Today in 1919 Sir Edmund Hillary was born in Auckland NZ. Why? Because his mother was there. In 1973 martial artist and actor Bruce Lee died at the age of 32 of a brain edema, a month before his first hit movie was released in America, making him a star who had already expired. Exit the dragon. In 1976 the Viking 1 probe landed on the Chryse Planitia region of the planet Mars, becoming the first such device to successfully soft-land upon the surface of the Red Planet. This landing occurred on the seventh anniversary of another landing, in 1969, of Apollo 11's lunar module Eagle upon the surface of the Moon. It was one small step for (a) man, even though the one giant leap may yet to have been accomplished . . . at least to my satisfaction.
And on the obligatory "cultural" note, this song from California duo Jan and Dean hit #1 on the US charts in 1963.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6Cg_DHn69I
This kicked off the whole beach music trend, and helped build the swinging bikini-clad Left Coast image. Am I alone in remembering Annette and Frankie?
