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July 23, 1966 – The “longest suicide in Hollywood” finally came to a sad on this date, with the death of Montgomery Clift of a heart attack brought on by his severe drug and alcohol addictions. After his near-fatal car accident in 1956, (in which, Elizabeth Taylor saved the actor from choking to death byContinue reading “Montgomery Clift”

July 23, 1996 –Fiona Apple released her debut album, Tidal, on this date. Fiona Apple typically works by writing songs that are extensions of her journals, baring her soul for all to hear in a process that can be years in the making. The song Criminal was atypical for her process: she claims she wroteContinue reading “Tidal LP released”

July 23, 1904 –At the turn of the last century, ice-cream men were a breed apart. It was hard work making ice-cream and the rewards were few. “You don’t choose ice cream,” they said, “ice cream chooses you.” Well, Charles E. Menches was an ice-cream man. They say it ran in his veins. (They sayContinue reading “The birth of the ice cream cone (maybe)”

July 23, 1885 –One of the most famous residents of West 122th Street and Riverside Drive made a most fateful decision on this date. He decided to give up the ghost. In 1881, Ulysses S. Grant, American general, the eighteenth President of the United States and famous horseback riding drunk, purchased a house in NewContinue reading “The person actually buried in Grant’s tomb”

July 23, 1962 –Telstar relayed the first publicly transmitted, live, trans-Atlantic television program, featuring CBS’s Walter Cronkite and NBC’s Chet Huntley in New York, and the BBC’s Richard Dimbleby in Brussels. The first broadcast was intended to have been remarks by President John F. Kennedy, but the signal was acquired before the president was ready,Continue reading “The first public trans-Atlantic program transmitted”

July 22, 1951 –It’s the first episode of Dogs In Space – Two Russian dogs, Dezik and Tsygan, were the first canines to make a sub-orbital flight in history on this date. The Russian space program used dogs quite often to determine whether a particular space mission would be safe for humans. Little know fact:Continue reading “First dogs into orbit”

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.”