July 16th

Not the Bull but the Edict of 1054. On this day, after negotiations broke down between Humbert of Mourmoutiers and with Constantinople on differences between the Christian East and Rome, Old Humbert got a little carried away.

"So finally with his patience exhausted, Humbert and his colleagues strode into the Church of Santa Sophia on Saturday, July 16, 1054, right before the chanting of the afternoon liturgy and laid on the altar a bull excommunicating Cerularius, Emperor Michael Constantine, and all their followers, and then departed, ceremonially shaking the dust off their feet."

Thus began the 'Great Schism' between the Western and Eastern churches. It only took 911 years until Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras buried the hatchet but things will never be the same.

It may not be as bad as it sounds. On this day in BrainyHistory there is an entry for July 16, 1099 "Crusaders herd Jews of Jerusalem into a synagogue and set it afire." But according to Wikipedia's History of the Jews and the Crusades during the Massacre of Jerusalem the synagogue may have been empty when the Crusaders torched it for shits and giggles.

From The List of The Banned, on July 16, 1439, kissing is banned in England. They did have a better reason than the usual crap.

The Connecticut Compromise was forged on July 16, 1787. Presented by Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth of the Connecticut delegation, a dual system of congressional representation was a victory for the smaller states. There would be an "Upper House" with two representatives from each state chosen by state legislators. The "Lower House" members would serve two year terms and be elected by the people based on population. A census would be taken every ten years and although women would not be allowed to vote they would be counted. African Americans didn't do as well. They could not vote and each would be counted as three fifths of a person.

When George Washington signed the Residence Act of July 16, 1790 an area called the District of Columbia on the banks of the Potomac River was turned into a swamp.

On Dec. 1, 1800, the capital was moved to the newly named city of Washington. The 1800 census counted 14,103 residents of the U.S. capital, composed of 10,066 whites, 793 free black people and 3,244 slaves.

On this day in 1911 Ginger Rogers "who did everything Fred Astaire did, except backwards and in high heels" was born.

The blond, blue-eyed actress, who came out of Charleston contests and the vaudeville circuits to win notice as a cherub-faced flapper with a piping voice and a sassy air in early musicals like "42d Street" and "Gold Diggers of 1933," went on to win acclaim for her dramatic portrayals and an Academy Award for best actress for her depiction of a lovelorn career woman in the 1940 film "Kitty Foyle."

On July 16, 1918, Russia's Czar Nicholas II, his wife, their five children, their doctor, cook, valet, maid and even the family dog were executed by the Bolsheviks. I guess they were afraid that someday the dog would seek revenge or reclaim the throne.The youngest human to die was the thirteen year old son of Nicholas and Alexandra, Alexei Nikolaevich.

On July 16,1927 "a respected spokesman for right-wing extremism and religious prejudice" and the only American mentioned by his admirer Adolph Hitler in Mein Kampf, that respected captain of industry, Henry Ford, settles a $1 million libel suit brought by labor organizer Aaron Sapiro. Ford's newsweekly, The Dearborn Independent, had accused Sapiro of being part of a conspiracy of "Jewish bankers" to seize control of national wheat production and hand it over to the Communists.

On this day in 1945 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, US President Harry S Truman and leader of the Soviet Union Josef Stalin gather at Potsdam to discuss the rebuilding of Europe.

Truman must have hustled home because on that same day in 1945 "Fat Boy" went off at Alamogordo Air Base. All life within a mile radius was killed or obliterated as the fireball rose 8,000 feet in a fraction of a second and mushroom-shaped cloud made 41,000 feet above the New Mexico desert. Three weeks later the atomic bomb was used for its intended purpose, twice!

Did you know that ZIP stands for Zone Improvement Plan? There are 43,000 5-digit zip codes. On this day in 1963 the U.S. Postal Service began using ZIP codes.

July 16,1973 was a good day for truth. While the Senate Armed Services Committee began probes into allegations that the US Air Force had made 3,500 secret B-52 raids into Cambodia in 1969 & 1970, at the Senate Watergate hearings, former White House aide Alexander P. Butterfield publicly revealed the existence of President Richard Nixon's secret taping system. Tricky Dicky must have been buggin' out.

One Great day in 1967! Surprisingly far from Thanksgiving, the son of Woody "This Land Is Your Land" Guthrie, twenty year old Arlo, attended the Newport Folk Festival and found himself promoted to the closing-night concert on the main stage, performing "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" to 20,000 folk fans on July 16, 1967.

They got a building down New York City, it's called Whitehall Street,
where you walk in, you get injected, inspected, detected, infected,
neglected and selected. I went down to get my physical examination one
day, and I walked in, I sat down, got good and drunk the night before, so
I looked and felt my best when I went in that morning. `Cause I wanted to
look like the all-American kid from New York City, man I wanted, I wanted
to feel like the all-, I wanted to be the all American kid from New York,
and I walked in, sat down, I was hung down, brung down, hung up, and all
kinds o' mean nasty ugly things. And I waked in and sat down and they gave
me a piece of paper, said, "Kid, see the phsychiatrist, room 604."

And I went up there, I said, "Shrink, I want to kill. I mean, I wanna, I
wanna kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and
guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill, Kill,
KILL, KILL." And I started jumpin up and down yelling, "KILL, KILL," and
he started jumpin up and down with me and we was both jumping up and down
yelling, "KILL, KILL." And the sargent came over, pinned a medal on me,
sent me down the hall, said, "You're our boy.

For many the song and famous lyrics have become a Thanksgiving tradition.

In 1969, We have Ignition. An estimated one million live viewers and almost everyone with a television watched as Apollo 11 took off for the first manned exploration of the moon.
Watch it again here!

July 16,1980 was a very bad day for truth. Ronald Reagan won the Republican presidential nomination at the party's convention in Detroit.

July 16,1981 was a dark day in music. At the age of 38, folk-rock balladeer 38 year old Harry Chapin died in a car crash in New York. Besides being an organizer for efforts to provide food to the needy, a champion for the hungry and homeless, Chapin's was some of the finest ballads of his day. Taxi, W-O-L-D and Cat’s in the Cradle.

Ten years ago today: Such a sad day. John F. Kennedy, Jr., his wife Carolyn, and sister-in-law Lauren die in a plane crash in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Martha's Vineyard. The Piper Saratoga aircraft was piloted by Kennedy.

Five years ago today: What does all the other rich have that Martha Stewart didn't? On this day she was sentenced to five months in prison and five months of home confinement by a federal judge in New York for lying about a stock sale.

"Yes! We finally captured Martha Stewart. You know, with all the massive and almost completely unpunished fraud perpetrated on the public by companies like Enron, Global Crossing, and Tyco we finally got the ring leader. Maybe now we can lower the nation's terror alert to periwinkle."—Jon Stewart

Two years ago today: The World Court ordered the Bush administration to halt the execution of five Mexican nationals sentenced on death row in the United States. Apparently Bush was not impressed.

One year ago today: Bush Invokes Exec Privilege to Block CIA Leak Testimony. And the Hits just keep on coming.