July Trivia And Events
By Lasca Randels
InkFreeNews
WARSAW — With the arrival of July, here are some holidays, trivia and events centered around this month.
July’s birthstone is ruby. The birth flowers for July are the larkspur and the water lily. Zodiac signs are Cancer (June 21 – July 22) and Leo (July 23 – Aug. 22).
FEDERAL HOLIDAYS
- July 4 — Independence Day
Independence Day is a federal holiday in the U.S. commemorating the Declaration of Independence, which was ratified on July 4, 1776, establishing the United States of America.
The holiday is commonly associated with fireworks, parades, barbecues, carnivals, fairs, picnics and family reunions.
RECIPE IDEAS:
THIS MONTH IN MUSIC:
- July. 1, 1976 — The #1 song in the U.S. was “Silly Love Songs” by Wings.
- July 4, 1964 — The Beach Boys scored their first chart-topping hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with “I Get Around.” The song is particularly notable for having an unusual structure – opening and closing with a chorus, with two short verses in between.
- July 25, 1980 — AC/DC released “Back In Black.” It was their first album with Brian Johnson as lead singer.
- July 9, 1983 — The Police began an eight-week run at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Every Breath You Take.” The haunting track, which marked their only No.1 on that chart, was later named the biggest hit of 1983 in both the U.S. and Canada. In the band’s native UK, the song topped the pop chart for four weeks and marked their fifth No.1 single.
THIS MONTH IN HISTORY:
- July 16, 1999 — A small plane piloted by John F. Kennedy Jr. took off at 8:38 p.m. from Fairfield, New Jersey, heading toward Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. His wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and her sister Lauren were passengers on the 200 mile trip. The plane was expected to arrive about 10 p.m. but disappeared off radar at 9:40 p.m. Five days later, July 21, following an extensive search, the bodies were recovered from the plane wreckage in 116 feet of water roughly 7 miles off Martha’s Vineyard. The next day, following an autopsy, the cremated remains of John F. Kennedy, 38, his wife Carolyn, 33, and her sister Lauren, 34, were scattered at sea from a U.S. Navy ship, with family members present, not far from where the plane had crashed.
- July 17, 1996 — TWA Flight 800 departed Kennedy International Airport in New York bound for Paris but exploded in mid-air 12 minutes after takeoff, apparently the result of a mechanical failure. The Boeing 747 jet crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Long Island about 8:45 p.m. All 212 passengers and 17 crew members on board were killed.
- July 25, 1956 — The Italian luxury liner Andrea Doria sank after colliding with the Swedish liner Stockholm on its way to New York. Nearby ships came to the rescue, saving 1,634 people, including the captain and the crew, before the ship went down.
- July 22, 1934 — Bank robber John Dillinger (1902-1934) was shot and killed by FBI agents as he left Chicago’s Biograph Movie Theater after watching the film Manhattan Melodrama starring Clark Gable and Myrna Loy. Dillinger was the first criminal labeled by the FBI as “Public Enemy No. 1.” After spending nine years (1924-1933) in prison, Dillinger went on a deadly crime spree, traveling through the states of Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. He was reportedly betrayed by the “Lady in Red.”
EVENTS:
- July 7 — 107th Kosciusko County Community Fair, 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., 1400 E. Smith St., Warsaw.
- July 13 — Donut Dash – 9 a.m., Wawasee Area Conservancy Foundation, Syracuse.
- July 19 — Country Concert for St. Jude ft. Kimberly Perry, 6:30 p.m., 225 E. Fort Wayne St., Warsaw.
- July 26 — Family Carnival, 6-9 p.m., 225 E. Fort Wayne St., Warsaw.
- July 27 — Touch-a-Truck, 9 a.m. to noon, Triton Jr./Sr. High School, 300 Triton Drive, Bourbon.
