Almanac for August 11

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for August 11th: https://ko-fi.com/post/August-11-J3J81125JX

Happy 1-year anniversary to the publication of this audiobook by Aphra Behn. 

Bummer August 11

August 11, 1956: Painter Jackson Pollock dies in a single-car accident while driving drunk. 

GraceBrown2498, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

August 11, 1978: British medical photographer Janet Parker dies of smallpox, which she’s accidentally been exposed to while working in a hospital. She is the last recorded person to die of smallpox before the disease is declared eradicated.

August 11, 2000: Saudi Arabian musician Talal Maddah collapses and dies suddenly in front of his fans near the start of a concert televised on Saudi TV.

August 11, 2022: A 42-year-old man who participated in the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection attempts to break into the FBI field office in Cincinnati, Ohio, after posting on social media that he wanted to kill FBI agents. Armed with a nail gun and a rifle, the man tried unsuccessfully to pass the building’s lobby and fled when confronted. After being chased by police in his vehicle, the middle-aged man raised his weapon at police and was shot to death.

Almanac for August 10

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for August 10th: https://ko-fi.com/post/August-10-M4M5112586

Support Indies Tote Bag

Bummer August 10th

August 10, 1969: Leno LaBianca, who worked for a supermarket chain, and Rosemary LaBianca, who owned a dress shop, are murdered at their home by members of Charles Manson’s cult. The murderers write the words “Helter Skelter” on the LaBianca’s walls in blood. The words, from a Beatles song, refer to Manson’s delusional belief that Beatles lyrics are personal messages to him.

August 10, 1978: Three teenage girls, all members of the Ulrich family, are killed in an automobile accident while riding in a Ford Pinto. The state of Indiana charges the Ford Motor Company with homicide, claiming that the company was aware of manufacturing defects that made the vehicle more likely to cause death in the event of certain types of accidents. Ford is found not guilty.

August 10, 2018: 29-year-old Richard Russell steals a Horizon Air Bombardier Q400 aircraft from Seattle-Tacoma airport. Russell has no previous experience as a pilot. In communication with an air traffic controller, Russell states that he had no intention of landing the plane. He is killed when the aircraft crash-lands on Ketron Island. The crash site is near a residential cabin, but no one on the ground is hurt. 

Almanac for August 9th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for August 9th: https://ko-fi.com/post/August-9-X7X61124R7

Author Julie S. Howlin post of the day: Betty Boop

Uncredited, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Artist Birthday: Gillian Anderson

Bummer August 9th

August 9, 1945: The U.S. drops an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan.

August 9, 1969: Actress Sharon Tate, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, celebrity hair stylist Jay Sebring, aspiring actor Wojciech Frykowski, and Tate’s unborn baby are killed when members of Charles Manson’s cult break into Tate’s home in Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles, California.

August 9, 2010: Skeletal human remains are found in Malibu Canyon in California. They are later determined to belong to Mitrice Richardson, a 24-year-old woman whose family reported her missing in September 2009. 

A bright, beautiful young woman who worked as a forensic psychologist’s intern by day and as a dancer by night, Richardson is observed acting out of character before her disappearance. She eats a meal at Geoffrey’s restaurant in Malibu, California, on September 16, 2009. Staff call the police when she refuses to pay and appears to be experiencing some kind of mental health crisis. Richardson is arrested, but released from detention at 12:28 a.m. on the morning of September 17th. No arrangements are made for her to be picked up or otherwise find transportation home from the county sheriff’s office. 

She was next seen wandering through the Monte Nido residential neighborhood about three miles north of Malibu. Asked by residents if she needed help, Richardson is said to have declined any assistance. However, she was wandering alone at night with no transportation or resources of any kind in a mountainous area. By the time her remains are discovered, it’s impossible to determine whether her cause of death was exposure to the elements, accident, homicide, or some other cause.

In 2020, private investigator Catherine Townsend uncovered some, not entirely conclusive but compelling, evidence that Richardson may have fallen prey not only to a mental health crisis but also a local predator with a history of abusing women.

August 9, 2021: Matthew Taylor Coleman, a surfing instructor from California, is staying with his two children, a 2-year-old boy and a 10-month-old girl, in Rosarito, Mexico. Suffering from delusional thinking encouraged by his consumption of Qanon conspiracy media, Coleman has come to believe his children inherited “serpent blood” from his wife’s side of the family. Tragically, he stabs both children to death with a spear-fishing gun. 

Almanac for August 8

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for August 8: https://ko-fi.com/post/August-8-The-Edge-K3K61124EQ

Bummer August 8

August 8, 1965: American author Shirley Jackson dies at age 48 of cardiac arrest, possibly brought on by her alcoholism and use of a variety of prescription medicines.

August 8, 2010: More than 1,400 people in the Gansu region of China are killed by mudslides.

Here's a video I uploaded on August 8, 2025:

Almanac for August 7

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for August 7: https://ko-fi.com/post/August-7-Throwing-Muses-C0C5111SUU

Support Indies Tote Bag

Four of my audiobooks are having a first anniversary today:

Humpty Dumpty by Lewis Carroll

The Kiss by Kate Chopin

The Mummy's Foot

What Was It?

Bummer August 7

August 7, 1904: A flash flood near Pueblo, Colorado, washes a train off the tracks, killing 96 people.

August 7, 2016: 10-year-old son Caleb Schwab is killed while riding the Verrückt water raft ride at Schlitterbahn Water Park in Kansas City, Kansas. The tallest such ride in the world at the time, the ride had a screen over the top, held in place with a series of metal support rings, to keep guests from accidentally flying off the ride in the event that the raft should become airborn. Caleb, who was riding on the front of a raft with two unrelated women riding on the back, struck the metal support ring and was decapitated when his raft became airborne. 

Almanac for August 6th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for August 6th: https://ko-fi.com/post/August-6th-N4N8106YR8

Artist Birthday: Geri Halliwell

Happy book birthday to this audiobook by Jonathan Swift that I published on August 6, 2025:

Bummer August 6

August 6, 1931: 28-year-old jazz cornetist Bix Beiderbecke dies of pneumonia and edema of the brain, possibly related to chronic alcoholism, in his Queens, New York, apartment. The excessive heat of the summer may have been another contributing factor.

August 6, 1945: The United States military drops the world’s first weaponized nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. The bomb immediately killed 80,000 people. Another 60,000 die later from the effects of radiation. 

August 6, 2001: 27 hospital patients being treated for various mental health disorders die when the Moideen Badusha Mental Home in Erwadi, India, catches fire. All of these patients are chained to their beds at night and therefore had no chance to escape from the fire. Many other patients are injured.

Almanac for August 5th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for August 5th: https://ko-fi.com/post/August-5th-M4M0106Y3M

Happy 1st anniversary to this audiobook, The Glass Dog by L. Frank Baum.

Artist Birthday: Yungblud

20th Century Fox, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Bummer August 5th

August 5, 1955: Hours after performing a song and dance number for The Jimmy Durante Show, 46-year-old Portuguese-Brazilian samba performer Carmen Miranda dies of a heart attack. Friends find her collapsed in the hall between her bedroom and the bathroom, clutching a mirror. Miranda, who struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, apparently expired on her way to remove her makeup for the night.

August 5, 1981: In a sign of his administration’s hostility to workers’ rights causes, U.S. President Ronald Wilson Reagan fires more than 11,000 air traffic controllers who are on strike for more pay, a shorter work week, and safer workplace conditions. Technically it had been illegal for U.S. federal employees to strike since 1947, but Reagan is the first president to actually invoke the 1947 law.

August 5, 2005: Lee Seung Seop has been playing the online game Starcraft at an internet café in Taegu, South Korea, since August 3 when he slumps in his chair and falls to the floor. He dies of dehydration and exhaustion a few hours later in Taegu Fatima Hospital, having forgotten to eat, drink, and sleep for over 48 hours.

August 5, 2022: Actor Anne Heche ingests cocaine and fentanyl, gets into a car, and is involved in three vehicle accidents. She first strikes a garage with her car, causing minor damage, and leaves the scene of the accident. She then strikes another car; the driver of the second car is not injured. In the third, high-speed crash, Heche drives her car through the wall of a house, sparking a fire. 

Heche is trapped inside the vehicle for over 40 minutes while firefighters try to put out the house fire, which renders the home uninhabitable. Heche suffers severe burns and smoke inhalation, requiring her to be hospitalized and medically ventilated. She will be declared brain dead on August 11th and taken off life support on August 14th. 

Almanac for August 4

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for August 4: https://ko-fi.com/Post/August-4th-East-of-Eatin-H2H6106XM3

Bummer August 4th

August 4, 1875: Hans Christian Andersen dies, possibly suffering from liver cancer and never having recovered from injuries from falling out of his bed.

August 4, 1892: Andrew and Abby Borden are murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts, home by an assailant with a hatchet. Andrew’s 32-year-old daughter Elizabeth, called Lizzie, is the primary suspect in the murders. She is tried for the crime and acquitted. 

August 4, 1962: Marilyn Monroe dies, apparently by suicide, of an overdose of prescription sleeping medicine.

Almanac for August 3rd

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for August 3rd: https://ko-fi.com/post/August-3rd-Diane-Wakoski-U7U3106X14

Author Julie S. Howlin post of the day: LaBrea Tar Pits

Bummer August 3rd

August 3, 1924: Author Joseph Conrad dies of a heart attack at age 66. 

August 3, 1959: More than 50 dock workers on strike are killed by police in the small African country of Guinea-Bissau. At the time, Guinea-Bissau is a colony of Portugal, and the dock workers’ strike threatens Portuguese political officials, who regard it as a sign of rebellion against Portuguese rule. Guinea-Bissau won’t win its independence from the European colonial power until 1973.

August 3, 1966: 40-year-old comedian Lenny Bruce is found dead of an apparently accidental morphine overdose.

August 3, 1983: Bruce Wayne Campbell, the glam rocker who performed under the stage name Jobriath, dies at the age of 36 of AIDS-related illness.

Almanac for August 2

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for August 2nd: https://ko-fi.com/post/August-2nd-Swimming-in-the-Afternoon-L3L1106W7N

Heavy-Duty Bookends Affiliate Link

Bummer August 2nd

August 2, 1923: The 29th U.S. president, Warren G. Harding, becomes the 3rd U.S. president to die in office from natural causes when he suffers a deadly heart attack in San Francisco. Following the assassinations of Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley, he is the 6th U.S. president to die in office of all causes.

August 2, 1973: Approximately 50 people are killed when the Summerland indoor amusement park catches fire. The building’s ceiling is constructed using a transparent acrylic material, which melts, raining burning-hot liquid acrylic down on the victims of the fire.

August 2, 1997: William S. Burroughs dies, having had a heart attack the previous day.

Almanac for August 1st

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for August 1st: https://ko-fi.com/post/August-1st-Lughnasa-A0A4106VQF

Today's Observance: Lammas/Lughnasadh

Author Julie S. Howlin post of the day: Lughnasadh

Bummer August 1st

August 1, 1966: Marine Corps veteran Charles Whitman, who has killed his mother and wife the night before, takes a sawed-off shotgun, a Magnum .357 revolver, and several rifles with him to the campus of the University of Texas at Austin. He took them, loaded onto a hand-truck, in the elevator and up a set of stairs to the observation deck of the university’s Main Building. He encounters receptionist Edna Townsley, whom he kills by striking her with the butt of a rifle. 

Over the course of 96 minutes, he shoots 44 people on the ground. The first person he shoots is Claire Wilson, who is pregnant. Wilson is injured and lives, but loses her pregnancy. Thirteen other people die of their bullet wounds. Houston police officers Ramiro "Ray" Martinez and Houston McCoy work together to kill Whitman, ending the murder spree. 

August 1, 1994: An electrical fault sparks a fire at Norwich Central Library in Norwich, England, that destroys an estimated 100,000 books and historical papers.

August 1, 2004: 394 people die when a fire breaks out inside the Ycuá Bolaño supermarket building in Asunción, Paraguay. An poorly installed barbeque chimney causes the blaze. The death toll is worsened when two of the owners decide to lock some of the exits to prevent customers from fleeing the fire with unpaid merchandise. These owners and a security guard are later convicted of negligent homicide for this heartless act.

August 1, 2018: 32-year-old Canadian model, artist, and actor Rick Genest, known as Zombie Boy for his numerous bone- and viscera-themed tattoos, dies from an accidental fall from an icy balcony where he has apparently gone to smoke a cigarette.

Almanac for July 31st

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for July 31st: https://ko-fi.com/post/July-31st-Lammas-Eve-X8X5106UVZ

Today's Observance: Lammas Eve
Artist Birthday: Annie Parisse

Bummer July 31st 

July 31, 1703: Daniel Defoe is locked in a pillory as a punishment after being found guilty of seditious libel. He has criticized church officials in a pamphlet.

July 31, 1964: Country musician “Gentleman” Jim Reeves takes his Beechcraft Debonair aircraft and his manager Dean Manuel on a flight from Arkansas to Nashville, Tennessee, so that they can negotiate a real estate deal. The aircraft encounters a severe thunderstorm. Reeves, who is flying the plane, is thought to experience spatial disorientation. The aircraft crash-lands nose-first into the ground in a wooded area near Nashville International Airport. The wreckage is discovered two days later with the bodies of Reeves and Manuel inside.

July 31, 1988: A passenger at the Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal in Malaysia collapses, killing 32 people and injuring 1,600 others. The passengers had arrived in Butterworth, Penang state, to celebrate the Kuan Yin Goddess Festival. The platform hadn’t been built to accommodate such a large number of people.

Title page of the original edition of Daniel Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year. Published in 1722 by E. Nutt. Public domain.

Almanac for July 30th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for July 30th: https://ko-fi.com/post/July-30th-T6T3106UJ3

Bummer July 30th

July 30, 1866: A racist mob of white people in New Orleans kills 38 African-American politicians and their supporters and wounds an additional 46 people. The New Orleans police department joins the violence on the side of the racists. Almost all of those killed or injured were African-American.

July 30, 1918: American author Joyce Kilmer is killed in action, shot by a sniper at the Second Battle of the Marne in the First World War.

July 30, 1945: The heavy cruiser U.S.S. Indianapolis is torpedoed by the Japanese Navy after departing from the Philippines. Of the 1,195 sailors on board, about 300 go down with the ship when it sinks 12 minutes after the torpedo hits. Of the 890 who manage to abandon ship, only 316 survive. The others fall prey to shark attacks, salt water poisoning, dehydration, and exposure.

July 30, 1997: A landslide in Thredbo Alpine Village, New South Wales, Australia destroys two ski lodges and kills 18 people. The sole survivor of the landslide is Stuart Diver, who is freed from the wreckage on August 2nd. Diver had been trapped inside the collapsed building in which his wife, Sally, had drowned after becoming trapped in an area that had slowly filled with water.

Almanac for July 29th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for July 29th: https://ko-fi.com/post/July-29th-D1D7104UUT

Bummer July 29th

July 29, 1903: Polish Jewish immigrant Abraham Surasky is murdered with a gun and ax by two men near Aiken, rural South Carolina, in what is suspected to be an anti-Semitic hate crime. One of the murderers, Lee Green, is tried and acquitted, although he is convicted years later for another murder.

July 29, 1974: Musician Cass Elliot dies of a heart attack. Years of heroin abuse and cycles of rapidly gaining and losing weight have weakened her body. Cruelly, urban legend will afterwards contend that she died by choking to death on a ham sandwich. 

***

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Almanac for July 28th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for July 28th: https://ko-fi.com/post/July-28th-Beatrix-Potter-S6S2103SLQ

Author Julie S. Howlin post of the day: "Over the Rainbow"

Affiliate Link

This is one of my all-time favorite songs.

Bummer July 28th

July 28, 1841: Either the police or a pair of fisherman (accounts vary) discover the body of Mary Cecilia Rogers floating in the Hudson River near Hoboken, New Jersey. Rogers, who was 20 or 21 years old and worked as a cigar seller in New York City, was last seen by her family on the 25th. Although the case is officially unsolved, it’s suspected she was either murdered by her boyfriend Daniel Payne or perhaps died as a result of an illegal abortion. Payne killed himself by overdosing on alcohol and laudanum on October 7, 1841. The discover of Rogers’s body inspired Edgar Allan Poe to write “The Mystery of Marie Rogêt.”

July 28, 1914: The Great War begins in earnest when Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.

July 28, 1945: In foggy weather, a U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 Mitchell bomber crashes into the Empire State Building. All three crew members on the plane and 11 people inside the building are killed. 

In the impact, elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver is thrown from her elevator car and suffers severe burns. Rescue crews place her in another elevator car to send her down to the ground for medical treatment; that elevator car, with its cables damaged in the accident, plummets 75 floors to the basement. Remarkably, Oliver survives, with broken bones, and is once again rescued from the rubble of the elevator crash. This is considered the record for the longest survivable fall in an elevator.

Almanac for July 27th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for July 27th: https://ko-fi.com/post/July-27-Purple-Rain-U7U6103S2Q

Author Julie S. Howlin post of the day: Blackberries 

Bummer July 27th

July 27, 1976: Taxi driver Chester Plummer scales a fence and accesses the White House grounds armed with a pipe. Stopped by a security guard, Plummer ignores a verbal command to stop and is shot. He is taken to the hospital, where he dies, the first person known to have been shot on the White House grounds. Plummer’s motivation is unknown, but some suspect this may have been an incident of “suicide by cop.”

July 27, 1996: A bomb detonates at the Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, killing two people and wounding 111 others. Right-wing Christian terrorist Eric Rudolph is eventually arrested and convicted of this bombing and three others.

July 27, 2014: 20-year-old Nick Fagnano and 13 other people are struck by lightning while swimming or standing on the water near Venice Beach, California. Fagnano dies of his injuries.

***

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Almanac for July 26th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for July 26th: https://ko-fi.com/post/July-26th-George-Bernard-Shaws-birthday-I3I6103RSF

Artist Birthday: George Bernard Shaw

Milwaukee Leader, March 9, 1926

Bummer July 26th

July 26, 1863: Ballerina Emma Livry dies of complications of extensive burns she suffered on November 15, 1862. While rehearsing for a role in a ballet, Livry’s skirts came too near to the stage’s gaslights and caught fire. 

Fire-resistant fabrics were available to dancers of that time, but Livry, like many other dancers of the era, avoided them because of the way they discolored the fabric. She suffered burns to her legs, waist, back, arms, and shoulders. She is only 20 years old at the time of her death.

This is the affiliate link. This is a review of a different book by Jennifer Wright.

July 26, 1952: First Lady of Argentina María Eva (Evita) Duarte de Perón dies of cervical cancer at the age of 33.

July 26, 2009: An automobile crash on the Taconic State Parkway near Mount Pleasant, New York State, kills eight people. A minivan driven by Diane Schuler, age 36, was observed driving the wrong way down the parkway. The minivan collided with an SUV, killing Schuler, her daughter, her three nieces, and three people inside the SUV. Toxicology reports showed Schuler was heavily intoxicated. Schuler’s son survived the crash, but has ongoing injuries.

July 26, 2015: Bobbi Kristina Houston Brown, the daughter of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, dies in a hospice care facility at the age of 22. She had been in a coma for the previous six months after being found unresponsive in her Georgia home by her fiancé, Nick Gordon. Brown was discovered face-down in her bathtub less than three years after her mother died in a bathtub at a hotel in Los Angeles. 

Eerily similar to her mother’s passing, Brown was found to have been intoxicated with alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, prescription drugs, and other substances when she apparently drowned in her bathtub.

Almanac for July 25th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for July 25th: https://ko-fi.com/post/July-25th-St-James-Day-E1E0103RGV

Today's Observance: St. James' Day (feast day of St. James the Greater)

Read St. James' Day (Pagan Spirits #3) here:

Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/st-james-day/id6445005544

Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/p/books/st-james-day-pagan-spirits-3-erin-o-riordan/4f332dba51fb20ba?ean=9798215439876&next=t&digital=t

Everand (Scribd): https://www.everand.com/book/613027583/St-James-Day-Pagan-Spirits-3

Fable: https://fable.co/book/x-9798215439876

Kobo (Rakuten): https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/st-james-day

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Beatles Trivia
July 25, 1995: I had stuffed crust pizza for supper. Ringo Starr stars in those commercials. He says, “I’d do it in a second. The fans will dig it. They’ve been waiting long enough. I think I can convince them. I’ll say, ‘Lads, the time has come...to eat our pizza crust-first!” And then The Monkees show up and Ringo says, “Wrong lads.”

Bummer July 25

July 25, 1955: Pentecostal minister George Went Hensley, who believes that the Bible commands all Christians to handle poisonous snakes (and popularizes the idea of religious “snake handling”), dies after being bitten on the wrist by a snake of an unknown species in Calhoun County, Florida. Because Hensley voluntarily handled the animal, the Calhoun County sheriff’s office classifies Hensley’s death as a suicide.

July 25, 1966: Poet Frank O’Hara dies from a ruptured liver. The previous night he had been struck by a dune buggy on Fire Island while standing near a beach taxi that had broken down.

July 25, 1984: Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton, the first artist to record “Hound Dog,” dies of a heart attack and liver disease at age 57 in Los Angeles.

July 25, 2001: When rain falls on the southern Indian state of Kerala, local people who get caught in the rain notice reddish, almost blood-like stains on their clothing. The colored rain falls sporadically on Kerala in July and September, sometimes colored yellow, green, or black. 

Although strange, the colloquially-named “blood rain” has a mundane explanation: the color comes from algae blooms.

Almanac for July 24th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for July 24th: https://ko-fi.com/post/July-24-Dawn-L4L71HQFRA

Artist Birthday: Alexandre Dumas, pere

My Count of Monte Cristo sticker at Redbubble

It's also the birthday of Jennifer Lopez.

Bummer July 24th

July 24, 1913: Donald A. Kenny and Christopher Gustin die during a hazing ritual performed by the Loyal Order of Moose in Birmingham, Alabama. Told they’re going to be branded, the men are touched with a rubber brand attached to an electrical current. Apparently the current is much stronger than intended, and the two men die of electrocution.

July 24, 1915: The Western Electric Company charters four ships to sail passengers consisting of its employees and their families to Michigan City, Indiana, for a company picnic holiday. One of the ships, the SS Eastland, is loaded with passengers and crew members when it suddenly rolls onto its side, trapping many of those onboard underwater. An unfortunate 844 people die.

Almanac for July 23rd

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for July 23rd: https://ko-fi.com/post/July-23-Middlemarch-P5P51HQFLD

Bummer July 23rd

July 23, 1846: Henry David Thoreau is put in jail for refusing to pay a $1 poll tax. He’s protesting the poll tax on the grounds that it supports slavery. 

July 23, 1982: Actor Vic Morrow (age 53) and child actors Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen are killed in a helicopter accident during the filming of the Twilight Zone movie. The filming was illegal, with director John Landis violating child labor laws and failing to obtain the required permits for the helicopter stunt filmed in Valencia, California.

Landis called for the Bell UH-1B Iroquois helicopter to hover over Morrow while he carried the two children. During filming, an explosion effect damaged the tail rotor of the helicopter. The helicopter spun out of control. The falling helicopter crushed Renee Shin-Yi Chen and decapitated Myca Dinh Le and Vic Morrow.

July 23, 2005: Thoroughbred horse racing jockey Emanuel Jose Sanchez dies of dehydration and extreme food restriction at age 22 at Richmond (Virginia) Community Hospital. The previous day, he’d been found unconscious in the shower after riding a horse in an afternoon race at Colonial Downs.

July 23, 2011: English jazz singer Amy Winehouse passes away, having recently completed rehabilitation for a severe alcohol addiction. 

Almanac for July 22nd

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for July 22nd: https://ko-fi.com/post/July-22-Hale-Bopp-B0B21HQFGJ

Artist Birthday: Albert Brooks
Albert Brooks movie Modern Romance article by Movies of the 80s

Bummer July 22nd

July 22, 1934: Criminal John Dillinger is shot dead by FBI agent Melvin Purvis outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago. 

Almanac for July 21st

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for July 21st: https://ko-fi.com/Post/July-21-Lady-Chatterlys-Lover-F1F71HQFBW

Artist Birthday: Ernest Hemingway
Julie S. Howlin post of the day: Ernest Hemingway's birthday

Bummer July 21st

July 21, 1796: The poet Robert Burns dies at the age of 37, leaving behind his wife and five children.

July 21, 2023: Vegan influencer Zhanna Samsonova, who posted nutrition content on social media accounts including Instagram and TikTok under the name Zhanna D’Art, dies at age 39 of an apparent infection at a hospital in Phuket, Malaysia. Samsonova’s “raw food” diet included only uncooked plants, leaving her with a very thin body type that may have contributed to her body’s inability to fight off infection.

Almanac for July 20th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for July 20th: https://ko-fi.com/post/July-20-Cedar-Lake-R6R61HQF77

Bummer July 20th

July 20, 1948: Herpetologist Grace Olive Wiley, the first person to successfully breed rattlesnakes in captivity, dies after being bitten by a venomous Indian cobra. Wiley had been posing for a photo with the snake when the camera’s flash startles the animal and it strikes Wiley while she attempts to restrain it. She dies less than three hours later at the hospital, having accidentally broken her only vial of antivenom.

July 20, 1973: 32-year-old Bruce Lee, who has been suffering from cerebral edema since May of that year, takes the painkiller and muscle relaxant Equagesic. He lies down to take a nap and can’t be revived, apparently having had an allergic reaction to the medicine. Lee is declared dead on arrival at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kowloon, Hong Kong.

July 20, 1981: All six crews members and 44 passengers are killed when Somali Airlines Flight 40 crashes shortly after takeoff into the town of Balad. Thunderstorm conditions and, possibly, human error cause the plane to spiral dive and the crew are unable to recover from the dive.

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Almanac for July 19

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for July 19: https://ko-fi.com/Post/July-19-Indiana-Fever-P5P61HQEV9

Bummer July 19

July 19, 1374: Tuscan poet Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca) dies on the eve of his 70th birthday.

July 19, 1850: Journalist Margaret Fuller returns, with her husband and child, from assignment as the New York Tribune’s European correspondent aboard the merchant ship Elizabeth. The vessel’s captain has died of smallpox during the 5-week voyage. The Elizabeth, being piloted by her less-experienced first mate, strikes a sandbar off of Fire Island and is run aground. Many of the crew abandon ship and are able to swim to shore, but Fuller and her husband are never found and are presumed to have drowned. Their son’s body is found washed up on the shore.

July 19, 1977: Heavy rains cause six dams in Conemaugh Valley, Pennsylvania to overflow and fail. 84 people were killed in the flooding.

July 19, 2017: Chanson réaliste singer-songwriter-musicologist Barbara Weldens is electrocuted while performing barefoot when her foot comes in contact with faulty electrical wiring. Welden is 35 years old.

Almanac for July 18th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for July 18th: https://ko-fi.com/post/July-18-My-Brothers-Wedding-I3I11HQEQX

Author Julie S. Howlin post of the day: William Makepeace Thackaray

Beatles Trivia
July 18, 1995, South Bend: I dropped Mom off at work. When I came home, I turned on the tv to see Yoko Ono and beautiful, 19-year-old Sean Lennon [Ono] on the Today show.

Bummer July 18th

July 18, 1817: Jane Austen dies, aged 41. Her death is speculated to have been from Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

July 18, 1954: 18-year-old Dorothy Poore’s decomposing body is found stuffed inside a dresser drawer inside a room at the Claypool Hotel in downtown Indianapolis. Her killer is apprehended in Missouri and brought back to Indiana, where he is convicted and serves more than 25 years before being released on parole. He claimed to have killed the teenager after failing to recruit her as a sex worker.

July 18, 1966: Rock musician Bobby Fuller, whose band The Bobby Fuller Four has recently scored a hit with “I Fought the Law,” is found dead in his car outside his apartment in Hollywood. Fuller is 23 years old. His body has no signs of injury other than some small spots (indicated broken capillaries under the skin) thought to have been caused by the summer heat. No cause of death is ever determined. Strangely, the boxes for both “accident” and “suicide” are checked on the Los Angeles deputy medical examiner’s report.

July 18, 1969: U.S. Senator Edward (“Ted”) Kennedy leaves a cocktail party in his car with a passenger, Mary Joe Kopechne. The impaired senator drives the vehicle into a lake. He manages to escape, but Kopechne drowns. Kennedy fails to report the deadly accident until the following morning. He later pleads guilty to leaving the scene of an accident.

July 18, 1975: Influential graffiti-style artist Vaughn Bodē, age 33, is found dead of apparent autoerotic asphyxiation.

July 18, 1984: A lone gunman kills 21 people and wounds an additional 19 people at a McDonald’s restaurant in San Ysidro*, California. The gunman is subsequently killed by a police sniper.

In her book Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers, Caroline Fraser offers the theory that the perpetrator suffered from severe heavy metal poisoning as a result of exposure to high levels of cadmium at his workplace, where he was a welder. Outbursts of violent behavior are a documented side effect of cadmium poisoning.

July 18, 1988: Christa Päffgen, the model and singer who performed under the mononym Nico, dies in Ibiza at age 49 from a cerebral hemorrhage suffered from a fall off her bicycle.

July 18, 1989: Actress Rebecca Schaeffer, then the star of the popular sitcom My Sister Sam, is shot in the chest at her home by a 19-year-old obsessed fan who has stalked her over the course of three years. He became enraged when she appeared in a film in which her character is seen in bed with a male character. Schaeffer dies at the hospital.

*San Ysidro, in English, is called Saint Isadore, and he's the patron saint of farmers.

Almanac for July 17th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for July 17th: https://ko-fi.com/post/July-17-ShakeScenes-H2H21HQEBJ

Bummer July 17th

July 17, 1793: Charlotte Corday is executed by guillotine for the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat.

July 17, 1918: The royal family of Russia is executed by Communist revolutionaries. Czar Nicholas II, Czarina Alexandra Feodorovna, and their children Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei are shot and bayonetted to death in the basement of the Ipatiev House, where they have been imprisoned. 

July 17, 1935: Cudjoe Lewis dies. The formerly enslaved man’s story of being kidnapped from his home in what is now Benin is the subject of Zora Neale Hurston’s book Barracoon. 

July 17, 1944: Munitions (including bombs, mines, and small arms ammunition) being loaded aboard the SS E.A. Bryan in Port Chicago, California, explode. None of the enlisted personnel loading the munitions had been formally trained in safely handling these materials. In the explosion, the E.A. Bryan is destroyed, the Quinault Victory is blown out of the water and torn in half, and a Coast Guard fire boat is blown up the river, where it sinks. The blast and subsequent fires kill all 320 military personnel loading the E.A. Bryan, including all five Coast Guard personnel aboard the fire boat. 

202 of the dead are African-American. Widespread discrimination in the military forced many enlisted men of color in the most dangerous jobs with little hope of advancement and no Black officers in leadership positions to advocate for them.

July 17, 1959: At 3:10 a.m., Billie Holiday passes away under arrest in her hospital bed. Her death comes from heart failure and fluid in her lungs brought about by a failing liver. She’s 44 years old. 

Billie Holiday at Dorothy Surrenders

July 17, 1967: 40-year-old jazz saxophonist John Coltrane dies of liver cancer. Although he has been sober for the last 10 years of his life, earlier struggles with heroin and alcohol use may have contributed to his cancer.

July 17, 1981: The skywalk inside the Hyatt Regency Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri, collapses onto a dance happening below. More than 200 people are injured and 114 die. Some of the victims drown when they become trapped under the rubble and unable to escape from water leaking from a broken pipe.

July 17, 1997: 10-year-old Mark Miedema gets ahead of his family while on a hike in Rocky Mountain National Park. He’s attacked and killed by a female mountain lion.