The sunflowers in Rhossili Bay, Wales, hit their peak from mid-July into August.

"The only reason I'm an actor is that a lady pulled out of a parking space in front of a producer's office..." Remembering James Garner April 7, 1928 – July 19, 2014

The French film actress announced her retirement from film in 1959, saying that she had enjoyed cinema for its travel opportunities. Aubry went on to write children's books and scenarios for children's tv with considerable success. Cécile Aubry August 3 1928 – July 19, 2010

Brian May #botd is an English musician, animal welfare activist, and astrophysicist. He achieved global fame as the lead guitarist and backing vocalist of the rock band Queen, which he co-founded with singer Freddie Mercury and drummer Roger Taylor.

“Music has always been a matter of Energy to me, a question of Fuel. I have always needed Fuel. Some nights I still believe a car with the gas needle on empty can run about 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio.” — Hunter S Thompson #botd

On February 20, 1962, John Glenn #botd became the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth, circling three times aboard his Friendship 7 capsule in a flight lasting nearly five hours...

Featuring deliciously unsavory dialogue, in a brilliantly structured script by Clifford Odets #botd and Ernest Lehman, and noirish cityscapes from cinematographer James Wong Howe, Sweet Smell of Success is a backstage exposé from the kill-or-be-killed wilds of 1950s Manhattan...

One of the writers most associated with the Nouveau Roman literary movement, alongside Alain Robbe-Grillet, Claude Simon and Marguerite Duras. Agnès Varda dedicated her film "Sans toit ni loi" to her friend. Nathalie Sarraute #botd

The Belgian Grand Prix is a classic Formula 1 event, and was part of the first season back in 1950. Steeped in history, the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit is relished and respected by the grid. Practice takes place today, quali is on Saturday, and the race is on Sunday.

Remembering John Coltrane September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967 "Despite a relatively brief career — he first came to notice as a sideman at 29, launched a solo career at 33, and died aged 40 — no one doubts his significance in the history of the music..." — William Ruhlmann

"A kiss that is never tasted, is forever and ever wasted..." Billie Holiday April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959

Director Wong Kar Wai #botd discusses Chungking Express in this 1995 Sight & Sound interview... www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so... Wong Kar Wai and cinematographer Christopher Doyle worked together on seven films including Chungking Express, Happy Together, In the Mood for Love, and 2046.

Don't Look Now — A masterpiece from Nicolas Roeg, adapted from a story by Daphne du Maurier. Donald Sutherland #botd and Julie Christie mesmerize as a married couple on an extended trip to Venice following a family tragedy. A brilliantly disturbing tale of the supernatural...

James Cagney #botd — His feisty, finger-jabbing portrayals of the big city tough guy helped create a new breed of Hollywood superstar, yet he won his only Oscar playing a song-and-dance man.

American photographer Berenice Abbott #botd was best known for her portraits of cultural figures of the interwar period, New York City photographs of architecture and urban design of the 1930s...

Marlon Brando was widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential performers in the history of cinema, He received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards.

Launched atop a Saturn V rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. The mission was crewed by Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin.

Considered one of Germany's foremost post-World War II authors, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1972 for his novels and short stories. Heinrich Böll December 21, 1917 – July 16, 1985

The first woman to hold the Slade Professorship of Fine Art at Cambridge University, Anita Brookner #botd won the Booker Prize in 1984 for Hotel du Lac, one of the many novels she wrote after her distinguished career as an art historian.

"You bring out a lot of your own thoughts and attitudes when acting. I think a great deal of it has to do with the inner you..." Ginger Rogers #botd

Barbara Stanwyck #botd — "Her versatility made her a star of Hollywood’s golden age. Her best characters were always fighters who, like herself, had tasted life’s bitterness...” — Pamela Hutchinson “Stanwyck doesn’t act a scene. She lives it.” — Frank Capra

The world’s biggest classical music festival The Proms, begins on Friday in London's Royal Albert Hall. Over eight weeks of sonic excursions, orchestral revelations, and a huge range of premieres and contemporary music.

"Krzysztof Kieślowski started as a documentary filmmaker, then realized what he really wanted to film was the intimacy of people. I think he always liked his actors to feel a kind of tension..." — Irène Jacob #botd The Double Life of Veronique • Three Colours Red

Carmen Callil #botd was an Australian publisher, writer and critic who spent most of her career in the United Kingdom, and in 1973 founded Virago Press, publisher of women's writing and books on feminist topics...

D A Pennebaker #botd, one of the pioneers of direct cinema, filming Bob Dylan's 1965 concert tour in England. 'Dont Look Back' was voted by critics in a Sight & Sound poll the joint ninth best documentary of all time.

“Starting a novel is opening a door on a misty landscape; you can see very little but you can smell the earth, and feel the wind blowing...” Iris Murdoch #botd

Mistletoe: Portrait of Mme Mucha Watercolour heightened with gouache on linen Alphonse Mucha July 24, 1860 – July 14, 1939

"For me, the human face is the most important subject of the cinema..." Ingmar Bergman #botd

"There's several ways of saying what's on your mind. And in states and counties where it ain't too healthy to talk too loud, to speak your mind, folks have found other ways of getting the word around. One of the ways is by singing..." — Woody Guthrie #botd

"From Ernest Hemingway's stories, I learned to listen within my stories for what went unsaid by my characters..." Nadine Gordimer November 20, 1923 – July 13, 2014 Awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature

"Great music isn't about the notes. Great music is about the impulse of the people making it. Compay Segundo was one of those rare people who by their very presence change everything else around them..." — Ry Cooder Compay Segundo November 18, 1907 – July 13, 2003

"I often walked the streets of New York downtown, near the East River, taking my hand camera with me. One day I found myself in front of the old Post Office. It was extremely cold. Snow lay on the ground..." Alfred Stieglitz January 1, 1864 – July 13, 1946

Alla Nazimova, the Russian-American actress, director, producer and screenwriter, was noted for her stage work in the classic plays of Ibsen, Chekhov and Turgenev. She later moved to film, and Salome (1922) is now regarded as a cult classic. She died this day in 1945.

"Every time I think of Almost Famous, it's absolute love around it for me. The experience of it was like no other, we really did become a family, and Cameron Crowe #botd was inspiring..." — Kate Hudson

Rubik’s Cube - invented by Hungarian professor of architecture and design Ernő Rubik #botd - made its international debut in 1980...

"I wrote all the time, and my pop developed into more of a blues style. It was Mick who told me to persevere, and eventually I wrote a few good songs...” Christine McVie #botd Fleetwood Mac

“I dream a lot. I do more painting, when I'm not painting. It's in the subconscious…” Andrew Wyeth #botd The Lobster Trap, watercolour on paper

“There is something about Pablo Neruda #botd —about the way he glorifies experience, about the spontaneity and directness of his passion —that sets him apart from other poets. It is hard not to be swept away by the urgency of his language..." — Mark Strand

"Modigliani’s ‘modern women’ are seen by some as a symbol of sexuality and defiance. His iconic portraits captured the face of early twentieth century Paris and modernised figurative painting..." — Tate Gallery Amedeo Modigliani #botd

Linda Nosková of the Czech Republic poses with the trophy after winning against fellow Czech Karolina Muchova in the women's singles final at Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London this afternoon.

“It was just sheer happiness,” Milt Hinton recalled, in the documentary A Great Day in Harlem, of the morning in 1958 when 57 jazz musicians – including Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonius Monk – gathered for a photoshoot by Art Kane outside a brownstone in Manhattan.

Shelley Duvall, the much-loved American actress with a sublime screen presence, died in her sleep of complications from diabetes this day in 2024. She made her name in a series of landmark 1970s classics, including seven films with the director Robert Altman.

Czech writer Milan Kundera spent forty years living in exile in Paris after his Czech citizenship was revoked in 1979 for 'anti-communist activities', where he wrote his most famous works including The Unbearable Lightness of Being... Milan Kundera April 1, 1929 – July 11, 2023

"It was his interpretative originality that made him a great actor. He was one of theatre’s most daring stars, whose best films bear witness to a talent many never had the chance to see on stage..."— Michael Billlington Sir Laurence Olivier May 22, 1907 – July 11, 1989

"I keep learning about language, which is what I love more than anything: thinking about words, what they do, what they can’t do. This has always been the focus of my life as a reader, and as a writer..." Jhumpa Lahiri #botd Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2000

"I am sitting in the morning, At the diner on the corner..." Suzanne Vega #botd

"Shakespeare is the true multicultural author. He exists in all languages. He is put on the stage everywhere. Everyone feels that they are represented by him on the stage..." Harold Bloom #botd

Niño Ricardo #botd, a child guitar prodigy, was considered by some to be the most accomplished flamenco player of his day, and played a significant role in the evolution of the flamenco guitar.

For the first time since it was made nearly 1,000 years ago, the Bayeux Tapestry is returning to England. The 70-metre-long tapestry, depicting events leading up to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, will be displayed in the British Museum from September 2026 to July 2027.

He achieved international stardom in his breakthrough role as Sherif Ali ibn el Kharish in David Lean's epic masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia. Omar Sharif April 10, 1932 – July 10, 2015