On this day in 1775, George Washington takes command of the Continental Army in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He directed the successful siege of Boston and commanded the Continental Army until the Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3, 1783, in which Britain officially recognized American independence. Washington disbanded his army, giving a farewell address to his soldiers on November 2. He oversaw the evacuation of British forces in New York and was greeted by parades and celebrations.

He served the whole time without pay but was reimbursed for his expenses. In early December 1783, Washington bade farewell to his officers at Fraunces Tavern and resigned as commander-in-chief soon after.

The earliest authenticated portrait of George Washington shows him wearing his colonel’s uniform of the Virginia Regiment from the French and Indian War. The portrait was painted about 12 years after Washington’s service in that war, and several years before he would reenter military service in the American Revolution. Oil on canvas.

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Here’s Eddie Cochran with his Summertime Blues…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti38LFY7x1Y

On this day in 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It is a landmark civil rights and labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. It prohibits unequal application of voter registration requirements, racial segregation in schools and public accommodations, and employment discrimination. The act is considered one of the most significant legislative achievements in American history.

The legislation was proposed by President John F. Kennedy in June 1963, but it was opposed by filibuster in the Senate. After Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson pushed the bill forward. The United States House of Representatives passed the bill on February 10, 1964, and after a 72-day filibuster, it passed the United States Senate on June 19, 1964. The final vote was 290–130 in the House of Representatives and 73–27 in the Senate.

Segregated water fountains In Wilmington, North Carolina

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Victor Willis, the lead singer of the Village People who also co-wrote many of the group’s high-camp disco-era hits, including “Y.M.C.A.” and “Macho Man,” died on Monday. He was 74. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS9OO0S5w2k

Today is the birthday of Amy Johnson. She was a pioneering English pilot who was the first woman to fly solo from London to Australia. she set many long-distance records during the 1930s. In 1933, Katharine Hepburn’s character in the film Christopher Strong was inspired by Johnson. She flew in the Second World War as a part of the Air Transport Auxiliary. Her aircraft crashed into the Thames Estuary: she died after bailing out. Because her body was never recovered, the precise cause of her death—drowning, hypothermia or being pulled into a warship’s moving propellers, is unknown.

Amy Johnson. Approximate date of photograph: 1930

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Today is the birthday, in 1945, of Deborah Harry, American singer, songwriter, and actress with Blondie who scored five UK No.1 singles including the 1979 UK & US No.1 single ‘Heart Of Glass’ and the 1978 world-wide No.1 album Parallel Lines. As a solo artists she scored the 1986 UK No. 8 single ‘French Kissing In The USA’. A former Playboy Bunny, her acting career spans over thirty film roles and numerous television appearances. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGU_4-5RaxU

Today is the anniversary of the Tunguska Event. It was a large explosion of between 3–50 megatons TNT equivalent that occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Yeniseysk Governorate, Russia, on the morning of 30 June 1908. The explosion over the sparsely populated East Siberian taiga felled a large number of trees, over an area of 2,150 km² (830 sq mi) of forest, and eyewitness accounts suggest up to three people may have died. The explosion is attributed to a meteor air burst, the atmospheric explosion of a stony asteroid about 50–60 m (160–200 ft) wide.

The Tunguska event is the largest impact event on Earth in recorded history, though much larger impacts are believed to have occurred in prehistoric times, including the Chicxulub impact that ended the Cretaceous period. An explosion of the Tunguska magnitude would be capable of destroying a large metropolitan area.

Trees were knocked down and burned over hundreds of square km by the Tunguska meteoroid impact. This image is cropped from the original, taken in May 1929 during the Leonid Kulik expedition in 1929.

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Stretch Lambretta…

on the set of Star Wars (1977) with Carrie Fisher and her stunt double

Today is the birthday, in 1956, of Adrian Wright, The Human League. Formed in Sheffield, England in 1977 the group attained widespread commercial success with their third album Dare in 1981. The album contained four hit singles, including the UK/US No.1 hit ‘Don’t You Want Me’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPudE8nDog0

On this day in 1913, the Globe Theatre in London burned to the ground.

The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 at Southwark, close to the south bank of the Thames, by Shakespeare’s playing company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. A second Globe Theatre was built on the same site by June 1614 and stayed open until the London theatre closures of 1642. As well as plays by Shakespeare, early works by Ben Jonson, Thomas Dekker and John Fletcher were first performed here.

Second Globe Theatre, detail from Hollar’s View of London, 1647

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Today is the birthday, in 1953, of Colin Hay, Scottish Australian musician with Men At Work, (1983 UK and US No.1 single ‘Down Under’). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfR9iY5y94s