Vault Disney

Happy Birthday Casey Jr. Circus Train!

Casey Jr. Circus Train officially opened on this day, July 31, 1955.  This Disneyland classic attraction is based on the circus train from the animated feature, Dumbo, which was released in October 1941.  

He was originally conceived as the park's first roller coaster before plans were eventually scaled back.

1955

Listen carefully and you will hear Casey optimistically chant, "I think I can," as he struggles to climb uphill.  While he chugs along, passengers are given a tour of miniature versions of classic Disney animated film scenes. This tour is similar to the one given on the slower paced Storybook Land Canal Boats but with some variation.

Due to testing, the attraction was opened two weeks later than Disneyland.  On July 14, 1955, the Casey Jr. Circus Train made his first test ride. Poor Casey Jr. was almost sent backwards trying to climb the 25 percent uphill grade. Lead weights were then added to the front which allowed him to temporarily open on the 17th. And finally, after a few more adjustments and testing, on July 31, 1955 the Casey Jr. Circus Train attraction permanently re-opened in Fantasyland at Disneyland. 

He continues to delight crowds young and old.

Nuggets:

• Some pieces of the train were from the original carrousel purchased for King Arthur Carrousel.
• Walt wanted to make room for more guests so two sled type seats were removed and converted by WED into open air cars on the two Casey Jr. trains.
• The Casey, Jr. trains uses an internal combustion engine in the calliope car behind the locomotive uses a roller coaster-style chain to pull the train up the steepest hill.
• The Casey Jr. Circus Train is a quaint reminder of a different era having survived the remodeling of Fantasyland in 1983. 

Boyhood Summer

Part of each boyhood summer was spent dumpster-diving for empty refundable pop bottles.  These things were as good as gold!  My friends and I would cruise the neighborhood on our bikes.  I had a Schwin Sting Ray with a basket on front, perfect for carrying those empty bottles.  Once we figured we had enough, we'd head over to the local market.  The clerk would count our bottles and fork-over the cash.  What a great system!  Then, we'd step out the door and formulate a plan; What could we get with all this moolah?  Invariably, our shopping list contained candy, soda pop, and comic books.  Our purchases were planned right down to the last penny, right down to the last piece of Bazooka gum.

I can still see us peddling back home on a hot summer day taking swigs of soda or a slurp of a popsicle.  Back home, in our hideout, we would finish reaping the rewards of our labor by polishing-off the candy and sodas, and we would pass the comics out to share.  These were the days of boyhood dreams....



Today in Disney History

~ Today in Disney History ~

July 30, 1907:
Disney Legend Roy Williams, Roy, the "Big Mooseketeer" on TV's Mickey Mouse Club, is born in Coleville, Washington. He began working for Disney in 1930 and as a writer/gagman contributed to such animated classics as Saludos Amigos, The Three Caballeros, Cured Duck, Donald's Double Trouble, and Make Mine Music. As a sketch artist, Williams designed more than 100 insignias for the armed forces during Word War II, including the award-winning Flying Tigers insignia. He also designed the famous "Mouse" ears (along with Disney costumer Chuck Keehne) for Mickey Mouse Club!

From Wikipedia: Roy Williams was an artist and entertainer for The Walt Disney Studios, perhaps best known as "Big Roy," the adult mouseketeer for four seasons on the Mickey Mouse Club television series.

Williams was born in Colville, Washington and raised in Los Angeles, where he attended Fremont High School. After graduating, he was hired as an artist by Walt Disney in 1930. He worked on animated shorts while attending Chouinard Art Institute at night. He later also developed story ideas for Disney. He also designed over 100 insignias for the U.S. armed forces during World War II, and is credited with designing the mouse ears worn on the Mickey Mouse Club.

Disney director Jack Kinney described Williams as a "big fat balding hot-headed unpredictable bastard", but hugely admired his prolific talent, saying that he could "sit down and grunt out a few pounds of gags as if it were nothing".  The Mouseketeers who worked with him on the original Mickey Mouse Club series, conversely, remembered him fondly. Former Mouseketeer Lonnie Burr, appearing on Tom Snyder's Tomorrow show on NBC in 1975 to talk about the Mickey Mouse Club at the time of its 20th anniversary, called Williams "a warm guy, who liked kids, always had time for kids, and always helped us any way he could."

Williams died in Burbank, California, in 1976. He was posthumously inducted as a Disney Legend in 1992.

This Day In Recent History ~ 7/25 ~ Famous Birthdays

This Day In Recent History ~ July 25th

1952 - Puerto Rico became a self-governing commonwealth of the U.S.

1955 - Newsweek runs an article about Disneyland titled, "Spectacular Plus." It reports, "California has never seen anything like it..."

1959 - The Ernest S. Marsh locomotive (Engine No. 4) takes its first inaugural run around Disneyland at the hands of Chief Engineer, Walt Disney.

1962 - The Elvis Presley film "Kid Galahad" premiered.

1965 - Bob Dylan appeared on stage at the Newport Jazz Festival with an electric guitar. It was his first non-acoustic set.

1966 - In San Francisco, CA, the Rolling Stones performed their last U.S. concert with Brian Jones.
1967 - The Beatles and other U.K. rock groups urged the British government to legalize marijuana. Their comments were made in a London Times advertisement signed by all four of the Beatles.
1969 - Neil Young made his first appearance with Crosby, Stills and Nash.

1970 - Chicago's "25 or 6 to 4" was released.

1971 - The Beach Boys released their album "Surf's Up."

1975 - "A Chorus Line" debuted on Broadway. The show closed in 1990 after 6,137 performances.

1978 - Louise Joy Brown, the first test-tube baby, was born in Oldham, England. She had been conceived through in-vitro fertilization.

1978 - Pete Rose (Cincinnati Red) broke the National League record for consecutive base hits as he got a hit in 38 straight games.

1980 - KISS introduced their new drummer, Eric Carr, at a concert at the Paladium in New York City.

1984 - Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to walk in space. She was aboard the orbiting space station Salyut 7.

1987 - The Salt Lake City Trappers set a professional baseball record as the team won its 29th game in a row. (Utah)

1990 - Rosanne Barr sang the National Anthem in San Diego before a Padres baseball game. She was booed for her performance.

1994 - Israel and Jordan formally ended the state of war that had existed between them since 1948.

1997 - K.R. Narayanan became India's president. He was the first member of the Dalits caste to do so.

1998 - The USS Harry S. Truman was commissioned and put into service by the U.S. Navy.

1999 - Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France. He was only the second American to win the race.

2008 - Disney Legend Harriet Burns, the first woman ever hired by Walt Disney Imagineering

in a creative rather than an office capacity, passes away at age 79 in California.

Birthdays

Thomas Eakins 1844
Morris Raphel Cohen 1880
Walter Brennan 1894
Eric Hoffer 1902
Jack Gilford 1907
Estelle Getty 1924
Stanley Dancer 1927
Don Ellis 1934
Barbara Harris 1935
John Pennel 1940
Manuel Charlton (Nazareth) 1941
Janet Margolin 1943
Jim McCarty (Yardbirds) 1943
Donna Theodore 1945
Verdine White (Earth, Wind & Fire) 1951
Walter Payton (NFL) 1954
Iman 1955
Ray Billingsley 1957
Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) 1958
Marty Brown 1965
Illeana Douglas 1965
Matt LeBlanc 1967 - Actor ("Friends")
Brad Renfro 1982



Honeycomb Hideout

"Honeycomb's big...yeah yeah yeah!
It's not small...no no no!
Honeycomb's got...a big big bite!
Big big taste in a big big bite!"

Just some of my nostalgic memories.....

The Clock

The Clock

In my garage is a cardboard box filled with the shattered remains of what was once a most wonderful clock.  For as long as I can remember, my Grandparents owned a Black Forest hunter clock.  I was mesmerized by that clock when I was a kid.  Maybe I had a huge imagination, but it was fun to think of the little dancing people and the cuckoo bird as actual living creatures inside this fantastic clock.  I can remember waiting and waiting for the hour or half-hour to strike so that I could see them come to life.

Each day, my Grandpa would wind the clock by pulling the weight-chain down and gently giving the pendulum a swing.  When I was small, he would sometimes hold me up to the clock and let me help.
 
I was given that clock the day my Grandpa died.

And, for several years the clock ticked away in our family room.  It became more than a clock, but rather, a small time machine.   My children would wait and watch for the dancing people and the silly old bird to appear.  I would give them turns helping me wind the clock.  And, I found myself waiting sometimes for the characters to appear once again, on the hour, and for a moment, I was taken back in time.

One morning while preparing for work, I stopped to wind the clock.  My left hand braced the clock against the wall while I pulled the weight-chain with my right.  My left hand slipped as I pulled the chain.  The clock slammed to the ground.  Pieces were scattered.  The stag was busted from the top and his antlers snapped.  The clock hands broke from the face.  The beautiful leaf trim splintered and the dancers and their stage were utterly destroyed. 

All the pieces were gathered and put into a box.  I know that it cannot be fixed.  But, I hold onto the pieces.  I hold tight, the memories.

This Day In Recent History ~ 7/24

This Day In Recent History ~ July 24

1956 - Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis ended their team. They ended the partnership a decade after it began on July 25, 1946.

1965 - The Beach Boys' "California Girls" was released.

1967 - The Elvis Presley movie "Double Trouble" premiered.

1969 - The Apollo 11 astronauts splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean.

1976 - Hall & Oates' "She's Gone" was released.

1978 - The movie "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," starring Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees, opened in New York City, NY.

1978 - Billy Martin was fired for the first of three times as the manager of the New York Yankees baseball team.

1979 - Little Richard, billed as the Reverend Richard Penniman, spoke to a revival meeting in San Francisco about the dangers of rock & roll.

1985 - Walt Disney released their 25th full-length cartoon. The work was "The Black Cauldron."

1987 - Hulda Crooks, at 91 years of age, climbed Mt. Fuji. Hulda became the oldest person to climb Japan’s highest peak.

1987 - The movie biography of Richie Valens, "La Bamba," opened.

1995 - A three-night celebration of Frank Sinatra's 80th birthday began at Carnegie Hall.
1998 - Roy O. Disney received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Birthdays

Simon Bolivar 1783

Alexander Dumas 1802

Amelia Earhart 1898

Chief Dan George 1899

Cootie Williams 1908

Vera (Salaff) 1910

Frank Silvera 1914

Bob Eberly 1915

Bella Abzug 1920

Alexander H. Cohen 1920

Billy Taylor (Billy Taylor Trio) 1921

Jaqueline Brookes 1930

Doug Sanders 1933

Rudy Collins (Dizzy Gillespie Quintet) 1934

Pat Oliphant 1935

Ruth Buzzi 1936

Mark Goddard 1936

Dan Hedaya 1940

Barbara Jean Love (Friends of Distinction) 1941

Cris Sarandon 1942

Roger Lafreniere 1942

Heinze Burt ( The Tornadoes) 1942

Robert Hayes 1947

Michael Richards 1949

Lynda Carter 1951

Lynval Golding 1951

Pam Tillis 1957

Robbie Grey (Modern English) 1957

Kadeem Hardison 1965

Laura Leighton 1968

John P. Navin Jr. 1968

Jennifer Lopez 1970 - Singer, actress

Anna Paquin 1982

Mara Wilson 1987



This Day in Recent History ~ 7/23

~ This Day in Recent History ~  

July 23

1950 - "The Gene Autry Show" premiered on CBS-TV.

1954 - A law is passed that states that "The Secretary of the Navy is authorized to repair, equip, and restore the United States Ship Constitution, as far as may be practicable, to her original appearance, but not for active service, and thereafter to maintain the United States Ship Constitution at Boston, Massachusetts."
1958 - The submarine Nautilus departed from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, under orders to conduct "Operation Sunshine." The mission was to be the first vessel to cross the north pole by ship. The Nautils achieved the goal on August 3, 1958.

1962 - The "Telstar" communications satellite sent the first live TV broadcast to Europe.
1972 - Eddie Merckx of Belgium won his fourth consecutive Tour de France bicycling competition.
1972 - The U.S. launched Landsat 1 (ERTS-1). It was the first Earth-resources satellite.
1977 - Foreigner's "Cold As Ice" was released.

1977 - Judas Priest began its first U.S. tour in Oakland, CA, as the opening act for Led Zeppelin.
1980 - Keith Godchaux (Grateful Dead) died of injuries that he sustained in a car accident in Marin County, CA.

1984 - Miss America, Vanessa Williams, turned in her crown after it had been discovered that nude photos of her had appeared in "Penthouse" magazine. She was the first to resign the title.

1986 - Britain's Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey in London. They divorced in 1996.

1990 - Production began on the film, "Falling From Grace." The film marked John Mellencamp's acting and directing debut.
1993 - A gunman fired into the New York club Danceteria. Eric Tallman (Erotic Exotic) was injured when the bullet grazed his skull.
1998 - U.S. scientists at the University of Hawaii turned out more than 50 "carbon-copy" mice, with a cloning technique.

1998 - It was announced that Iron Maiden would have to cancel the remainder of its U.S. tour. The doctor of Blaze Bailey advised him to not sing for one month.
2000 - Lance Armstrong won his second Tour de France.

Famous Birthdays

Karl Menninger 1893
Vincent Sardi 1894
Arthur Treacher 1894
Karl Swenson 1908
Michael Wilding 1912
Coral Browne 1913
Calvert DeForest 1921
Gloria De Haven 1925
Billy Maxwell 1929
Bert Convey 1933
Stacy Lacy 1934
Cleveland Duncan 1935 - Musician (Penguins)
Don Drysdale 1936
Ronny Cox 1938
Nicholas Gage 1939
Don Imus 1940 - Radio personality
Gary Stites 1940
Tony Joe White 1943
Dino Danelli 1945 - Musician (The Rascals)
Andy Mackay 1946 - Musician (Roxy Music)
David Essex 1947
Larry Manetti 1947
Belinda Montgomery 1950
Blair Thornton 1950 - Musician (Bachman-Turner Overdrive)
Edie McClurg 1951
Woody Harrelson 1961
Martin Lee Gore 1961 - Musician (Depeche Mode), Depeche Mode Merchandise
Eriq LaSalle 1962
Yuval Gabay (Soul Coughing) 1963
Nick Menza 1964 - Musician (Megadeth)
Slash (Saul Hudson) 1965 - Muscian (Guns N' Roses)
Stephanie Seymour 1968
Charisma Carpenter 1970
Sam Watters 1970 - Musician (Color Me Badd)
Alison Krauss 1971
Chad Gracey 1971 - Musician (Live)
Mr. Dalvin (Jodeci) 1971
Marlon Wayans 1972
Omar Epps 1973
Michelle Williams 1980 - Singer (Destiny's Child)

Together...At Last

It was the champion of bikes....

Schwinn Sting Ray

 It was the champion of  'dos.... 

Bouffant Hairdo

Together....

A lethal combination....

The Bar

Dad bought a bar similar to this one.  Ours was bright orange with wood veneer.  "Hidden" behind the bar (where no kid would dare explore) were some various liquors, shot glasses, poker chips and cards, a titty nut-shell game, and a stack of Playboys.  Also, and probably my favorite, was an ink pen that Dad picked up in Vegas.  It was one of those novelty pens featuring a beautiful woman.  When you held it at an angle, her clothes began to slowly strip from her body....  Anyway, probably a good thing he kept it all hidden behind the bar.  You wouldn't want a kid to find that stuff.  He might grow up to be a real goof ball.

TV Talk

1956 Westinghouse TV

I know some of you may find this hard to believe, but back then we had to get up from our chairs to turn the tv on, change the channel, or the volume.  This is a really nice tv set with an outside antenna.  Some had "rabbit ear" antenna on top of the set that had to be adjusted as well.  The tv usually had, along with the channel knob, a fine tuning dial that had to be adjusted in order to get a better picture (kind of like focusing a camera). One similarity between tvs of yesterday and today...There wasn't anything on then either.


TV stations would sign-off for the day, depending on the station usually after midnight, and would not begin broadcasting again until morning, around 5am.  Between those times, often, all you would see was this test pattern:

This Week In Recent History ~ July 15-July 21

This Week In Recent History:

Highlighting Some of the Events In Recent History
For the Week of July 15 - July 21

Our Nostalgic Memories ....

July 15

1965 - The spacecraft Mariner IV sent back the first close-up pictures of the planet Mars.

1968 - ABC-TV premiered "One Life to Live".
1968 - Commercial air travel began between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., when the first plane, a Soviet Aeroflot jet, landed at Kennedy International Airport in New York.
1971 - U.S. President Nixon announced he would visit the People's Republic of China to seek a "normalization of relations."

President Nixon

1973 - Nolan Ryan (California Angels) became the first pitcher in two decades to win two no-hitters in a season. (California)
1981 - Steven Ford, son of former President Gerald R. Ford, appeared in a seduction scene of "The Young and the Restless" on CBS-TV. Ford played the part of Andy.

Steven Ford

1985 - Baseball players voted to strike on August 6th if no contract was reached with baseball owners. The strike turned out to be just a one-day interruption.
1987 - Taiwan ended thirty-seven years of martial law.
2009 - "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" was released in theaters in the U.S. It was the sixth movie in the series.

July 16

1945 - The United States detonated the first atomic bomb in a test at Alamogordo, NM.
1950 - The largest crowd in sporting history was 199,854. They watched the Uruguay defeat Brazil in the World Cup soccer finals in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
1951 - J.D. Salinger's novel "The Catcher in the Rye" was first published.

1957 - Marine Major John Glenn set a transcontinental speed record when he flew a jet from California to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8 seconds.
1964 - Little League Baseball Incorporated was granted a Federal Charter unanimously by the United States Senate and House of Representatives.
1969 - Apollo 11 blasted off from Cape Kennedy, FL, and began the first manned mission to land on the moon.

1970 - The Pittsburgh Pirates played their first game at Three Rivers Stadium.
1973 - Alexander P. Butterfield informed the Senate committee investigating the Watergate affair of the existence of recorded tapes.
1979 - Saddam Hussein became president of Iraq after forcing Hasan al-Bakr to resign.
1981 - After 23 years with the name Datsun, executives of Nissan changed the name of their cars to Nissan.
1981 - Harry Chapin died in a car crash at the age of 38. He was on his way to a benefit concert.

1985 - The All-Star Game, televised on NBC-TV, was the first program broadcast in stereo by a TV network.
2005 - J.K. Rowling's book "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" was released. It was the sixth in the Harry Potter series. The book sold 6.9 million copies on its first day of release. 

July 17

1950 - The television show "The Colgate Comedy Hour" debuted featuring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.

1954 - The Brooklyn Dodgers made history as the first team with a majority of black players.

1955 - Disneyland opened in Anaheim, CA.

1960 - Francis Gary Powers pled guilty to spying charges in a Moscow court after his U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union.

1966 - Ho Chi Minh ordered a partial mobilization of North Vietnam forces to defend against American air strikes.

1968 - The Beatles’ feature-length cartoon, "Yellow Submarine," premiered at the London Pavilion.

The Beatles - Yellow Submarine

1975 - An Apollo spaceship docked with a Soyuz spacecraft in orbit. It was the first link up between the U.S. and Soviet Union.

1979 - Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza resigned and fled to Miami in exile. (Florida)

1986 - The largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history took place when LTV Corporation asked for court protection from more than 20,000 creditors. LTV Corp. had debts in excess of $4 billion.

1987 - Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and rear Admiral John Poindexter begin testifying to Congress at the "Iran-Contra" hearings.

1995 - The Nasdaq composite stock index rose above 1,000 for the first time.

1997 - After 117 years, the Woolworth Corp. closed its last 400 stores.

July 18

1960 - Elvis Presley's "It's Now Or Never" was released. 

1964 - The Beatles album "A Hard Days Night" was released.

1964 - Pete Rose (Cincinnati Reds) hit the only grand slam home run of his career.

1970 - Ron Hunt (San Francisco Giants) was hit by a pitch for the 119th time in his career.

1971 - New Zealand and Australia announced they would pull their troops out of Vietnam.

1985 - Jack Nicklaus II, at age 23 years old, made his playing debut on the pro golf tour at the Quad Cities Open in Coal Valley, IL.

2000 - It was announced that Christopher Reeve would direct and serve as executive producer on the TV movie "Rescuing Jeffrey."

2001 - A train derailed, involving 60 cars, in a Baltimore train tunnel. The fire that resulted lasted for six days and virtually closed down downtown Baltimore for several days. (Maryland)

July 19

1946 - Marilyn Monroe acted in her first screen test.

1960 - Juan Marichal (San Francisco Giants) became the first pitcher to get a one-hitter in his major league debut.

1974 - The House Judiciary Committee recommended that U.S. President Richard Nixon should stand trial in the Senate for any of the five impeachment charges against him.

1975 - The Apollo and Soyuz spacecrafts separated after being linked in orbit for two days.

1979 - In Nicaragua, the dictatorship of the Somozas was overthrown by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional or FSLN).

1982 - The U.S. Census Bureau reported that 14% of the population had an income below the official poverty level in 1981.

1984 - Geraldine Ferraro was nominated by the Democratic Party to become the first woman from a major political party to run for the office of U.S. Vice-President.

1985 - George Bell won first place in a biggest feet contest with a shoe size of 28-1/2. Bell, at age 26, stood 7 feet 10 inches tall.

1985 - Christa McAuliffe of New Hampshire was chosen to be the first schoolteacher to ride aboard the space shuttle. She died with six others when the Challenger exploded the following year.



July 20

1944 - An attempt by a group of German officials to assassinate Adolf Hitler failed. The bomb exploded at Hitler's Rastenburg headquarters. Hitler was only wounded.

1944 - U.S. President Roosevelt was nominated for an unprecedented fourth term of office at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

1947 - The National Football League (NFL) ruled that no professional team could sign a player who had college eligibility remaining.

1961 - "Stop the World, I Want to Get Off" opened in London.

1965 - Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" was released.

1965 - Lovin' Spoonful's first record, "Do You Believe in Magic," was released.

1968 - Jane Asher announced that Paul McCartney has broken off their engagement.

1969 - Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. became the first men to walk on the moon.

1974 - Turkish forces invaded Cyprus.

1974 - Joey Ramone became the lead vocalist for the Ramones.

1976 - America's Viking I robot spacecraft made a successful landing on Mars.

1982 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan pulled the U.S. out of comprehensive test ban negotiations indefinitely.

1985 - Treasure hunters began raising $400 million in coins and silver from the Spanish galleon "Nuestra Senora de Atocha." The ship sank in 1622 40 miles of the coast of Key West, FL.

1992 - Vaclav Havel, the playwright who led the Velvet Revolution against communism, stepped down as president of Czechoslovakia.

1998 - Russia won a $11.2 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund to help avert the devaluation of its currency.

2003 - In India, elephants used for commercial work began wearing reflectors to avoid being hit by cars during night work.

July 21

1954 - The Geneva Conference partitioned Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam.
1957 - Althea Gibson became the first black woman to win a major U.S. tennis title when she won the Women’s National clay-court singles competition.
1958 - The last of "Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts" programs aired on CBS-TV.

1959 - A U.S. District Court judge in New York City ruled that "Lady Chatterley’s Lover" was not a dirty book.
1961 - Capt. Virgil "Gus" Grissom became the second American to rocket into a sub-orbital pattern around the Earth. He was flying on the Liberty Bell 7.
1968 - Arnold Palmer became the first golfer to make a million dollars in career earnings after he tied for second place at the PGA Championship.
1980 - AC\DC released "Back In Black." It was their first album with Brian Johnson as lead singer.

1980 - Draft registration began in the United States for 19 and 20-year-old men.
1980 - Keith Godchaux (Grateful Dead) was injured in a car accident. He died two days later.
1987 - Mary Hart, of "Entertainment Tonight", had her legs insured by Lloyd’s of London for $2 million.
1987 - Guns 'n Roses released their debut album, "Appetite For Destruction."
1997 - The U.S.S. Constitution, which defended the United States during the War of 1812, set sail under its own power for the first time in 116 years.
1998 - Chinese gymnast Sang Lan, 17, was paralyzed after a fall while practicing for the women's vault competition at the Goodwill Games in New York. Spinal surgery 4 days later failed to restore sensation below her upper chest.

2000 - NBC announced that they had found nearly all of Milton Berle's kinescopes. The filmed recordings of Berle's early TV shows had been the subject of a $30 million lawsuit filed by Berle the previous May.
2002 - WorldCom Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. At the time it was the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.
2007 - The seventh and last book of the Harry Potter series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," was released.
2011 - Space Shuttle Atlantis landed at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It was the last flight of NASA's space shuttle program