July 1st

Feast Of The Most Precious Blood. In Catholic belief, the Blood of Christ is precious because it is Christ's own great ransom paid for the redemption of mankind. In this belief, as there was to be no remission of sin without the shedding of blood, the "Incarnate Word" not only offered his life for the salvation of the world, but he offered to give up his life by a bloody death, and to hang bloodless, soulless and dead upon the Cross for the salvation of humanity. Jesus is said to have given his life - his blood - for the sake of all humanity, regardless of any religious division or difference in belief, atoning for every form of human sin.




1804 French writer George Sand is born as Amantine Lucile Dupin in Paris, France. She  was a French novelist and memoirist. She is equally well known for her much publicized romantic affairs with a number of celebrities including Frédéric Chopin and Alfred de Musset.



1863 The Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War began. The Battle of Gettysburg was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania between Union and Confederate forces.The battle involved the largest number of casualties of the entire warand is often described as the war's turning point.Union Major General George Meade's Army of the Potomac defeated attacks by Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, ending Lee's attempt to invade the North.



1896 American author Harriet Beecher Stowe died at Hartford, Connecticut. Best known as the writer of Uncle Tom's Cabin, she was 85yo.




1899 English actor, director Charles Laughton is born at Scarborough. Laughton was trained in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and first appeared professionally on the stage in 1926. In 1927, he was cast in a play with his future wife Elsa Lanchester, with whom he lived and worked until his death; they had no children. He played a wide range of classical and modern parts, making a big impact in Shakespeare at the Old Vic. His film career took him to Hollywood, but he also collaborated with Alexander Korda on some of the most notable British films of the era, including The Private Life of Henry VIII.
Among Laughton's biggest film-hits were The Barretts of Wimpole Street, Mutiny on the Bounty, Ruggles of Red Gap, Hobson's Choice, Jamaica Inn, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Big Clock. In his later career, he took up stage directing, notably in the Caine Mutiny Court Martial, and George Bernard Shaw's Don Juan in Hell, in which he also starred. He directed the acclaimed thriller The Night of the Hunter.





1934 English actress and writer Jean Marsh was born at Stoke Newington, London. Marsh co-created and starred in the 1971 series Upstairs, Downstairs for which she received several awards including an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her performance as Rose Buck in 1975. She later reprised her role of Rose for the BBC's revival of the series in 2010. Marsh co-created the television series The House of Eliott in 1991.





1935 English weightlifter and actor Dave Prowse is born in Bristol. Best known for his portrayal of The Green Cross Code Man in public information films and Darth Vader in the Star Wars series.





1939 Actress Karen Black was born at Park Ridge, Illinois. The film that made her a star was Easy Rider (1969), where she worked with Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, and a supporting actor named Jack Nicholson. She appeared with Nicholson again the next year when they starred in Five Easy Pieces (1970), which garnered an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe for Karen. Her roles mainly consisted of waitresses, hookers and women on the edge.





1942 Genevieve Bujold is born at Montreal, Quebec. She is best known for her portrayal of Anne Boleyn in the 1969 film Anne of the Thousand Days, for which she won a Golden Globe Award for best actress and was nominated for an Academy Award.





1943 American pianist and composer Jeff Wayne is born at Forest Hills, Queens, New York.  In 1978 he released Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds, his musical adaptation of H. G. Wells' science-fiction novel The War of the Worlds. Wayne wrote approximately 3,000 advertising jingles in the 1970s which appeared on television in the United Kingdom, notably a Gordon's Gin commercial which was covered by The Human League. Wayne also composed numerous well-known television themes, including Good Morning Britain (TV-am), ITV's The Big Match and The World of Sport, BBC's 60 Minutes, etc.





1945 American singer and actress Debbie Harry is born in Miami. Best known for being the lead singer of the punk rock and new wave band Blondie. She has also had success as a solo artist, and in the mid-1990s she recorded and performed with The Jazz Passengers. Her acting career spans over 30 film roles and numerous television appearances.





1951 English actor Trevor Eve was born in Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire. In 1979 he gained fame as the eponymous lead in the detective series Shoestring and is also known for his role as Detective Superintendent Peter Boyd in BBC television drama Waking the Dead.







1952 Canadian actor Dan Aykroyd is born in Ottawa, Ontario. He was an original cast member of Saturday Night Live, an originator of The Blues Brothers (with John Belushi) and Ghostbusters, and has had a long career as a film actor and screenwriter.





In 1990, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Driving Miss Daisy.


1965 English cricketer Wally Hammond died from a heart attack aged 62yo at Kloof, Natal, South Africa.  Beginning as a professional, he later became an amateur and was appointed captain of England. Primarily a middle-order batsman, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack described him in his obituary as one of the four best batsmen in the history of cricket.



1967 Canadian/American actress and model Pamela Anderson is born at Ladysmith, British Columbia. In addition to her acting career, she is also a model, producer, author, activist, and former showgirl, known for her roles on the television series Home Improvement, Baywatch, and V.I.P. She was chosen as a Playmate of the Month for Playboy magazine in February 1990. For a time, she was known as Pamela Anderson Lee (or Pamela Lee) after marrying Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee.







1971 American rapper, singer/songwriter Missy Elliott was born at Portsmouth, Virginia. Her first major success came as a songwriter with childhood friend and producer Timbaland on projects for Aaliyah, Total, SWV, and 702. As a record producer and songwriter, she has worked with Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, and Janet Jackson, as well as contemporary artists Keyshia Cole, Ciara, G Dragon, Tamia and Monica.



1976 Dutch footballer Ruud van Nistlerooy was born at Oss ,Brabandt.  He is the fourth-highest goalscorer in Champions League history with 56 goals. He is a three-time Champions League top scorer, as well as a top scorer in three different European domestic leagues. He also had a successful career as a five furlong sprinter and at stud.





1976 Dutch footballer Patrick Kluivert was born in Amsterdam. Kluivert played for the Dutch national team from 1994 to 2004, and with 40 goals from 79 appearances was their highest goalscorer until surpassed by Robin van Persie in 2013. He was selected for three European Championships and the 1998 FIFA World Cup, and was the joint top scorer at Euro 2000 where he scored 5 times. In 2004, he was named in the FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living footballers chosen by Pelé as part of FIFA's centenary observances.





1991 Actor, singer, writer, director and producer Michael Landon died aged 52yo from pancreatic cancer at Malibu, California. He is known for his roles as Little Joe Cartwright in Bonanza (1959–73), Charles Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie (1974–83), and Jonathan Smith in Highway to Heaven (1984–89).







1996 American model and actress Margaux Hemingway committed suicide aged 42yo. She was the granddaughter of writer Ernest Hemingway During the height of her modeling career in the mid-to-late 1970s, Hemingway was a regular attendee of New York City's exclusive discothèque Studio 54, often in the company of such celebrities as Bianca Jagger, Liza Minnelli, Halston, Grace Jones, and Andy Warhol. It was at such social mixers that she began to experiment with alcohol and drugs.
She made her film debut in the Lamont Johnson-directed drama Lipstick (1976), alongside her fourteen-year-old sister Mariel.








1977 Actress Liv Tyler is born in New York City as Liv Rundgren. She is the daughter of Aerosmith's lead singer, Steven Tyler, and model Bebe Buell. Tyler began a career in modeling at the age of 14 but, after less than a year, she decided to focus on acting.




1997 Hollywood Great Robert Charles Furman Mitchum died in Santa Barbara from complications of lung cancer and emphysema. He was 79yo. He is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time. Mitchum rose to prominence for his starring roles in several major works of the film noir style, and is considered a forerunner of the anti-heroes prevalent in film during the 1950s and 1960s. He may be best-remembered for his roles in such films as The Story of G.I. Joe (1945), Crossfire (1947), Out of the Past (1947), The Night of the Hunter (1955), and Cape Fear (1962).



 

1999 American Pop Singer Guy Mitchell died in Las Vegas from complications during cancer surgery. He was 72yo. His first hit was "My Heart Cries for You" (1951). He was a pre-rock pop singer but ventured into rock with songs like including "Heartaches by the Number", "Rock-a-Billy", "The Same Old Me" and his biggest hit, "Singing the Blues", which was number one for 10 weeks in 1956.



2000 American actor Walter Matthau died of a heart attack in Santa Monica aged 79yo. Best known for his role as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple and his frequent collaborations with Odd Couple star Jack Lemmon, as well as his role as Coach Buttermaker in the 1976 comedy The Bad News Bears. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the 1966 Billy Wilder film The Fortune Cookie.




2004 American film and stage actor Marlon Brando died of respiratory failure from pulmonary fibrosis with congestive heart failure. The Hollywood great was 80yo. Brando is most famous for his Oscar-winning performances as Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront (1954) and Vito Corleone in The Godfather (1972), as well as influential performances in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Viva Zapata! (1952), Julius Caesar (1953), The Wild One (1953), Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967), Last Tango in Paris (1972) and Apocalypse Now (1979). Brando was also an activist, supporting many causes, notably the African-American Civil Rights Movement and various American Indian Movements.





2005 American singer/ songwriter Luther Vandross died at the JFK Medical Centre, in Edison, New Jersey. It is believed he suffered  a massive heart attack, he was 54yo. His hit songs include, "Never Too Much", "Here and Now", "Any Love", "Power of Love/Love Power", "I Can Make It Better" and "For You to Love". Many of his songs were covers of original music by other artists such as "If This World Were Mine" (duet with Cheryl Lynn), "Since I Lost My Baby", "Superstar" and "Always and Forever".


2006 Yorkshire and England cricketer Frederick Sewards Trueman died of small cell carcinoma of the lung at Airedale General Hospital in Steeton with Eastburn, West Yorkshire. He is generally acknowledged to have been one of the greatest bowlers in cricket's history. Bowling at a genuinely fast pace and widely known as "Fiery Fred", Trueman played first-class cricket for Yorkshire from 1949 until he retired in 1968. He represented England in 67 Test matches and was the first bowler to take 300 wickets in a Test career. He and Brian Statham opened the England bowling together for many years and formed one of the most famous bowling partnerships in Test cricket history. Trueman was an outstanding fielder, especially at leg slip, and a useful late order batsman who made three first-class centuries.

I'll Sithee!

2007 Smoking is banned in all Public places in England.  On 30 June 2010, the recently formed Coalition Government announced that it would not be reviewing the ban.An attempt in October 2010 by Conservative MP David Nuttall to amend the law to exempt private members' clubs and pubs from the smoking ban was defeated in the House of Commons on its first reading.



2009 Keighley born actress Mollie Sugden died from unspecified heart failure at Guildford aged 86yo. Sugden is best known for her comedy roles as Sandra's mother  Mrs. Hutchinson in the Liver Birds and Mrs Slocombe in Are You Being Served and its sequel Grace and Favour.




2013 Australian singer/songwriter Gary Shearston died aged 74yo at Armidale Hospital in New South Wales after suffering a stroke earlier that same day. He is best known in the UK for his 1974 cover version of Cole Porter's " I Get A Kick Out Of You".




NHS News: Jeremiah Cunt, the health secretary, announced his intentions to close GP surgeries, replacing them with advice lines run by Capita and G4S, " What could be better than having a medical expert at the end of a phone extolling advice for £2.78 a minute! Plus we save money on all those stupid G.P.s and their surgeries! Simples! Now is there a tree nearby I can hide behind?"

Of Course the NHS is safe in my hands! Whoops!

I'm not here!