Good morning. It's July 28th — let's begin where we always do: on this very date in history.
📅 On This Day — July 28
🍫 (It's also National Milk Chocolate Day.)
1973 — The Summer Jam at Watkins Glen drew an estimated 600,000 people to a New York racetrack for the Allman Brothers, the Grateful Dead, and The Band — for years the largest audience ever gathered for a concert.
1978 — National Lampoon's Animal House arrived in theaters, made for pocket change and destined to become the most profitable comedy of its era.
1984 — The Los Angeles Olympics opened at the Coliseum with a man in a jetpack, 84 pianos playing "Rhapsody in Blue," and Rafer Johnson lighting the flame.
1996 — Two students wading in the Columbia River near Kennewick, Washington found a skull that turned out to belong to Kennewick Man, one of the oldest and most complete ancient skeletons ever found in North America.
2005 — The Provisional IRA announced a formal end to its armed campaign in Northern Ireland, a milestone in the peace process.
Now, let's set the dial back to 1982…
⏪ REWIND: 1982 Ronald Reagan is in the White House, a first-class stamp costs 20 cents, gas is about $1.30 a gallon — and the economy is rough enough that a good escapist summer at the movies is exactly what people want.
📰 The Headlines Earlier this month, a 33-year-old truck driver named Larry Walters tied 42 helium weather balloons to a lawn chair in a San Pedro backyard, planning to drift up a hundred feet or so. The tether snapped and he rose to 16,000 feet, where startled airline pilots radioed him in. He shot balloons with a BB gun to come down, landed in power lines, climbed out unhurt — and got a stern letter from the FAA.
🎬 At the Movies Seven weeks into its run and showing no sign of stopping: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Spielberg's story of a boy, a bicycle, and a homesick alien is on its way to becoming the highest-grossing film ever made.
🎵 On the Charts New at #1 on the Hot 100 is "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor — the Rocky III theme, headed for a six-week run and permanent residence in every gym in America.
🏆 In Sports In Oakland, 23-year-old Rickey Henderson is stealing bases at a pace nobody has ever managed. He'll reach 100 steals by the first week of August — the earliest anyone has hit that mark — and finish the season with 130, breaking Lou Brock's record and setting one that still stands.
🏰 The Disney Vault Opened three weeks ago: TRON — Disney's neon plunge inside a computer, with light cycles, a hero named Flynn, and computer-generated imagery so far ahead of its time that the Academy reportedly considered it cheating.
— 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: if the afternoon slump hits around three, a lap around the block usually does more than a second cup of coffee.
🎉 Born on a July 28th — 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 28 babies include Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1929), Beatrix Potter (1866), Garfield creator Jim Davis (1945), All in the Family's Sally Struthers (1947), and Lori Loughlin (1964).
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