Today is Bastille Day in France, the commemoration of the end of monarchy and feudalism that the storming of the Bastille heralded on July 14, 1789, and the Fête de la Fédération celebrations that marked the one-year anniversary in 1790, celebrations that helped modern France realize that the French Revolution was indeed leading to a new nation. It became an official national holiday in France in 1880.
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Harry Dean Stanton is 90 today. He is still working. The opening shots from Paris, Texas:
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To this day, Ray Fosse wonders how his baseball career might have unfolded differently had Pete Rose not launched himself headfirst into Fosse like a football player to score the winning run in the 41st Major League Baseball All-Star Game, played 46 years ago today. Always in denial about things like culpability, Rose responds to any comment or question about the play to this day with a litany of defenses, including some created in his own head. (He says he was attempting to slide. The clip of the moment, below, shows no such attempt.)
Fosse suffered a separated and broken shoulder in the collision, a hardball, heads-up play from both players that unfolded in an exhibition game and not in a game that counted for anything. (The annual All-Star Game affects the World Series now.) Fosse played several more years and even made one more All-Star squad, but his shoulder remained untreated and even during his playing career he could not raise his hand to comb his own hair. Rose scored the winning run that day in 1970, though, and that is what is remembered. To this day, he ridicules Fosse blocking the plate (“I made Ray Fosse famous”):
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The Baltimore Stars beat the Oakland Invaders 28–24 at Giants Stadium in the third and final USFL championship game, played on this date in 1985.
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Frederick Louis Maytag was born on this date in 1857. Tom Carvel was born on this date in 1906. William Hanna was born in 1910 on this date. Woody Guthrie was born on this date in 1912. Northrop Frye was born in 1912 on this date. President Gerald Ford was born 103 years ago today. Ingmar Bergman was born on this date in 1918.
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Rosey Grier is 84 today. Steve Stone is 69. Esther Dyson is 65. Bebe Buell is 63.
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