July 26

On the 26th in 1882, Richard Wagner's opera Parsifal premiered in Bayreuth, Bavaria, Germany. Parsifal would be the last work from Wagner. He would die on February 13, 1883. It is unclear from contemporary sources exactly how many of those in attendance committed suicide. The pianoforte solo in Franz Liszt's La lugubre gondola was written for Wagner and conjures a black-shrouded funerary gondola bearing Richard Wagner's body on the Grand Canal in Venice.

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July 25

The Department of the Treasury maintains a Bullion Depository on the grounds of Fort Knox in Kentucky. Why would anyone name a fort, particularly one holding that such huge piles of cash, in Kentucky after some itinerate bookseller from Boston, Massachusetts? Is the Department of the Treasury going to at some point move into Borders? It just might be because that while Henry Knox, born on the 25th in 1750, was a bookseller from Boston he was also a general in the American Revolutionary War. He’s the guy who got George Washington, his troops and all their supplies across the frozen Delaware River so that they could go off and win the Battle of Trenton. He also got them, with all the prisoners they had taken, back again without loosing a single man.
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July 24

On the 24th in 1832, Benjamin Bonneville led the first wagon train across the Rocky Mountains, opening the California Trail. His ultimate goal was to reach the Williamette Valley (Honestly, isn’t that everyone’s goal?) in Oregon and open the Oregon Trail but unfortunately didn’t reach Oregon before the snow set in and he never made it. He turned around and went back to Missouri. Bonneville would eventually return to Washington, D.C. but went by way of New York City, where he was the guest of John Jacob Astor and hung out with Wildman Washington Irving.

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July 23

On the 23rd in 1962, Telstar, the first telecommunications satellite, went into service. The first television broadcast was an address by President Kennedy. Kennedy's schedule ran late however and the broadcast began with the partial transmission of a baseball game being played by the Philadelphia Phillies and the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. The Phillies beat the Cubs 5 to 3. Telstar went out of service on February 21, 1963 when it was exposed to radiation by the explosion of a nuclear bomb in an operation conducted by the United States called Starfish Prime

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July 22

On the 22nd in 1793, Alexander MacKenzie[ arrived at Bella Coola, British Columbia, Canada ending a journey that he had begun in Montreal, Canada; this trip was the first recorded transcontinental journey across the North American continent north of Mexico.

The North West Company, a major competitor of the Hudson’s Bay Company in the Canadian West, had employed MacKenzie. The two companies would merge when fierce battles began to be fought between each other when competing for the Canadian the fur business. I guess hostile takeovers go back to the eighteenth century.

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July 21

Jesse James was a skilled and dedicated professional, constantly working to improve his skills. Were he alive today, he would probably be the chairman of Enron or Halliburton. On the 21st in 1873, when he was CEO of the James-Younger Gang, he pulled off the first train robbery. He derailed a locomotive of the Rock Island Railroad and escaped with $2,337 in cash. Unfortunately, the train’s engineer, John Rafferty, died in the crash and I am certain that it really ticked Jesse off that he had missed an earlier transcontinental express which was carrying a far greater bunch of cash. When he was finally caught, Mr. James probably felt a bit like Ken Lay did when the Department of Justice showed up at his door.

Maybe being too close to your family is not such a good idea. You also might want to think about the kids you hang out with. Jesse had his brother Frank hung out with and they liked to play with the Younger boys, Cole, James, John, and Robert, colleagues in the Old West outlaw game.

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July 20

On the 20th in 1921, Alice Mary Robertson became the first woman to preside over the House of Representatives in the United States Congress. She was the second woman[i] in the House, but the first female representative from Oklahoma. There would not be another female representative from Oklahoma until 2006[ii].

[i] Jeannette Rankin represented Montana from 1917 to 1919.
[ii] Mary Fallin was elected to represent Oklahoma's 5th congressional district.