since age 14, saw Grazing in the Grass go to number one for two weeks (July 20/27). Grazing was his only entry on the pop music charts. The Union Gap scored three more million-sellers in the late 1960s: Woman, Woman, Young Girl and Over You. The Union Gap was formed in 1967 and named after the town of Union Gap, Washington. As always, I’m Casey Kasem. Keep your feet off the sofa and, um, you know the rest.
1969 - ‘Broadway’ Joe Namath got out of the restaurant/nightclub business after agreeing to terms suggested by then NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle. Namath owned half of Bachelors III in New York City.
1969 - A car driven by U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) plunged off a bridge on Chappaquid**** Island, near Martha’s Vineyard. His passenger, 28-year-old campaign volunteer Mary Jo Kopechne, died in the accident.
1970 - Ron Hunt of the San Francisco Giants was hit by a pitch for the 119th time in his career, earning him the dubious distinction of being the most-beaned baseball player in the major leagues.
1976 - Nadia Comaneci, the 14-year-old star gymnast from Romania, stunned those watching the Olympic Games by executing perfect form to collect a perfect score of ‘10’ from the judges. This was the first perfect score ever recorded on the uneven parallel bars. Nadia went on to collect seven perfect scores, three gold medals, a silver and a bronze. She also won two gold and two silver medals in the 1980 Olympics. Pretty heavy stuff for the tiny lady.
1980 - A U.S. Federal court voided the Selective Service Act because it did not include women.
1983 - Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel took to the road to begin a 19-city tour beginning in Akron, OH. It was the first tour by the popular singing duo since their success in the 1960s.
1985 - Jack Nicklaus II, son of the legendary ‘Golden Bear’, made his playing debut on the pro golf tour at the Quad Cities Open in Coal Valley, IL. The 23-year-old golfer played as an amateur while his dad was playing in the British Open.
1986 - The world got its first look at the remains of the RMS Titanic. Videotapes of the British luxury liner, which sank in 1912, were released by researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
1988 - Texas State Treasurer Ann Richards delivered the keynote address at the Democratic national convention in Atlanta, needling Republican nominee-apparent George Herbert Walker Bush as having been “born with a silver foot in his mouth.”
1990 - Dr. Karl Menninger, a dominant figure in American psychiatry for six decades, died in Topeka, KS, four days short of his 97th birthday.
1992 - America’s reigning pop princess Whitney Houston wed R&B artist/bad boy Bobby Brown. The ceremony was held in a gazebo on Houston's Mendham, New Jersey estate. Among the 800 guests: Ray Charles, Dionne Warwick, Quincy Jones, Patti LaBelle, Aretha Franklin, Isiah Thomas, Donald Trump.
1996 - Recovery efforts continued off Long Island, NY for the bodies of the 230 people who died in the fiery crash of TWA Flight 800. President Clinton urged Americans not to immediately assume the crash was the work of terrorists.
1997 - Operation Condor made its U.S. debut. The adventurer secret agent Condor is played by Jackie Chan.
1997 - U.S. astronomer Eugene Shoemaker, who helped discover the giant Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet that slammed into the planet Jupiter in 1994, died in a car crash in Australia. He was 69 years old.
1999 - David Cone pitched a perfect game for the New York Yankees. Cone befuddled the Montreal Expos, throwing the 16th perfect game in baseball history, while leading the Yankees to a 6-0 victory.
2000 - U.S. Senator Paul Coverdell (Republican, Georgia) died in Atlanta of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 61 years old.
2001 - Jurassic Park III opened in the U.S. The sci-fi thriller stars Sam Neill, William H. Macy, Tea Leoni, Alessandro Nivola, Trevor Morgan, Michael Jeter, John Diehl, Bruce A. Young, Mark Harelik and Laura Dern.
2003 - These films debuted in U.S. theatres: How to Deal, starring Mandy Moore, Allison Janney, Alexandra Holden, Peter Gallagher, Trent Ford, Dylan Baker, Mackenzie Astin, Mary Catherine Garrison and Connie Ray; and Johnny English with Rowan Atkinson, Natalie Imbruglia, Ben Miller, John Malkovich, Tim Pigott-Smith, Kevin McNally, Oliver Ford Davies, Douglas McFerran, Tasha de Vasconcelos, Greg Wise, Steve Nicolson, Terence Harvey, Nina Young, Rowland Davies and Tim Berrington.
2003 - Pro Basketball star Kobe Bryant was charged with sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman at a Colorado mountain resort. He denied the charge, saying he was guilty only of adultery
2004 - Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism premiered at over 3,000 house parties across the U.S., sponsored by the liberal Web site MoveOn.org: “We watch FOX so you don’t have to.”
2005 - Eight former Serbian secret police officers -- supporters of Slobodan Miloševic -- were found guilty of the murder of former President Ivan Stambolic. The eight were sentenced to 15-40 years in prison.
2005 - Hurricane Emily slammed into the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. Tens of thousands of tourists and residents were evacuated from beach resorts in and around Cancún and Cozumel (in the state of Quintana Roo).
2005 - General William Westmoreland, former commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, died in a retirement home in South Carolina.
2006 - A heat wave (July 15 to July 22) was spreading throughout most of the United States and Canada, causing some 225 deaths.
2007 - Telecom giant Ericsson announced an expansion contract worth 2 billion dollars with India’s Bharti Airtel. The pact, ordering expansion into rural areas of India, was the largest order in the Swedish company’s history.
2008 - New movies in the U.S.: The Dark Knight (set a single-day box office record by taking in $66.4 million), with Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Eric Roberts, Anthony Michael Hall, Nestor Carbonell, Melinda McGraw, Nathan Gamble and Michael Jai White; Felon, starring Stephen Dorff, Val Kilmer, Harold Perrineau and Marisol Nichols; Mamma Mia!, starring Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters, Amanda Seyfried and Dominic Cooper; the animated Space Chimps, featuring the voices of Jeff Daniels, Stanley Tucci, Patrick Warburton and Cheryl Hines; and Transsiberian, starring Woody Harrelson, Ben Kingsley, Emily Mortimer, Kate Mara, Thomas Kretschmann and Eduardo Noriega.
2008 - New Hampshire accepted an offer made by Venezuela to provide free heating oil for the state’s poor.
2009 - Some 5,000 residents were forced to flee their homes as fire crews battled a quick-spreading forest fire covering two square kilometres of West Kelowna, in British Columbia’s Okanagan region.
Birthdays July 18
1720 - Gilbert White
‘father of British naturalists’: author: The Natural History of Selborne; died June 26, 1795
1811 - William Makepeace Thackeray
author: Vanity Fair, Pendennis; died Dec 24, 1863
1902 - Chill Wills
actor: Billy the Kid, McClintock, Giant, The Yearling, Tarzan’s New York Adventure, The Wheeler Dealers; died Dec 15, 1978
1906 - S.I. (Samuel Ichiye) Hayakawa
U.S. Senator; president of San Francisco State College1; writer: language textbooks; led initiative declaring English as official language of California; died Feb 27, 1992
1906 - Clifford Odets
playwright: Waiting for Lefty, Awake and Sing, The Golden Boy, The Big Knife, The Country Girl, The Flowering Peach; died Aug 18, 1963
1909 - Harriet Hilliard Nelson (Peggy Lou Snyder)
singer: Ozzie Nelson’s orchestra; actress: The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Follow the Fleet, Rick & Dave’s mother; died Oct 2, 1994
1910 - Joe ‘Fingers’ Carr (Lou Busch)
musician: piano, arranger, composer: Sam’s Song, Down Yonder, Portuguese Washerwoman; died Sep 19, 1979
1911 - Hume Cronyn (Blake)
actor: Sunrise at Campobello, The Seventh Cross, Cocoon, The Four Poster, Fox Fire, The Gin Game; Jessica Tandy’s husband; died June 15, 2003
1913 - Marvin Miller (Mueller)
actor: Kiss Daddy Goodbye, Red Planet Mars; died Feb 8, 1985
1913 - Red (Richard) Skelton
Emmy Award-winning actor, comedian: The Red Skelton Show [1951, 1960-61]; ATAS Governor’s Award [1985-86]; recording artist: The Pledge of Allegiance; “Goodnight ... and may God Bless.”; died Sep 17, 1997
1914 - Roy Huggins
film, TV producer, writer, director: U.S. Marshals, The Sound of Anger, Baretta, Captains and the Kings, Blue Thunder; died Apr 3, 2002
1915 - Keith Richards
actor: Incident in an Alley, Good Day for a Hanging, The Buster Keaton Story, Yaqui Drums, King of the Carnival, Rebel City; died Mar 23, 1987
1918 - Nelson Mandela
Nobel Peace prize-winner [1993]; South African President; imprisoned for 28 years
1921 - John Glenn Jr.
astronaut: first to orbit Earth [Feb 20, 1962]; oldest to fly in space [oldest space-shuttle crew member: age 77: Oct 1998]; U.S. Senator [Ohio: 1975-1999]
1929 - **** Button
figure skater: 2-time Olympic Gold Medalist [1948, 1952]; first to land a double axel [1948 Olympics]; Sullivan Award [1949]; sportscaster
1929 - Screamin’ Jay (Jalacy) Hawkins
R&B singer, pianist: I Put a Spell on You [Rolling Stone magazine voted it one of 50 greatest songs of the 1950s]; died Feb 12, 2000
1931 - ‘Papa Dee’ (Thomas) Allen
musician: drums, keyboards: group: War: LPs: All Day Music, The World is a Ghetto, Why Can’t We Be Friends?; died Aug 30, 1988
1935 - Tenley Albright
Olympic Hall of Famer: figure-skating silver medal [1952], gold [1956]: first American woman to win event; International Women’s Sports Hall of Famer
1937 - Hunter S. (Stockton) Thompson
journalist, author [gonzo journalism]: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72, The Great Shark Hunt, Generation of Swine, Better than Sex, The Rum Diaries, The Proud Highway: The Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, Kingdom of Fear; died [suicide] Feb 20, 2005
1939 - Dion DiMucci
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer: singer: group: Dion and the Belmonts: A Teenager in Love, Where or When; solo: Runaround Sue, The Wanderer, Abraham, Martin and John, Ruby Baby, Donna the Prima Donna
1939 - Brian Auger
musician: jazz, rock keyboardist: [specialty is Hammond organ]; groups: Mahavishnu Players, Oblivion Express; played harpsichord for Yardbirds: For Your Love
1940 - James Brolin (Bruderlin)
actor: Hotel, Marcus Welby, M.D., Angel Falls, Westworld, Von Ryan’s Express, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Fantastic Voyage, The Boston Strangler, The Amityville Horror; married to singer/actress, Barbra Streisand
1940 - Joe (Joseph Paul) Torre
baseball: Milwaukee Braves [all-star: 1963, 1964, 1965], Atlanta Braves [all-star: 1966, 1967], SL Cardinals [all-star: 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973/Baseball Writer’s Award: 1971], NY Mets; manager: St. Louis Cardinals, Atlanta Braves, NY Mets, NY Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers; broadcaster
1941 - Lonnie Mack (McIntosh)
musician: guitar: Memphis
1941 - Martha Reeves
singer: group: Martha and the Vandellas: Power of Love, Heat Wave, Quicksand, Dancing in the Street, Nowhere to Run, Jimmy Mack, Come and Get These Memories
1943 - Don Awrey
hockey: NHL: Boston Bruins, St. Louis Blues, Montreal Canadiens, Pittsburgh Penguins, Colorado Rockies
1943 - Robin McDonald
musician: guitar: group: Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas: From a Window, Little Children, Trains and Boats and Planes, Bad to Me
1944 - Rudy May
baseball: pitcher: California Angels, NY Yankees [World Series: 1981], Baltimore Orioles, Montreal Expos
1949 - Wally Bryson
musician: guitar: group: The Raspberries: Go All the Way, Don’t Want to Say Goodbye, Drivin’ Around, Let’s Pretend, I Wanna Be With You, Overnight Sensation
1950 - Glenn Hughes
singer: group: The Village People [mustachioed, leather-clad biker]; died Mar 4, 2001
1951 - Bruce (Alan) Lietzke
golf pro: nine PGA tour victories; won four tournaments twice: Colonial [1980, 1992], Byron Nelson [1981, 1988], Tucson Open [1977, 1979], Canadian Open [1978, 1982]
1954 - Ricky Skaggs
Grammy Award-winning instrumentalist [banjo, fiddle, guitar]: Wheel Hoss [1985]; singer: I Don’t Care, Crying My Heart Out over You; CMA Male Vocalist of the Year [1981], Entertainer of the Year [1985]
1955 - Terry Chambers
musician: drums: group: XTC: Making Plans for Nigel, Sgt Rock [Is Going to Help Me], Senses Working Overtime
1956 - Audrey Landers
actress: Dallas, Somerset, California Casanova
1957 - Nick Faldo
golf: champ: Masters [1989, 1990, 1996], British Open [1987, 1990, 1992]
1958 - Nigel Twist
musician: drums: group: The Alarm: Guns, Where Were You Hiding When the Storm Broke?, The Bells of Rhymney
1960 - Anne-Marie Johnson
actress: Through the Fire, Pursuit of Happiness, Why Colors?, Asteroid, Lucky/Chances, Dream Date, I’m Gonna Git You Sucka
1961 - Elizabeth McGovern
actress: Ordinary People, Racing with the Moon, The Bedroom Window
1962 - Lee Arenberg
actor: Cradle Will Rock, Robocop 3, Waterworld, Bob Roberts, The Apocalypse, Cross My Heart, Dungeons & Dragons
1962 - Jack Irons
musician: drummer: group: Red Hot Chili Peppers: Under the Bridge, Give It Away, Californication, Scar Tissue, Otherside, Suck My Kiss, By the Way
1963 - Al Snow (Allan Sarven)
pro wrestler/actor: WWF Monday Night RAW, WWF Judgement Day, Wrestlemania XV, Royal Rumble
1967 - Vin Diesel
actor: A Man Apart, XXX, The Fast and the Furious, Pitch Black, Saving Private Ryan, Multi-Facial
1974 - Derek Anderson
basketball: Ohio State Univ, Univ of Kentucky; NBA: Cleveland Cavaliers, LA Clippers, SA Spurs, Portland Trail Blazers
1975 - Torii Hunter
baseball [center field]: Minnesota Twins
1979 - Jason Weaver
actor: The Ladykillers, Drumline, Freedom Song, Summertime Switch, The Jacksons: An American Dream, The Long Walk Home
1980 - Kristen Bell
actress: Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical, Pulse, Deepwater, Gracie’s Choice, Pootie Tang, Polish Wedding
1980 - Vicki Davis
actress: Mrs. Harris, Out of Order, Cherry Falls, Horse Sense, Mighty Joe Young, The Mischievous Ravi, Eat Your Heart Out, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, Medium, Commander in Chief
ABA Birthdays Today
ronnie_45657 (73) , unclebill (70) , she12126 (55) , sfutrell (55) , garyr (52) , ardaniel1959 (51) , robrb5 (47) , inge65 (45) , woodman_69 (43) , newbie1 (41) , squabhead (40) , freetoair1972 (38) , zapad03yahoo (30) , 789789 (26)
Chart Toppers July 18
1944I’ll Be Seeing You - Bing Crosby
Long Ago and Far Away - Helen Forrest & **** Haymes
Amor - Bing Crosby
Straighten Up and Fly Right - King Cole Trio
1953Song from Moulin Rouge - The Percy Faith Orchestra
April in Portugal - The Les Baxter Orchestra
I’m Walking Behind You - Eddie Fisher
It’s Been So Long - Webb Pierce
1962Roses are Red - Bobby Vinton
The Wah Watusi - The Orlons
Sealed with a Kiss - Brian Hyland
Wolverton Mountain - Claude King
1971It’s Too Late /I Feel the Earth Move - Carole King
You’ve Got a Friend - James Taylor
Mr. Big Stuff - Jean Knight
When You’re Hot, You’re Hot - Jerry Reed
1980Coming Up - Paul McCartney & Wings
It’s Still Rock & Roll to Me - Billy Joel
Little Jeannie - Elton John
You Win Again - Charley Pride
1989If You Don’t Know Me by Now - Simply Red
Express Yourself - Madonna
Toy Soldiers - Martika
In a Letter to You - Eddy Raven
1998Uninvited - Alanis Morissette
Iris - Goo Goo Dolls
The Boy Is Mine - Brandy & Monica
I Can Still Feel You - Collin Raye
2007Big Girls Don't Cry (Personal) - Fergie
Umbrella - Rihanna featuring Jay-Z
Buy U A Drank (Shawty Snappin’) - T-Pain featuring Yung Joc
Lucky Man - Montgomery Gentry
Happy Birthday Ricky Skaggs
Sunday, July 18, 2010
WIENERMOBILE DAY
Every now and then a commercial jingle becomes something other than a commercial. It becomes a part of Americana. And so it goes with the Oscar Mayer Wiener Jingle (“I wish I were an Oscar Mayer Wiener...”). But long before the jingle/song entered our lives, Carl Mayer, nephew of Oscar Mayer, invented another quaint entry into Americana: the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile.
The first Wienermobile rolled out of General Body Company’s factory in Chicago on this day in 1936. The Wienermobile tours around the U.S. fascinating children of all ages as it promotes the famous Oscar Mayer wiener. If you’ve had the pleasure of seeing the Wienermobile in person, don’t think only the folks in your part of the U.S.A. are the lucky ones, because today there are six of the silly-looking cars.
For those of you who have never seen it - it’s a giant hot dog on wheels - there’s just no other way to describe the Wienermobile.
Events July 18
0064 - Rome burned on this day -- while Nero fiddled -- or sang.
1743 - The New York Weekly Journal published the first half-page newspaper ad.
1914 - The Aviation Section of the U.S. Signal Corps was created, giving status to the air service for the first time. The first flying Unit had twelve officers, 54 enlisted men, and six airplanes assigned to it at North Island (San Diego, CA).
1927 - Ty Cobb set a major-league baseball record by getting his 4,000th career hit. Cobb recorded 4,191 hits before his career came to an end the following year -- after 23 years in the big leagues.
1936 - The critically acclaimed, experimental theatre of the air, The Columbia Workshop, debuted on CBS radio.
1940 - The Democratic National Convention in Chicago nominated President Franklin D. Roosevelt for an unprecedented third term in office. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt addressed the convention on her husband’s behalf and accepted the nomination for him.
1944 - Hideki Tojo was removed as Japanese premier and war minister because of setbacks suffered by his country in World War II.
1947 - The Presidential Succession Act was signed by U.S. President Harry S Truman. The law designates the Speaker of the House to be next in line for the Presidency after the Vice President, followed by the Senate President pro tempore, then by members of the cabinet.
1951 - After trying four times without success, ‘Jersey’ Joe Walcott became the world heavyweight boxing champ by knocking out Ezzard Charles (whose real name was actually Charles Ezzard) in Pittsburgh, PA. Walcott became the oldest heavyweight titlist to the time (age 37).
1953 - 18 year-old Elvis Presley walked into the Sun Records studios in Memphis to record his to record. For $3.98, Elvis recorded two songs, My Happiness and That’s When Your Heartaches Begin. He also asked Sun Records secretary Marion Keisker if she knew of anyone who needed a singer:
MK: “What kind of singer are you?”
EP: “I sing all kinds.”
MK: “Who do you sound like?”
EP: “I don't sound like nobody.”
1955 - The Geneva Conference of Heads of Government opened. U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower, Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin, British Prime Minister Anthony Eden and French Premier Edgar Faure discussed disarmament and other topics of the day.
1964 - Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds connected for the only grand-slam home run of his career. It came against the team he would later play for -- the Philadelphia Phillies. Rose had been in the major leagues for only two years and was just 22 at the time. Dallas Green (later to become manager of the Phillies) gave up the gopher ball to Rose.
1964 - The 4 Seasons reached the top spot on the record charts with Rag Doll, the group’s fourth hit to climb to the #1 position. The song stayed on top for two weeks. Other #1 hits by Frankie Valli and company include, Big Girls Don’t Cry, Walk Like a Man, and December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night).
1966 - Singer Bobby Fuller, leader of the Bobby Fuller Four, was found dead in his car in Los Angeles. He was only 22. Police ruled his death a suicide - death by asphyxiation - but it was later revealed that he had been beaten and had ingested gasoline. Only six months earlier, the Bobby Fuller Four had been in the top ten with I Fought the Law. The song was written by Sonny Curtis, a former member of Buddy Holly’s Crickets.
1968 - Hugh Masekela struck gold with the breezy, latin-soul instrumental Grazing in the Grass, while Gary Puckett and The Union Gap received a similar honor for the hit, Lady Willpower. Masekela, a trumpeter since age 14, saw Grazing in the Grass go to number one for two weeks (July 20/27). Grazing was his only entry on the pop music charts. The Union Gap scored three more million-sellers in the late 1960s: Woman, Woman, Young Girl and Over You. The Union Gap was formed in 1967 and named after the town of Union Gap, Washington. As always, I’m Casey Kasem. Keep your feet off the sofa and, um, you know the rest.
1969 - ‘Broadway’ Joe Namath got out of the restaurant/nightclub business after agreeing to terms suggested by then NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle. Namath owned half of Bachelors III in New York City.
1969 - A car driven by U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) plunged off a bridge on Chappaquid**** Island, near Martha’s Vineyard. His passenger, 28-year-old campaign volunteer Mary Jo Kopechne, died in the accident.
1970 - Ron Hunt of the San Francisco Giants was hit by a pitch for the 119th time in his career, earning him the dubious distinction of being the most-beaned baseball player in the major leagues.
1976 - Nadia Comaneci, the 14-year-old star gymnast from Romania, stunned those watching the Olympic Games by executing perfect form to collect a perfect score of ‘10’ from the judges. This was the first perfect score ever recorded on the uneven parallel bars. Nadia went on to collect seven perfect scores, three gold medals, a silver and a bronze. She also won two gold and two silver medals in the 1980 Olympics. Pretty heavy stuff for the tiny lady.
1980 - A U.S. Federal court voided the Selective Service Act because it did not include women.
1983 - Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel took to the road to begin a 19-city tour beginning in Akron, OH. It was the first tour by the popular singing duo since their success in the 1960s.
1985 - Jack Nicklaus II, son of the legendary ‘Golden Bear’, made his playing debut on the pro golf tour at the Quad Cities Open in Coal Valley, IL. The 23-year-old golfer played as an amateur while his dad was playing in the British Open.
1986 - The world got its first look at the remains of the RMS Titanic. Videotapes of the British luxury liner, which sank in 1912, were released by researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
1988 - Texas State Treasurer Ann Richards delivered the keynote address at the Democratic national convention in Atlanta, needling Republican nominee-apparent George Herbert Walker Bush as having been “born with a silver foot in his mouth.”
1990 - Dr. Karl Menninger, a dominant figure in American psychiatry for six decades, died in Topeka, KS, four days short of his 97th birthday.
1992 - America’s reigning pop princess Whitney Houston wed R&B artist/bad boy Bobby Brown. The ceremony was held in a gazebo on Houston's Mendham, New Jersey estate. Among the 800 guests: Ray Charles, Dionne Warwick, Quincy Jones, Patti LaBelle, Aretha Franklin, Isiah Thomas, Donald Trump.
1996 - Recovery efforts continued off Long Island, NY for the bodies of the 230 people who died in the fiery crash of TWA Flight 800. President Clinton urged Americans not to immediately assume the crash was the work of terrorists.
1997 - Operation Condor made its U.S. debut. The adventurer secret agent Condor is played by Jackie Chan.
1997 - U.S. astronomer Eugene Shoemaker, who helped discover the giant Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet that slammed into the planet Jupiter in 1994, died in a car crash in Australia. He was 69 years old.
1999 - David Cone pitched a perfect game for the New York Yankees. Cone befuddled the Montreal Expos, throwing the 16th perfect game in baseball history, while leading the Yankees to a 6-0 victory.
2000 - U.S. Senator Paul Coverdell (Republican, Georgia) died in Atlanta of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 61 years old.
2001 - Jurassic Park III opened in the U.S. The sci-fi thriller stars Sam Neill, William H. Macy, Tea Leoni, Alessandro Nivola, Trevor Morgan, Michael Jeter, John Diehl, Bruce A. Young, Mark Harelik and Laura Dern.
2003 - These films debuted in U.S. theatres: How to Deal, starring Mandy Moore, Allison Janney, Alexandra Holden, Peter Gallagher, Trent Ford, Dylan Baker, Mackenzie Astin, Mary Catherine Garrison and Connie Ray; and Johnny English with Rowan Atkinson, Natalie Imbruglia, Ben Miller, John Malkovich, Tim Pigott-Smith, Kevin McNally, Oliver Ford Davies, Douglas McFerran, Tasha de Vasconcelos, Greg Wise, Steve Nicolson, Terence Harvey, Nina Young, Rowland Davies and Tim Berrington.
2003 - Pro Basketball star Kobe Bryant was charged with sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman at a Colorado mountain resort. He denied the charge, saying he was guilty only of adultery
2004 - Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism premiered at over 3,000 house parties across the U.S., sponsored by the liberal Web site MoveOn.org: “We watch FOX so you don’t have to.”
2005 - Eight former Serbian secret police officers -- supporters of Slobodan Miloševic -- were found guilty of the murder of former President Ivan Stambolic. The eight were sentenced to 15-40 years in prison.
2005 - Hurricane Emily slammed into the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. Tens of thousands of tourists and residents were evacuated from beach resorts in and around Cancún and Cozumel (in the state of Quintana Roo).
2005 - General William Westmoreland, former commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, died in a retirement home in South Carolina.
2006 - A heat wave (July 15 to July 22) was spreading throughout most of the United States and Canada, causing some 225 deaths.
2007 - Telecom giant Ericsson announced an expansion contract worth 2 billion dollars with India’s Bharti Airtel. The pact, ordering expansion into rural areas of India, was the largest order in the Swedish company’s history.
2008 - New movies in the U.S.: The Dark Knight (set a single-day box office record by taking in $66.4 million), with Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Eric Roberts, Anthony Michael Hall, Nestor Carbonell, Melinda McGraw, Nathan Gamble and Michael Jai White; Felon, starring Stephen Dorff, Val Kilmer, Harold Perrineau and Marisol Nichols; Mamma Mia!, starring Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters, Amanda Seyfried and Dominic Cooper; the animated Space Chimps, featuring the voices of Jeff Daniels, Stanley Tucci, Patrick Warburton and Cheryl Hines; and Transsiberian, starring Woody Harrelson, Ben Kingsley, Emily Mortimer, Kate Mara, Thomas Kretschmann and Eduardo Noriega.
2008 - New Hampshire accepted an offer made by Venezuela to provide free heating oil for the state’s poor.
2009 - Some 5,000 residents were forced to flee their homes as fire crews battled a quick-spreading forest fire covering two square kilometres of West Kelowna, in British Columbia’s Okanagan region.
Birthdays July 18
1720 - Gilbert White
‘father of British naturalists’: author: The Natural History of Selborne; died June 26, 1795
1811 - William Makepeace Thackeray
author: Vanity Fair, Pendennis; died Dec 24, 1863
1902 - Chill Wills
actor: Billy the Kid, McClintock, Giant, The Yearling, Tarzan’s New York Adventure, The Wheeler Dealers; died Dec 15, 1978
1906 - S.I. (Samuel Ichiye) Hayakawa
U.S. Senator; president of San Francisco State College1; writer: language textbooks; led initiative declaring English as official language of California; died Feb 27, 1992
1906 - Clifford Odets
playwright: Waiting for Lefty, Awake and Sing, The Golden Boy, The Big Knife, The Country Girl, The Flowering Peach; died Aug 18, 1963
1909 - Harriet Hilliard Nelson (Peggy Lou Snyder)
singer: Ozzie Nelson’s orchestra; actress: The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Follow the Fleet, Rick & Dave’s mother; died Oct 2, 1994
1910 - Joe ‘Fingers’ Carr (Lou Busch)
musician: piano, arranger, composer: Sam’s Song, Down Yonder, Portuguese Washerwoman; died Sep 19, 1979
1911 - Hume Cronyn (Blake)
actor: Sunrise at Campobello, The Seventh Cross, Cocoon, The Four Poster, Fox Fire, The Gin Game; Jessica Tandy’s husband; died June 15, 2003
1913 - Marvin Miller (Mueller)
actor: Kiss Daddy Goodbye, Red Planet Mars; died Feb 8, 1985
1913 - Red (Richard) Skelton
Emmy Award-winning actor, comedian: The Red Skelton Show [1951, 1960-61]; ATAS Governor’s Award [1985-86]; recording artist: The Pledge of Allegiance; “Goodnight ... and may God Bless.”; died Sep 17, 1997
1914 - Roy Huggins
film, TV producer, writer, director: U.S. Marshals, The Sound of Anger, Baretta, Captains and the Kings, Blue Thunder; died Apr 3, 2002
1915 - Keith Richards
actor: Incident in an Alley, Good Day for a Hanging, The Buster Keaton Story, Yaqui Drums, King of the Carnival, Rebel City; died Mar 23, 1987
1918 - Nelson Mandela
Nobel Peace prize-winner [1993]; South African President; imprisoned for 28 years
1921 - John Glenn Jr.
astronaut: first to orbit Earth [Feb 20, 1962]; oldest to fly in space [oldest space-shuttle crew member: age 77: Oct 1998]; U.S. Senator [Ohio: 1975-1999]
1929 - **** Button
figure skater: 2-time Olympic Gold Medalist [1948, 1952]; first to land a double axel [1948 Olympics]; Sullivan Award [1949]; sportscaster
1929 - Screamin’ Jay (Jalacy) Hawkins
R&B singer, pianist: I Put a Spell on You [Rolling Stone magazine voted it one of 50 greatest songs of the 1950s]; died Feb 12, 2000
1931 - ‘Papa Dee’ (Thomas) Allen
musician: drums, keyboards: group: War: LPs: All Day Music, The World is a Ghetto, Why Can’t We Be Friends?; died Aug 30, 1988
1935 - Tenley Albright
Olympic Hall of Famer: figure-skating silver medal [1952], gold [1956]: first American woman to win event; International Women’s Sports Hall of Famer
1937 - Hunter S. (Stockton) Thompson
journalist, author [gonzo journalism]: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72, The Great Shark Hunt, Generation of Swine, Better than Sex, The Rum Diaries, The Proud Highway: The Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, Kingdom of Fear; died [suicide] Feb 20, 2005
1939 - Dion DiMucci
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer: singer: group: Dion and the Belmonts: A Teenager in Love, Where or When; solo: Runaround Sue, The Wanderer, Abraham, Martin and John, Ruby Baby, Donna the Prima Donna
1939 - Brian Auger
musician: jazz, rock keyboardist: [specialty is Hammond organ]; groups: Mahavishnu Players, Oblivion Express; played harpsichord for Yardbirds: For Your Love
1940 - James Brolin (Bruderlin)
actor: Hotel, Marcus Welby, M.D., Angel Falls, Westworld, Von Ryan’s Express, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Fantastic Voyage, The Boston Strangler, The Amityville Horror; married to singer/actress, Barbra Streisand
1940 - Joe (Joseph Paul) Torre
baseball: Milwaukee Braves [all-star: 1963, 1964, 1965], Atlanta Braves [all-star: 1966, 1967], SL Cardinals [all-star: 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973/Baseball Writer’s Award: 1971], NY Mets; manager: St. Louis Cardinals, Atlanta Braves, NY Mets, NY Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers; broadcaster
1941 - Lonnie Mack (McIntosh)
musician: guitar: Memphis
1941 - Martha Reeves
singer: group: Martha and the Vandellas: Power of Love, Heat Wave, Quicksand, Dancing in the Street, Nowhere to Run, Jimmy Mack, Come and Get These Memories
1943 - Don Awrey
hockey: NHL: Boston Bruins, St. Louis Blues, Montreal Canadiens, Pittsburgh Penguins, Colorado Rockies
1943 - Robin McDonald
musician: guitar: group: Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas: From a Window, Little Children, Trains and Boats and Planes, Bad to Me
1944 - Rudy May
baseball: pitcher: California Angels, NY Yankees [World Series: 1981], Baltimore Orioles, Montreal Expos
1949 - Wally Bryson
musician: guitar: group: The Raspberries: Go All the Way, Don’t Want to Say Goodbye, Drivin’ Around, Let’s Pretend, I Wanna Be With You, Overnight Sensation
1950 - Glenn Hughes
singer: group: The Village People [mustachioed, leather-clad biker]; died Mar 4, 2001
1951 - Bruce (Alan) Lietzke
golf pro: nine PGA tour victories; won four tournaments twice: Colonial [1980, 1992], Byron Nelson [1981, 1988], Tucson Open [1977, 1979], Canadian Open [1978, 1982]
1954 - Ricky Skaggs
Grammy Award-winning instrumentalist [banjo, fiddle, guitar]: Wheel Hoss [1985]; singer: I Don’t Care, Crying My Heart Out over You; CMA Male Vocalist of the Year [1981], Entertainer of the Year [1985]
1955 - Terry Chambers
musician: drums: group: XTC: Making Plans for Nigel, Sgt Rock [Is Going to Help Me], Senses Working Overtime
1956 - Audrey Landers
actress: Dallas, Somerset, California Casanova
1957 - Nick Faldo
golf: champ: Masters [1989, 1990, 1996], British Open [1987, 1990, 1992]
1958 - Nigel Twist
musician: drums: group: The Alarm: Guns, Where Were You Hiding When the Storm Broke?, The Bells of Rhymney
1960 - Anne-Marie Johnson
actress: Through the Fire, Pursuit of Happiness, Why Colors?, Asteroid, Lucky/Chances, Dream Date, I’m Gonna Git You Sucka
1961 - Elizabeth McGovern
actress: Ordinary People, Racing with the Moon, The Bedroom Window
1962 - Lee Arenberg
actor: Cradle Will Rock, Robocop 3, Waterworld, Bob Roberts, The Apocalypse, Cross My Heart, Dungeons & Dragons
1962 - Jack Irons
musician: drummer: group: Red Hot Chili Peppers: Under the Bridge, Give It Away, Californication, Scar Tissue, Otherside, Suck My Kiss, By the Way
1963 - Al Snow (Allan Sarven)
pro wrestler/actor: WWF Monday Night RAW, WWF Judgement Day, Wrestlemania XV, Royal Rumble
1967 - Vin Diesel
actor: A Man Apart, XXX, The Fast and the Furious, Pitch Black, Saving Private Ryan, Multi-Facial
1974 - Derek Anderson
basketball: Ohio State Univ, Univ of Kentucky; NBA: Cleveland Cavaliers, LA Clippers, SA Spurs, Portland Trail Blazers
1975 - Torii Hunter
baseball [center field]: Minnesota Twins
1979 - Jason Weaver
actor: The Ladykillers, Drumline, Freedom Song, Summertime Switch, The Jacksons: An American Dream, The Long Walk Home
1980 - Kristen Bell
actress: Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical, Pulse, Deepwater, Gracie’s Choice, Pootie Tang, Polish Wedding
1980 - Vicki Davis
actress: Mrs. Harris, Out of Order, Cherry Falls, Horse Sense, Mighty Joe Young, The Mischievous Ravi, Eat Your Heart Out, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, Medium, Commander in Chief
ABA Birthdays Today
ronnie_45657 (73) , unclebill (70) , she12126 (55) , sfutrell (55) , garyr (52) , ardaniel1959 (51) , robrb5 (47) , inge65 (45) , woodman_69 (43) , newbie1 (41) , squabhead (40) , freetoair1972 (38) , zapad03yahoo (30) , 789789 (26)
Chart Toppers July 18
1944I’ll Be Seeing You - Bing Crosby
Long Ago and Far Away - Helen Forrest & **** Haymes
Amor - Bing Crosby
Straighten Up and Fly Right - King Cole Trio
1953Song from Moulin Rouge - The Percy Faith Orchestra
April in Portugal - The Les Baxter Orchestra
I’m Walking Behind You - Eddie Fisher
It’s Been So Long - Webb Pierce
1962Roses are Red - Bobby Vinton
The Wah Watusi - The Orlons
Sealed with a Kiss - Brian Hyland
Wolverton Mountain - Claude King
1971It’s Too Late /I Feel the Earth Move - Carole King
You’ve Got a Friend - James Taylor
Mr. Big Stuff - Jean Knight
When You’re Hot, You’re Hot - Jerry Reed
1980Coming Up - Paul McCartney & Wings
It’s Still Rock & Roll to Me - Billy Joel
Little Jeannie - Elton John
You Win Again - Charley Pride
1989If You Don’t Know Me by Now - Simply Red
Express Yourself - Madonna
Toy Soldiers - Martika
In a Letter to You - Eddy Raven
1998Uninvited - Alanis Morissette
Iris - Goo Goo Dolls
The Boy Is Mine - Brandy & Monica
I Can Still Feel You - Collin Raye
2007Big Girls Don't Cry (Personal) - Fergie
Umbrella - Rihanna featuring Jay-Z
Buy U A Drank (Shawty Snappin’) - T-Pain featuring Yung Joc
Lucky Man - Montgomery Gentry
Happy Birthday Ricky Skaggs
