This Day in Pop Culture for July 17

1955: Disneyland’s “Black Sunday”

While it may be considered to be the happiest place on earth and Disney always presents a class act, Disneyland’s opening day, held on this day in 1955, was a little less magical than originally planned. Forever known as “Black Sunday,” the park was open to the public AND filmed live for ABC TV.

A variety of technical glitches happened that day. Famous people who were scheduled to show every two hours, ended up showing up all at once. The drinking fountains didn’t work due to a plumbers’ strike which made people think that it was a stunt to get them to buy more soda. Vendors ran out of food. Asphalt that had been poured that morning was still soft causing some ladies to get their heels stuck. There was a gas leak causing part of the park to shut down for the afternoon and parents would toss their children over the crowd’s shoulders to get them onto some of the rides.

1988: Discover Channel Takes a Bite Out of the Competition

The story goes like this: One night after work, a few executives working for the Discovery Channel went out for drinks and had a brainstorming session at the bar. They went around sharing what kinds of things that they thought might be fun to feature on the channel and someone said, “Shark Week!” Genuis.

The first day of the first Shark Week debuted on this day with a variety of shark-themed programming. These included shows like Caged in Fear, The Shark Takes a Siesta and Sharks of a Different Color.

The first week dedicated to sharks was success! The cable channel has continued the tradition every July since.

1959: ‘North by Northwest’ Premieres in L.A.

Ernest Lehman, the screenwriter for North by Northwest once said that he wanted to write “the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures.” Starring Gary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason, this spy thriller is a crazy tale of mistaken identity has been described by many as one of the greatest films of all time.

Disneyland, "North by Northwest" and emojis.

Some have called North by Northwest the “first James Bond film” because of its many settings, secret agents, an intriguing villain and a comical leading man. In fact, the crop duster scene is said to have inspired the helicopter chase scene in the Bond movie, From Russia with Love.

Many years later, the movie was adapted as a stage play (!) at the Melbourne Theatre Company in Australia in 2015. The movie was nominated for three Academy Awards (Film Editing, Art Direction and Original screenplay) but it didn’t win any Oscars. (Image: Universal Pictures)

2014: Emoji Day is Born

Because everything has to have its own “day,” emoji’s got theirs on this day in 2014. This pseudo holiday was created by Jeremy Burge the founder of Emojipedia, an emoji reference website. At the time, he had no activity plans for the day, but some has suggested that people only communicate using the icons throughout the day. In 2015, Pepsi celebrated the day with specially marked Pepsi cans and bottles. In 2016, Sony Pictures Animation used the day in 2017 to promote The Emoji Movie, Google released a new series of emojis that were more inclusive to women from diverse backgrounds and Emojipedia created the first World Emoji Awards. In 2017, London’s Royal Opera House presented 20 operas and ballets in emoji form. (Image: Wikimedia)