Australian tennis player Dylan Alcott competes at the 2022 Australian Open.
Credit: © FiledIMAGE/Shutterstock

July is Disability Pride Month. Behind the Headlines will feature people claiming their disability and excelling. Claiming disability means actively accepting their condition and integrating it into their identity.

Alcott has made a lot of racket in his career! Serving up matches and breaking records, Dylan Alcott became the first man to win the Golden Slam—all four major title tournaments and the Paralympic Games—in 2021. Alcott is a retired Australian wheelchair tennis player. He also played wheelchair basketball with the Australian Rollers national team. In 2022, Australia named Alcott Australian of the Year and an Officer of the Order of Australia.

Dylan Martin Alcott was born Dec. 4, 1990, in Melbourne. At birth, Alcott had a tumor wrapped around his spinal cord. Surgeons successfully removed the tumor. However, the surgery left him paraplegic—that is, paralyzed in the legs and lower body. He began playing wheelchair tennis in school, competing globally by the age of 16. Alcott started playing wheelchair basketball when he was 14 years old. He played with the Rollers in the 2006 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship. At the age of 17, Alcott won a gold medal at the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing, China, with the Rollers.

In 2009, Alcott began studying at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in the United States. He led the school’s wheelchair basketball team to win the college championship. After his first year, he returned to Australia to prepare for the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, England. Alcott and the Rollers won the Wheelchair Basketball World Championship for the first time in 2010 in Birmingham, England. In 2012, they won silver at the Paralympics.

Australian tennis star Dylan Alcott competes in the men’s quads wheelchair singles at the Wimbledon Championships.
Credit: © PA Images/Alamy Images

In 2012, Alcott suffered serious injuries to his hand and arm when someone tried to move him in his wheelchair. The injury made Alcott eligible to participate in the quad class of wheelchair tennis and spurred his return to that sport. The quad class is reserved for players that also have some impairment in their playing arm. In 2014, he won the British Open Wheelchair Tennis Championship and the New Zealand Open. In 2015, Alcott won the quad wheelchair Australian Open title. Alcott was ranked number one in the world in 2015 after securing eight titles.

At the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Alcott won the men’s quad doubles gold medal with the Australian wheelchair tennis player Heath Davidson. The next day, he won the men’s quad singles gold medal. Alcott was named Australian Paralympian of the Year for his success at the games. In 2018, Alcott won the Wheelchair Tennis Masters title.

In 2021, Alcott became the third professional and the first man to complete the Golden Slam in a calendar year. He won the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, the United States Open, and the singles gold medal at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo. (The games, originally scheduled for 2020, were postponed to 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.) At the end of 2021, Alcott announced that the 2022 Australian Open would be his last professional competition. Alcott’s memoir Able: Gold Medals, Grand Slams and Smashing Glass Ceilings was published in 2018.

July 5, 2019

If your birthday is in July, your birthstone—the gem associated with the month of your birth—is the beautiful and valuable ruby. A red gem variety of the mineral corundum, rubies are called sapphires if they are any color other than red. Since ancient times, rubies have been treasured for their beauty as well as their symbolic value in folklore, religion, and superstition.

The ruby, the birthstone for July, is often used to make jewelry such as rings. This ring is set with a ruby and diamonds. Credit: © JupiterMedia/Alamy Images

Early cultures valued rubies for their resemblance in color to human blood, and the gems were thought to hold the power of life. Rubies were later associated with beauty, love, passion, wealth, and wisdom. Ancient Sanskrit texts refer to the ruby as “the king of precious stones,” and Hindu legend says that those who offered rubies to the god Krishna were granted rebirth as emperors. Rubies were thought to protect those who wore them, even bestowing invincibility in battle. It was not enough to simply wear rubies, however—they were often inserted in the skin. Rubies were also sometimes included in the foundations of buildings to ensure good fortune. Rubies have long adorned earrings, necklaces, rings, and other jewelry, and they are the traditional gift for a 40th wedding anniversary.

Chemically, a ruby is an aluminum oxide. Rubies get their color from traces of chromium. The red of most rubies has a brownish or yellowish tint. The rarest, most highly prized rubies are pure “pigeon-blood red.” Rubies and sapphires are second only to diamonds in hardness, and fine-quality rubies are among the costliest of all gems. The finest rubies come from Myanmar. Other primary producers of rubies are Cambodia, Kenya, Madagascar, Tanzania, Thailand, and Zimbabwe.

A star ruby cabochon shows a six-rayed star within it when seen in a bright light. A cabochon is a rounded, polished stone. The largest known natural ruby, named the “Eminent Star,” weighs 6,465 carats, or almost three pounds (1.36 kilograms). Millions of carats of inexpensive synthetic rubies are made each year. But a demand for real gems has allowed the natural stones to maintain their high value. It can be hard to distinguish between natural and synthetic rubies, even for experts. Experts are also challenged when determining whether the color of a natural ruby has been improved by heating.

July 6, 2018

Who wants ice cream? That question is usually answered by a unified chorus of “I do!” Well, now—the month of July—is the official time to indulge. Since 1984, the typically hot month has been National Ice Cream Month in the United States. To narrow it further, the third Sunday of the month is National Ice Cream Day. In 2018, that delicious day falls on July 15. So ready the bowls, spoons, and cones, and prepare to dig in.

July is National Ice cream Month in the United States. Credit: © Elena Veselova, Shutterstock

Ice cream consists chiefly of cream, milk, sugar, and water. (It takes 12 pounds [5.4 kilograms] of milk to make 1 gallon [3.8 liters] of ice cream!) The ingredients are blended together and then rapidly heated and cooled to destroy harmful bacteria. Next, the mixture is further mixed to break up particles of fat and smoothen the product. The mixture is then cooled and stored to allow it to solidify. After chocolate, nuts, strawberries, or other tasty additions, the mixture is frozen and packaged as ice cream.

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The ice cream process. Credit: WORLD BOOK diagram

No one knows when ice cream was first made. In 1295, the Venetian trader Marco Polo returned to Europe from China and may have brought recipes for water ices. During the 1600′s, Europeans used a combination of ice, snow, and a mineral called saltpeter to freeze mixtures of cream, fruit, and spices.

British colonists probably brought recipes for ice cream to America in the early 1700′s. Ice cream became a popular luxury food, but almost all of it was made at home until 1851. That year, Jacob Fussell, a Baltimore, Maryland, milk dealer, established the first ice cream plant. Ice cream became a national favorite during the early 1900′s after soda fountains introduced sodas, sundaes, and other new ways of serving it. Ice cream cones were first served at the 1904 world’s fair in St. Louis, Missouri. Ice cream bars appeared in 1921. Ice cream production increased greatly in the late 1940′s. During the first decade of the 2000′s, the United States produced about 1.4 billion gallons (5.3 billion liters) of ice cream yearly.

Ice cream is served in many parts of the world, but Americans eat more of it than do the people of any other country. Americans eat an average of about 23 quarts (21.8 liters) of ice cream annually.

July 11, 2017

In the United States, July is National Hot Dog Month. The hot dog, the simple sausage in a bun, is one of the country’s favorite foods. A popular outdoors or on-the-run fast food, hot dogs—traditionally called frankfurters, but also known as red hots or wieners—sell in peak numbers during the hot months of summer. Whether the dogs are cooked on the grill or purchased from a stand or at the ballpark, Americans eat an estimated 150 million hot dogs over the 4^th of July holiday alone. So, in honor of the humble hot dog, let’s explore some fun facts and delicious history.

July is National Hot Dog Month in the United States. These hot dogs are dressed according to taste in mustard, onions, pickles, and tomatoes. Credit: © Olga Nayashkova, Shutterstock

The frankfurter is named for Frankfurt, Germany, where frankfurters were first made in the Middle Ages. Modern frankfurters are made of cured and well-smoked beef, pork, poultry, or a combination of meats. In the second half of the 1800’s, frankfurters became popular in the United States as a street food for people taking a break from work or simply out and about town. They were also popular at holiday festivals, local fairs, and traveling carnivals.

German immigrant Chris Von der Ahe is credited with popularizing frankfurters at baseball games. In 1882, Von der Ahe, a grocery and tavern owner, bought the St. Louis Browns baseball team—largely so he could sell frankfurters and beer at the ballpark. Von der Ahe enjoyed great success, and frankfurters quickly appeared at ballparks around the country. According to popular lore, frankfurters became “hot dogs” in 1901 at the Polo Grounds, the home ballpark of the New York Giants. Vendors there sold hot “dachshund sausages,” which was quickly simplified to hot “dogs.” Today, the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council estimates that roughly 19 million hot dogs are sold at Major League Baseball stadiums each year.

Two of the more celebrated events of National Hot Dog Month are the annual hot dog eating contest at Nathan’s Famous in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn and the annual hot dog lunch for staff and members of Congress in Washington, D.C. Numerous cooking contests, festivals, and other events celebrate the hot dog throughout July in all parts of the country.

Los Angeles is credited as the top hot dog eating city in the country, followed by New York City, Philadelphia, and Boston. Outside the United States, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom are the next hungriest for hot dogs, and hot dogs are easily found and eaten in most cities around the world. Mustard is the most popular hot dog condiment—though kids generally prefer ketchup. People often add cheese, onions, pickles, relish, or tomato slices to make their frankfurter “top dog.”