July 31, 1928: Audiences first hear MGM mascot Leo the Lion’s mighty roar with the studio’s first sound film, White Shadows in the South Seas.
July 27, 1950: George Pal‘s Destination Moon, one of the first films to offer a serious look at space exploration, opens.
July 30, 1966: With all of the “BIFF! POW! SOCK!” of the campy TV show, Batman, starring Adam West, marks the hero’s first film appearance since 1943.
August 1, 1973: American Graffiti, George Lucas‘ nostalgic time capsule, opens. The cast of then-unknowns includes Richard Dreyfuss and Harrison Ford.
August 2, 1976: Fritz Lang, the Austrian-born helmer of Metropolis and The Big Heat, dies in Los Angeles at the age of 85.
July 27, 1983: Tom Cruise teaches audiences the fine art of dancing in one’s underwear in the hit comedy Risky Business.
August 1, 1986: The first feature film based on a Marvel Comics series, the infamous cinematic “turkey” Howard the Duck, opens.
July 31, 1987: Timothy Dalton takes over the role of secret agent James Bond with the 007 adventure The Living Daylights.
July 27, 2003: America says “Thanks for the Memories” as stage/screen/radio/TV comedy legend Bob Hope dies at the age of 100.
July 30, 2007: A pair of iconic European filmmakers–Italy’s Michelangelo Antonioni and Sweden’s Ingmar Bergman, pass away at 94 and 89, respectively.
July 30, 2010: Seventeen years after buying it for $60 million, Disney sells off Miramax Films to an outside investor firm for $660 million.