17 July

10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 17 July: 

1. Born on this date in 1948 was Wayne Sleep, dancer and choreographer. At 5'2", Sleep is famous for being the shortest male dancer ever admitted into the Royal Ballet School. In 1973, he established a world record by doing an entrechat douze – a jump with six beats – this record still stands. He is also remembered for dancing with Princess Diana at the Royal Gala Performance, in Covent Garden in 1985.
2. Also born on this date, in 1952, was David Hasselhoff, actor nicknamed "The Hoff", best known for his lead roles on Knight Rider and Baywatch.
3. In 1762 Catherine II aka ‘Catherine the Great’, became Empress of Russia upon the assassination of her husband, Peter III.
4. The first custard pie in the face was seen by cinema audiences on this date in 1913 on the release of Keystone's A Noise from the Deep, in which Mabel Normand pied Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle.
5. The animated film Yellow Submarine premiered at The London Pavilion on this date in 1968.
6. The earliest record of a Total Solar Eclipse is from this date in 709 BC and was written in China.
7. In 1938, Douglas Groce "Wrong Way" Corrigan, 31, became famous for "accidentally" flying to Dublin from New York despite being told by both American and Irish authorities that it wasn’t allowed. Corrigan claimed his mistake was following the wrong end of his Compass needle.
8. The Great fire of London in 1666 wasn’t the first time London burned. On this date in 1212 most of the borough of Southwark went up in smoke, including houses on London Bridge, and St Mary Overie’s church which stood on the site of the current Southwark Cathedral. More than a thousand people are said to have perished.
9. In 1790, the first Sewing machine was patented by Thomas Saint of London. However, his design was never manufactured.
10. In 1988, the British snail speed record was set by Tracker, a Norfolk garden Snail. He reached .219cm a second and won a silver tankard stuffed with Lettuce leaves.

 

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