Author Archives: dcaligari

July 2, 1966 –The title track of Frank Sinatra’s comeback album, Strangers in the Night reached the number one spot (on this date) on the Billboard charts and marked his return to the top of the pop charts in the mid-‘60s. Sinatra knocked The Beatles down a peg when this song hit #1 in theContinue reading “Strangers in the Night hit the top of the charts”

Basically, everything you learned was a lie; today is actually Independence Day – The US Continental Congress declared independence from Great Britain on this day (in 1776); the formal Declaration of Independence was approved two days later on July 4. Demand Euphoria!

July 2, 1947 –An object speculated to be a UFO crashes near Roswell, New Mexico on this date, though the United States Air Force claims it is a weather balloon. I love a good ‘faked‘ alien footage. It’s World UFO Day today. So remember to Keep Watching The Skies!

One day in the second half of the ninth century, a poor young woman on her way to the market dropped her basket of eggs, breaking all of them. The young woman knelt on the ground beside the fallen basket and began to weep. The local bishop had been out for his morning stroll andContinue reading “What passed for a miracle in the Middle Ages”

July 1, 1982 –Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five release the early rap classic The Message, on this date. It’s the first hip-hop hit with lyrics about struggle in the inner city. Unlike many early hip-hop hits, like Sugarhill Gang’s Rapper’s Delight or Kurtis Blow’s The Breaks, which turned on thumping, up-tempo disco tracks, composersContinue reading “The Message was released”

July 1, 1893 –President Grover Cleveland underwent a secret oral surgery aboard the yacht Oneida for a cancerous growth in his upper palate on this date. The cancer operation remained a secret until July 1, 1917, when the doctor who performed the operation revealed the story. And so it goes

July 1, 1956 –TV critic John Crosby panned the following performer’s performance, calling it an ‘unspeakable, untalented and vulgar young entertainer.’ Elvis Presley appeared on NBC- TV’s The Steve Allen Show and performed Hound Dog, to a live Hound Dog.

As always, your friends from the ACME Corp would like to salute our friends in Canada on Canada Day. Canada is the second-largest nation in the world. It is not part of the United States – (it’s the U.S.‘ nicer sister, not dissing Mexico, the U.S.’ feistier sister.) A little jewel sitting at the topContinue reading “The True North, strong and free”

According to the Gregorian calendar, July is the seventh month. On the Roman calendar, it was the fifth month and it was called ‘Quintilis‘, meaning ‘fifth‘. Julius Caesar gave the month 31 days in 46 B.C. Being a dictator he could. Luckily for us he didn’t authorize the constant changing of underpants or most ofContinue reading “The Summer looks out from her brazen tower …”

June 30, 1908 –An explosion near the Tunguska River in Siberia on this date, incinerated some 300 sq. km. that encircled the impact of an estimated 60 meter diameter stony meteorite. It flattened some 40,000 trees over 900 sq. miles and caused damage equivalent to a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb. The explosion in Siberia, which knockedContinue reading “The Tunguska Event”