July 15th, 2007-July 10, 2008

Important world events that took place between Willie's extra base hits:

• The I-35W Mississippi River Bridge on I-35W over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota between University Avenue and Washington Avenue collapses at 6:05 pm CST during the later part of rush hour, killing 13 people.
• The Crandall Canyon Mine in Emery County, Utah collapses, trapping six miners.
• Barry Bonds breaks Hank Aaron's home run record by hitting his 756th home run.
• 2007 United States Air Force nuclear weapons incident in which a B-52 flew from Minot AFB, ND to Barksdale AFB, LA carrying six nuclear warheads.
• Hurricane Felix.
• Track and field star Marion Jones surrenders her five Olympic medals she won in the 2000 Sydney Games after admitting to doping.
• Apple Inc. launches the sixth major release of their Mac OS X operating system entitled, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.
• The Boston Red Sox win the 2007 World Series in a four-game sweep against the Colorado Rockies.
• The Writers Guild of America goes on a strike that lasts until February 12, 2008.
• The Zasyadko mine disaster in eastern Ukraine claims the lives of 101 miners.
• Led Zeppelin reunites in London, England, for a tribute to Ahmet Ertegün.
• Former US Senator George J. Mitchell publicly releases a report accusing 89 retired and active Major League Baseball players of anabolic steroid use.
• Crude oil closes above $100 USD per barrel for the first time ever, settling at $100.01.
• Surgeons at London's Moorfields Eye Hospital perform the first operations using bionic eyes, implanting them into two blind patients.
• Tammy Faye Baker, Merv Griffin, Phil Rizzuto, Michael Jackson (beer guru), Marcel Marceau, Evel Knievel, Ike Turner, Dan Fogelberg, George Carlin, Tim Russert, Bo Diddley, Sydney Pollack, Irv Robbins, Buzzie Bavasi, John Marzano, Sir Edmund Hillary and a metric f-ton of other people kicked the bucket.

Congratulations, Willie!