Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

July 28

2006
Mel Gibson Gets Mad to the Max: The star of the Mad Max films and director of The Passion of the Christ is stopped for drunk driving. He then threatens the arresting officer and spewed out a string of anti-Semitic statements, stating that "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world."

1996
Kennewick Man: The remains of a prehistoric man, who lived between 5,000 to 9,500 years ago, are found on a bank of the Columbia River near Kennewick, Washington.

1982
Gun Control: San Francisco becomes the first major U.S. city to ban the sale and possession of hand guns.

1977
Trans-Alaska Pipeline: The 799-mile pipeline becomes fully operational when the first oil from Prudhoe Bay arrives in Valdez.

1976
Lockheed Sr-71 A/B Blackbird sets speed record of 2,193.16 mph.

1976
Earthquake in Tangshan, China kills 242,000 people.

1964
First close-up photos of the Moon taken by a US spacecraft: Ranger 7 is launched. On July 31 it sent back a series of pictures as it impacted into the moon's surface.

1945
A B-45 bomber crashes into the Empire State Building: It lodged between the 78th and 79th floors. 13 people were killed, including 10 pedestrians killed by falling debris.

1943
Coffee rationing: Pres. Roosevelt announces the end of coffee rationing, which had been restricted since 1941 because of the war.

1933
First Singing Telegram: A fan sends Rudy Vallee a musical birthday greeting. (Source: Famous First Facts)

1914
World War I: The war begins when Austria declares war on Serbia in retaliation for the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife by a Serbian nationalist a month earlier. Soon other countries joined the conflict and the great war was on.

1868
14th Amendment is adopted by Congress: Defined U.S. citizenship and granted it to those born or naturalized in the U.S. It also stated that the rights of a citizen could not be removed without due process of the Law.

1866
Congress makes it lawful to use the metric system.

1958     d. 1981
Terry Fox, Canadian cancer victim. After losing a leg to cancer he ran halfway across Canada (1980) helping to raise $23,000,000 for cancer research. He died of lung cancer.

1948
Vida Rochelle Blue, American baseball pitcher, MVP (1971). He was the only pitcher to start in an All Star game in both the National League (1971) and the American League (1978).

1948
Sally Struthers, American Emmy-winning actress. TV: All in the Family (Gloria).

1948
Georgia Engel, American actress. TV: The Mary Tyler Moore Show (Ted's wife Georgette).

1946
Linda Kelsey, American actress. TV: Lou Grant (Billie Newman).

1945
Rick Wright, English keyboardist, with Pink Floyd. Music: Dark Side of the Moon (1972, #1), Wish You Were Here (1975, #1), and The Wall (1979, #1).

1945
Jim Davis, American cartoonist, creator of Garfield.

1943
Bill Bradley, U.S. Senator (1979-97, D-New Jersey), Hall of Fame basketball player (1967-77 NY Nicks).

1929     d. 1994
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (Jacqueline Lee Bouvier), American first lady, widow of John F. Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis.

1928
Hugo Chávez, President of Venezuela (1999-).

1907     d. 1983
Earl Silas Tupper, American businessman, invented Tupperware (1942) and used the neighborhood party method to sell it.

1901     d. 1986
Rudy Vallee (Hubert Prior Vallee), American singer, actor, "The Vagabond Lover." He learned the saxophone through a mail-order course.

1746     d. 1809
Thomas Heyward, Jr., American patriot, signer of the Declaration of Independence.

1968     b. 1879
Otto Hahn, German chemist, co-discovered, with Fritz Strassman, nuclear fission (1938) for which he won the Nobel Prize. He also discovered the element protactinium and is credited with being the first person to split an atom.

1939     b. 1861
William James Mayo, American surgeon. He and his brother, Charles Horace Mayo, co-founded the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research (1915).

1750     b. 1685
Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer and organist, one of the greatest composers in music history.

1746     b. 1697
John Peter Zenger, American printer, publisher, his arrest in 1734 and later acquittal on the charge of libel established freedom of the press in America.

1655     b. 1619
Cyrano de Bergerac, French dramatist. The French poet Edmond Rostand published a fictionalized play (1897) in which Cyrano woos Roxane on behalf of his less articulate friend.

1057     b. ????
Victor II, religious leader, 153rd Pope (1055-57).

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