Jul 30

The 1966 FIFA World Cup, the eighth staging of the World Cup was held in England from July 11 to July 30, 1966. England was chosen as hosts by FIFA in August 1960 to celebrate the centenary of the codification of football in the country. England won the final, beating West Germany 4-2, giving them their first (and only to this date) World Cup win, becoming the first host to win the tournament since Italy in 1934.

There was a record number of entries for the qualifying tournament, with 70 nations taking part. The format of the competition featured 16 qualified teams divided into four groups of four. The two top teams in each group advanced to the quarter-final. Despite achieving record attendances for the time, 1966 was a World Cup with few goals as the teams began to play more tactically and defensively.

For example, England finished top of Group 1 with only four goals to their credit, but having none scored against them. London’s Wembley Stadium provided the venue for the final and 98,000 people attended. The score was level at 2-2 at the end of 90 minutes and the game went into extra time. Geoff Hurst scored twice for England, becoming the only player to have scored three times in a World Cup final.

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Jul 29

15 Eunomia is a very large asteroid in the inner main asteroid belt. It is the largest of the stony asteroids, and somewhere between the 8th to the 12th largest Main Belt asteroid overall. It is also the largest member of the Eunomia family of asteroids.

Eunomia was discovered by Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis on July 29, 1851, and named after one of the Horae, a personification of order and law in Greek mythology. As the largest S-type asteroid, Eunomia has attracted a moderate amount of scientific attention. It contains slightly over one percent of the mass of the entire main belt. Eunomia appears to be an elongated but fairly regularly shaped body, with what appears to be four sides of differing curvature.

Its surface is composed of silicates and some nickel-iron and is quite bright. Its composition indicates that the parent body was likely subject to magmatic processes, and became at least partially differentiated under the influence of internal heating in the early period of the Solar System. The largest remaining fragment should have about 70% of the mass of the parent body.

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Jul 28

National Lampoon’s Animal House is a 1978 comedy film directed by John Landis and adapted by Douglas Kenney, Christopher Miller and Harold Ramis from stories written by Miller and published in National Lampoon magazine based on his experiences in the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity at Dartmouth College. It is about a misfit group of fraternity boys who take on the system at their college.

The film is considered to be the movie that launched the gross-out genre. It was produced on a small budget of $2.7 million and has turned out to be one of the most profitable films of all time. Since its initial release, Animal House has garnered an estimated return of more than $141 million in the form of video and DVDs not including merchandising.

The initial cast was to feature Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Brian Doyle-Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and John Belushi but only Belushi wanted to do it. He received only $35,000 for the film with a bonus after it became a hit. In 2001, the United States Library of Congress deemed Animal House “culturally significant” and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

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Jul 27

A Wild Hare is a Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated short film directed by Tex Avery and written by Rich Hogan. It was originally released on July 27, 1940. A Wild Hare is considered by many film historians as the first “official” Bugs Bunny cartoon. The title is a play on “wild hair,” the first of many puns between “hare” and “hair” that would appear in Bugs Bunny titles.

The pun is carried further by a bar of “I’m Just Wild About Harry” playing in the underscore of the opening credits. A Wild Hare is noteworthy as the first true Bugs Bunny cartoon, as well as for settling on the classic voice by Mel Blanc and appearance of the hunter, Elmer Fudd. Although, the animators continued to experiment with Elmer’s design for a few more years, his look here proved to be the basis for his finalized design.

The design and character of Bugs Bunny would continue to be refined over the subsequent years, but the general appearance, voice and personality of the character were established in this cartoon. The rabbit is unnamed in this film, but would be christened “Bugs Bunny” in his very next short, Elmer’s Pet Rabbit, directed by Chuck Jones.