July 3rd

Today is the Feast Day of Saint Germanus of Man. Born in Brittany in the fifth century, he travelled to Ireland to study with Saint Patrick. After spending some time in Wales he was ordained as a bishop and sent to the Isle of Man by St Patrick, where he became the first Bishop of the Isle of Man. He is thought to have died in Normandy in the late fifth century.






1844 The last pair of Great Auks are killed on Eldey, off the coast of Iceland. The bird  was a flightless bird of the alcid family that became extinct in the mid-19th century. It was the only modern species in the genus Pinguinus, a group of birds that formerly included one other species of flightless giant auk from the Atlantic Ocean region. It bred on rocky, isolated islands with easy access to the ocean and a plentiful food supply, a rarity in nature that provided only a few breeding sites for the auks. When not breeding, the auks spent their time foraging in the waters of the North Atlantic, ranging as far south as northern Spain and also around the coast of Canada, Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Norway, Ireland, and Great Britain.



1883  Novelist and short story writer Franz Kafka is born in Prague, Bohemia. Kafka strongly influenced genres such as existentialism. Most of his works, such as "Die Verwandlung" ("The Metamorphosis"), Der Prozess (The Trial), and Das Schloss (The Castle), are filled with the themes and archetypes of alienation, physical and psychological brutality, parent–child conflict, characters on a terrifying quest, labyrinths of bureaucracy, and mystical transformations.



1906  Russian born English actor George Sanders was born at St Petersburg. He is perhaps best known as Jack Favell in Rebecca (1940), Addison DeWitt in All About Eve (1950), King Richard the Lionheart in King Richard and the Crusaders (1954), and the voice of the malevolent man-hating tiger Shere Khan in Disney's The Jungle Book (1967). His career spanned more than 40 years. He had leading roles in lower-budget pictures such as Rage in Heaven (1941), and in both The Falcon and The Saint film series.







1908 American journalist and folklorist Joel Chandler Harris died of acute nephritis and complications of cirrhosis of the liver. Best known for his collection of Uncle Remus stories,he wrote many 'Brer Rabbit' stories from the African-American oral tradition and helped to revolutionize literature in the process.







1927 English actor, director and producer Ken Russell was born at Southampton.  He is best known for his Oscar-winning film Women in Love (1969), The Devils (1971), The Who's Tommy (1975), and the science fiction film Altered States (1980). Classical musicians and conductors held him in high regard for his story-driven biopics of various composers, most famously Elgar, Delius, Liszt, Mahler and Tchaikovsky.





1938 The locomotive train The Mallard sets a World Speed record of 126 mph.  The record attempt was carried out during the trials of a new quick acting brake (the Westinghouse "QSA" brake).





1940 American singer Fontella Bass was born in St Louis, Missouri. She was an American R&B soul singer best known for her 1965 hit, "Rescue Me".



1943 Australian singer/songwriter Judith Durham is born at Essendon, Victoria as Judy Mavis Cock. She became lead singer of The Seekers in the early 1960s, having hits such as "The Carnival Is Over" and "Morning town Ride". She left the group in mid-1968 to pursue her solo career. In 1993, Durham began to make sporadic recordings and performances with the Seekers, continuing into the 2000s.





1949 English actress Susan Penhaligon is born in Manila in the Philippines. Probably best known for her appearances in the controversial 1976 drama Bouquet of Barbed Wire and for playing Judi Dench's sister in the 1981 sitcom A Fine Romance. She also played a British military officer in Paul Verhoeven's Soldier of Orange (1977).





Under Milk Wood

1951 New Zealand cricketer Richard Hadlee was born at St Albans, Christchurch. In December 2002, he was chosen by Wisden as the second greatest Test bowler of all time. A bowling all-rounder, in an 86-Test career he took 431 wickets (at the time the world record), and was the first bowler to pass 400 wickets, with an average of 22.29, and made 3124 Test runs at 27.16, including two centuries and 15 fifties.



1957 American singer/songwriter Laura Branigan was born in Brewster, New York. She is best remembered for her hits Gloria, Self Control and How Am I Supposed to Live Without You. Branigan also contributed songs to notable motion picture and television soundtracks, including the Grammy and Academy Award-winning Flashdance soundtrack (1983), the Ghostbusters soundtrack (1984), and the Baywatch soundtrack (1994).





1959 English journalist Julie Burchill was born at Frenchay, Bristol. A self confessed " militant feminist" she has been involved in several legal disputes over her work.





1960 Musician and songwriter Vince Clarke is born at South Woodford. Best known for being a member of groups such as Depeche Mode, Yazoo, The Assembly and Erasure.





1962  American vertically challenged actor Tom Cruise is born at Syracuse, New York. Cruise became a full-fledged movie star after starring as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in Top Gun (1986). He is well known for his role as secret agent Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible film series between 1996 and 2011. Cruise is known for his support for the Church of Scientology and its affiliated social programmes.





1963 English artist Tracey Emin is born in Croydon.



In 1997, her work Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995, a tent appliquéd with names, was shown at Charles Saatchi's Sensation exhibition held at the Royal Academy in London. The same year, she gained considerable media exposure when she appeared drunk and swearing on a live Channel 4 TV discussion.



In 1999, Emin had her first solo exhibition in the United States at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, entitled "Every Part of Me's Bleeding". Later that year, she was a Turner Prize nominee and exhibited My Bed — an installation, consisting of her own unmade dirty bed with used condoms and blood-stained underwear.



1969 Rolling Stones' guitarist Brian Jones is discovered drowned in his swimming pool at Hatfield, Sussex. Original Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman said of Jones, "He formed the band. He chose the members. He named the band. He chose the music we played. He got us gigs. ... Very influential, very important, and then slowly lost it – highly intelligent – and just kind of wasted it and blew it all away."



1971 American rock icon Jim Morrison died of a hemorrhage in the bath tub in a rented apartment in Paris. From a young age, Morrison became infatuated with the works of Friedrich Nietzsche, Arthur Rimbaud and Jack Kerouac, often incorporating their work into his lyrics. In his later life, Morrison developed an alcohol dependency which led to his death  in Paris. Due to his songwriting, voice, wild personality and performances, he is regarded by critics and fans as one of the most iconic and influential frontmen in rock music history. Morrison is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, one of the city's most visited tourist attractions.





1971 Australian journalist and publisher Julian Assange was born at Australian in Queensland.  Best known as the editor-in-chief of the whistleblower website WikiLeaks, which he co-founded in 2006 after an earlier career in hacking and programming. WikiLeaks achieved particular prominence in 2010 when it published U.S. military and diplomatic documents leaked by Chelsea Manning. Assange has been under investigation in the United States since that time. In the same year he was accused by the Swedish police of sexual offences. In 2012, facing extradition to Sweden, he took refuge at the Embassy of Ecuador, London. He was granted political asylum by Ecuador and currently lives in the Embassy.



1989 American radio, television, film, and voice actor Jim Backus, died from complications of pneumonia after suffering from Parkinson's Disease for many years. Among his most famous roles are the voice of nearsighted cartoon character Mr. Magoo, the rich Hubert Updike III on the radio version of The Alan Young Show, Joan Davis's character's husband (a domestic court judge) on TV's I Married Joan, James Dean's character's father in Rebel Without a Cause and Thurston Howell, III on the 1960s sitcom Gilligan's Island. He also starred in his own show of one season, The Jim Backus Show, also known as Hot off the Wire.







2008 Emmerdale Farm actor Clive Hornby who played Jack Sugden, died of Hypoxia, a disease often associated with cancer, in a Leeds Hospice. He first appeared in Emmerdale on 19 February 1980 in what was originally a three-month contract. He took over the role of Jack in 1980 from Andrew Burt who left the show in 1976. During his 28 years on Emmerdale, he became one of the soap's most popular characters.

 

Tax Matters: Chancellor Gideon Osborne announces his intention to re-introduce the 'Dog License' , when quizzed the Posh Boy explained, " Given the numbers of stray dogs nowadays plus the horrible fouling and the unwanted attacks upon people we feel that it is righrt to reintroduce the dog license. We shall set it initially at the nominal price of £75 per dog, as Lord Duncan Smith said, 'Just the price of a couple of breakfasts!' , we know that this is what the hard working people of this country want. So we shall bring in this measure asap and hope it clears our streets of strays and shit! Plus if this measure proves successful we shall look to bring in a cat tax early next year to help save us from mucky moggies!"

Look I AM a Serious Economist Who Can Fold Towels!

"I speak on behalf of hardworking people!"

He must be worth £70?