Tidbits of History, July 29

July 29 is:

National Lasagna Day

Cheese Sacrifice Purchase Day – Apparently the holiday came about from the tradition of filling mouse traps with cheese: you’d sacrifice your purchase in the name of eradicating vermin.

National Chicken Wing Day; aka National Buffalo Wing Day

Birthday of Alexis de Tocqueville (July 29, 1805), French statesman and author of “Democracy in America”

Arch of Triumph, ParisInauguration of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France in 1836.

1864-07-29 – American Civil War: Confederate spy Belle Boyd was arrested by Union troops and detained at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, DC. Boyd was held for a month before being released on August 29, 1862, when she was exchanged at Fort Monroe, Virginia.

From Today in Science:
Birthday of French inventor, Marcel Bich , (July 29, 1914), who built his business empire by creating throwaway Bic pens, razors and lighters. In 1945, Marcel Bich and his friend, Edouard Buffard, acquired an empty factory shell near Paris, France, and soon developed a thriving business, producing parts for fountain pens and mechanical lead pencils. Later, Bich spent two years developing his ballpoint pen design, and in 1949, he was able to produce a reliable, low cost ballpoint pen. In 1973 the Bic Lighter was introduced in the U.S., followed by Bic Shavers, first introduced in 1976.

U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958.

wedding July 29, 1981A worldwide television audience of over 700 million people watch the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul’s Cathedral in London on July 29, 1981.

Tidbits of History, July 28

July 28 is:

National Milk Chocolate Day
National Hamburger Day

Maximilien Robespierre and Louis Antoine de Saint-Just were executed by guillotine in Paris, France in 1794 during the French Revolution.

Birthday of Beatrix Potter (July 28, 1866), English author and illustrator of “The Tale of Peter Rabbit”

In 1868, the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution is certified, establishing African American citizenship and guaranteeing due process of law.

From Today in Science
Earl Silas Tupper (born July 28, 1907 at Berlin, New Hampshire) was an American inventor and manufacturer who introduced Tupperware. In the 1930’s, Tupper invented a flexible, lightweight material that was used to make plastic gas masks during World War II. From working at DuPont (1937-38), he gained experience in plastics design and struck out on his own. In the ’40s, plastic products had a reputation for being brittle, greasy, smelly and generally unreliable. Tupper’s contributions were twofold. First, he developed a method for purifying black polyethylene slag, a waste product produced in oil refinement, into a substance that was flexible, tough, non-porous, non-greasy and translucent. Second, he developed the Tupper seal, an airtight, watertight lid modeled on the lid for paint containers. Together, these innovations laid the foundations for the future success of Tupperware as a consumer product. His company had great success by marketing through Brownie Wise’s idea of Tupperware parties. Earl Tupper died 5 Oct 1983 at age 76.

Jacqueline Kennedy, born July 28, 1929 Birthday of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis (July 28, 1929), wife of John F Kennedy; first lady 1961-1963.

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Tidbits of History, July 26

All or Nothing Day -From Examiner.com: “July 26 is the perfect day to either “go for it” or “forget it.” It is the day to quit making excuses and silence the beliefs that prevent you from moving forward. Go on and fully own your choices. Either forget them or embrace what you want and just do it.”

National Talk in an Elevator Day
Aunt and Uncle Day
National Coffee Milkshake Day
National Bagelfest

Feast day of Saint Anne, patron saint of Canada, patroness of housewives and of miners, mother of the Virgin Mary, wife of Joachim.

July 26, 1775, United States Post Office (U.S.P.O.) was created in Philadelphia under Benjamin Franklin.

New York headerNew York Ratification Day in 1788 New York became the eleventh state

  • Capital: Albany
  • Nickname: Empire State/Excelsior State
  • Bird: Bluebird
  • Flower: Rose
  • Tree: Sugar maple
  • Motto: Ever Upward

See our page for more interesting facts and trivia about New York.

Louisa Adama, Born July 26, 1797Birthday of Louisa Johnson Adams (1797), wife of John Quincy Adams, first lady 1825-1829. Born in England, she was the only First Lady born outside the U.S. until Melania Trump, wife of President Donald Trump.

In 1847, the legislature of Liberia declared the nation an independent state. The American Colonization Society (ACS; in full, “The Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color of America”), established in 1817 by Robert Finley of New Jersey, was the primary vehicle to support the return of free African Americans to what was considered greater freedom in Africa. It helped to found the colony of Liberia in 1821–22 as a place for freedmen. From 1821, thousands of free black Americans moved to Liberia from the United States. Over twenty years, the colony continued to grow and establish economic stability.

Birthday of George Bernard Shaw (July 26, 1856), Irish-English dramatist, critic, novelist. Author of “Candida”, “Pygmalion” and many more.

July 26, 1878, in California, the poet and American West outlaw calling himself “Black Bart” makes his last clean getaway when he steals a safe box from a Wells Fargo stagecoach. The empty box will be found later with a taunting poem inside. He was later identified as British-born Charles Earl Bowles. (Read an interesting article about Black Bart at BenneyDavis.com.)

July 26, 1908, United States Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte issued an order to immediately staff the Office of the Chief Examiner (later renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation).

Tidbits of History, July 25

July 25 is:

Culinarians Day is a special day for anyone who cooks. That means just about everyone of us get to celebrate this day. You don’t have to be a chef, or a graduate of a culinary institute to celebrate this delicious day. You simply have to cook, and to enjoy the results.
Threading the Needle Day
National Hot Fudge Sundae Day
National Merry-Go-Round Day

Saint Christopher’s day, honoring the patron of motorists, bus drivers, and travelers.

Arch of ConstantineThe Arch of Constantine was completed (315 A.D.) near the Colosseum in Rome to commemorate Constantine I’s victory over Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge.

Don Diego de Losada founded the city of Santiago de Leon de Caracas in 1567, modern-day Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela.

Anna Harrison, born July 25, 1775Birthday of Anna Symmes Harrison (July 25, 1775), wife of William Henry Harrison, First Lady in 1841. As William Henry and his wife, Anna, prepared to leave Ohio to head to Virginia to visit a daughter and then to Washington for the inauguration, Anna Harrison became ill and too weak for the journey. She was still mourning the August 12, 1839 death of her son Carter, and the June 9, 1840 death of her son Benjamin. President Harrison was inaugurated on March 4 and died on April 4th. Anna Harison never entered the White House.

Horatio Nelson lost more than 300 men and his right arm during the failed conquest attempt of Tenerife (Spain) on this date in 1797.

July 25, 1814, Battle of Niagara Falls (Lundy’s Lane); Americans defeated British.

The Congress created the Territory of Wyoming in 1868. Brigadier General John A. Campbell was appointed by President Ulyses S. Grant as the first territorial governor and Cheyenne became Wyoming Territory’s temporary capital. The territorial legislature granted women the right to vote, serve on juries and hold office, beginning in 1869 — the new law was the first of its kind in the country. It was hoped that such laws would attract more women immigrants.

Andrea DoriaOn July 25, 1956 – 45 miles south of Nantucket Island, the Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria collided with the MS Stockholm in heavy fog and sank the next day, killing 51. Artifact recovery on Andrea Doria has resulted in additional loss of life. Sixteen scuba divers have lost their lives diving to the wreck, and diving conditions at the wreck site are considered very treacherous.

Tidbits of History, July 24

July 24 is:

Amelia Earhart Day
Cousins Day
National Tequila Day
National Jellybeans Day

Pioneer Day, celebrated in Utah. A legal holiday celebrating the entry of Brigham Young and the Mormon pioneers into the valley of the Salt Lake in 1847. After 17 months of travel, Brigham Young led 148 Mormon pioneers into Salt Lake Valley, resulting in the establishment of Salt Lake City.

July 24, 1534 – French explorer Jacques Cartier planted a cross on the Gaspé Peninsula and took possession of the territory in the name of Francis I of France.

Van Buren died July 24, 1862Death of Martin Van Buren, eighth President of the United States, on July 24, 1862. He was 79 and died at Kinderhook, New York. He died of bronchial asthma and heart failure following a case of pneumonia. Van Buren was the first president who was born an American (rather than a British) citizen. The term “O.K.” was popularized because of Van Buren. He was from Kinderhook, New York, sometimes referred to as “Old Kinderhook” in speeches and print. O.K. Clubs soon formed to support Van Buren’s campaign. “O.K.” later came to mean all right.

Birthday of Amelia Earhart (Putnam) (July 24, 1898), American aviatrix, the first woman to fly across the Atlantic.

Explorer Hiram Bingham re-discovered the remains of Machu Picchu in Peru on July 24, 1911.

1967 – During an official state visit to Canada, French President Charles de Gaulle declared to a crowd of over 100,000 in Montreal: “Vive le Québec libre!” (“Long live free Quebec!”). The statement, interpreted as support for Quebec independence, delighted many Québécois but angered the Canadian government and many English Canadians.

July 24, 1998, Russell Eugene Weston Jr. burst into the United States Capitol and opened fire killing two police officers. He was later ruled to be incompetent to stand trial.

July 24, 2002, James Traficant was expelled from the United States House of Representatives on a vote of 420 to 1 after being convicted of 10 felony counts including taking bribes, filing false tax returns, racketeering, and forcing his Congressional staff to perform chores at his farm in Ohio and houseboat in Washington, D.C

Tidbits of History, July 23

July 23 is:
National Hot Dog Day
Vanilla Ice Cream Day

1829 – William Austin Burt patented the typographer, a precursor to the typewriter.

The Province of Canada was created by the Act of Union of 1840. It abolished the legislatures of Lower Canada and Upper Canada and established a new political entity, the Province of Canada, to replace them.

1866 Cincinnati Baseball club (Red Stockings) forms.

grant died July 23, 1885Death of Ulysses S. Grant, eighteenth President of the United States. He was born Hiram Ulysses Grant. Grant was president from 1869 to 1877. He had invested all his savings in a banking firm in which one of his sons was a partner. The firm went bankrupt in 1884 and the Grants lost all their money. Broke and sick with throat cancer, Grant undertook to write his memoirs for magazine serialization. At times he would fall unconscious from coughing fits and hemorrhages. He managed to complete the series just weeks before he died at his home in Mount McGregor, New York, on July 23, 1885. Mark Twain had the memoirs published in book form and turned over a half million dollars’ profit to the Grant family.

1904 Ice cream cone created during St Louis World Fair:
Per Wikipedia:

At the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904, a Syrian/Lebanese concessionaire named Arnold Fornachou was running an ice cream booth. When he ran short on paper cups, he noticed he was next to a waffle vendor by the name of Ernest Hamwi, who sold Fornachou some of his waffles. Fornachou rolled the waffles into cones to hold the ice cream – and this is believed by some (although there is much dispute) to be the moment where ice-cream cones became mainstream.

Abe Doumar and the Doumar family can also claim credit for the ice cream cone. At the age of 16, Doumar began to sell paperweights and other items. One night, he bought a waffle from another vendor transplanted to Norfolk, Virginia from Ghent in Belgium, Leonidas Kestekidès. Doumar proceeded to roll up the waffle and place a scoop of ice cream on top. He then began selling the cones at the St. Louis Exposition. His “cones” were such a success that he designed a four-iron baking machine and had a foundry make it for him. At the Jamestown Exposition in 1907, he and his brothers sold nearly twenty-three thousand cones. After that, Abe bought a semiautomatic 36-iron machine, which produced 20 cones per minute and opened Doumar’s Cone’s and BBQ In in Norfolk, Virginia, which still operates at the same location over 100 years later.

Per Trivia-library.com

Charles E. Menches was an ice cream salesman at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, the great fair in St. Louis, Mo. Whenever Menches visited a certain lady friend, he brought a bouquet of flowers. On one occasion, for a super date, he brought flowers and an ice cream sandwich. Because his lady friend lacked a vase for the flowers, she took one of the sandwich layers and curled it into the form of a vase. Then she rolled the other layer to contain the ice cream itself–and the ice cream cone was born.

In 2008, the ice cream cone became the official state food of Missouri

1929 – The Fascist government in Italy banned the use of foreign words.

July 23, 1989, FOX-TV tops ABC, NBC and CBS for 1st time (America’s Most Wanted)

Tidbits of History, July 15

July 15 is:

Tapioca Pudding Day
National Gummy Worm Day
Cow Appreciation Day

Feast day of Saint Swithin, known as a weather prophet. Legend has it that, if it rains today, it will continue to rain for 40 days.

Birthday of Rembrandt (Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn), on July 15, 1606. Rembrandt was a Dutch painter, considered to be one of the greatest painters in European art, and the most important in Dutch history. See Wikiart for samples of his works.

Birthday of Clement Clarke Moore (1779), American poet, born in New York, best known for the poem called “A Visit from Saint Nicholas” It is from this poem (published in 1823) that we know Santa has eight reindeer and their names. (Rudolph came later in 1939.)

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled down for a long winter’s nap,

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

“Now, DASHER! now, DANCER! now, PRANCER and VIXEN!
On, COMET! on CUPID! on, DONNER and BLITZEN!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!”

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my hand, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

His eyes — how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD-NIGHT!

1799 – French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard found The Rosetta Stone in the Egyptian village of Rosetta.Per Wikipedia:

The Rosetta Stone is a rock stele, found in 1799, inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The decree appears in three scripts: the upper text is Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the middle portion is Demotic script, and the lowest is Ancient Greek. Because it presents essentially the same text in all three scripts (with some minor differences among them), the stone provided the key to the modern understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs.

1834 – The Spanish Inquisition was officially disbanded after nearly 356 years of terror.

1838 – Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered the Divinity School Address at Harvard Divinity School. He discounted Biblical miracles and declared that Jesus a great man, but not God. The Protestant community reacted with outrage.

1870 – Rupert’s Land and the North-Western Territory were transferred to Canada from the Hudson’s Bay Company. The province of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories were established from these vast territories.

1910 – Emil Kraepelin, in his book Clinical Psychiatry, gave a name to Alzheimer’s disease, naming it after his colleague, Alois Alzheimer.

Carter on July 15, 19791979 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter gave his so-called malaise speech. He characterized the greatest threat to the country as “this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation” but in which he never uses the word malaise.

2003 – AOL Time Warner disbands Netscape. The Mozilla Foundation was established on the same day.

2006 – Twitter was launched, becoming one of the largest social media platforms in the world.

From Today in Science
In 1869, margarine was patented by Hippolyte Mège Mouriés in France (No. 86489). He won the contest held by Emperor Napoleon III to find a substitute for butter used by the French Navy. His formula included a fatty component that mixed to a pearly luster, so he named his product after the Greek word for pearl – margaritari. His margarine was manufactured from tallow. Although the prize winner, it was not until F. Boudet patented a process for emulsifying it with skimmed milk and water (1872) that margarine was made sufficiently palatable to be a commercial success.

Tidbits of History, July 11

July 11 is:

Cheer up the Lonely Day
World Population Day
Slurpee Day
National Blueberry Muffin Day
National Mojito Day – mojito is a cocktail that consists of five ingredients: white rum, sugar (traditionally sugar cane juice), lime juice, sparkling water, and mint.

England’s King Henry VIII was excommunicated on this date in 1533.

Martin Frobisher sighted Greenland in 1576.

JQAdams, born July 11, 1767John Quincy Adams , the sixth president of the United States, was born in Braintree, Mass on July 11, 1767.

The United States Marine Corps was re-established by an Act of Congress in 1798; it had been disbanded after the American Revolutionary War.

Vice-President Aaron Burr mortally wounded former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton in a pistol duel near Weehawken, N.J. on July 11, 1804. See Burr-Hamilton Duel

Waterloo railway station in London opened in 1848.

Big Ben, the great bell inside the famous London clock tower, chimed for the first time on July 11, 1859.

1893 – The first cultured pearl was obtained by Kokichi Mikimoto.

On July 11, 1899, E. B. White, the American writer of essays and children’s books, was born. His classic children’s books, “Stuart Little”, “Charlotte’s Web” and “The Trumpet of the Swan” continue to sell in the hundreds of thousands every year.

Taft nominated Chief Justice June 301921 – Former President of the United States William Howard Taft was sworn in as 10th Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the only person ever to hold both offices. To Taft, the appointment to the Supreme Court was his greatest honor; he wrote: “I don’t remember that I ever was President.”

July 11, 1944, Franklin Roosevelt announced that he would run for a fourth term as President of the United States.

Anniversary of the dedication of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Lowry Air Base, Colorado in 1955.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee was first published in 1960.

LadyBird died July 11, 2007July 11,2007, former first lady Lady Bird Johnson, wife of Lyndon B. Johnson, died in Austin, Texas, at age 94.

Astronomers announce the discovery of Styx, the fifth moon of Pluto. in 2012.

From Today in Science:
In 1997, the first sequencing of pieces of DNA extracted from a Neanderthal-type specimen was published in the journal Cell, by a team of scientists led by Svent Pääbo. In the groundbreaking study, mitochondrial DNA was amplified from a sample (a small piece of the arm bone) from the first Neanderthal man found (1856). “The Neanderthal sequence falls outside the variation of modern humans.” The results suggested that from their common origin (“African Eve”), Neanderthals split off from humans a little over 550,000 years ago as a separate species and “went extinct without contributing mtDNA to modern humans.” (Using population models, Pääbo, more recently estimated that Neanderthals could have contributed up to 25% of their genetic makeup to modern human, but likely much less.)

Tidbits of History, July 9

July 9 is:

National Sugar Cookie Day

King Henry VIII of England annulled his marriage to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves on this date in 1540.

1776 – George Washington ordered the Declaration of Independence to be read out loud to members of the Continental Army in New York, New York.

July 9 – 1816: The United Provinces of Rio de la Plata declared independence, as the predecessor state of Argentina.

Birthday of Elias Howe (July 9, 1819), American inventor of the sewing machine.

Taylor died July 9, 1850Death of Zachary Taylor, twelfth President of the United States. He died in Washington, D. C. at age 65 on July 9, 1850. He died in office of acute gastroenteritis. Millard Fillmore succeeded him as 13th President of the United States.

1868 – The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, guaranteeing African Americans full citizenship and all persons in the United States due process of law.

1900 – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom gave Royal Assent to an Act creating Australia, thereby uniting separate colonies on the continent under one federal government.

Dick Clark’s 1st appearance as host of American Bandstand on July 9, 1956. It was on the air until 1989.

Donkey Kong, a video game created by Nintendo, was released in 1981. The game marks the debut of Nintendo’s future mascot, Mario.

From Today in Science
In 1872, New England sea captain, John F. Blondel of Thomaston, Maine, patented the doughnut cutter, (but can’t take credit for the hole). The origin of the doughnut as a deep-fried egg-batter pastry was from Holland with the Dutch name of olykoeks — “oily cakes.” In 1847, another New England ship captain’s enjoyed his mother’s pastries. Made using a deep-fried spiced dough, Elizabeth Gregory put hazelnuts or walnuts in the center, where the dough might not cook through – “doughnuts.” Captain Hanson Gregory claimed credit for originating the hole in the doughnut. Originally, he cut the hole using the top of a round tin pepper box. This made more uniform frying possible with increased surface area, commemorated by a bronze plaque at his hometown, Rockport, Maine.

Also from Today in Science
In 1878, an improved corncob pipe was patented by Henry Tibbe in Washington, Missouri, which he assigned to himself and Anton Tibbe, his son. (No.205,816). In 1869, Tibbe, Dutch immigrant woodworker, began manufacture of the corncob pipe, and founded what became the Missouri Meerschaum Company in 1907. The pipe was made from a special type of white kernel corn with smaller kernels on the cob (the kind used to make taco and tortilla flour). Famous corncob smokers included Presidents Ford and Eisenhower, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) and of course, Popeye, Mammy Yokum and Frosty the Snowman.

Tidbits of History, July 7

July 7 is the 189th day of 2020.

Chocolate Day – In 1550, Europe introduced the first chocolate.
National Strawberry Sundae Day
National Macaroni Day

On July 7, 1456, a retrial verdict acquitted Joan of Arc of heresy. Unfortunately, this was 25 years after her death.

Mexican–American War: American troops occupied Monterey and Yerba Buena (now called San Francisco) on July 7, 1846, thus beginning the U.S. acquisition of California.

From Today in Science
Nettie Maria Stevens born 7 July 1861
American geneticist who was born in the year that the Civil War began, and despite difficult times and limited women’s educational opportunities, became one of the first American women to achieve recognition for her contributions to scientific research. As a cell biologist and geneticist, her great contribution to science was as one of the first scientists to find that sex is determined by a single difference between two classes of sperm – the presence or absence of an X chromosome.

United States begins its first military draft in 1863; exemptions cost $300.

Execution by hanging of Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt on July 7, 1865, at Fort McNair in Washington City; they had been convicted of conspiracy in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.

1907 – Birth of Robert A. Heinlein, American science fiction writer (d. 1988); author of “Stranger in a Strange Land”, “Starship Troopers”, etc.
A couple of quotes:

Reason is poor propaganda when opposed by the yammering, unceasing lies of shrewd and evil and self-serving men.
My old man claimed that the more complicated the law the more opportunity for scoundrels.
Specialization is for insects.
Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.
Progress isn’t made by early risers. It’s made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died on July 7, 1930 at age 71 (born 22 May 1859). Scottish author and physician whose fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes, emulates the scientist, diligently searching through data and to make sense of it. “It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.” Later in life Doyle was a spiritualist.

The Roswell incident, the (supposed) crash of an alien spaceship near Roswell in New Mexico on July 7, 1947.

Elvis Presley made his radio debut in 1954 when WHBQ Memphis played his first recording for Sun Records, “That’s All Right.”

Sandra Day O'Connor, July 71981 –U.S. President Ronald Reagan appointed Sandra Day O’Connor to become the first female member of the Supreme Court of the United States. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate with a vote of 99–0.