Good morning. It's July 14th — let's begin where we always do: on this very date in history.
📅 On This Day — July 14
🧀 (It's also National Mac and Cheese Day — the only correct answer when someone asks "what's for dinner?")
1789 — Parisians stormed the Bastille fortress-prison, the spark that ignited the French Revolution — still marked worldwide today as Bastille Day.
1798 — Congress passed the Sedition Act, criminalizing criticism of the government — one of the young nation's first big fights over free speech.
1913 — Future president Gerald Ford was born in Omaha, Nebraska.
1946 — Dr. Benjamin Spock published "The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care," a book that would reshape parenting for a generation of Baby Boomers.
1965 — NASA's Mariner 4 became the first spacecraft to fly by Mars, beaming home humanity's first close-up photos of another planet.
Now, let's set the dial back to 2008…
⏪ REWIND: 2008
George W. Bush is closing out his final year in the White House, a first-class stamp costs 42 cents, gas just topped $4 a gallon for the first time ever, iPhones are a year old and everywhere — and the whole country is holding its breath for a Batman movie almost nobody has seen yet.
📰 The Headlines In four days, the most anticipated movie in years finally opens: The Dark Knight hits theaters July 18, carrying the weight of Heath Ledger's final complete performance as the Joker — advance ticket sales are already record-breaking, and midnight showings are selling out coast to coast.
🎬 At the Movies Still leading the box office two weeks in is Hancock — Will Smith's reluctant, hard-drinking superhero comedy just posted one of the biggest July 4th weekends ever.
🎵 On the Charts Topping the Hot 100 is "I Kissed a Girl" by Katy Perry — the breakout single announcing a brand-new pop star, controversial and inescapable on every radio station at once.
🏆 In Sports Just over a week ago, Rafael Nadal outlasted Roger Federer in the Wimbledon final — four hours and 48 minutes across five sets, the last point played in near-darkness. It's already being called the greatest tennis match ever played.
🏰 The Disney Vault In theaters for two and a half weeks now is Pixar's WALL-E — the nearly-silent tale of a lonely trash-compacting robot, quietly becoming one of the best-reviewed films of the year and the studio's biggest opening weekend since The Incredibles.
— a couple of quick things before you go —
👟 Step Challenge: the Summer 2026 Step Challenge is rolling — grab the free Pacer app and walk with us: Join the challenge (already have Pacer? Club code E42727228). Every step counts.
💡 Health Snap: Hot-weather headaches are often just dehydration in disguise — keep sipping water even on days you don't feel especially thirsty.
🎉 Born on a July 14th — or know someone who was?
Forward this to them right now — there's no better "this is the day you were born" gift than a little time travel.
🎂 In good company: July 14 babies include filmmaker Ingmar Bergman (1918), actor Harry Dean Stanton (1926), Dan Smith — frontman of the band literally named Bastille (1986), and mixed martial artist Conor McGregor (1988).
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