On This Day: March 1

On This Day March 1

Musical Milestones

1969 – “Everyday People,” by Sly and the Family Stone, tops the Billboard Hot 100.

1973 – “The Dark Side of the Moon,” the eighth studio album by British rock band Pink Floyd, is released in the U.S. and gives us classics including “Money” and “Us and Them.” It remains on the Billboard album chart for an incredible 937 weeks (18 years).

1974 – Olivia Newton-John wins Record of the Year and Best Pop Female Vocal Performance Grammys for “I Honestly Love You.”

1975 – The Eagles soar to the top of the singles chart with their first No. 1 single: “Best of My Love.”

1986 – Mr. Mister’s “Kyrie,” from the band’s “Welcome to the Real World” album, begins two weeks as a No. 1 single. 

1997 – The Spice Girls’ debut single, “Wannabe,” is in the middle of a four-week domination of the Billboard Hot 100. The track also goes on to top the pop charts in the band’s native U.K. and 20 other countries.

2003 – Jennifer Lopez and LL Cool J wrap up four weeks as chart-toppers with “All I Have.”

History Highlights

1872 – The U.S. Congress passes an act designating Yellowstone the first federally protected national park.

1932 – In one of the most sensational criminal cases in American history, the 20-month-old son of aviator Charles Lindbergh is kidnapped from the family’s Hopewell, New Jersey mansion. Despite a ransom payment, the child is never returned. Two months later, his decomposed body is found by a truck driver about four miles from the Lindbergh home. The investigation eventually leads to the arrest of German immigrant and carpenter Bruno Hauptmann, who is tried, convicted and executed for the crime in 1936.

1961 – Newly elected President John F. Kennedy signs an executive order establishing the Peace Corps. Over the years, the Peace Corps has sent nearly a quarter of a million American volunteers to 141 countries to provide local training and assistance with health, education, water, sanitation, agriculture, nutrition and forestry projects.

1969 – Legendary New York Yankees center fielder Mickey Mantle announces his retirement from baseball. Nicknamed “The Mick,” he is considered one of the greatest power and switch hitters in baseball history.

Celebrity Birthdays

1904 – Swing bandleader, composer and arranger Glenn Miller (d. 1944)

1927 – Grammy and Tony-winning singer, actor and social activist Harry Belafonte, dubbed the “King of Calypso”

1944 – Singer-songwriter and The Who founder-frontman Roger Daltrey

1954 – Actor and Academy Award-winning director Ron Howard (“The Andy Griffith Show,” “Happy Days,” “Apollo 13,” “A Beautiful Mind,” “Cinderella Man,” “Frost/Nixon,” “Solo: A Star Wars Story”)

1994 – Grammy-winning pop sensation Justin Bieber 

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The Dark Side of the Moon

Pink Floyd

Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975

Eagles

The Lindbergh Case

Jim Fisher

When the World Calls: The Inside Story of the Peace Corps and Its First Fifty Years

Stanley Meisler

The Essential Glenn Miller

Glenn Miller

Apollo 13

Starring Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise and Ed Harris, and directed by Ron Howard

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On This Day: February 28

On This Day February 28

Musical Milestones

1970 – “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” by Simon & Garfunkel, tops the singles chart and remains there for six weeks. It captures Record of the Year and Song of the Year Grammys in 1971 and goes on to sell over six million copies worldwide.

1976 – The No. 1 single comes from a prime time police drama on ABC-TV. It’s “Theme From S.W.A.T.” by Rhythm Heritage.

1976 – Paul Simon’s “Still Crazy After All These Years” captures an Album Of The Year Grammy. In his acceptance speech, Simon tells the audience, “I’d like to thank Stevie Wonder, who didn’t make an album this year.”

1981 – Eddie Rabbitt hops to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “I Love a Rainy Night.”

1983 – U2 release “War,” the Irish rock band’s third studio album, which gives us their earliest signature songs, “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “New Year’s Day.”

1987 – Bon Jovi holds the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with what becomes their signature song: “Livin’ on a Prayer”

1996 – At the 38th Annual Grammy Awards, Kiss shock the audience by appearing in full makeup. Introduced by rapper Tupac Shakur (2Pac), it marks the first time in more than 15 years that all four band members appeared together. Just a few weeks later, they announce a reunion tour.

1998 – Céline Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”, the theme from the blockbuster movie “Titanic,” is captain of the pop chart.

History Highlights

1953 – Cambridge University scientists James Watson and Francis Crick announce that they have confirmed the double-helix structure of DNA, the molecule containing human genes. They are later honored with the Nobel Prize for their achievement.

1958 – A school bus in Prestonsburg, Kentucky hits a tow truck and plunges down an embankment into the rain-swollen Big Sandy River. The driver and 26 children die in what remains the worst school bus accident in U.S. history. 

1983 – After 11 seasons, CBS broadcasts the finale of the popular sitcom “M*A*S*H” as a special two and a half-hour episode (“Goodbye, Farewell and Amen”) watched by 77 percent of the viewing audience. It’s the largest viewership ever for a single TV show up to that time.

1993 – Four federal agents are killed in Waco, Texas after attempting to serve an arrest warrant for weapons charges on Branch Davidian sect leader David Koresh, triggering a 51-day standoff.

1994 – U.S. fighter planes shoot down four Serbian warplanes engaged in a bombing mission that violates Bosnia’s no-fly zone. It marks the first military action in the 45-year history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Celebrity Birthdays

1923 – Actor Charles Durning (“The Front Page,” “North Dallas Forty,” “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas”)  (d. 2012)

1931 – Actor Gavin MacLeod, best known for his TV roles as Murray, the news writer in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” and as Captain Stubing in “The Love Boat” 

1939 – Tony Award-winning actor, dancer, singer, theatre director, producer and choreographer Tommy Tune

1940 – Auto racing legend Mario Andretti 

1948 – Tony Award-winning actress Bernadette Peters (“Dames at Sea,” “The Jerk,” “Pennies from Heaven,” “Silent Movie”)

1957 – Actor-producer John Turturro (“Do The Right Thing,” “Barton Fink,” “The Quiz Show,” “The Big Lebowski,” “Brother, Where Art Thou?,” the “Transformers” movie series) 

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Bridge Over Troubled Water

Simon & Garfunkel

Slippery When Wet

Bon Jovi

M*A*S*H: Goodbye, Farewell and Amen

Starring Alan Alda, Mike Farrell, Loretta Swit, Harry Morgan, David Ogden Stiers, Jamie Farr, William Christopher and others

A Journey to Waco: Autobiography of a Branch Davidian

Clive Doyle, Catherine Wessinger and Matthew D. Wittmer

The Mary Tyler Moore Show - The Complete First Season

Starring Mary Tyler Moore, Edward Asner, Gavin MacLeod, Ted Knight, Valerie Harper and Betty White

Quiz Show

Starring John Turturro, Rob Morrow and Ralph Fiennes, and directed by Robert Redford

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On This Day: February 27

On This Day February 27

Musical Milestones

1954 – Doris Day has the No. 1 single with “Secret Love” from the movie “Calamity Jane.”” The recording goes on to capture an Academy Award for Best Original Song.

1961 – “Pony Time” by Chubby Checker gallops away as the No. 1 single for three weeks. 

1971 – Five months after her death, Janis Joplin begins nine weeks on top of the Billboard album chart with her second and final solo studio album, “Pearl,” which contains her smash “Me and Bobby McGee.”

1980 – The first and last Grammy ever awarded for Best Disco Recording goes to Gloria Gaynor for “I Will Survive,” unofficially marking the end of the disco era.

1988 – George Michael kicks off two weeks on top of the singles chart with “Father Figure,” off his debut studio album, “Faith.”

1993 – Whitney Houston wraps up a 14-week reign over the pop chart with “I Will Always Love You,” a song written and originally recorded by Dolly Parton in 1973. 

1999 – “Angel of Mine,” by Monica, is in the midst of a four-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

History Highlights

1827 – Masked and costumed students dance through the streets of New Orleans, Louisiana, marking the first of the city’s traditional Mardi Gras celebrations. Early French settlers introduced the original Mardi Gras festivities to New Orleans until Spanish governors banned them in the 1700s. Once Louisiana became part of the U.S., laws prohibiting masks and public dancing were rescinded.

1922 – The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, providing for female suffrage, is declared constitutional by unanimous vote of all eight members of the U.S. Supreme Court. 

1936 – Shirley Temple receives a new contract from 20th Century Fox that pays the seven-year-old star an unprecedented $50,000 per film. Over the course of the 1930s, the box office success of her more than 40 films helps Fox weather the Depression.

1951 – On the heels of FDR’s four successive presidential terms, Congress ratifies the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution in 1, limiting the tenure of presidential office to two terms.

1964 – The Italian government announces that it is accepting suggestions on how to save the renowned Leaning Tower of Pisa from collapsing.

1991 – During the Persian Gulf War, President George H. W. Bush announces that “Kuwait is liberated.” 

Celebrity Birthdays

1902 – Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck (“The Grapes of Wrath,” “East of Eden,” “Of Mice and Men”)  (d. 1968)

1930 – Oscar-winning actress Joanne Woodward (“The Three Faces of Eve,” “Rachel Rachel,” “Summer Wishes,” “Winter Dreams,” “Mr. and Mrs. Bridge”)

1932 – Oscar-winning actress Elizabeth Taylor (“National Velvet,” “A Place in the Sun,” “Giant,” “Cat On a Hot Tin Roof,” “Butterfield 8,” “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”) (d. 2011)

1940 – Actor Howard Hesseman, best known for playing DJ Johnny Fever on the 1970s TV sitcom “WKRP in Cincinnati”

1980 – Presidential daughter and businesswoman Chelsea Clinton

1981 – Pop and classical singer-songwriter Josh Groban, who has performed at both the Olympics and the Super Bowl

1983 – Actress Kate Mara (“Brokeback Mountain,” “We Are Marshall,” “Shooter,” “The Open Road,” “Transcendence,” “Fant4stic” “House of Cards”)

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Pearl

Janis Joplin

Faith

George Michael

New Orleans Carnival Krewes: The History, Spirit & Secrets of Mardi Gras

Rosary O’Neill

A Brief History of the Leaning Tower of Pisa

Piero Pierotti

Of Mice and Men

John Steinbeck

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Starring Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman and Burl Ives, and directed by Richard Brooks

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On This Day: February 26

On This Day February 26

Musical Milestones

1966 – “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’,” by Nancy Sinatra, marches to the top of the Billboard singles chart where it spends a week.

1977 – The most popular single on the radio is “New Kid in Town,” off the Eagles’ “Hotel California” album. 

1983 – “Baby Come to Me,” by Patti Austin and James Ingram, enters its second and final week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

1983 – Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” is No. 1 on the Billboard album chart and holds the top spot for 37 weeks. The blockbuster album gives us hits including “Thriller,” “Beat It” and “Billie Jean.” It goes on to capture a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year.

1994 – Céline Dion is midway through a four-week domination of the singles chart with “The Power of Love,” her first Billboard No. 1.

2004 – Mario wraps up nine weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with his Grammy-nominated “Let Me Love You.”

History Highlights

1919 – The U.S. Congress passes an act establishing the Grand Canyon as a National Park in Arizona. 

1929 – The U.S. Congress establishes Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

1934 – President Franklin Roosevelt orders the creation of a Communications Commission, which would become the FCC later that year by an act of Congress.

1972 – A mining dam collapses, sending millions of gallons of black coal wastewater across a wide area of Logan County, West Virginia. The Buffalo Creek Disaster claims 125 lives and leaves 4,000 people homeless.

1993 – Six people are killed and more than 1,000 others are injured when a bomb, planted inside a parked van, explodes in the garage of the World Trade Center in New York City. The blast leaves a crater 150 feet wide and causes the collapse of several steel-reinforced concrete floors. Six terrorists are eventually captured, tried and convicted for the attack.

1998 – A jury finds Oprah Winfrey not guilty in a $10 million defamation lawsuit brought by Texas cattle ranchers. The plaintiffs had accused the talk show host of harming the U.S. beef industry with a 1996 broadcast about mad cow disease. Exiting the courtroom, Winfrey exclaims, “Free speech not only lives, it rocks!”

2012 – Trayvon Martin, an African-American teen, is fatally shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman while walking home from a Sanford, Florida convenience store. The killing sparks a national outcry over race relations and self-defense gun laws, as Martin was unarmed when he was shot.

Celebrity Birthdays

1802 – French Romantic poet-author Victor Hugo (“Les Misérables,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”) (d. 1885)

1829 – Entrepreneur Levi Strauss, best known for his blue jeans manufacturing company (d. 1902)

1916 – Actor-comedian Jackie Gleason (“Cavalcade of Stars,” “The Jackie Gleason Show,” “The Honeymooners,” “The Hustler,” “Smokey and the Bandit,” “Nothing in Common”) (d. 1987)

1920 – Emmy-winning actor Tony Randall, born Aryeh Leonard Rosenberg, best known for playing fussy Felix Unger in the sitcom “The Odd Couple” (d. 2004)

1928 – Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Fats Domino, born Antoine Domino, Jr., who sold more records than any 1950s-era rocker except Elvis Presley (d. 2017)

1932 – Legendary country singer Johnny Cash, known as “The Man in Black” (d. 2003)

1953 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Michael Bolton (“Fool’s Game”, “When a Man Loves a Woman,” “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You”)

1971 – Grammy-winning R&B singer-songwriter and actress Erykah Badu (“On & On,” “The Cider House Rules”) 

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Hotel California

Eagles

Thriller

Michael Jackson

National Geographic Guide to National Parks of the United States

National Geographic

The Oprah Winfrey Show: Reflections on an American Legacy

Deborah Davis

The Hustler

Starring Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, Piper Laurie and George C. Scott, and directed by Robert Rossen

Johnny Cash: The Life

Robert Hilburn

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On This Day: February 25

On This Day February 25

Musical Milestones

1956 – Elvis Presley scores his first hit when “I Forgot to Remember to Forget” reaches No. 1 on the Billboard Country & Western chart. The Beatles cover the song in 1964 on the BBC radio show “From Us to You,” with George Harrison on lead vocals.

1956 – “Lisbon Antigua,” by Nelson Riddle, begins a four-week run as a No. 1 single.

1967 – The No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 for a second and final week belongs to The Buckinghams: “Kind of a Drag”

1978 – The Bee Gees are in their fourth and final week at No. 1 on the singles chart with “Stayin’ Alive,” from the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack.

1981 – Christopher Cross, then a little-known musician from Texas, cleans up at the Grammy Awards with five statuettes, including Best New Artist, Album of the Year (“Christopher Cross”) and Song of the Year (“Sailing”).

1984 – “Jump,” by Van Halen, kicks off five weeks atop the U.S. singles chart. The track, off the band’s “1984” album, is ranked among the “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll” by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 

1995 – Madonna begins seven weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Take a Bow,” off her “Bedtime Stories” album. The single becomes her eleventh chart-topper. With it, Madonna replaces Carole King as the female who had written the most No. 1 songs.

History Highlights

1870 – Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Natchez, Mississippi, is sworn into the U.S. Senate, becoming the first African American ever to sit in Congress. He is assigned to serve on the Committee on Education and Labor and the Committee on the District of Columbia.

1916 – German troops seize Fort Douaumont, the most formidable of the forts guarding the walled city of Verdun, France, four days after launching their initial attack. The Battle of Verdun becomes the longest and bloodiest conflict of World War I, lasting 10 months and resulting in over 700,000 casualties.

1950 – The TV comedy “Your Show of Shows,” hosted by Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca, premieres, eventually helping launch the successful entertainment careers of Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Woody Allen and others.

1964 – Twenty-two-year-old Cassius Clay (who later changes his name to Muhammad Ali) stuns odds-makers by dethroning world heavyweight boxing champ Sonny Liston in a seventh-round technical knockout in Miami Beach.

1984 – A massive explosion, triggered when gasoline from a ruptured pipeline ignited, levels a shantytown outside Sao Paulo, Brazil, killing at least 500 people — mostly young children. However, investigators speculate that the actual death toll may have been closer to 700 since many bodies were incinerated in the intense blaze.

1986 – President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines flees the nation after 20 years of rule. Corazon Aquino becomes that nation’s first woman president. 

2004 – “The Passion of the Christ,” Mel Gibson’s controversial film about the final hours of Jesus of Nazareth’s life, opens in U.S. theaters, starring  Jim Caviezel as Jesus. It receives three Oscar nominations.

Celebrity Birthdays

1913 – Actor Jim Backus, best known for playing stranded millionaire Thurston Howell III in the comedy “Gilligan’s Island” and providing the voice for the cartoon character “Mr. Magoo” (d. 1989)

1935 – Retired syndicated TV talk show host Sally Jessy Raphael

1937 – Retired Emmy-winning CBS News anchor-commentator and author Bob Schieffer

1943 – Singer-songwriter-guitarist and former Beatle George Harrison (d. 2001)

1965 – Comedian Carrot Top, born Scott Thompson

1966 – Actress Tea Leoni, born Elizabeth Téa Pantaleoni (“Bad Boys,” “Deep Impact,” “The Family Man,” “Tower Heist,” “Madam Secretary”) 

1971 – Actor Sean Aston (“The Goonies,” “Rudy,” the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy) 

1976 – Actress Rashida Jones (“The Office,” “Parks and Recreation,” “The Social Network,” “Our Idiot Brother,” “Angie Tribeca”)

1997 – Actress Isabelle Fuhrman, best known for playing a demonic child in “Orphan” and Clove in “The Hunger Games”

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Christopher Cross

Christopher Cross

1984

Van Halen

Black is Best: The Riddle of Cassius Clay

Jack Olsen

Diary of a Dictator -- Ferdinand & Imelda: The Last Days of Camelot

William C. Rempel

Deep Impact

Starring Robert Duvall, Tea Leoni and Elijah Wood, and directed by Mimi Leder

The Social Network

Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake and Armie Hammer, and directed by David Fincher

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On This Day: February 24

On This Day February 24

Musical Milestones

1958 – The Silhouettes are on top of the Billboard pop chart with “Get a Job.” Thanks to the band’s performances on “American Bandstand” and “The Dick Clark Show,” the single goes on to sell over a million copies.

1968 – French orchestra leader Paul Mauriat is in the middle of a five-week run atop the Billboard singles chart with his instrumental, “Love is Blue.” It is the only song by a French artist to ever top Hot 100.

1973 – Roberta Flack begins a five-week reign over the singles chart with “Killing Me Softly with His Song.” The song garners Flack the 1973 Grammy Award for Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, with co-writers Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel earning the Song of the Year Grammy.

1975 – Led Zeppelin’s sixth studio album, “Physical Graffiti,” is released in the U.S. and immediately sees one million copies ship — a whopping order for Atlantic Records. The double album, which features the iconic photo of a New York City tenement on the cover, contains some of the band’s most memorable tracks, including “Kashmir,” “Ten Years Gone” and “In My Time of Dying.”

1982 – Winners at the 24th Annual Grammy Awards include John Lennon and Yoko Ono for Album of the Year (“Double Fantasy”), songwriters Donna Weiss and Jackie DeShannon for Song of the Year (“Bette Davis Eyes” performed by Kim Carnes), Sheena Easton for Best New Artist and Quincy Jones for Producer of the Year.

1990 – Singer-songwriter and pianist Johnnie Ray dies of liver failure at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. Ray is credited with 20 Top 40 singles between 1952 and 1960, including “Just Walking in the Rain.”

1990 – Paula Abdul and The Wild Pair enjoy their third and final week as Billboard chart-toppers with “Opposites Attract.”

1996 – “One Sweet Day” by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men is the No. 1 single.

2001 – “Stutter,” by Joe featuring Mystikal, kicks off four weeks on top of the pop chart.

2007 – Nelly Furtado lands on top of the Billboard Hot 100 for a week with “Say It Right.”

History Highlights

1836 – Under attack by soldiers of the Mexican Army, Colonel William Travis issues an urgent call for reinforcements on behalf of his Texan troops defending the Alamo in Bejar, Texas (San Antonio today).

1868 – Andrew Johnson becomes the first U.S. president to be impeached by the House of Representatives, which charges him with violating the Tenure of Office Act and bringing into “disgrace, ridicule, hatred, contempt, and reproach the Congress of the United States.” Johnson, who assumed office after the Lincoln assassination, is acquitted three months later in the Senate.

1903 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt signs a deal with the new government of Cuba to lease 45 square miles at the mouth of Guantanamo Bay for 2,000 gold coins a year.

1909 – The Hudson Motor Car Company is founded. In the mid-1950s, it becomes American Motors, best known for production of the Gremlin and Pacer.

1968 – The Tet Offensive ends as U.S. and South Vietnamese troops recapture the ancient capital of Hue from communist forces.

1981 – Socialite Jean Harris is convicted of murdering ex-lover Dr. Herman Tarnower, author of the bestselling “The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet,” concluding a sensational trial that ignited a national debate about whether Harris was a woman scorned or a victim of abuse.

1988 – The U.S. Supreme Court sides with Larry Flynt’s Hustler magazine by overturning a lower court decision to award the Reverend Jerry Falwell $200,000 for defamation.

1991 – After the six-week-long bombing campaign against Iraq and its armed forces known as Operation Desert Storm, U.S.-led coalition forces launch a massive ground offensive against Kuwait and Iraq.

Celebrity Birthdays

1874 – Honus Wagner (a.k.a. “The Flying Dutchman”), one of the original five Baseball Hall of Fame inductees, who primarily played for his hometown team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, for 21 seasons. (d. 1955)

1921 – Actor Abe Vigoda, best known as mobster Sal Tessio in “The Godfather” and as NYPD detective Phil Fish in the sitcom “Barney Miller” (d. 2016)

1945 – Actor Barry Bostwick (“The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” “Spin City,” “Scandal”)

1947 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor Edward James Olmos (“Blade Runner,” “Stand and Deliver,” “Battlestar Gallactica”) 

1950 – Blues-rock singer-songwriter George Thorogood (“Bad to the Bone,” “I Drink Alone”)

1955 – Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs (d. 2011)

1965 – Actress Kristin Davis (“Melrose Place,” “Sex and the City”)

1966 – Actor Billy Zane (“Dead Calm,” “The Phantom,” “Titanic,” “Tombstone”)

1977 – Five-division world champion boxer Floyd Mayweather, Jr. 

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Killing Me Softly

Roberta Flack

Physical Graffiti

Led Zeppelin

Very Much a Lady: The Untold Story of Jean Harris and Dr. Herman Tarnower

Shana Alexander

Unseemly Man Hardcover

Larry Flynt

Barney Miller (Season One)

Starring Hal Linden, Abe Vigoda, Ron Glass, Max Gail and others

Steve Jobs

Walter Isaacson

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On This Day: February 23

On This Day February 23

Musical Milestones

1963 – Paul & Paula wrap up their three-week ride on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Hey Paula.”

1974 – Barbra Streisand dominates the pop chart for a third week with the Oscar and Grammy-winning theme from the movie “The Way We Were.”

1978 – For the first time in Grammy Award history, two singles tie for Song of the Year: Barbra Streisand’s “Love Theme from A Star Is Born (Evergreen)” and Debby Boone’s “You Light Up My Life.” Other winners include Fleetwood Mac (Album of the Year for “Rumours”), Eagles (Record of the Year for “Hotel California”) and The Bee Gees (Best Pop Vocal Performance for “How Deep Is Your Love”).

1980 – “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” from Queen’s “The Game” album, becomes the British rock band’s first No. 1 single in the U.S. It holds the top spot for four weeks. Freddie Mercury claimed to have written the song in about 10 minutes while taking a bath.

1991 – Whitney Houston scores her ninth No. 1 single in five years with “All the Man That I Need.”

2000 – Carlos Santana cleans up at the 42nd Annual Grammys, winning eight awards, including Album of the Year for his chart-topping “Supernatural” album.

2002 – “Always on Time,” by Ja Rule featuring Ashanti, tops the Billboard Hot 100.

History Highlights

1836 – The Battle of the Alamo begins as Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna and his army arrive in San Antonio, Texas. Undaunted, William Travis, Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie and a few hundred others prepare to defend the mission together, holding out for 13 days. “Remember the Alamo!” becomes a rallying cry for the Texian Army.

1945 – During the bloody Battle of Iwo Jima, five U.S. Marines and a U.S. Navy corpsman reach the top of Mount Suribachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal. His iconic World War II image — a symbol of American military heroism —  wins a Pulitzer Prize and becomes the inspiration for the national U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia.

1954 – Elementary school children in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania receive the first injections of the new polio vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk. 

1968 – Considered a basketball legend, Wilt Chamberlain becomes the first NBA player to score more than 25,000 points during his professional sports career.

1980 – American speed skater Eric Heiden wins the 10,000-meter race at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, setting a world record with his time and winning an unprecedented fifth Gold medal at the games.

1997 – Scientists in Scotland announce that they have cloned a sheep named Dolly — the first successful cloning of a mammal from an adult cell. This development sparks widespread speculation about the possibility of human cloning.

Celebrity Birthdays

1868 – American civil rights activist, sociologist, educator, historian and writer W.E.B. Du Bois  (d.1963)

1940 – Actor Peter Fonda (“Easy Rider,” “Ulee’s Gold,” “The Passion of Ayn Rand,” “Wild Hogs,” “3:10 to Yuma”) (d. 2019)

1955 – 80s synth-pop singer-songwriter Howard Jones (“Things Can Only Get Better,” “Life in One Day,” “No One Is To Blame”)

1965 – Entrepreneuer and Dell Computer founder-CEO Michael Dell

1976 – Actress Kelly Macdonald (“Trainspotting,” “Gosford Park,” “The Girl in the Café,” “Boardwalk Empire”)

1983 – Golden Globe-winning actress Emily Blunt (“The Devil Wears Prada,” “Gideon’s Daughter,” “The Adjustment Bureau,” “The Five-Year Engagement,” “Edge of Tomorrow,” “Sicario,” “The Huntsman: Winter’s War,” “The Girl on the Train”, “A Quiet Place”, “Mary Poppins Returns”)

1994 – Actress Dakota Fanning (“I Am Sam,” “Man on Fire,” “War of the Worlds,” “Charlotte’s Web,” “Coraline,” “The Twilight Saga”)

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The Platinum Collection (Greatest Hits I, II & III)

Queen

Supernatural

Carlos Santana

Flags of Our Fathers

James Bradley with Ron Powers

Polio: An American Story

David M. Oshinsky

Easy Rider

Starring Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Karen Black, and directed by Dennis Hopper

Live Die Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow

Starring Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt and Bill Paxton, and directed by Doug Liman

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On This Day: February 22

On This Day February 22

Musical Milestones

1960 – Percy Faith starts a nine-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart with “Theme From A Summer Place.”

1975 – The Average White Band scores No. 1 on the singles chart with “Pick Up The Pieces,” while the album containing that track, “AWB,” tops the Billboard album chart.

1989 – Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Tina Turner, wins the Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocalist for her “Tina Live in Europe” album.

1990 – Milli Vanilli (Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan) win the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. Nine months later, they are stripped of the honor after they are caught lip-syncing and admit they never sang a single note on the acclaimed “Girl You Know It’s True” album.

1992 – “I’m Too Sexy,” by British band Right Said Fred, marks its third and final week as a No. 1 single.

1997 – The Spice Girls begin four weeks as Billboard chart-toppers with “Wannabe,” the band’s debut single.

1998 – Madonna releases the Grammy-winning “Ray of Light.” With its use of electronica and techno-pop, the album represents a departure from Madonna’s traditional sound. It contains the hits “Frozen,” “Ray of Light” and “The Power of Good-Bye.”

2003 – “All I Have,” by Jennifer Lopez featuring LL Cool J, rules the Billboard Hot 100. Lopez goes on to name her 2016 Las Vegas Residency Show after the song.

History Highlights

1959 – In a photo finish, Lee Petty emerges as the winner of the first Daytona 500 auto race. 

1980 – One of the most dramatic upsets in Olympics history takes place in Lake Placid, New York. In what is known as “The Miracle on Ice,” the underdog U.S. hockey team, made up of college players, defeats the four-time defending Gold medal-winning Soviet team 4-3 at the XIII Olympic Winter Games.

1987 – Pop art pioneer, filmmaker and cultural icon Andy Warhol dies at the age of 58.

2014 – One of the world’s most-wanted criminals, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera — head of the Sinaloa cartel, the world’s biggest drug trafficking organization — is arrested in a joint U.S.-Mexican operation in Mexico, after outrunning authorities for more than a decade. 

Celebrity Birthdays

1732 – First U.S. President George Washington (d. 1799)

1907 – Actor Robert Young (“Father Knows Best,” “Marcus Welby, M.D.”) (d. 1998)

1932 – Massachusetts Senator Edward (Ted) Kennedy  (d. 2009)

1944 – Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme (“Melvin and Howard,” “Swing Shift,” “Married to the Mob,” “The Silence of the Lambs,” “Philadelphia”)

1950 – Retired NBA legend Julius “Dr. J” Erving

1959 – Golden Globe-winning actor Kyle MacLachlan (“Dune,” “Blue Velvet,” “Twin Peaks,” “Sex and the City,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Portlandia”)

1966 – Comedian and “Saturday Night Live” (“SNL”) alum Rachel Dratch 

1975 – Golden Globe-winning actress, producer and director Drew Barrymore (“E.T.: The Extraterrestrial,” “Boys on the Side,” “Charlie’s Angels,” “50 First Dates,” “Grey Gardens,” “Blended”)

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Greatest Hits

Milli Vanilli

Ray of Light

Madonna

The Boys of Winter: The Untold Story of a Coach, a Dream, and the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team

Wayne Coffey

The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again

Andy Warhol

Philadelphia

Starring Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington and Antonio Banderas, and directed by Jonathan Demme

Twin Peaks: The Complete Series

Starring Kyle MacLachlan and Michael Ontkean, and directed by David Lynch

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On This Day: February 21

On This Day February 21

Musical Milestones

1970 – Sly & the Family Stone begin the second and final week as chart-toppers with “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin).”

1976 – Paul Simon begins his third and final week on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.” The track, off his Grammy-winning “Still Crazy After All These Years” album, is the only No. 1 Simon has ever achieved as a solo act.

1976 – The Willie Nelson-Waylon Jennings album “Outlaws” becomes the first country music album to go platinum.

1977 – Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” is released. The album goes on to sell more than 15 million copies worldwide and spends 31 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart.

1981 – Dolly Parton rules the singles chart with the title track from the motion picture “9 to 5.” Parton co-stars in the movie with Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dabney Coleman.

1987 – “Livin’ on a Prayer,” by Bon Jovi, is in the midst of a four-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart.

1990 – “Let the River Run,” by Carly Simon, wins Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture at the 32nd annual Grammy Awards. The track, which had previously been honored with an Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Original Song, is from the movie “Working Girl,” starring Melanie Griffith, Sigourney Weaver and Harrison Ford.

1998 – Usher wraps up two weeks as a Billboard chart-topper with “Nice & Slow.”

2004 – “Slow Jamz,” by Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx, begins a week on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

History Highlights

1885 – The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated. The monument, built in the shape of an Egyptian obelisk, underwent two phases of construction: one private (1848-1854) and one public (1876-1884). When completed, it was the tallest structure in the world at 555 feet, 5-1/8 inches.

1925 – The New Yorker magazine publishes its first edition.

1948 – The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) is officially incorporated and goes on to become one of America’s most popular spectator sports as well as a multi-billion-dollar industry.

1965 – Malcolm X, an African American nationalist and religious leader, is assassinated by rival Black Muslims while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity in New York City.

1972 – Richard Nixon makes the first presidential visit to the People’s Republic of China in an effort to normalize Sino-American relations. 

1995 – National Aviation Hall of Famer Steve Fossett lands safely in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada, completing the first ever solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon. Sadly, Fossett is declared dead in 2008 after a plane he was piloting vanished over the Nevada desert in September 2007. He was 63.

Celebrity Birthdays

1946 – Emmy and Tony-winning actress Tyne Daly (“Cagney & Lacey,” “Judging Amy,” “Gypsy”)

1946 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor Alan Rickman (“Die Hard,” “Galaxy Quest,” the “Harry Potter” series, “Something the Lord Made,” “Eye in the Sky”) (d. 2016)

1955 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor-producer Kelsey Grammer (“Cheers,” “Frasier,” “Toy Story 2,” “X-Men: Last Stand”)

1963 – Actor William Baldwin (“Flatliners,” “Backdraft,” “Sliver,” “The Squid and the Whale,” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”)

1979 – Actress Jennifer Love Hewitt (“Party of Five,” “I Know What You Did Last Summer”)

1987 – Actress Ellen Page (“Juno,” “Whip It,” “Inception”, “X-Men” Series) 

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Still Crazy After All These Years

Paul Simon

Rumours

Fleetwood Mac

Washington's Monument And the Fascinating History of the Obelisk

John Steele Gordon

The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley

Malcolm X, Alex Haley and Attallah Shabazz

Backdraft

Starring Kurt Russell, William Baldwin, Robert De Niro and Scott Glenn, and directed by David Westgor

Juno

Starring Ellen Page, Ellen Page and Michael Cera, and directed by Jason Reitman

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On This Day: February 20

On This Day February 20

Musical Milestones

1959 – Legendary rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix is 16 years old when he makes his stage debut during a performance at Temple De Hirsch Sinai synagogue in Seattle. He is fired before the second set begins.

1965 – “This Diamond Ring,” by Gary Lewis & the Playboys, begins a two-week ride atop the Billboard singles chart. 

1970 – The single “Instant Karma! (We All Shine On),” by John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band, is released in the U.S. Lennon wrote, recorded and mixed the track all in one day, on January 27, 1970, with producer Phil Spector, at the Abbey Road Studios in London.

1982 – The J. Geils Band’s “Centerfold” is midway through a six-week domination of the Billboard Hot 100. It is the first single from the band’s “Freeze Frame” album. The music video becomes an early staple of MTV programming.

1988 – “Seasons Change,” by one-hit wonder Exposé, tops the Billboard Hot 100 for a week.

1991 – Actor Jack Nicholson presents Bob Dylan with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 34th Annual Grammys.

1993 – “I Will Always Love You,” by Whitney Houston, enters its 13th week as a No. 1 single. Written by Dolly Parton, the song is from the soundtrack to the movie, “The Bodyguard,” starring Houston and Kevin Costner.

1999 – Monica is in the middle of a four-week run at No. 1 on the pop chart with “Angel of Mine.”

2010 – Kesha dominates the pop chart with “Tik Tok,” which enters its eighth week at No. 1.

History Highlights

1792 – President George Washington signs the Postal Act, creating the U.S. Postal Service (USPS).

1895 – American journalist, orator and anti-slavery leader Frederick Douglass dies at the age of 78. 

1962 – John Glenn launches into space from Cape Canaveral, Florida aboard NASA’s Mercury capsule, named Friendship 7, on the first orbital flight by an American astronaut. He completes three Earth orbits in just under five hours, ushering in a new era of spaceflight for the United States.

1965 – Ranger 8 crashes into the moon after a successful mission to photograph possible landing sites for the Apollo program.

1986 – The Soviet Union launches the first components of the Mir space station, which orbits Earth more than 86,000 times before falling harmlessly into the South Pacific near Fiji in March 2001.

1998 – American Tara Lipinski is 15 when she wins the Gold medal in women’s figure skating at the Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, becoming the youngest gold medalist in her sport.

2003 – One hundred people are killed, 230 others are injured when pyrotechnics during a Great White concert at The Station nightclub in Warwick, Rhode Island ignite flammable foam installed as soundproofing. The club burns to the ground in less than three minutes.

Celebrity Birthdays

1902 – Pioneering photographer and preservationist Ansel Adams (d. 1984)

1927 – Oscar-winning actor-director Sidney Poitier (“Lilies of the Field,” “In the Heat of the Night,” “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” “To Sir, With Love,” “Sneakers,” “The Jackal”)

1946 – Singer-songwriter and guitarist John Warren Geils, Jr., known professionally as J. Geils, frontman for the 80s rockers The J. Geils Band. (d. 2017)

1963 – Retired basketball star Charles Barkley, named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History

1966 – Fashion icon, supermodel and entrepreneur Cindy Crawford

1967 – Legendary grunge music pioneer Kurt Cobain, lead singer-songwriter-guitarist of the band Nirvana (d. 1994)

1988 – Grammy-winning R&B singer-songwriter Rihanna, born Robyn Rihanna Fenty (“Umbrella,” “We Found Love,” “The Monster”) 

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Experience Hendrix: The Best of Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix

Power To The People - The Hits

John Lennon

The Postal Age: The Emergence of Modern Communications in Nineteenth-Century America

David M. M. Henkin

Friendship 7: The Epic Orbital Flight of John H. Glenn, Jr.

Colin Burgess

Ansel Adams: 400 Photographs

Ansel Adams

To Sir, With Love

Starring Sidney Poitier, Christian Roberts and Judy Geeson, and directed by James Clavell

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