July 22, 1934: After seeing MGM’s Manhattan Melodrama at Chicago’s Biograph Theater, gangster John Dillinger is gunned down outside by G-men.
July 20, 1938: The major film studios are named to a governmental antitrust lawsuit over their dominance in both production and distribution of motion pictures.
July 24, 1943: Waiting until their film Mrs. Miniver ends its theatrical run, actress Greer Garson, 38, marries her on-screen son, 26-year-old Richard Ney.
July 23, 1947: The subject of anti-Semitism is dramatized in RKO’s Crossfire and, in November, by 20th Century Fox’s Oscar-winning Gentleman’s Agreement.
July 23, 1948: Film pioneer D.W. Griffith, 73, who last directed in 1931, dies. Studios observe a three-minute moment of silence during his funeral five days later.
July 20, 1950: Playing a wheelchair-bound WWII veteran in his screen debut, newcomer Marlon Brando wows audiences and critics in The Men.
July 20, 1951: After a 16-year run, the Time, Inc.-produced newsreel series The March of Time no longer marches on.
July 25, 1952: High Noon, the western that would garner Gary Cooper an Oscar for his performance as the retired sheriff faced with a fateful showdown, opens.
July 25, 1953: Warner Bros.’ Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century, directed by Chuck Jones and starring Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and Marvin Martian, blasts off.
July 22, 1959: Steve Reeves first flexes his pecs to American audiences in the Italian-made Hercules, beginning a flood of imported “sword-and-sandal” actioners.
July 19, 1961: TWA becomes the first airline to offer in-flight movies on a regular basis. First up, Lana Turner as an unfaithful wife in By Love Possessed.
July 23, 1962: After a six-year stint producing independent films, former studio V.P. Darryl Zanuck is now at the helm of a financially-troubled 20th Century-Fox.
July 23, 1966: After what one writer called “the world’s longest suicide,” troubled actor Montgomery Clift, 45, is found dead in his New York brownstone.
July 20, 1973: Mystery surrounds the death of martial arts star Bruce Lee, 32, the cause of which will be attributed to a brain edema.
July 24, 1974: Charles Bronson becomes the face of urban vigilante justice as the oft-imitated action hit Death Wish opens.
July 24, 1980: British comic actor Peter Sellers, star of The Pink Panther and Being There, dies of a heart attack at 54.
July 23, 1982: A helicopter crash on the set of Twilight Zone–The Movie results in the deaths of Vic Morrow and two child actors.
July 22, 1983: With 89-year-old Abel Gance in attendance, the restored edition of his 1927 epic Napoleon has its “re-premiere” in Paris.
July 24, 1998: Director Steven Spielberg and star Tom Hanks acquaint a new generation with the drama and sacrifice of World War II in Saving Private Ryan.
July 20, 2012: 70 people are injured and 12 killed at an Aurora, Colorado theater shooting during an opening night showing of The Dark Knight Rises. The gunman will be convicted on over 160 counts stemming from the crime and sentenced to life in prison in 2015.
July 19, 2014: Star of TV (Maverick) and movies (The Great Escape, Marlowe) James Garner dies of a heart attack at 86.