At 12:51 EDT on July 24, 1969, Apollo 11, the U.S. spacecraft that
had taken the first astronauts to the surface of the moon, safely
returned to Earth.

The American effort to send astronauts to the moon had its origins
in a famous appeal President John F. Kennedy made to a special
joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961: “I believe this nation
should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is
out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to
Earth.”

On July 23, 1982, Vic Morrow and two child actors, Renee Shinn
Chen and Myca Dinh Le, are killed in an accident involving a
helicopter during filming on the California set of Twilight Zone:
The Movie. Morrow, age 53, and the children, ages six and seven,
were shooting a Vietnam War battle scene in which they were
supposed to be running from a pursuing helicopter. Special-
effects explosions on the set caused the pilot of the low-flying
craft to lose control and crash into the three victims. The accident
took place on the film’s last scheduled day of shooting.

Twilight Zone co-director John Landis (Blues Brothers, Trading
Places, National Lampoon’s Animal House) and four other men
working on the film, including the special-effects coordinator and
the helicopter pilot, were charged with involuntary manslaughter. According to a 1987 New York Times report, it was the first time
a film director faced criminal charges for events that occurred
while making a movie.

Victor Morrow (Victor Morozoff)
(February 14, 1929 – July 23, 1982)

Singer, actress, and fashion designer Vanessa Williams
turned 59 in March.

On July 23, 1984, 21-year-old Vanessa Williams gave up her
Miss America title, the first resignation in the pageant’s history,
after Penthouse magazine announces plans to publish nude
photos of the beauty queen in its September issue. Williams
originally made history on September 17, 1983, when she
became the first Black woman to win the Miss America crown.

Miss New Jersey, Suzette Charles (below), the first runner-up
and also African American, assumed Williams’ tiara for the two
months that remained of her reign. 

   

Suzette Charles

Ulysses S. Grant (April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885)

On July 23, 1885, just after completing his memoirs, Civil War hero
and former president Ulysses S. Grant dies of throat cancer. He
served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877.

Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx
(October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977)

Kool-Aid is a brand of flavored drink mix owned by Kraft Heinz based
in Chicago, Illinois. The powder form was created by Edwin Perkins
in 1927 based upon a liquid concentrate called Fruit Smack.

The building in Hastings, Nebraska, where Kool-Aid was invented.

Edwin Elijah Perkins
(January 8, 1889 – July 3, 1961)