This Day In History -

Birthdates in History - July 14:
1857 Maytag invented washing machine
1858 Emmeline Pankhurst England, found (Women's Social & Political Union)
1865 Annie Jones Virginia, bearded lady
1901 George Tobias NYC, actor (Abner Kravitz-Bewitched)
1910 William Hanna animator (Hanna-Barbera)
1911 Terry-Thomas England, actor (It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World)
1912 Woodrow Wilson "Woodie" Guthrie folk singer (This Land Is Your Land)
1913 Gerald R Ford [Leslie King], 41st VP (1973-74), 38th pres (R-1974-77)
1918 Arthur Laurents NYC, playwright (West Side Story, Gypsy)
1918 Ingmar Bergman Uppsala Sweden, director (Cries & Whispers)
1952 Chris Cross rock singer (Arthur)
1970 Missy Gold Great Falls Mont, actress (Katie-Benson)
1977 Princess Victoria Ingrid Alic‚a D‚sir‚e, heir apparent of Sweden

This Day in History:
1714 Battle of Aland, Russian fleet overpowers larger Swedish fleet
1789 Bastille Day-citizens of Paris storm Bastille prison
1832 Opium exempted from US federal tariff duty
1850 1st public demonstration of ice made by refrigeration
1865 1st ascent of Matterhorn
1955 2 killed, many dazed when lightning strikes Ascott racetrack, England
1958 Iraqi army overthrows monarchy; republic replaces Hashemite dynasty
1973 Phil Everly storms off stage declaring an end to the Everly Brothers
1976 Jimmy Carter wins Democratic pres nomination in NY
1978 Anatoly Shcharansky convicted of anti-Soviet agitation
Allen Ginsburg completes "Plutonian Ode," blocks trainload of fissile
material headed for Rockwell's nuclear bomb trigger factory, Colorado
1986 Paul McCartney releases "Press"
1987 Lt Col Oliver North concludes 6 days of US Congressional testimony
1987 Taiwan ends 37 years of martial law
1989 The 16th James Bond movies "License to Kill" premiers

Holidays Today:
France, Guiana, Polynesia, Guadel, Martinique : Bastille Day (1789)
Iran : Appointment of the Prophet
Iraq : Republic Day (1958)
Senegal : African Community Day
South Africa : Family Day - - - - - ( Monday )
Swaziland : Reed Dance Day - - - - - ( Monday )

Religious Observances:
Muslim-Indonesia, Kuwait, Oman, UAE, Yemen PDR : Mohammed Ascension
Old Catholic : Commem of St Bonaventure, bishop/confessor/doctor
RC : Mem St Camillus of Lellis, patron of nurses/sick (opt)
RC : Memorial of Bl Kateri Tekakwitha, Lily of the Mohawks, virgin

Thought for the day : " Think you've got influence? Try commanding someone else's dog."

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>