On This Day - Time Rewind

On This Day February 23

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On This Day February 22

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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”)

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.

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.

On This Day February 21

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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)

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.

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.

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.

On This Day February 20

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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”)

History Highlights

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

1895 – American journalist, author, orator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass dies at the age of 78. Douglass conferred with President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and recruited northern Black officers for the Union Army. After the War, he fought for the rights of women and African Americans alike.

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.

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.

On This Day February 19

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Celebrity Birthdays

1940 – “King of Motown,” Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Smokey Robinson (“You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me,” “I Second That Emotion,” “The Tears of a Clown,” “Cruisin’,” “Being With You”)

1952 – Novelist Amy Tan, best known for The New York Times bestseller, “The Joy Luck Club.”

1955 – Emmy-winning actor Jeff Daniels (“Something Wild,” “Dumb and Dumber,” “Fly Away Home,” “Pleasantville,” “The Newsroom,” “Steve Jobs,” “The Martian”)

1963 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Seal, born Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel (“Crazy,” “Prayer for the Dying,” “Kiss from a Rose”)

1966 – Actress Justine Bateman (“Family Ties,” “Satisfaction,” “Men Behaving Badly”)

1967 – Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actor-producer Benicio Del Toro (“The Usual Suspects,” Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” “Traffic,” “Sin City,” “Che”, Guardians of the Galaxy franchise)

1993 – Actress and singer Victoria Justice (“Zoey 101,” “iCarly,” “Victorious,” “The Penguins of Madagascar,” “Eye Candy”)

History Highlights

1847 – The first rescuers reach surviving members of the Donner Party, a group of California-bound emigrants stranded by snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

1878 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for a pioneering invention—the phonograph, the first device to both record sound and play it back. U.S. Patent No. 200,521 is just one of the more than one thousand issued to Edison for his inventions.

1942 – Amid World War II hysteria following the Pearl Harbor attack, President Franklin Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, which sends 117,000 Japanese-Americans living along the Pacific coast to internment camps in remote areas around the U.S. A smaller number of Americans of Italian and German descent are also detained.

1963 – The publication of Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique” revitalizes America’s feminist movement.

2010 – Golf superstar Tiger Woods holds a televised news conference in which he apologizes for marital infidelities and admits to “selfish” and “foolish” behavior. Woods’ statement comes three months after he crashed his car near his Florida home in the middle of the night.

Musical Milestones

1966 – Lou Christie zaps his way to the top of the singles chart with “Lightnin’ Strikes.”

1972 – Harry Nilsson’s “Without You” begins a four-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The ballad, which was first recorded by Badfinger in 1970, garners Nilsson a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal.

1977 – “Blinded by the Light,” by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, is the No. 1 single. The song was written and originally performed by Bruce Springsteen.

1977 – At the 19th Annual Grammy Awards, Stevie Wonder captures top honors for Best Album for “Songs in the Key of Life” as well as Best Male Pop Vocalist and Best Producer. Most music critics still consider the double-album Wonder’s finest work.

1983 – “Baby, Come to Me,” by Patti Austin and James Ingram, begins two weeks on top of the Billboard pop chart.

1994 – Céline Dion is in the midst of a four-week reign over the Billboard Hot 100 with “The Power of Love.”

2005 – “Let Me Love You,” by Mario, is the No. 1 single.

On This Day February 18

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Celebrity Birthdays

1898 – Race car driver and Ferrari Motor founder Enzo Ferrari (d. 1988)

1931 – Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison (“The Bluest Eye,” “Song of Solomon,” “Beloved”) (d. 2019)

1950 – Golden Globe-winning actress Cybill Shepherd (“The Last Picture Show,” “Taxi Driver,” “Moonlighting,” “Cybill”)

1954 – Golden Globe-winning actor John Travolta (“Welcome Back, Kotter,” “Saturday Night Fever,” “Grease,” “Pulp Fiction,” “Get Shorty,” “Broken Arrow,” “Face/Off,” “Hairspray”)

1964 – Actor-director Matt Dillon (“Rumble Fish,” “The Outsiders,” “The Flamingo Kid,” “Drugstore Cowboy,” “In & Out,” “There’s Something About Mary,” “Crash,” “You, Me and Dupree”)

1965 – Grammy-winning hip-hop pioneer Dr. Dre, born Andre Young

1968 – Actress Molly Ringwald (“Sixteen Candles,” “The Breakfast Club,” “Pretty in Pink,” “Something to Live for: The Alison Gertz Story,” “The Stand”)

History Highlights

1885 – Writing under the pen name Mark Twain, author Samuel Clemens publishes “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” At the surface of Twain’s novel is the journey of a boy named Huck and his friend Jim, a runaway slave, who travel down the Mississippi River on a raft. However, at its core, the literary classic is a satirical look at racism, religion and other social attitudes of the time. It remains one of the most beloved, and most banned, books in American history.

1929 – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces the winners of the first Academy Awards to the press. Emil Jannings is the first Best Actor and Janet Gaynor the first Best Actress. Three months later, a black-tie banquet honoring the winners is held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, with 270 guests paying $5 apiece to attend.

1930 – Peering through a powerful telescope at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona, astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto, formerly the ninth planet in our solar system.

1967 – J. Robert Oppenheimer, known as the “father of the atomic bomb,” dies of throat cancer at the age of 62.

1970 – Five members of The Chicago Seven are found guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

1977 – The space shuttle Enterprise test vehicle is carried on its maiden “flight,” sitting on top of a Boeing 747 to determine how well the two vehicles flew together.

Musical Milestones

1956 – The Platters serve up the No. 1 single in America: “The Great Pretender.”

1956 – “Rock Around the Clock,” by Bill Haley and His Comets, becomes the first rock and roll LP to make the U.S. pop album charts.

1959 – At the Atlantic Records studio in New York, Ray Charles records “What’d I Say,” considered one of the greatest soul/R&B records ever produced. The track paves the way for Charles to break into mainstream pop music.

1967 – “Kind of a Drag,” by The Buckinghams, begins two weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

1982 – Cher makes her Broadway acting debut in “Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean.”

1995 – TLC marks its fourth and final week on top of the pop chart with “Creep.”

2006 – “Check On It,” by Beyoncé featuring Bun B and Slim Thug, is in the midst of a five-week domination of the Billboard Hot 100.

On This Day February 17

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Celebrity Birthdays

1925 – Actor Hal Holbrook (“Mark Twain Tonight,” “Designing Women,” “The Firm”)

1954 – Actress Rene Russo (“Lethal Weapon 3,” “Ransom,” “The Thomas Crown Affair”)

1962 – Actor Lou Diamond Phillips (“La Bamba,” “Stand and Deliver,” “Courage Under Fire,” “Che,” “The 33”)

1963 – Basketball legend Michael Jordan

1963 – Comedian-actor Larry the Cable Guy, born Daniel Whitney (“Blue Collar Comedy Tour,” “Cars”)

1965 – Director Michael Bay (“The Rock,” “Armageddon,” “Pearl Harbor,” “Transformers”)

1972 – Singer-songwriter and Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong

1974 – Actor Jerry O’Connell (“Stand By Me,” “Sliders,” “Crossing Jordan”)

1981 – Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt (“3rd Rock From the Sun,” “(500) Days of Summer,” “Inception,” “The Dark Knight Rises,” “Premium Rush,” “Looper,” “The Walk”)

1981 – Socialite, model and actress Paris Hilton

History Highlights

1801 – Thomas Jefferson is elected the third president of the United States. The election constitutes the first peaceful transfer of power from one U.S. political party to another. In addition to drafting the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson had served in two Continental Congresses, was minister to France and secretary of state under George Washington and had served as John Adams’ vice president.

1933 – Newsweek magazine is published for the first time (called News-Week at the time), featuring cover stories about German dictator Adolf Hitler and U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt. A copy sells for 10 cents.

1947 – The Voice of America (VOA) begins to transmit radio broadcasts to the Soviet Union.

1972 – President Richard Nixon leaves Washington on a peace mission to the People’s Republic of China, becoming the first U.S. president to do so.

1974 – Disgruntled U.S. Army Private Robert K. Preston buzzes the White House in a stolen military helicopter. Secret Service agents fire on the chopper, forcing it to land on the South Lawn. Preston suffers minor injuries and is quickly arrested. President and Mrs. Richard Nixon were away at the time.

1979 – Garrison Keillor’s popular radio variety show, “A Prairie Home Companion” premieres on National Public Radio (NPR). The broadcast originated from Northrop Auditorium on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis.

1996 – In the final game of a six-game match, world chess champion Garry Kasparov triumphs over Deep Blue, IBM’s chess-playing computer, and wins the match, 4-2. However, Deep Blue defeats Kasparov in a heavily publicized rematch the following year.

Musical Milestones

1904 – Giacomo Puccini’s opera, “Madame Butterfly,” premieres at the La Scala theater in Milan, Italy.

1962 – Gene Chandler carries the 50s doo-wop sound into the 60s as “Duke of Earl” launches a three-week run on top of the Billboard pop chart.

1967 – The Beatles begin recording “Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite” at Abbey Road Studios in London. The carnival-sounding track is on the “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album.

1971 – James Taylor makes his American television debut on “The Johnny Cash Show.” Other guests include Neil Young, Linda Ronstadt and Tony Joe White.

1975 – AC/DC release their debut album, “High Voltage,” in their native Australia. About a year later, a slightly different version of the album is released internationally.

1996 – The Mariah Carey-Boyz II Men duet, “One Sweet Day,” is in the middle of a 16-week domination of the Billboard Hot 100.

2001 – “Ms. Jackson,” by OutKast, grabs the No. 1 spot on the pop chart for a week. The track goes on to win a Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group at the 44th Annual Grammy Awards.

On This Day February 16

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Celebrity Birthdays

1935 – Musician, record producer and U.S. Congressman Sonny Bono, best known as half of the Sonny & Cher pop duo (d. 1998)

1952 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter James Ingram (“One Hundred Ways,” “Baby Come to Me,” “Yah Mo B There,” “I Don’t Have the Heart”) (d. 2019)

1957 – Emmy and Grammy-winning actor LeVar Burton (“Roots,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “Reading Rainbow”)

1958 – Grammy-winning rapper and actor Ice-T, born Tracy Marrow (“New Jack City,” “Ricochet,” “Law & Order SVU”)

1959 – Retired tennis champion and sports commentator John McEnroe

1964 – Actor Christopher Eccleston (“28 Days Later,” “Thor: The Dark World,” “Doctor Who”)

History Highlights

1923 – English archaeologist Howard Carter opens the tomb of the ancient Egyptian ruler King Tutankhamen.

1959 – Fidel Castro is sworn in as prime minister of Cuba after leading a guerrilla campaign that forced right-wing dictator Fulgencio Batista into exile.

1968 – The nation’s first 911 emergency telephone system goes into service in Haleyville, Alabama. Today, across the U.S., an estimated 240 million calls a year are made to 911.

1984 – Bill Johnson becomes the first American man to win an Olympic gold medal in downhill skiing, a sport long dominated by European athletes.

Musical Milestones

1959 – “Stagger Lee,” by Lloyd Price, is in the middle of a four-week run at No. 1 on the pop chart.

1964 – The Beatles are guests on “The Ed Sullivan Show” for a second time, with this broadcast originating from the Deauville Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida. CBS gave away 4,500 tickets, however the hotel could only accommodate 2,600 people.

1974 – A Bob Dylan album reaches the top of the Billboard album chart for the first time. “Planet Waves,” featuring a collaboration with The Band, holds the top spot for four weeks.

1975 – After a four-season run as half of “The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour,” Cher gets her own weekly variety show on CBS, simply called “Cher.” The series features guests like Elton John, Bette Midler, David Bowie, Bill Cosby, the Smothers Brothers, George Burns, Steve Martin and more.

1980 – “Do That to Me One More Time” becomes the Captain & Tennille’s second No. 1 single.

1985 – “Careless Whisper,” by Wham! featuring George Michael, tops the Billboard singles chart and stays there for three weeks.

1991 – “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now),” by C+C Music Factory featuring Freedom Williams and Martha Wash begins its seconmd and final week on top of the pop chart.

2002 – Usher begins his fifth and final week atop the Billboard Hot 100 with “U Got It Bad.”

2008 – “Low,” by Flo-Rida featuring T-Pain, is in the middle of 10 weeks as a No. 1 single.

On This Day February 15

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Celebrity Birthdays

1564 – Scientist Galileo Galilei (generally referred to as Galileo), a major figure in the scientific revolution, who made pioneering discoveries that advanced the study of astronomy, physics and philosophy (d. 1642)

1820 – Suffragette reformer and women’s rights activist Susan B. Anthony (d. 1906)

1927 – Emmy-winning comedian Harvey Korman (“The Carol Burnett Show,” “Blazing Saddles”) (d. 2008)

1951 – Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Melissa Manchester (“Midnight Blue,” “Don’t Cry Out Loud, “Through the Eyes of Love”)

1951 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actress Jane Seymour (“Somewhere in Time,” “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,” “Wedding Crashers”)

1954 – Cartoonist Matt Groening, best known for creating “The Simpsons”

1964 – Actor-comedian Chris Farley (“Saturday Night Live,” “Wayne’s World,” “Tommy Boy,” “Black Sheep,” “Beverly Hills Ninja”) (d. 1997)

History Highlights

1879 – President Rutherford B. Hayes signs a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.

1898 – The battleship USS Maine explodes and sinks in Havana (Cuba) Harbor, killing more than 260 crewmen. The incident prompts the U.S. to declare war on Spain.

1903 – The first teddy bear, named for U.S. President Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt, goes on sale. Toy store owner and inventor Morris Michtom places two stuffed bears in his shop window after personally getting Roosevelt’s permission to name them after him.

1933 – Two weeks before his inauguration, President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt is fired upon by a would-be assassin after giving a speech in Miami. FDR is unharmed, but a bullet strikes Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, who dies three weeks later.

1965 – A new red-and-white maple leaf design is adopted as the flag of Canada, replacing the old Canadian Red Ensign banner.

1978 – Leon Spinks takes the heavyweight boxing champion title away from defending champ Muhammad Ali in a split decision in Las Vegas.

1985 – “The Breakfast Club” opens in U.S. theaters. Directed by John Hughes and starring Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Anthony Michael Hall and Ally Sheedy — members of the so-called “Brat Pack” — it becomes an ’80s movie classic. In 2016, the film is selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by The Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

1998 – Racing great Dale Earnhardt, Sr. wins his first Daytona 500, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) season opener and an event dubbed the “Super Bowl of stock car racing.”

Musical Milestones

1964 – “Meet The Beatles!” reaches No. 1 on the Billboard album chart, becoming The Beatles’ first chart-topping album in the U.S. It holds the top spot for eleven weeks and sells more than four million copies by the end of that year.

1965 – The Beatles record “Another Girl” and “Ticket to Ride” for the “Help!” album. Earlier that day, John Lennon earns a personal ticket to ride by passing his driving test.

1965 – Entertainer Nat King Cole (“Unforgettable,” “Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer,” “The Christmas Song,” “Mona Lisa”), who earned early acclaim as a jazz pianist and became the first African American performer to host a network TV variety show, dies of lung cancer at the age of 45.

1969 – Sly & the Family Stone rule the Billboard singles chart with “Everyday People,” which remains at No. 1 for four weeks.

1975 – “You’re No Good,” by Linda Ronstadt, is the No. 1 single.

1984 – Beloved actress-singer Ethel Merman, best known for her rendition of “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” from the musical “Annie Get Your Gun,” dies at the age of 75.

1986 – “How Will I Know,” by Whitney Houston, becomes the most popular single in the U.S. for two weeks.

1992 – One-hit-wonder Right Said Fred is in the middle of three weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 with “I’m Too Sexy.”

2003 – “All I Have,” by Jennifer Lopez featuring LL Cool J, is midway through a four-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart.

On This Day February 14

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Celebrity Birthdays

1818 – Former slave-turned-civil rights activist Frederick Douglass (d. 1895)

1894 – Legendary comedian Jack Benny, born Benjamin Kubelsky (d. 1974)

1913 – American labor union leader Jimmy Hoffa, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances (d. 1975)

1921 – Retired Emmy-winning TV anchor-host Hugh Downs (“Today” show, “20/20”)

1934 – Actress Florence Henderson, best remembered for playing Carol Brady on the sitcom “The Brady Bunch” (d. 2016)

1942 – Businessman and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg

1944 – Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and former “Washington Post” reporter Carl Bernstein, who, along with colleague Bob Woodward, broke the Watergate story that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon

1960 – Golden Globe-winning actress Meg Tilly (“The Big Chill,” “Agnes of God”)

1970 – Actor Simon Pegg (“Shaun of the Dead,” “Hot Fuzz,” “The World’s End,” “Spaced,” “Star Trek,” “Star Trek Into Darkness,” “Mission: Impossible”)

1972 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and Matchbox Twenty frontman Rob Thomas

History Highlights

1849 – James Polk becomes the first American president to be photographed while in office.

1920 – The League of Women Voters is established as a “political experiment” designed to help 20 million women carry out their new responsibilities as voters. It encouraged them to use their new power to participate in shaping public policy.

1924 – International technology giant IBM (International Business Machines Corp.) is founded and eventually becomes known as “Big Blue.”

1929 – Seven rivals of mobster Al Capone are gunned down in a Chicago garage during the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.

1962 – First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy gives Americans an intimate, televised tour of The White House, hosted by CBS News correspondent Charles Collingwood. Although produced by CBS, the special airs on all three major TV networks the same week and is eventually broadcast in other countries, reaching an estimated global audience of some 80 million viewers.

1988 – U.S. speed skater Dan Jansen, a favorite to win the gold medal in the 500-meter race at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, falls during competition, only hours after learning his sister had died of cancer.

1989 – Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini calls on Muslims to kill “The Satanic Verses” author Salman Rushdie because his book mocked or at least contained mocking references to the Prophet Muhammad and other aspects of Islam.

2018 – An expelled student enters Parkland, Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and opens fire, killing 17 people and wounding 17 others, in what becomes the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.

Musical Milestones

1967 – Aretha Franklin records the soul single, “Respect,” at the Atlantic Records studio in New York. The now-classic track, which was written by Otis Redding, climbs to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 that June.

1970 – ”Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin),” by Sly & the Family Stone, is the hottest song on the radio.

1972 – John Lennon and Yoko Ono serve as co-hosts of “The Mike Douglas Show” for an entire week.

1981 – “Celebration,” by Kool & the Gang, begins its second and final week as the No. 1 single.

1987 – Bon Jovi grabs hold of the top spot on the Billboard singles chart for four weeks with “Livin’ on a Prayer,” off the “Slippery When Wet” album.

1998 – Usher has his first No. 1 single with “Nice & Slow.” The track remains a Billboard chart-topper for two weeks.

2004 – “The Way You Move,” by OutKast featuring Sleepy Brown, is the No. 1 single.

2015 – “Uptown Funk,” by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars, is in the midst of a 14-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.