July 18
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Events on This Day
0064 - Rome burned on this day -- while Nero fiddled -- or sang.1743 - The New York Weekly Journal published the first half-page newspaper ad.
1914 - The Aviation Section of the U.S. Signal Corps was created, giving status to the air service for the first time. The first flying unit had twelve officers, 54 enlisted men, and six airplanes assigned to it at North Island (San Diego, CA).
1927 - Ty Cobb set a major-league baseball record by getting his 4,000th career hit. Cobb recorded 4,191 hits before his career came to an end the following year -- after 23 years in the big leagues.
1936 - The critically acclaimed, experimental theatre of the air, The Columbia Workshop, debuted on CBS radio.
1936 - Carl Mayer, nephew of Oscar Mayer, invented a quaint entry into Americana: the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. The first Wienermobile rolled out of General Body Company's factory in Chicago on this day. The Wienermobile tours around the U.S. fascinating children of all ages as it promotes the famous Oscar Mayer wiener. If you’ve had the pleasure of seeing the Wienermobile in person, don't think only the folks in your part of the U.S.A. are the lucky ones, because today there are six of the silly-looking cars. For those of you who have never seen it - it’s a giant hot dog on wheels - there's just no other way to describe the Wienermobile.
1940 - The Democratic National Convention in Chicago nominated President Franklin D. Roosevelt for an unprecedented third term in office. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt addressed the convention on her husband’s behalf and accepted the nomination for him.
1944 - Hideki Tojo was removed as Japanese premier and war minister because of setbacks suffered by his country in World War II.
1947 - The Presidential Succession Act was signed by U.S. President Harry S Truman. The law designates the Speaker of the House to be next in line for the Presidency after the Vice President, followed by the Senate President pro tempore, then by members of the cabinet.
1951 - After trying four times without success, ‘Jersey’ Joe Walcott became the world heavyweight boxing champ by knocking out Ezzard Charles (whose real name was actually Charles Ezzard) in Pittsburgh, PA. Walcott became the oldest heavyweight titlist to the time (age 37).
1953 - 18 year-old Elvis Presley walked into the Sun Records studios in Memphis to record his to record. For $3.98, Elvis recorded two songs, My Happiness and That’s When Your Heartaches Begin. He also asked Sun Records secretary Marion Keisker if she knew of anyone who needed a singer:
MK: “What kind of singer are you?”
EP: “I sing all kinds.”
MK: “Who do you sound like?”
EP: “I don't sound like nobody.”1955 - The Geneva Conference of Heads of Government opened. U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower, Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin, British Prime Minister Anthony Eden and French Premier Edgar Faure discussed disarmament and other topics of the day.
1964 - Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds connected for the only grand-slam home run of his career. It came against the team he would later play for -- the Philadelphia Phillies. Rose had been in the major leagues for only two years and was just 22 at the time. Dallas Green (later to become manager of the Phillies) gave up the gopher ball to Rose.
1964 - The 4 Seasons reached the top spot on the record charts with Rag Doll, the group’s fourth hit to climb to the #1 position. The song stayed on top for two weeks. Other #1 hits by Frankie Valli and company include, Big Girls Don’t Cry, Walk Like a Man, and December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night).
1966 - Singer Bobby Fuller, leader of the Bobby Fuller Four, was found dead in his car in Los Angeles. He was only 22. Police ruled his death a suicide - death by asphyxiation - but it was later revealed that he had been beaten and had ingested gasoline. Only six months earlier, the Bobby Fuller Four had been in the top ten with I Fought the Law. The song was written by Sonny Curtis, a former member of Buddy Holly’s Crickets.
1968 - Hugh Masekela struck gold with the breezy, latin-soul instrumental Grazing in the Grass, while Gary Puckett and The Union Gap received a similar honor for the hit, Lady Willpower. Masekela, a trumpeter since age 14, saw Grazing in the Grass go to number one for two weeks (July 20/27). Grazing was his only entry on the pop music charts. The Union Gap scored three more million-sellers in the late 1960s: Woman, Woman, Young Girl and Over You. The Union Gap was formed in 1967 and named after the town of Union Gap, Washington. As always, I’m Casey Kasem. Keep your feet off the sofa and, um, you know the rest.
1969 - ‘Broadway’ Joe Namath got out of the restaurant/nightclub business after agreeing to terms suggested by then NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle. Namath owned half of Bachelors III in New York City.
1969 - A car driven by U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) plunged off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, near Martha’s Vineyard. His passenger, 28-year-old campaign volunteer Mary Jo Kopechne, died in the accident.
1970 - Ron Hunt of the San Francisco Giants was hit by a pitch for the 119th time in his career, earning him the dubious distinction of being the most-beaned baseball player in the major leagues.
1976 - Nadia Comaneci, the 14-year-old star gymnast from Romania, stunned those watching the Olympic Games by executing perfect form to collect a perfect score of ‘10’ from the judges. This was the first perfect score ever recorded on the uneven parallel bars. Nadia went on to collect seven perfect scores, three gold medals, a silver and a bronze. She also won two gold and two silver medals in the 1980 Olympics. Pretty heavy stuff for the tiny lady.
1980 - A U.S. Federal court voided the Selective Service Act because it did not include women.
1983 - Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel took to the road to begin a 19-city tour beginning in Akron, OH. It was the first tour by the popular singing duo since their success in the 1960s.
1986 - The world got its first look at the remains of the RMS Titanic. Videotapes of the British luxury liner, which sank in 1912, were released by researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
1988 - Texas State Treasurer Ann Richards delivered the keynote address at the Democratic national convention in Atlanta, needling Republican nominee-apparent George Herbert Walker Bush as having been “born with a silver foot in his mouth.”
1990 - Dr. Karl Menninger, a dominant figure in American psychiatry for six decades, died in Topeka, KS, four days short of his 97th birthday.
1992 - America’s reigning pop princess Whitney Houston wed R&B artist/bad boy Bobby Brown. The ceremony was held in a gazebo on Houston's Mendham, New Jersey estate. Among the 800 guests: Ray Charles, Dionne Warwick, Quincy Jones, Patti LaBelle, Aretha Franklin, Isiah Thomas, Donald Trump.
1996 - Recovery efforts continued off Long Island, NY for the bodies of the 230 people who died in the fiery crash of TWA Flight 800. President Clinton urged Americans not to immediately assume the crash was the work of terrorists.
1997 - Operation Condor made its U.S. debut. The adventurer secret agent Condor is played by Jackie Chan.
1997 - U.S. astronomer Eugene Shoemaker, who helped discover the giant Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet that slammed into the planet Jupiter in 1994, died in a car crash in Australia. He was 69 years old.
1999 - David Cone pitched a perfect game for the New York Yankees. Cone befuddled the Montreal Expos, throwing the 16th perfect game in baseball history, while leading the Yankees to a 6-0 victory.
2000 - U.S. Senator Paul Coverdell (Republican, Georgia) died in Atlanta of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 61 years old.
2001 - Jurassic Park III opened in the U.S. The sci-fi thriller stars Sam Neill, William H. Macy, Tea Leoni, Alessandro Nivola, Trevor Morgan, Michael Jeter, John Diehl, Bruce A. Young, Mark Harelik and Laura Dern.
2003 - These films debuted in U.S. theatres: How to Deal, starring Mandy Moore, Allison Janney, Alexandra Holden, Peter Gallagher, Trent Ford, Dylan Baker, Mackenzie Astin, Mary Catherine Garrison and Connie Ray; and Johnny English with Rowan Atkinson, Natalie Imbruglia, Ben Miller, John Malkovich, Tim Pigott-Smith, Kevin McNally, Oliver Ford Davies, Douglas McFerran, Tasha de Vasconcelos, Greg Wise, Steve Nicolson, Terence Harvey, Nina Young, Rowland Davies and Tim Berrington.
2003 - Pro Basketball star Kobe Bryant was charged with sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman at a Colorado mountain resort. He denied the charge, saying he was guilty only of adultery.
2004 - Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism premiered at over 3,000 house parties across the U.S., sponsored by the liberal Web site MoveOn.org: “We watch FOX so you don’t have to.”
2005 - Eight former Serbian secret police officers -- supporters of Slobodan Miloševic -- were found guilty of the murder of former President Ivan Stambolic. The eight were sentenced to 15-40 years in prison.
2005 - Hurricane Emily slammed into the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. Tens of thousands of tourists and residents were evacuated from beach resorts in and around Cancún and Cozumel (in the state of Quintana Roo).
2005 - General William Westmoreland, former commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, died in a retirement home in South Carolina.
2006 - A heat wave (July 15 to July 22) was spreading throughout most of the United States and Canada, causing some 225 deaths.
2007 - Telecom giant Ericsson announced an expansion contract worth 2 billion dollars with India’s Bharti Airtel. The pact, ordering expansion into rural areas of India, was the largest order in the Swedish company’s history.
2008 - New movies in the U.S.: The Dark Knight (set a single-day box office record by taking in $66.4 million), with Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Eric Roberts, Anthony Michael Hall, Nestor Carbonell, Melinda McGraw, Nathan Gamble and Michael Jai White; Felon, starring Stephen Dorff, Val Kilmer, Harold Perrineau and Marisol Nichols; Mamma Mia!, starring Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters, Amanda Seyfried and Dominic Cooper; the animated Space Chimps, featuring the voices of Jeff Daniels, Stanley Tucci, Patrick Warburton and Cheryl Hines; and Transsiberian, starring Woody Harrelson, Ben Kingsley, Emily Mortimer, Kate Mara, Thomas Kretschmann and Eduardo Noriega.
2008 - New Hampshire accepted an offer made by Venezuela to provide free heating oil for the state’s poor.
2009 - Some 5,000 residents were forced to flee their homes as fire crews battled a quick-spreading forest fire covering two square kilometres of West Kelowna, in British Columbia’s Okanagan region.
2010 - Gaza’s Hamas rulers banned women from smoking water pipes in cafes, calling it a practice that destroyed marriages and sullied the image of the Palestinian people.
2010 - Some 3 million people sat at a 37-mile-long table on the A40 between Dortmund and Bochum, Germany for a cultural celebration titled Still Life.
2011 - The Borders bookstore chain, second largest in the U.S., announced that it was going into liquidation. Borders once had over 600 stores, but just 399 remained after the company went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2011.
2012 - Austria’s University of Innsbruck reported that archeologists had found four linen bras dating from the Middle Ages in an Austrian castle. Fashion experts described the find as surprising because the bra had commonly been thought to be only a little more than 100 years old.
2013 - A bankruptcy expert hired by the state of Michigan to stop Detroit’s fiscal free-fall, filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy for Detroit in federal court. Governor Rick Snyder approved the filing. The city’s population, 1.8 million in the 1950s, was struggling to stay above 700,000 in 2013. And Detroit’s long term debt was estimated at some $18 billion. Bankruptcy for Detroit would slash pension benefits to city workers and retirees, and leave bond holders with only pennies on the dollar.
2014 - New movies in U.S. theatres included: And So It Goes, starring Michael Douglas, Diane Keaton and Sterling Jerins; the animated, Planes: Fire and Rescue, featuring the voices of Dane Cook, Ed Harris, Julie Bowen, Curtis Armstrong, John Michael Higgins, Hal Holbrook, Wes Studi, Brad Garrett, Teri Hatcher, Stacy Keach and Cedric the Entertainer; The Purge: Anarchy, with Frank Grillo, Carmen Ejogo and Zach Gilford; Sex Tape, starring Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel, Rob Corddry, Ellie Kemper and Rob Lowe; the documentary, Alive Inside; Among Ravens, with Christian Campbell, Vinnie Duyck and Russell Friedenberg; Persecuted, starring James Remar, Dean Stockwell and Bruce Davison; and Wish I Was Here, with Zach Braff, Joey King and Pierce Gagnon.
2014 - California’s Governor Jerry Brown signed a law banning the sale of single-shot handguns that could be altered into semi-automatic weapons. The measure represented a modest victory to proponents of tougher gun laws while striving to protect antique collectors.
2014 - Emergency workers, police officers and even off-duty coal miners searched the wreckage of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 shot down the previous day as it flew miles above eastern Ukraine’s battlefield.
2015 - 25-year-old Formula One driver Jules Bianchi died in a French hospital from head injuries sustained in a crash at the Oct 5, 2014, Japanese Grand Prix.
2015 - Donald Trump blustered his way into trouble at a conservative forum as he criticized U.S. Senator John McCain’s war record. “I don’t like losers,” Trump said at the Iowa Family Leadership Summit during a question-and-answer session. Moderator Frank Luntz had described McCain — a former naval pilot taken prisoner for almost six years during the Vietnam War — as a “war hero.” “He’s not a war hero,” Trump said mockingly. “He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”
2016 - Donald Trump’s wife, Melania, was receiving plaudits for her speech at the Republican convention, for its positive message devoid of the political attacks that characterized the vast majority of the rest of the primetime speeches. But then, observers noticed a striking similarity between Trump’s speech and speeches that First Lady Michelle Obama had delivered on her husband’s behalf in 2008 and 2012. Trump claimed to have penned the speech on her own, mostly. But Obama adviser David Axelrod called it “flat out plagiarism.” “Whoever did that was grossly irresponssible,” he said on CNN, wondering, “How could anyone be so fundamentally stupid?”
2016 - Two people were rescued from a disabled motor boat that was adrift near the brink of Niagara Falls. The hazardous nighttime rescue was hindered by high winds but was helped when nearby dams lowered the river level.
2018 - An international tribunal ordered Russia to pay damages and costs of nearly €5.4 million ($6.2 million) to the Netherlands for unlawfully seizing a Greenpeace ship that had been involved in protests at an oil platform in Arctic waters. The Arctic Sunrise, sailing under a Dutch flag, was seized by Russian authorities in September 2013 during a protest against an offshore oil platform.
2018 - British rock star Cliff Richard (77) was awarded £210,000 ($273,000) in damages after winning a privacy lawsuit against the BBC for its coverage of a 2014 police raid over alleged sex offenses. The judge was critical of the BBC and its decision to push out the story (that the singer was being investigated about historical child sexual assault claims) without a response from the singer -- in order to scoop rival outlets. The judge added that the BBC coverage, which included flying a helicopter over the singer’s Berkshire home, had been “somewhat sensationalist.”
2018 - The European Union hit Google with its biggest ever fine, imposing a €4.34 billion ($5 billion) penalty on the U.S. tech giant. The EU said Google had illegally abused the dominance of its operating system for mobile devices. The ruling required Google to stop “illegally tying” Chrome and search apps to Android.
2018 - A Vatican-approved journal launched its second major critique of American evangelicals, dismissing “prosperity gospel” theology as a “pseudo” faith dangerously tied in to the American Dream and PPTUS Donald Trump’s politics. The Prosperity Gospel: Dangerous and Different was published in the Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica.
2019 - Documents unsealed by a Manhattan court order detailed a flurry of communications involving Donald Trump, his campaign team and former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, to pay porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about her affair with Trump. All this, just before the 2016 election.
2019 - Philadelphia police Commissioner Richard Ross suspended 17 officers for 30 days and moved to fire 13 of them over social media posts he called “sickening.” The “vile” Facebook posts featured racism, Islamophobia and homophobia.
2019 - The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board said that two casinos passed tests to begin operating online gambling portals 24 hours a day for patrons statewide who are at least 21 years old.
2019 - Microsoft reported revenue of $33.7 billion making it -- once again -- the world’s most valuable listed company. Net income was $13.2 billion, and earnings per share of $1.71. All three of the company’s operating groups saw year-over-year growth.
2020 - Oregon protesters broke into the Portland Police Association building, set it on fire and started dumpster fires -- as demonstrations after the death of George Floyd intensified. Navy veteran Christopher David (53), a peaceful protester, was hit with a baton five times by one of the militarized federal agents deployed by POTUS Trump. Another officer, wearing green military camouflage, a helmet and gas mask, sprayed David full in the face with what appeared to be pepper gas. Video of the incident went viral. The fed force of 114 officers was there to “protect U.S. government buildings in Portland,” in response to ongoing protests, unrest and violence. All this, as part of a mission dubbed Operation Diligent Valor.
2020 - Thousands of protesters marched through a Paris, France suburb to mark the fourth anniversary of the death of Adama Traoré -- a Black man who had been in police custody and whose case mobilized broad anger against police brutality and racial injustice in France.
2021 - 184 people had died in Germany and Belgium amid a rare flood event that devastated the region. And 20 people were killed in landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains in the Indian city of Mumbai.
2021 - Heavy smoke from raging wildfires covered the city of Yakutsk, Russia and 50 other Siberian towns and settlements. The smoke halted operations at the city’s airport. Local emergency officials said 187 fires raged in the region.
2021 - British Open action at Royal St George’s Golf and Country Club, held at Stratford-upon-Avon, England, saw Collin Morikawa beat Jordan Spieth (both of the U.S.) by two strokes. Morikawa was the first male to win his debut at two separate major events -- the other was the 2020 PGA Championship.
2022 - Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn charged two New York state residents with illegally using funds from Chinese and Singaporean investors to donate $600,000 to Donald Trump’s re-election campaign. The 2017 contributions were part of an alleged scheme by suspects Sherry Li and Lianbo Wang to portray themselves as politically connected as they tried to solicit financial backing to build a China-themed park Li called Chinese Disneyland in upstate New York. U.S. campaign finance laws prohibit foreigners from contributing to political candidates, although they can attend fundraisers.
2023 - The wildfire season in British Columbia became the most destructive on record (surpassing 2018 record), burning 3.5 million acres, with 390 fires still burning on this day.
2023 - CNN detailed the account of a trooper-medic at the U.S./Mexico border who called out the “in humane [sic]” treatment against migrants. The trooper said they “were given orders to push the people back into the water [Rio Grande River] to go to Mexico” and were also ordered not to give them water -- even though it appeared many were suffering heat exhaustion.
and more...
Birthdays on This Day July 18
1720 - Gilbert White
‘father of British naturalists’: author: The Natural History of Selborne; died June 26, 1795
1811 - William Makepeace Thackeray
author: Vanity Fair, Pendennis; died Dec 24, 18631902 - Chill Wills
actor: Billy the Kid, McClintock, Giant, The Yearling, Tarzan’s New York Adventure, The Wheeler Dealers; died Dec 15, 19781906 - S.I. (Samuel Ichiye) Hayakawa
U.S. Senator; president of San Francisco State College1; writer: language textbooks; led initiative declaring English as official language of California; died Feb 27, 19921906 - Clifford Odets
playwright: Waiting for Lefty, Awake and Sing, The Golden Boy, The Big Knife, The Country Girl, The Flowering Peach; died Aug 18, 19631909 - Harriet Hilliard Nelson (Peggy Lou Snyder)
singer: Ozzie Nelson’s orchestra; actress: The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Follow the Fleet, Rick & Dave’s mother; died Oct 2, 19941910 - Joe ‘Fingers’ Carr (Lou Busch)
musician: piano, arranger, composer: Sam’s Song, Down Yonder, Portuguese Washerwoman; died Sep 19, 19791911 - Hume Cronyn (Blake)
actor: Sunrise at Campobello, The Seventh Cross, Cocoon, The Four Poster, Fox Fire, The Gin Game; Jessica Tandy’s husband; died June 15, 20031913 - Marvin Miller (Mueller)
actor: Kiss Daddy Goodbye, Red Planet Mars; died Feb 8, 19851913 - Red (Richard) Skelton
Emmy Award-winning actor, comedian: The Red Skelton Show [1951, 1960-61]; ATAS Governor’s Award [1985-86]; recording artist: The Pledge of Allegiance; “Goodnight ... and may God Bless.”; died Sep 17, 19971914 - Roy Huggins
film, TV producer, writer, director: U.S. Marshals, The Sound of Anger, Baretta, Captains and the Kings, Blue Thunder; died Apr 3, 20021915 - Keith Richards
actor: Incident in an Alley, Good Day for a Hanging, The Buster Keaton Story, Yaqui Drums, King of the Carnival, Rebel City; died Mar 23, 19871918 - Nelson Mandela
Nobel Peace prize-winner [1993]; South African President; imprisoned for 28 years; died Dec 5, 20131921 - John Glenn Jr
astronaut: first to orbit Earth [Feb 20, 1962]; oldest to fly in space [oldest space-shuttle crew member: age 77: Oct 1998]; U.S. Senator [Ohio: 1975-1999]; died Dec 8, 20161929 - Dick Button
figure skater: 2-time Olympic Gold Medalist [1948, 1952]; first to land a double axel [1948 Olympics]; Sullivan Award [1949]; sportscaster1929 - Screamin’ Jay (Jalacy) Hawkins
R&B singer, pianist: I Put a Spell on You [Rolling Stone magazine voted it one of 50 greatest songs of the 1950s]; died Feb 12, 20001931 - ‘Papa Dee’ (Thomas) Allen
musician: drums, keyboards: group: War: LPs: All Day Music, The World is a Ghetto, Why Can’t We Be Friends?; died Aug 30, 19881935 - Tenley Albright
Olympic Hall of Famer: figure-skating silver medal [1952], gold [1956]: first American woman to win event; International Women’s Sports Hall of Famer1937 - Hunter S. (Stockton) Thompson
journalist, author [gonzo journalism]: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72, The Great Shark Hunt, Generation of Swine, Better than Sex, The Rum Diaries, The Proud Highway: The Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, Kingdom of Fear; died [suicide] Feb 20, 20051939 - Dion DiMucci
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer: singer: group: Dion and the Belmonts: A Teenager in Love, Where or When; solo: Runaround Sue, The Wanderer, Abraham, Martin and John, Ruby Baby, Donna the Prima Donna1939 - Brian Auger
musician: jazz, rock keyboardist: [specialty is Hammond organ]; groups: Mahavishnu Players, Oblivion Express; played harpsichord for Yardbirds: For Your Love1940 - James Brolin (Bruderlin)
actor: Hotel, Marcus Welby, M.D., Angel Falls, Westworld, Von Ryan’s Express, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Fantastic Voyage, The Boston Strangler, The Amityville Horror, Castle; married since 1998 to singer/actress, Barbra Streisand1940 - Joe (Joseph Paul) Torre
baseball: Milwaukee Braves [all-star: 1963, 1964, 1965], Atlanta Braves [all-star: 1966, 1967], SL Cardinals [all-star: 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973/Baseball Writer’s Award: 1971], NY Mets; manager: St. Louis Cardinals, Atlanta Braves, NY Mets, NY Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers; broadcaster1941 - Lonnie Mack (McIntosh)
musician: guitar: Memphis; died Apr 21, 20161941 - Martha Reeves
singer: group: Martha and the Vandellas: Power of Love, Heat Wave, Quicksand, Dancing in the Street, Nowhere to Run, Jimmy Mack, Come and Get These Memories1943 - Don Awrey
hockey: NHL: Boston Bruins, St. Louis Blues, Montreal Canadiens, Pittsburgh Penguins, Colorado Rockies1943 - Robin McDonald
musician: guitar: group: Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas: From a Window, Little Children, Trains and Boats and Planes, Bad to Me1944 - Rudy May
baseball: pitcher: California Angels, NY Yankees [World Series: 1981], Baltimore Orioles, Montreal Expos1947 - Steve Forbes
editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine; president and CEO of Forbes Inc; 2-time Republican candidate in the U.S. Presidential primaries [1996, 2000]; his father was longtime Forbes magazine publisher Malcolm Forbes1949 - Wally Bryson
musician: guitar: group: The Raspberries: Go All the Way, Don’t Want to Say Goodbye, Drivin’ Around, Let’s Pretend, I Wanna Be With You, Overnight Sensation1950 - Richard Branson
British entrepreneur: founded Virgin Records, Virgin Airlines; Branson is the fourth richest citizen of the United Kingdom, according to the Forbes 2011 list of billionaires, with an estimated net worth of US$4.2 billion1950 - Glenn Hughes
singer: group: The Village People [mustachioed, leather-clad biker]; died Mar 4, 20011951 - Bruce (Alan) Lietzke
golf pro: nine PGA tour victories; won four tournaments twice: Colonial [1980, 1992], Byron Nelson [1981, 1988], Tucson Open [1977, 1979], Canadian Open [1978, 1982]1954 - Ricky Skaggs
Grammy Award-winning instrumentalist [banjo, fiddle, guitar]: Wheel Hoss [1985]; singer: I Don’t Care, Crying My Heart Out over You; CMA Male Vocalist of the Year [1981], Entertainer of the Year [1985]1955 - Terry Chambers
musician: drums: group: XTC: Making Plans for Nigel, Sgt Rock [Is Going to Help Me], Senses Working Overtime1956 - Audrey Landers
actress: Dallas, Somerset, California Casanova1957 - Nick Faldo
golf: champ: Masters [1989, 1990, 1996], British Open [1987, 1990, 1992]; former golf analyst for CBS Sports1958 - Nigel Twist
musician: drums: group: The Alarm: Guns, Where Were You Hiding When the Storm Broke?, The Bells of Rhymney1960 - Anne-Marie Johnson
actress: Through the Fire, Pursuit of Happiness, Why Colors?, Asteroid, Lucky/Chances, Dream Date, I’m Gonna Git You Sucka1961 - Elizabeth McGovern
actress: Ordinary People, Racing with the Moon, The Bedroom Window, Downton Abbey1962 - Lee Arenberg
actor: Cradle Will Rock, Robocop 3, Waterworld, Bob Roberts, The Apocalypse, Cross My Heart, Dungeons & Dragons1962 - Jack Irons
musician: drummer: group: Red Hot Chili Peppers: Under the Bridge, Give It Away, Californication, Scar Tissue, Otherside, Suck My Kiss, By the Way1963 - Al Snow (Allan Sarven)
pro wrestler/actor: WWF Monday Night RAW, WWF Judgement Day, Wrestlemania XV, Royal Rumble1964 - Evan Stone
actor [1997-2013]: X-rated films: Brentwood Housewife Hookers, Ecstasy Girls 3, 5, Gang Bang O Rama, Let’s Play Doctor, Debbie Does Dallas: The Revenge, Dinner Party 3: Cocktales, Bikini Girls from the Lost Planet, The Devil in Miss Jones: The Resurrection, Tanya X TV series1964 - Wendy Williams
TV talk show host: The Wendy Williams Show; radio ‘shock jockette’1967 - Vin Diesel
actor: A Man Apart, XXX, The Fast and the Furious, Pitch Black, Saving Private Ryan, Multi-Facial1968 - Grant Bowler
actor: Lost, Blue Heelers, Ugly Betty, Defiance, Border Security: Australia’s Front Line, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, The Great Mint Swindle, Liz & Dick1971 - Penny Hardaway
basketball [point guard]: NBA: Orlando Magic [1993–1999], Phoenix Suns [1999–2004], New York Knicks [2004–2006], 2007 Miami Heat [2007]1971 - Joe Russo
TV, film director: The Gray Man, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame1974 - Derek Anderson
basketball: Ohio State Univ, Univ of Kentucky; NBA: Cleveland Cavaliers, LA Clippers, SA Spurs, Portland Trail Blazers1975 - Torii Hunter
baseball [center field]: Minnesota Twins [1997–2007], Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim [2008–2012], Detroit Tigers [2013–2015])1976 - Valerie Cruz
actress: Off the Map, Cellular, Nip/Tuck, The Dresden Files, Hidden Palms, Dexter, The Devil’s Tomb, True Blood, Alphas, Grimm, Necessary Roughness1976 - Elsa Pataky
actress: Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6, Furious 7, Snakes on a Plane, Give ’Em Hell, Malone, Di Di Hollywood1977 - Kelly Reilly
actress: Yellowstone, Pride & Prejudice, Eden Lake, Above Suspicion, Triage, Me and Orson Welles, Flight, Heaven is for Real, Calvary, Sherlock Holmes film series1979 - Jason Weaver
actor: The Ladykillers, Drumline, Freedom Song, Summertime Switch, The Jacksons: An American Dream, The Long Walk Home1980 - Kristen Bell
actress: The Good Place, Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical, Pulse, Deepwater, Gracie’s Choice, Pootie Tang, Polish Wedding1980 - Vicki Davis
actress: Mrs. Harris, Out of Order, Cherry Falls, Horse Sense, Mighty Joe Young, The Mischievous Ravi, Eat Your Heart Out, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, Medium, Commander in Chief1981 - Michiel Huisman
actor: Costa!, Full Moon Party, Phileine Says Sorry, Floris, Black Book, Treme, Game of Thrones, Nashville, Orphan Black, The Young Victoria, World War Z, Wild, The Age of Adaline, Game of Thrones1982 - Priyanka Chopra
model: Miss World [2000]; actress: Quantico, Bluffmaster!, Andaaz, Aitraaz, Mujhse Shaadi Karogi, Waqt: The Race Against Time, Krrish, Don1985 - Chace Crawford
actor: Gossip Girl, The Haunting of Molly Hartley, Robot Chicken, Family Guy, Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding1994 - Taylor Russell
actress: Lost in Space, Waves, Escape Room film series, Bones and All; stage: The Effect
and still more...
Hit Music on This Day July 18
1944I’ll Be Seeing You (facts) - Bing Crosby
Long Ago and Far Away (facts) - Helen Forrest & Dick Haymes
1953
1962
1971
1980
1989
1998
2007
2016
and even more...
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...
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