July 7th


Feast Day of Saint Illidius. was a 4th-century bishop of Clermont, France. To Illidius is attributed the rise of Clermont-Ferrand as a centre of religious teaching and culture. According to tradition, he cured the daughter of the Roman Emperor Magnus Maximus at Trier. The fountain of St. Allyre at Clermont is known for its petrifying water, caused by calcareous deposits.

          
 
1860 Gustav Mahler is born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia. Mahler acted as a bridge between thev19th century Austro-German tradition and the early 20th century's modernism. As a Jew, during the Nazi years his works were forbidden and banned only to he rediscovered in the late 1940s.



1899 American film director George Cukor is born in Manhattan, New York. In 1939 he was replaced as director on "Gone With The Wind", but went on to direct " The Philadelphia Story",(1940), Gaslight,(1944), "Adam's Rib", (1949), A Star Is Born,(1955) and " My Fair Lady",(1964).






 
1919 English actor and entertainer Jon Pertwee is born in Chelsea. Pertwee spent 18 years playing Chief Petty Officer Pertwee in the Navy Lark on BBC radio. He also starred as the third Doctor in the Dr.Who series from 1970-74 and the eponymous character in ITV's "Worzel Gummidge" series from 1979-81.


 




1930 Scottish doctor and creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died of a heart attack at the age of 71. His last words were directed toward his wife: "You are wonderful". His fictional stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered milestones in the field of crime fiction. He is also known for writing the fictional adventures of a second character he invented, Professor Challenger, and for popularising the mystery of the Mary Celeste. He was a prolific writer whose other works include fantasy and science fiction stories, plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels.





1940 English musician, singer/songwriter Ringo Starr is born in Liverpool as Richard Starkey. He gained world wide fame as the drummer of The Beatles, he also narrated Thomas the Tank Engine from 1984-86.







 
1941 Ex Goodie Bill Oddie is born in Rochdale. A birdwatcher since his childhood has led him to be a respected ornithologist. Best known for Springwatch (2005), The Goodies (1970) and Goodies Rule - O.K.? (1975).




 
1944 Ryder Cup golfer Anthony Jacklin was born in Scunthorpe. Jacklin won the American Open in 1970 following his win in the British Open at Royal Lytham and St Anne's in 1969. He also captained the European Ryder Cup team to victory in 1985 and 1987.




 
 
1946 American character actor Joe Spano is born in San Francisco. He came to prominence through his role as Lt. Henry Goldblume in Hill Street Blues. Nowadays he is best known through his part as FBI Special Agent Tobias Fornell in NCIS.
 




 
1947 The Roswell Incident takes place. An unknown flying object crashed near the town of Roswell, New Mexico. It has been claimed that the object was a Flying Saucer and the bodies of dead aliens were removed by the US military. Conspiracy theories abound to this day.




 
1949 American actress Shelley Duvall is born in Houston,Texas. Began her career in several Robert Altman films in the 1970s, including  3 Women in 1979 for which she won the Cannes Film award for best actress. Later she starred in Altman's film of "Popeye" as Olive Oyl and in Kubrick's "The Shining" both in 1980.


 


1965 English talk show host Jeremy Kyle is born in Reading, Berkshire. Kyle has been presenting his controversial tabloid talk show The Jeremy Kyle Show on ITV since 2005. In 2011, Kyle began hosting the American version of The Jeremy Kyle Show, which was cancelled after two seasons.



1967 British stage and film actress Vivien Leigh died from the effects of tuberculosis. She was living at 54 Eaton Square, Belgravia, London, and it was here that her lungs filled with fluid and she had suffocated. She was 53.
She won two Best Actress Academy Awards for her performances as "Southern belles": Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939) and Blanche DuBois in the film version of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), a role she had also played on stage in London's West End in 1949. She won a Tony Award for her work in the Broadway version of Tovarich (1963). After an education in drama school, Leigh appeared in small roles in four films in 1935, and progressed to the role of heroine in Fire Over England (1937). Lauded for her beauty, Leigh felt that it sometimes prevented her from being taken seriously as an actress. Despite her fame as a screen actress, Leigh was primarily a stage performer. During her 30-year stage career, she played roles ranging from the heroines of Noël Coward and George Bernard Shaw comedies to classic Shakespearean characters such as Ophelia, Cleopatra, Juliet and Lady Macbeth. Later in life, she played character roles in a few films. To the public at the time, Leigh was strongly identified with her second husband Laurence Olivier, to whom she was married from 1940 to 1960. Leigh and Olivier starred together in many stage productions, with Olivier often directing, and in three films. For much of her adult life, she suffered from bipolar disorder.She earned a reputation for being difficult to work with, and her career suffered periods of inactivity. She suffered recurrent bouts of chronic tuberculosis, first diagnosed in the mid-1940s, which ultimately claimed her life. 







 
1973 American actress and singer Veronica Lake died of acute hepatitis and acute kidney injury after developing  cirrhosis of the liver as a result of her years of drinking, she was just 50yo.  Lake won both popular and critical acclaim, most notably for her role in Sullivan's Travels and for her femme fatale roles in film noirs with Alan Ladd, during the 1940s. She was also well known for her peek-a-boo hairstyle. By the late 1940s however, Lake's career had begun to decline in part due to her struggles with mental illness and alcoholism. She made only one film in the 1950s but appeared in several guest-starring roles on television. She returned to the screen in 1966 with a role in the film Footsteps In the Snow, but the role failed to revitalize her career.







 
1985 Boris Becker becomes the youngest ever Wimbledon Champion at the age of 17.





1994 American actor Cameron Mitchell died of lung cancer, aged 75, in Pacific Palisades, California. Some of his best known films were the 1951 adaptation of Death of a Salesman (he originated the role of Happy on Broadway), the 1952 version of Les Miserables (as Marius), the 1953 comedy How to Marry a Millionaire (with Marilyn Monroe), and 1956's film version of the stage musical Carousel. He voiced Jesus of Nazareth in The Robe. MItchell also played a Police Detective in the 1983 film "Dixie Ray, Hollywood Star". It was on TV where Mitchell had the greatest effect during the latter part of his career, and he is best remembered for starring as Uncle Buck in the 1960s NBC western series, The High Chaparral.






2005 Four explosions rock London's Transport System killing 56 people including the four suicide bombers and injured over 700 people.



 
2006 English singer-songwriter and guitarist Syd Barrett died from pancreatic cancer. He was a founder member of the band Pink Floyd, and was the lead vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter during the band's psychedelic years, providing major musical and stylistic direction in their early compositions. He is credited with naming the band, but left the group in April 1968 and was briefly hospitalized amid speculation of mental illness exacerbated by drug use.





Health News: Health Secretary Jeremiah Cunt continues to hog the headlines, following his defence of NHS hospitals prioritising the care of private patients. " Of course there is a two tier system in the NHS...always has been, always will be. Everyone gets good care under the NHS, but of course if you pay you are entitled to get treated quicker and better than the poor and elderly. Look I see these old people just lying there in bed grumbling all day, let them get out their chequebooks and see their treatment improve! Look we are all in this together so let's see the feckless poor and elderly pay their way like the rest of us!"



Now Imagine I'm Behind A Tree



Gosh All That Profit For Me!

Yes But If You Pay You'll Get A Bed!