Pop Culture Happenings: July

July from 50, 40 and 25 years ago saw Cardinals rise and fall, the first female VP candidate, and another Kennedy tragedy.

1974

50 years ago

July 1974 was a big month of records and record breakers for the St. Louis Cardinals. On July 17, Bob Gibson became the second Major League Baseball pitcher to throw 3,000 career strikeouts. On the same day, Cardinal great Jay “Dizzy” Dean passed away. Known for his brash and colorful personality, Dean was best known for winning 30 games in 1934 while leading the "Gashouse Gang" Cardinals to the National League pennant and the World Series win over the Detroit Tigers. Dean is the last National League pitcher to win 30 games in one season. After his playing career, Dean became a popular television sports commentator; he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953 and the Cardinals Team Hall of Fame in 2014. Later that month, on July 29, Cardinal outfielder, Lou Brock, stole his 700th base.

1984

40 years ago

On July 12,1984, Geraldine Ferraro became the first U.S. female major-party vice presidential candidate, after Walter Mondale selected her as his Democratic Party running mate. The Mondale-Ferraro ticket initially received favorable polling but was ultimately defeated in a landslide by incumbent President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George H. W. Bush. Ferraro served in the U.S. House of Representatives for New York from 1979 to 1985. President Clinton appointed Ferraro as a member of the United States Delegation to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in January 1993. Ferarro passed away on March 26, 2011, at the age of 75.

1999

25 years ago

On July 16, 1999, John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and his sister-in-law Lauren Bessette were killed in a plane crash off of the coast of Martha's Vineyard; the Piper Saratoga aircraft was piloted by Kennedy Jr., a son of President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Kennedy Jr.’s death was another tragedy in the seeming curse of a series of deaths, accidents, assassinations and other calamities involving members of the Kennedy family.