This Week in Geek History + the Geekly Cocktail: July 15th-21st
Hey again everyone, I’m Annaleigh and I’m back with another installment of This Week in Geek History with the Geekly Cocktail… which has a new short name: The Geekly with a Twist.
Okay, I think I like that. Any thoughts?
So again, without further babbling on my part…The Geekly with a Twist.
July 15th, 1965: The Mariner IV sent back the first close-up pictures of the red planet which we all assumed to be covered with little green men.
July 15th, 2009: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is released in U.S. theaters. (Potterheads had a lot of reason to celebrate over the Julys of the past.)
July 16th, 1945: The United States detonates the first atomic bomb near Alamogordo, New Mexico (incidentally featuring the present day motto of “The Friendliest Place on Earth”).
July 16th, 1969: Apollo 11 launches from Cape Kennedy, Florida…beginning the first manned mission to the moon.
July 16th, 2005: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is released worldwide…selling 6.9 million copies in its first day.
July 17th, 1975: An Apollo spaceship docks with a Soyuz spacecraft in orbit. It is the first link in the U.S. and Soviet space programs, a relationship which has continued into present day and present politics.
July 18th, 1921: John Glenn, quite possibly the coolest guy ever destined to be an astronaut, is born in Cambridge, Ohio.
July 18th, 1967: Mark Sinclair Vincent, better known as Vin Diesel and the most awesome poster child for D&D geeks everywhere, is born in New York City.
[youtube=http://youtu.be/GlUsiKfeDfo]
July 20th, 1969: It’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind…unless you listen to conspiracy theorists.
July 20th, 1976: Viking I robotic spacecraft lands on Mars, seven years after we put a man on the moon.
July 21st, 1925: The Scopes Monkey Trial ends in Dayton, Tennessee. What most people don’t realize is that the trial was, in essence, a staged protest funded by the ACLU. (If you don’t know about the trial at all, I’m really sad to hear and suggest you Google it immediately!)
July 21st, 2007: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final book of the series, is released. Many fans (yours truly included) hide out in their various reading locations immediately following the release so as to escape inevitable spoilers.
And, with your Twist:
The Astronaut
3 parts Vodka
3 parts Dark Rum
1 part Lemon juice
1 part Pineapple juice
Shake all ingredients and strain into a chilled glass. Garnish with a lemon twist or, even better some rock candy!
Enjoy and be safe! Until next Friday, this has been AJ with The Geekly with a Twist!
