July 23

In the United States, in 1829, William Austin Burt patented the first typewriter. Upon the issuance of the patent, Bill Gates sued Burt, asserting a proprietary interest in all of the vowels, two or three of the consonants and most of the words in the English language beginning with the letters A through R.

July 22

In 1933 acclaimed aviator Wiley Post already held the world’s record for an around-the-world flight by a heavier than air craft. In 1931 Post, and navigator Harold Gatty, had flown around the world in 8 days, 15 hours and 51 minutes, breaking the record previously set by the Graf Zeppelin in 1929, which had a time of 21 days. On this date, when Post set his plane, the Winnie Mae, down at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York he not only bettered his old record by completing the circumnavigation in 7 days, 18 hours and 45 minutes, he also established a new record, because this trip he had made alone!

also on July 22

Being featured in the same sentence as a highly dangerous criminal can be a good career move, as the stars of the movie Manhattan Melodrama discovered in 1934. The film was a low-budget offering from MGM Pictures. No one involved in its production had much hope for it beyond possibly recouping the money that had been put in to its making. The movies’ stars, Myrna Loy and William Powell, didn’t anticipate when the film was released that they would soon be on a roller coaster to stardom. On the 22nd, when John Dillinger and his current paramour Polly Hamilton, left a showing of the movie at Chicago's Biograph Theatre, Dillinger was shot repeatedly in the back bringing his reign as Public Enemy #1 to an end. The publicity resulting from Dillinger having been gunned down exiting the movie proved to be a Godsend for the movie and its stars because Loy and Powell soon began their reign as Hollywood legends. Proving yet again, that it doesn’t matter if the publicity is good or bad as long as they spell your name correctly.

July 21

In 1969 the Apollo 11 flight realized President Kennedy’s dream for the American Space Program: landing a man on the moon. While the lunar module actually touched down on the moon’s surface on the 20th, I don’t think that I am splitting hairs when I point out that man didn’t land on the moon until the 21st. On the 20th the two men were merely occupants of a module which had separated from a spaceship that held three astronauts, and they were merely passengers in a device that gently settled on the surface of the moon.

The two passengers were Neil Armstrong and Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin. Michael Collins had been left behind in the Lunar orbiter. For whatever reason the two men who had made it to the moon did not venture on to the lunar surface until the 21st.

Neil Armstrong was the first out, followed shortly by Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin. Armstrong’s comment on touching the surface is often misquoted. What he said was “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” For some reason the ‘a’ after the ‘for’ is frequently left out. There is no question that what Armstrong and Aldrin did was much more than merely remarkable. I often wonder, however, what was going through Michael Collins’ mind as he sat in the lunar orbiter lazily drifting over the moon while Armstrong and Aldrin played golf on the Moon’s surface. Was he bitter about drawing the short straw and having to sit out the achievement of what had been one of mankind’s goals for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years? If it were me, I’d have been really ticked off that I had been left out and would have made darn sure to take the phone off the hook, finish all the Tang, turn off all the lights, and double lock the front door well before Armstrong and Aldrin tried to get back in.

July 20

I feel certain that everyone has, at one point or another, received the admonition to ‘read the fine print’ of just about everything, from a home mortgage to a bottle of aspirin. You will note the importance of that little task when you consider that on the 20th in 1921 the Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts issued an opinion in which he stated that while the 19th amendment to the United States Constitution granted the right to vote to women, the Commonwealth’s constitution did not give them the right to seek or hold elective office. This comes under the heading of Huh?

July 19

On this date in 1938 Douglas ‘Wrong Way’ Corrigan landed at Baldonnel Airfield, Dublin, Ireland 28 hours and 13 minutes after having left Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York. Corrigan’s filed flight plan had him taking a course from Brooklyn to California in the United States. This is the flight that gave Corrigan the sobriquet ‘Wrong way Corrigan’ because he claimed to have gotten lost after leaving Floyd Bennett Field. Considering Corrigan’s extensive experience as an aviator (He had worked on the design of Charles Lindberg’s Spirit of St. Louis) and the repeated failure of aviation authorities to approve his application for approval of his flight plan to take his experimental aircraft to Ireland, it seems fairly obvious that Wrong Way Corrigan knew precisely what he was doing and exactly where he was going.

July 18

Sometimes life teaches us lessons. Other times death does the honors. On this date in 1968, Mary Jo Kopechne learned that it is not a particularly good idea to go swimming while wearing a high-powered automobile.

On this date in 64 c. e. the Great fire of Rome began in the merchant area of Rome. It is probably an apocryphal story that Emperor Nero played his lyre and sang songs while watching the blaze from a safe distance. Recent research indicates that he played a ’64 Gibson SG and a pre-CBS Fender Deluxe.

also on the 17th

In 1762, on this day, Catherine the Great became empress of Russia upon the death of Peter III. It is doubtful that Peter’s family thought she was so great, probably viewing her as mediocre at best.

July 17

On the 17th in 1961, the people of Nevada collectively breathed a huge sigh of relief following the detonation of the "Small Boy." This was a test shot quaintly named Little Feller I by those in charge of the military testing program. The detonation of this cute little atomic bomb would prove to be the last atmospheric test of a nuclear weapon at the Nevada Test Site.