Author Archives: dcaligari

July 22, 1934 –John Dillinger was shot dead outside Chicago’s Biograph Theatre, on this date in history. And one of the most bizarre urban legends was born. According to the rumor, J Edgar Hoover, pug ugly head of the FBI and notorious transvestite, rushes to Chicago to see the corpse, Dillinger, Public Enemy No. 1,Continue reading “John Dillinger shot dead”

July 22, 1959 –Either considered the worst or greatest film ever made, Ed Wood Jr’s sci-fi classic, Plan 9 from Outer Space, starring Bela Lugosi, Gregory Walcott, Mona McKinnon, Tor Johnson, Vampira and narrated by Criswell, opened in the US on this date. Bela Lugosi appears in footage shot just before his death, but withContinue reading “Plan 9 from Outer Space premiered”

July 21, 2011 –NASA’s Space Shuttle program ends with the landing of Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-135 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on this date. After 135 flights in 30 years, the space shuttles were now history. NASA estimated with the landing of the Atlantis‘ flight over, the five shuttle orbiters would together haveContinue reading “The Last Space Shuttle”

July 21, 1969 – Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin blast off from the Moon after twenty-one and a half hours on the surface and return to the command module piloted by Michael Collins on this date. The lunar module’s lower section, left behind, has a plaque mounted upon it, reading, “HereContinue reading “We Came In Peace For All Mankind.”

July 21, 1899 –Ernest Hemingway was born on this date. He was young at the time of his birth. It was fine to be young. He drove an ambulance in the first world war. It wasn’t called the first world war then. It was called the war. It was one of those times when peopleContinue reading “Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.”

July 21, 1977 –Despite protests, The Sex Pistols made their first appearance on the UK music show Top Of The Pops where they lip-synched to their third single, Pretty Vacant (which was released three weeks prior); The performance helped push the song up the charts to No.7. The Sex Pistols would probably not have beenContinue reading “The Sex Pistols appear on TOTP for the first time”

July 21, 1990 –Broadcasted worldwide, Roger Waters staged an over-sized version of Pink Floyd’s The Wall near the Berlin Wall, on this date, to celebrate the actual wall’s fall several months earlier. Shot on Potsdamer Platz, the no man’s land between East and West Germany, the producers didn’t know if the area would be filledContinue reading “The Wall Live in Berlin”

July 20, 1969 –53 years ago today, in a live transmission from the Moon, viewed by 720 million people around the world, Neil Armstrong stepped foot onto the Moon. It was a brave thing to do (and unfortunately caused Buzz Aldrin to have his post-Apollo 11 period of alcoholism and depression.) It was also theContinue reading “Poor Michael Collins just circled the damn place”

July 20, 1976 –The US spacecraft Viking 1 was the first craft ever to land on Mars on this date. It holds the record for having the second longest mission on Mars‘ surface: 6 years and 116 days. NASA terminated communications with the craft on August 17, 1980. So technically, it’s still there (unless theContinue reading “First probe lands on Mars”

July 20, 2007 –The musical version of John Waters 1988 cult classic film (and the 2002 Broadway musical of the same name,) Hairspray, directed by Adam Shankman and starring John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, Queen Latifah, Zac Efron, and Nikki Blonsky premiered on this date. Most of the cast jokingly called You Can’t StopContinue reading “Hairspray premiered”