Birthdays: President John Tyler, Sir William Walton, Pearl Bailey, former English P.M. John Major, Bud Cort is 77, LaToya Jackson, Eugene McCarthy, Jennifer Capriati, M.C. Hammer, Walt "Clyde" Frazier, Cy Young, Christopher Lambert is 70, Jimmy Dodd, Disney animator Jack Kinney, Brendan Gleeson is 70, Lucy Lawless, Elle MacPherson, Eric Idle is 82
1859- In St. Louis, unemployed drunk Ulysses S. Grant voluntarily freed his one slave, given him by his slave-owning father-in-law. He could have gotten up to a thousand dollars to sell him. But he hated the concept of owning another human. He would go on to win the Civil War and become president.
1886- COCA-COLA invented. Atlanta Pharmacist and liver pill salesman John Pemberton developed the carbonated drink, originally with cocaine in it. His bookkeeper Francis Robinson penned the famous script logo, still in use today. Advertising for the drink claimed it cured everything from hysteria to cholic and the common cold.
The formula is still a secret. During World War II the Nazis openly worried how a break with the United States would affect their supply of Coca Cola, so Reichminister Goebbels arrested Coke execs in Germany and forced them to develop a substitute. This became Fanta Cola.
1891- Impressionist painter George Seurat died at age 31. Before he died, he told his parents that he had fathered two children with his model Maureen Knobloch. Surprise!
1936- Republic Pictures formed.
1939- Moviestars Clark Gable and Carole Lombard married. They had a happy marriage until Lombard was killed in a plane crash in 1942. It’s been said the first California King Size mattress, slightly larger than normal king size, was ordered custom made for Gable and Lombard for their rather exuberant rendevous at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
1951- 'The King and I' debuted on Broadway with Gertrude Lawrence and Yul Brynner, who shaved his head for the first time for the role.
1974- Mariner 10 was the first satellite to reach the planet Mercury.
1974- Chinese farmer Zhao Kangmin digging a well discovered the huge, lifesize terracotta army buried with Chinas’ first emperor at XIAN.
1979- The House Committee Investigation into Assassinations, published their conclusions. They concluded that "President John F. Kennedy was in all probability killed by a conspiracy " but just who and why and what to do about it, they didn’t know.
1989- As part of one of the silliest Oscar telecasts in history, actor Rob Lowe had to dance and sing 'Proud Mary" with a Las Vegas showgirl named Eileen Bowman dressed as Disney’s Snow White. Rob Lowe had just been embarrassed by the publication of a videotape shot in a hotel room of him having sex with two teenage girls. The Walt Disney Company immediately threatened a lawsuit. The Academy apologized and replaced producer Alan Carr with Gilbert Cates.
1992- Presidential candidate Bill Clinton uttered the legendary American phrase:" I smoked pot- but I didn’t inhale!"
1993- At the 65th Academy Awards, Disney’s Aladdin won two Academy Awards for Best Song and Best Soundtrack. Best Animated Short was Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase by Joan Gratz.
2019- Tim Burton’s remake of the Disney animated classic Dumbo opened in theaters.
2020- At President Trump’s insistence, the FDA approved emergency use of an anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine despite little evidence that it was effective in treating coronavirus. Even after the FDA declared hydroxychloroquine totally useless against the disease on Aug. 1 President Trump continued to tout its miraculous qualities.
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