On July 7, 1947, the so-called Roswell UFO Incident occurred, in which newspapers reported that the US Army had captured remnants of a crashed alien aircraft, and also of dead alien bodies…
Photo of Major Jesse Marcel with some remnants of the Roswell object…
American s-f author, Robert A. Heinlein was born July 7, 1907 (d. 1988). Heinlein was known for hard s-f with a tendency towards space imperialism (Starship Troopers), until he published Stranger in a Strange Land in 1961, a queer book that became a cult text for the 60s counter-culture for its depictions of alternative life styles and sexuality…
Gustav Mahler (July 7, 1860 – 1911) was a Bohemian-born Jewish-Austrian composer and conductor. He was best known during his own lifetime as one of the leading orchestral and operatic conductors of the day. He has since come to be acknowledged as among the most important late-Romantic composers, although his music was never completely accepted by the musical establishment of Vienna while he was still alive. Mahler composed primarily symphonies and songs; however, his approach to genre often blurred the lines between orchestral Lied, symphony, and symphonic poem. (Wiki)
Photo of Mahler, 1909
American jazz musician, tenor sax player Hank Mobley was born July 7, 1930 (d. 1986, complications of lung decease). Mobley helped shape the hard-bop sound in the late 50s, but was laid-back in comparison with Coltrane and Rollins which made him less of an influence for later players. His 20+ Blue Note albums are an important record of this phase in jazz music…
Cover shot for 1963’s No Room for Squares…
Joe Zawinul, Austrian-born keyboard master in jazz and fusion. Co-founder of Weather Report and composer of their hit Birdland, Zawinul (July 7, 1932 - 2007) was instrumental in the electrification of keyboard sound in 1970s jazz/fusion…
Marc Chagall (July 7, 1887 – 1985), was a Jewish artist, born in Belarus (then Russian Empire) and naturalized French in 1937, associated with several key art movements and one of the most successful artists of the twentieth century. He forged a unique career in virtually every artistic medium, including paintings, book illustrations, stained glass, stage sets, ceramics, tapestries and fine art prints. Chagall’s haunting, exuberant, and poetic images have enjoyed universal appeal, and art critic Robert Hughes called him “the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century.” (Wiki)
Marc Chagall: The Juggler (1943)
Marc Chagall: Wedding Candles (1945)
Helene Sardeau (July 7, 1899 - 1969)
Peter A. Juley & Son Collection, Smithsonian
“Belgian-born sculptor. Sardeau studied in the United States with Mahonri Young and exhibited internationally. Contemplation, serenity and humanism were often conveyed in her work. Her first major commission, Slave (1933), a six-foot depiction in limestone of a manacled African American, was executed for a sculpture garden in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. She was the wife of painter George Biddle.” - Joan Stahl. American Artists in Photographic Portraits from the Peter A. Juley & Son Collection (Washington, D.C. and Mineola, New York: National Museum of American Art and Dover Publications, Inc., 1995).
Anthony Hernandez (b. July 7, 1947): Untitled (Los Angeles), 1974 - gelatin silver print (Smithsonian)
“Born in Los Angeles, California, 1947. Currently resides in Los Angeles. Hernandez received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1975, 1978 and 1980. He was artist-in-residence at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in 1986 and at Ucross Foundation, Ucross, Wyoming, in 1989. He has had solo exhibitions at the Burden Gallery, New York, Northlight Gallery, Arizona State University (1985), and The Opsis Foundation, New York City (1990).” - Merry A. Foresta, Stephen Jay Gould, and Karal Ann Marling. Between Home and Heaven: Contemporary American Landscape Photography (Washington, D.C. and Albuquerque, New Mexico: The National Museum of American Art in association with the University of New Mexico Press, 1992).
