Almanac for July 2nd

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for July 2nd: https://ko-fi.com/Post/July-2nd-She-Bop-I2I81HQ80Q

Well, at least they're union-made. From the July 2, 1926 Newark [Ohio] Leader.

Bummer July 2nd

July 2, 1881: U.S. President James Garfield is shot twice by Charles Guiteau, who believed Arthur owed him a political appointment. Garfield will only die of infections stemming from his wounds after a long, agonizing convalescence. 

July 2, 1937: The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Itasca receives the last-known transmission from Amelia Earhart as the pilot and her navigator attempt to fly around the world. The transmission is unsuccessful and neither Earhart nor her plane can be found again.

July 2, 1951: 67-year-old Mary Reeser is found in her apartment in St. Petersburg, Florida, the apparent victim of a fire. The physical evidence of the fire and of Reeser’s body are highly unusual. The body has been almost entirely reduced to ashes aside from one foot, still wearing a slipper, Reeser’s skull, and the bones of her spine. Objects made of the plastic located some distance from Mrs. Reeser’s body were melted out of shape, but nothing else in the apartment appeared to have burned. This case is sometimes cited as evidence of spontaneous human combustion, although Reeser was known to smoke cigarettes.

July 2, 1961: Ernest Hemingway dies by suicide at his home in Ketchum, Idaho. 

July 2, 2005: As a family rode home from a wedding in a limousine, a 24-year-old man with a blood alcohol level of more than three times the legal limit hit the limo head on going over 70 miles per hour. The collision forced the engine of the limo practically on top of the driver, killing him instantly. 

All four adults and 5-year-old Grace, riding in the limo, were injured; Grace’s 7-year-old sister Katie was decapitated by her own seatbelt as a result of the accident. Katie’s mother Jennifer emerges from the vehicle carrying Katie’s head, which she will hold onto for about half an hour, in a state of shock and unwilling to let go of her daughter. Jennifer’s uncle, a police lieutenant who has coincidentally been called to the accident scene, finally convinces Jennifer to let go of Katie’s remains and allow herself to be taken to the hospital.

Almanac for July 1st

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for July 1st: https://ko-fi.com/Post/1st-of-July-L3L11HQ7XO

Artist Birthday: Andre Braugher
French Republican Calendar Day Name (13 Messidor): Clove

Beatles Trivia

July 1, 1968: John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s collaborative art exhibit You Are Here (To Yoko from John Lennon, With Love) opens in London.

Bummer July 1st

July 1, 1955: Actor Isabel Bonner collapses and dies of a cerebral hemorrhage while performing in the play The Shrike, written by her husband, in Los Angeles.

July 1, 1976: 23-year-old West German woman Anneliese Michel dies of malnutrition at her home. Over the last year of her life, Michel has been cared for by her parents and priests from the Roman Catholic Church, who performed rites of exorcism under the belief that Michel was possessed by demons. Michel had previously been diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy and major depressive disorder, but was not being seen by health care professionals at the time of her death. Her parents and several members of the Catholic Church are tried and convicted for negligent homicide.

July 1, 1996: Model/actor Margaux Hemingway, the granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway, is found dead inside her home in Santa Monica, California. She has died by suicide after overdosing on the barbiturate medication Luminal.

July 1, 2002: 71 people die when passenger jet BAL Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937 and a DHL Cargo ship collide in midair near the border between Germany and Switzerland. The Russian passenger jet carried nine crew members and 60 passengers, many of whom were gifted children on a UNESCO cultural exchange trip to Barcelona. The DHL cargo flight carried two crew members. 

The crew of the Russian jet received contradictory instructions from TCAS automated guidance system and from Swiss air traffic control. At the time, Russian pilots didn’t have a clear set of instructions on whether TCAS should override verbal commands from air traffic control or vice versa. (Now, pilots are told to prioritize TCAS, which gathers more data at a quicker rate than a human being on the ground.) Air traffic controller Peter Nielsen, who was the only person on duty at that time and therefore had to monitor two air traffic control work stations at the same time, set the Russian jet on a course that caused it to directly collide with the cargo plane.

Margaux Hemingway in 1976. Publicity photo, unknown author, public domain.