June 26 in Pop Culture History

1498 – The bristle toothbrush was invented in China.

1797 – Charles Newbold was issued a patent (#X000177) for an improvement for the cast-iron plow

1807 – Lightning struck a gunpowder factory in Luxembourg, killing more than 300 people.

1819 – The first US patent (#X003115) for a velocipede, a predecessor of the bicycle, was issued to William K. Clarkson Jr. of New York.

1870 – Christmas was declared a federal holiday in the United States.

1906 – The first Grand Prix motor racing event was held – French Grand Prix. Ferenc Szisz, driving for the Renault team, won the two-day event.

1926 – Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises novel was released.

1927 – The Cyclone roller coaster opened on Coney Island.

1934 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Federal Credit Union Act, which established credit unions in the US.

1936 – The first flight of the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, the first working helicopter, in Berlin, Germany.

1945 – The United Nations Charter was signed in San Francisco.

1948 – Shirley Jackson’s short story, The Lottery, was published in The New Yorker magazine.

#1 Hit June 26, 1961 – July 9, 1961: Gary U.S. Bonds – Quarter to Three

1963 – US President John F. Kennedy gave his “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech.

#1 Hit June 26, 1965 – July 9, 1965: The Byrds – Mr. Tambourine Man

1974 – The Universal Product Code was scanned for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley’s chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio.

1977 – Elvis Presley performed his final life concert in Indianapolis, Indiana.

1987 – Spaceballs, Full Metal Jacket, and Dragnet were released in theaters

1997 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Communications Decency Act violated the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

1998 – Doctor Dolittle and Buffalo ’66 debuted in theaters

2000 – The completion of a working draft reference DNA sequence of the human genome was announced at the White House by President Bill Clinton and representatives from the Human Genome Project (HGP).

2009 – The Hurt Locker was released in theaters

2015 – Ted 2 debuted in theaters