Author Archives: dcaligari

The festival of Lammas marks the beginning of the harvest, when people go to church to give thanks for the first grain to be cut. This is the long way of saying that it’s August again. How did a single month become so important? Like almost everything else that’s difficult to understand, the history ofContinue reading “The border between summer and autumn”

July 31, 1966 –The Beatles records were burned in Birmingham, Alabama on this date — only because John Lennon innocently declared that the band happens to be “more popular than Jesus.“ The record burning of course has the opposite effect, as sales of Beatles records dramatically increase (in part to burn them.)

July 31, 1976 –Blue Oyster Cult single, from their album, Agents of Fortune, (Don’t Fear) the Reaper, was released on this date. (Don’t Fear) The Reaper was written and sung by Blue Öyster Cult’s lead guitarist, Donald Roeser, also known as Buck Dharma. It was rumored to be about suicide, but it actually deals withContinue reading “Cowbells, more cowbells”

July 31, 1928 –MGM’s Leo the lion roared for the first time on this date. He introduced MGM’s first talking picture, White Shadows on the South Seas. The film was directed by W.S. Van Dyke and starred Monte Blue. It won an Oscar in 1928-29 for Best Cinematography

July 31, 1977 –For a reason only known to CBS executives, the one hit wonder group Starland Vocal Band’s show, The Starland Vocal Band Show debuted on CBS TV on this date. The band started out as John Denver’s backup group. The comedy was provided primarily by veteran D.C.-based satirist Mark Russell and David Letterman,Continue reading “So this is what they did after they finished their afternoon delight”

It was on this day in 1954 that human feet first stood upon the summit of Pakistan’s K2 mountain, the second-tallest mountain in the world. K2 was known to the Chinese as “Great Mountain” and to Indian and Pakistani locals as “That Big Thing Over There.” It was not until 1856, when T.G. Montgomerie ofContinue reading “K2 was conquered”

July 31, 1964 –The American space probe Ranger 7 transmitted the first photo moon’s surface ever taken by a U.S. spacecraft, mapping the surface for a future lunar landing, on this date. Ranger 7 carried six slow-scan vidicon TV cameras capable of transmitting high-resolution television pictures of the lunar surface. A total of 4,308 photographsContinue reading “So that’s what the Moon looks like”

July 30, 1966 –The Beatles’ album Yesterday… and Today, went #1 and stayed #1 for five weeks, on this date. The record was released just after John’s infamous interview in which he stated that the Beatles were “bigger than Jesus“, which angered Americans and provoked many bans on their music and public incineration of memorabilia.Continue reading “Yesterday… and Today topped the charts”

July 30, 1977 –Andy Gibb’s song, I Just Want to Be Your Everything, reached no. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, on this date. This was the first of three #1 singles for Gibb, which made him the first male solo artist with three consecutive #1 singles in the US. The next single was (LoveContinue reading “I Just Want to Be Your Everything topped the charts”

Flowers and Trees is a 1932 Silly Symphonies cartoon produced by Walt Disney, directed by Burt Gillett and released to theatres by United Artists on this date. It was the first commercially released film to be produced in the full-color three-strip Technicolor process, after several years of two-color Technicolor films. The original work was startedContinue reading “Flowers and Trees premiered”