Harry Potter

Did you know...
... that today is Harry Potter's Birthday? The boy wizard Harry James Potter was born on July 31, 1980 (the same birthday as the author, J.K. Rowling, born in 1965). So, here's wishing a very happy birthday to Harry... and let's not forget J.K. Rowling!

July 31

17th US President Andrew Johnson dies (1875); HBD Mark Cuban (1958); HBD J.K. Rowling (1965); START I signed by US & Soviet Union to begin nuclear arms reduction (1991); Fidel Castro relinquishes power to brother Raul after more than 47 years (2006).

July 30

Automobile pioneer Henry Ford born (1863); Uruguay wins first World Cup (1930); HBD Arnold Schwarzenegger (1948); Medicare & Medicaid established in US (1965); RIP actress Claudette Colbert (1996).

July 29

Italian dictator Benito Mussolini born (1883); RIP Vincent van Gogh (1890); NASA is established (1958); 700M worldwide watch wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana (1981); RIP Nobel Prize-winning chemist Dorothy Hodgkin (1994).

July 26

US Post Office is established (1775); FBI is founded (1908); HBD Mick Jagger (1943); HBD actress Dame Helen Mirren (1945); RIP former Argentine First Lady Eva Peron (1952).

July 25

DNA scientist Rosalind Franklin born (1920); Football great Walter Payton born (1954); 1st baby born by in vitro fertilization (1978); Rock Hudson is 1st major celeb to announce AIDS diagnosis (1985); Concorde Air France crash kills 113 (2000).

Rutger Hauer

Rutger Hauer, the versatile Dutch leading man of the ’70s who went on star in the 1982 “Blade Runner” as Roy Batty, died July 19 at his home in the Netherlands after a short illness. He was 75.
Hauer’s agent, Steve Kenis, confirmed the news and said that Hauer’s funeral was held Wednesday.

His most cherished performance came in a film that was a resounding flop on its original release. In 1982, he portrayed the murderous yet soulful Roy Batty, leader of a gang of outlaw replicants, opposite Harrison Ford in Ridley Scott’s sci-fi noir opus “Blade Runner.” The picture became a widely influential cult favorite, and Batty proved to be Hauer’s most indelible role.

More recently, he appeared in a pair of 2005 films: as Cardinal Roark in “Sin City,” and as the corporate villain who Bruce Wayne discovers is running the Wayne Corp. in Christopher Nolan’s “Batman Begins.”
In “True Blood,” he played Niall Brigant, the king of the tribe from which the Stackhouse family is descended and the faerie grandfather to Sookie, Jason Stackhouse and Hunter Savoy. Hauer also recurred on ABC’s medieval musical comedy “Galavant” as Kingsley in 2015.

He was a natural at horror and vampire roles, starring as Van Helsing in Dario Argento’s “Dracula 3D,” and as the vampire Barlow in the 2004 miniseries adaptation of Stephen King’s “Salem’s Lot” along with Rob Lowe, Andre Braugher and Donald Sutherland. 
Handsome, energetic and fluent in several languages, Hauer made his first mark in the late ‘60s in the Netherlands as the star of Paul Verhoeven’s medieval TV series “Floris.” He vaulted to the top ranks of Dutch stardom in 1973 opposite Monique van de Ven in Verhoeven’s sexually explosive drama “Turkish Delight,” which became a box-office smash and garnered an Oscar nod as best foreign film.

After three more Dutch features with Verhoeven that became art-house successes in the U.S., Hauer segued to a Hollywood career with a flashy role as a terrorist in the 1981 Sylvester Stallone thriller “Nighthawks.”
Hauer increasingly turned to action-oriented parts in the ‘80s: He toplined the big-budget fantasy “Ladyhawke” (1985), reteamed with fellow Hollywood transplant Verhoeven in the sword-and-armor epic “Flesh & Blood” (1985), starred as a psychotic killer in “The Hitcher” (1986), and took Steve McQueen’s shotgun-toting bounty hunter role in a modern reboot of the TV Western “Wanted: Dead or Alive” (1986).

His major artistic triumph came in Ermanno Olmi’s Italian production “The Legend of the Holy Drinker” (1988); his sensitive turn as a homeless drunk and petty criminal who finds redemption in Paris carried the feature, which collected the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
During the ‘90s, Hauer gravitated to more routine roles in American and international productions and played the vampire lord Lothos in the original film version of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
He debuted as a small screen star as Nazi official Albert Speer in the 1982 telefilm adaptation of Speer’s book “Inside the Third Reich.” His most admired TV work came in projects that turned on World War II themes: He received Golden Globe nominations for his performances as the leader of a concentration camp revolt in “Escape From Sobibor” (1987) and an SS officer in the alternate-universe drama “Fatherland” (1994).
He was born Jan. 23, 1944, in Breukelen, the Netherlands, near Amsterdam. Though both his parents were acting teachers, he took a circuitous route to the craft. He ran away from home at 15 to join the Dutch merchant navy; after returning to Amsterdam in 1962 he briefly studied acting, but exited school again for a stint in the army.
Finally committing himself to the stage, he became a member of the touring experimental troupe Noorder Compagnie, in which he acted, directed and served as costume designer and translator for several years.
His major break came in 1969 when Verhoeven cast him in the title role of “Floris,” an Ivanhoe-like knight who becomes embroiled in court intrigue upon his return from the Crusades. The show proved wildly popular, and Hauer reprised the part in a 1975 revival of the series, “Floris von Rosemund.”

By that time, the steamy, affecting “Turkish Delight” had firmly established him as the Netherlands’ top B.O. attraction. He reunited with Verhoeven and his co-star van de Ven for the period drama “Katie Tippel” (1975); he renewed his collaboration with the director with the World War II saga “Soldier of Orange” (1977) and the bold contemporary drama “Spetters” (1980).
Hauer made an almost immediate and intense impression as Batty in his sophomore American feature “Blade Runner,” an adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” He wrote his own dialog for the film’s climactic face-off with his adversary Ford. Though the film swiftly fell off screens, it remains a genre landmark today, in no small measure because of Hauer’s electrifying performance.
Olmi’s “The Legend of the Holy Drinker” brought him possibly the best notices of his career, but it failed to attract great attention beyond art-house audiences, and Hauer soon became a familiar and prolific supporting player in a variety of genre pictures, several of which went direct to home video. He shot seven features in 2001 alone.

He was active in social causes as an outspoken sponsor of the environmental organization Greenpeace and the founder the Starfish Association, a non-profit devoted to AIDS awareness.
He is survived by his second wife of 50 years, Ineke ten Cate, and a daughter, actress Aysha Hauer, from his marriage to Heidi Merz.
— Carmel Dagan contributed to this report

July 24

Jacques Cartier claims Canada for France (1534); Aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart born (1897); Machu Picchu is uncovered (1911); Apollo 11 splashes safely in Pacific (1969); HBD Jennifer Lopez (1969).

Nannarrup Hoffmani

Did you know...
... that today is the birthday of the Nannarrup Hoffmani? In 2002, scientists announced the discovery of a new species in New York City's Central Park, an 82-legged centipede that had first been discovered in the park's leaf litter in 1998. The bug received its name from the Virginia scientist who helped to identify it. Um... happy birthday?  ;-)

July 23

RIP Ulysses S. Grant (1885); 43 killed, 1,000+ injured in Detroit Riot (1967); Hale-Bopp comet is discovered (1995); RIP Amy Winehouse (2011); RIP Sally Ride, the first American woman in space (2012).

Michael Jeffrey Jordan

(February 17, 1963) A former American professional basketball player, active businessman, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats. His biography on the National Basketball Association (NBA) website states, “By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time.”

July 22

America the Beautiful written (1893); Infamous gangster John Dillinger killed by federal agents (1934); HBD Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek (1940); HBD singer and actress Selena Gomez (1992); Saddam Hussein’s sons Uday and Qusay are killed (2003).

Don Knotts

Did you know...
... that today is the birthday of Don Knotts (1924)? Jesse Donald "Don" Knotts was an American comedic actor best known for his portrayal of the high-strung, small-town deputy Barney Fife on the 1960s sitcom The Andy Griffith Show and the leisure-suit-clad landlord Ralph Furley on the 1970s sitcom Three's Company. In 1996, TV Guide ranked him number 27 on its 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time list. And he was!

July 19

Rosetta Stone is discovered (1799); Inventor and businessman Samuel Colt born (1814); 1st US Women’s Rights convention held (1848); Sports journalist Stuart Scott born (1965); 1st GPS signal transmitted (1977).

July 18

RIP novelist Jane Austen (1817); Nelson Mandela born (1918); Pioneering astronaut and politician John Glenn born (1921); Mein Kampf is published by Hitler (1925); Nadia Comaneci gets 1st perfect 10 in Olympic gymnastics history (1976).

July 17

Tsar Nicholas II and his family are executed (1918); Disneyland opens in Anaheim, California (1955); RIP jazz singer Billie Holiday (1959); RIP broadcast legend Walter Cronkite (2009); Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 is shot down, 298 are killed (2014).

July 16

District of Columbia established as capital of US (1790); RIP former US First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln (1882); 1st successful atom bomb test (1945); Apollo 11 launches with first astronauts who would walk on the moon (1969); John F. Kennedy, Jr dies in plane crash (1999).

July 15

Spanish explorer and conquistador Ponce de Leon dies (1521); Rosetta Stone is found in Egypt (1799); HBD journalist and businesswoman Arianna Huffington (1950); Fashion designer Gianni Versace is murdered (1997); Twitter is launched (2006).

Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie

Did you know...
... that today is the birthday of Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie (1912)? Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician. His best-known song was This Land Is Your Land. Trivia buffs: songwriters such as Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Bruce Springsteen, Pete Seeger, Joe Strummer and Tom Paxton have acknowledged their debt to Guthrie as an influence.

July 10

France declares war on Great Britain and enters American Revolutionary War (1778); Iconic inventor Nikola Tesla born (1856); Scopes Monkey Trial begins (1925); Tennis player Arthur Ashe born (1943); HBD actress Sofia Vergara (1972).

July 11

President John Q. Adams born (1767); Vice President Aaron Burr mortally wounds Alexander Hamilton in duel (1804); To Kill a Mockingbird is published (1960); RIP iconic actor Laurence Olivier (1989); RIP former First Lady Lady Bird Johnson (2007).

July 12

RIP US founding father Alexander Hamilton (1804); The Rolling Stones perform first concert (1962); Geraldine Ferraro is 1st female VP candidate from major party (1984); HBD activist and Nobel Peace Price recipient Malala Yousafzai (1997).

July 1

Civil War Battle of Gettysburg begins (1863); RIP abolitionist and author Harriet Beecher Stowe (1896); Princess Diana born (1961); China regains sovereignty over Hong Kong (1997); Hollywood actor Marlon Brando dies (2004).

July 2

Thurgood Marshall, first African-American US Supreme Court Justice, born (1908); Amelia Earhart disappears on round-the-world flight (1937); RIP Ernest Hemingway (1961); Civil Rights Act is signed into law (1964).

July 4

Battle of Gettysburg ends on Pickett’s Charge (1863); HBD Tom Cruise (1962); Jackie Robinson is first African American inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame (1962); RIP musician Jim Morrison (1971); HBD actress Olivia Munn (1980)

Jefferson and Adams die hours apart, July 4, 1826

https://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/two-founding-fathers-die-hours-apart-july-4-1826-224943

July 5

26th Amendment signed, lowers voting age from 21 to 18 in US (1971); Arthur Ashe is first African American to win Wimbledon (1975); Dolly the Sheep is first cloned mammal (1996); RIP baseball great Ted Williams (2002).

July 8

Vasco da Gama is first European to reach India by sea (1497); Businessman and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller born (1839); RIP Gone with the Wind actress Vivien Leigh (1967); Atlantis is launched on final mission of US Space Shuttle program (2011); RIP former First Lady and social activist Betty Ford (2011).

July 9

President Zachary Taylor dies of cholera while in office (1850); 14th Amendment ratified in US, granting full citizenship to African Americans (1868); First Wimbledon tournament begins (1877); HBD Tom Hanks (1956); HBD musician Courtney Love (1964).

July 2

Thurgood Marshall, first African-American US Supreme Court Justice, born (1908); Amelia Earhart disappears on round-the-world flight (1937); RIP Ernest Hemingway (1961); Civil Rights Act is signed into law (1964).