On This Day: September 30

On This Day September 30

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1917 – Legendary jazz drummer Buddy Rich, who played with bandleaders Tommy Dorsey and Artie Shaw before leading his own band (d. 1987)

1924 – “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and “In Cold Blood” author Truman Capote (d. 1984)

1928 – Nobel Peace Prize-winning author and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel (d. 2016)

1931 – Actress Angie Dickinson, who starred in the 1970s TV crime drama “Police Woman”

1935 – Grammy Hall of Fame pop vocalist Johnny Mathis (“Chances Are,” “Misty”, “It’s Not for Me to Say”)

1943 – Singer Marilyn McCoo, formerly of the band the 5th Dimension

1954 – Actor Barry Williams, born Barry William Blenkhorn, who played Greg on TV’s “The Brady Bunch”

1957 – Actress-comedian Fran Drescher, best known for her starring role in the 1990s sitcom “The Nanny”

1971 – Golden Globe-winning actress Jenna Elfman, best known for her role as Dharma in the sitcom “Dharma & Greg”

1975 – Oscar-winning actress Marion Cotillard (“La Vie en Rose,” “Big Fish,” “Public Enemies,” “Midnight in Paris,” “Contagion,” “Inception,” “The Dark Knight Rises”)

History Highlights
History Highlights

1927 – Babe Ruth hits his 60th home run of the season off Tom Zachary of the Washington Senators. Ruth’s record for the most homers in a single season stands for 34 years until Roger Maris hits 61 in 1961.

1954 – The U.S. Navy commissions the USS Nautilus, the world’s first nuclear submarine. During its early years of service, the vessel breaks numerous submarine travel records, and in August 1958, achieves the first voyage under the North Pole. 

1955 – Hollywood legend James Dean is killed in a car accident at the age of 24. At the time, Dean is speeding in his beloved “Little Bastard” — a silver Porsche 550 Spyder — to a car race in Salinas, California, when a vehicle driven by a 23-year-old college student veers into his path.

1960 – Yabba Dabba Do! Hanna-Barbera introduces Americans to a “modern Stone Age family” in the animated series “The Flintstones,” which lasts six seasons on ABC.

1968 – The first Boeing 747, named “City of Everett,” is rolled out before thousands of employees and the international press at Boeing’s Everett, Washington factory. The jumbo jet is the world’s largest civilian aircraft at that time — capable of carrying up to 490 passengers and 33 attendants. It officially enters service on February 9, 1969.

1982 – The NBC sitcom “Cheers,” set in a Boston bar, debuts, starring Ted Danson and Shelley Long. It is nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series each of the 11 seasons it is on the air, capturing 28 Primetime Emmy Awards from a record 117 nominations.

1984 – The popular prime time series “Murder, She Wrote” premieres on CBS, starring Angela Lansbury as crime novelist Jessica Fletcher, who travels the country solving murder cases. The show picks up two Golden Globes during a 12-season run. Lansbury is nominated for 10 Golden Globes and 12 Emmy Awards, winning four Golden Globes.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1967 – The Box Tops are in the middle of a four-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart with “The Letter.” Rolling Stone magazine has ranked the track among its “500 Greatest Songs of All Time,” the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame added it to its “500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll” list, and in 2011, the single was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

1972 – Mac Davis is in the midst of a three-week ride on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Baby, Don’t Get Hooked on Me.” The track receives a nomination for a Best Pop Vocal Performance (Male) Grammy.

1977 – Mary Ford, who with her husband, guitar pioneer Les Paul, made up one of the most popular musical duos of the 1950s, dies from complications of diabetes at the age of 53.

1978 – Exile kicks off a four-week run at No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Kiss You All Over.”

1989 – Milli Vanilli begin their second and final week at No. 1 with “Girl I’m Gonna Miss You,” from the German dance-pop duo’s debut album, “Girl You Know It’s True.”

1995 – Mariah Carey becomes the first female artist in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 to have a single debut at No. 1, as “Fantasy” begins eight weeks as a chart-topper.

2006 – Justin Timberlake rules the Billboard album chart with his second solo album, “FutureSex/LoveSounds,” which becomes the biggest album ever for pre-orders on iTunes.

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On this Day: May 3

On this Day May 3

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1469 – Italian philosopher and writer Niccolo Machiavelli (d. 1527)

1903 – Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe-winning singer and actor Bing Crosby (“White Christmas,” “Going My Way,” “High Society”) (d. 1977)

1906 – Oscar-winning actress Mary Astor (“Beau Brummel,” “The Great Lie,” “The Maltese Falcon”) (d. 1987)

1919 – Grammy-winning folk singer-songwriter and activist Pete Seeger (d. 2014)

1921 – Boxing legend Sugar Ray Robinson (d. 1989)

1932 –  Actor, film historian, television host and author Robert Osborne, best known for more than 20 years as the marquee host of the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) cable channel (d. 2017) 

1933 – “The Godfather of Soul,” Grammy-winning singer James Brown (“Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” “I Got You (I Feel Good)” (d. 2006)

1934 – Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Frankie Valli, born Francesco Stephen Castelluccio, lead singer of The Four Seasons (“Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Sherry,” “Grease”)

1951 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Christopher Cross (“Sailing,” “Ride Like the Wind,” “Arthur’s Theme-Best That You Can Do”)

1975 – Actress Christina Hendricks, best known for her role as Joan Harris in the “Mad Men” TV series

1975 – Actor and tap dancer Dulé Hill (“She’s All That,” “The West Wing,” “Psych”)

History Highlights
History Highlights

1937 – Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone With the Wind” captures the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and becomes one of the best-selling novels of all time.

1948 – The “CBS Evening News” premieres as a 15-minute telecast anchored by Douglas Edwards. He is succeeded in 1962 by Walter Cronkite and the show is expanded to 30 minutes. Subsequent anchors have included Dan Rather, Bob Schieffer, Katie Couric and Scott Pelley.

1952 – The Kentucky Derby is televised for the first time, and the winner of the 78th Run for the Roses is Hill Gail.

1971 – National Public Radio (NPR) presents its first broadcast, “All Things Considered,” hosted by Robert Conley.

1973 – Chicago’s Sears Tower (now Willis Tower) is topped out as the world’s tallest building. It loses that distinction in 1997 when the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur are completed.

1980 – Thirteen-year-old Cari Lightner of Fair Oaks, California, is killed by a drunk driver while walking to a church carnival. Her tragic death compels her mother, Candy Lightner, to found Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), a non-profit organization committed to raising awareness about driving while intoxicated (DWI) and to promote tough legislation against the crime.

1986 – Fifty-four-year-old Bill Shoemaker, riding 18/1 shot Ferdinand, becomes the oldest jockey ever to win the Kentucky Derby. The victory becomes one of Shoemaker’s 8,833 wins — a record that stands until 1999, when broken by Laffit Pincay, Jr. 

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1969 – The 5th Dimension own the top spot on the singles chart with “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures).” The medley was written for the 1967 musical “Hair” and goes on to win both Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Group Grammy Awards in 1970.

1975 – Tony Orlando and Dawn start a three-week run at No.1 on the singles chart with “He Don’t Love You, (Like I Love You),” the group’s third chart-topper.

1976 –  Paul McCartney & Wings kick off the “Wings Over America” tour at the Tarrant County Convention Hall in Fort Worth, Texas. It is McCartney’s first U.S. concert appearance since The Beatles’ farewell show at Candlestick Park in 1966. 

1980 – “Call Me,” by Blondie, is midway through a six-week domination of the Billboard Hot 100. The song is from the soundtrack to “American Gigolo,” starring Richard Gere.

1980 – Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band begin a six-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart with “Against The Wind.”

1986 – Robert Palmer has a No. 1 single with “Addicted to Love.” The music video features Palmer singing in front of a band of beautiful women dressed and made up to look alike as they “play” their instruments. It becomes one of the most iconic videos of the 1980s.

1997 – “Hypnotize,” by The Notorious B.I.G., begins three weeks as a Billboard No. 1. However, the hip-hop legend isn’t alive to enjoy the success. He was killed in a Los Angeles drive-by shooting two months earlier. 

2008 – “Lollipop,” by Lil Wayne featuring Static Major, negins a week at No. 1 on the singles chart.

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