On This Day: September 1

On This Day September 1

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1922- Actress Yvonne DeCarlo (“The Ten Commandments,” “The Munsters”) (d. 2007)

1923- Former world heavyweight boxing champion Rocky Marciano, born Rocco Francis Marchegiano (d. 1969)

1933 – Country Music Hall of Famer and Rockabilly Hall of Famer Conway Twitty, born Harold Lloyd Jenkins (d. 1993)

1938 – Attorney and Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz

1939 – Tony, Emmy and Grammy-winning actress-comedian Lily Tomlin (“Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In,” “9 to 5,” “All of Me,” “The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe,” “Flirting with Disaster,” “Tea with Mussolini,” “I Heart Huckabees,” “A Prairie Home Companion”)

1946 – Singer-songwriter and Bee Gees founder Barry Gibb

1950 – TV psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw

1957 – Grammy-winning musician Gloria Estefan, born Gloria Fajardo, lead singer of the 80s band Miami Sound Machine

History Highlights
History Highlights

1807 – Former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr is acquitted of plotting to annex parts of Louisiana and Spanish territory in Mexico to be used toward the establishment of an independent republic.

1964 – Pitcher Masanori Murakami becomes the first Japanese man to play in U.S. Major League Baseball. He pitches a scoreless 8th inning for the San Francisco Giants in a 4-1 loss to the New York Mets at Shea Stadium.

1973 – In  what’s billed as the “Match of the Century,” American chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer defeats Russian Boris Spassky during the World Chess Championship in Reykjavik, Iceland.

1983 – A Soviet fighter jet shoots down Korean Air Lines Flight 007 after the New York to Seoul flight enters Soviet airspace. All 269 aboard the 747 jumbo jet are killed, including U.S. Congressman Lawrence McDonald. President Ronald Reagan condemns the incident as a “massacre.”

1985 – An expedition led by oceanographer Dr. Robert Ballard locates the wreck of the RMS Titanic 73 years after the luxury liner sank to the bottom of the North Atlantic.

1989 – The first Lexus is sold, marking the beginning of Toyota’s new luxury line of automobiles.

1998 – A federal law takes effect requiring that all cars and light trucks sold in the United States have air bags installed in the front seats as standard equipment. Seat belts had been required since the 1960s, and some auto manufacturers had begun voluntarily providing air bags before 1998.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1962 – Tommy Roe is on top of the singles chart with “Sheila.” It’s the re-recorded version of a track first released in 1960 when Roe was part of a band called The Satins.

1973 – “Brother Louie,” by one-hit-wonder Stories, enters its second and final week as a No. 1 single. The track, about an interracial love affair, was originally recorded by British soul band Hot Chocolate, which just a few months earlier took it to No. 7 on the U.K. singles chart.

1977 – Blondie, featuring former Playboy Bunny Debbie Harry, signs its first major record company contract with Chrysalis Records.

1980 – Fleetwood Mac ends a nine-month world tour with a performance at the Hollywood Bowl. Lindsay Buckingham tells the audience, “This is our last show. For a long time.”

1984 – “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” by Queen of Rock and Roll Tina Turner, begins three weeks on top of the pop chart. The single, off Turner’s “Private Dancer” album, goes on to capture three Grammy Awards: Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. In 2012, it is inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

1990 – “If Wishes Came True,” by Sweet Sensation, bumps Mariah Carey’s “Vision of Love” to become the No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100.

2001 – Alicia Keys enters a third week atop the singles chart with her Grammy-winning debut single “Fallin’.

READ MORE
On this Day: July 11

On this Day July 11

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1767 – John Quincy Adams, sixth U.S. president (d. 1848)

1920 – Tony and Oscar-winning actor Yul Brynner (“The King and I,” “Anastasia,” “The Ten Commandments,” “The Magnificent Seven,” “Westworld”) (d. 1985)

1934 – Fashion designer Giorgio Armani 

1950 – Actor Bruce McGill (“MacGyver,” “My Cousin Vinny,” “The Insider,” “Ali,” “Legally Blonde 2,” “Collateral,” “Rizzoli & Isles”)

1953 – Former heavyweight boxing champion Leon Spinks (d. 2021)

1956 – Emmy-winning actress Sela Ward (“Sisters,” “The Fugitive,” “Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story,” “Once and Again,” “The Day After Tomorrow,” “The Guardian,” “The Stepfather,” “Gone Girl”)

1959 – Singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega (“Tom’s Diner,” “Luka”)

1963 – Actress and TV host Lisa Rinna (“Days of Our Lives,” “Melrose Place,” “Dancing With the Stars,” “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”)

1975 – Grammy-winning rapper Lil’ Kim, born Kimberly Denise Jones (“Magic Stick,” “Crush on You,” “Lady Marmalade”)

History Highlights
History Highlights

1804 – Vice President Aaron Burr fatally shoots his longtime political antagonist, Alexander Hamilton, in a duel in Weehawken, New Jersey. Hamilton, a leading Federalist and former Treasury Secretary, dies the next day.

1914 – George Herman “Babe” Ruth makes his major league debut, pitching seven strong innings to lead the Boston Red Sox over the Cleveland Indians, 4-3. 

1916 – President Woodrow Wilson signs the Federal Aid Road Act, making federal funds available for construction and maintenance of U.S. highways.

1979 – Skylab plunges to Earth six years after its launch, showering flaming debris over the Indian Ocean and Australia, but fortunately causing no casualties. 

1985 – Coca-Cola officials hold a news conference to announce that original Coke is coming back after consumers overwhelmingly rejected its replacement by New Coke. The original formula is renamed Coca-Cola Classic.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1951 – Legendary disc jockey Alan Freed (a.k.a. “Moondog”) starts his new job spinning records for a rhythm and blues show on radio station WJW in Cleveland. With his unprecedented on-air mix of blues, country and rhythm and blues songs, Freed is credited with coining the term “rock ‘n roll.” 

1969 – David Bowie releases “Space Oddity,” which soars to No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100. It is ranked among the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.”

1970 – The “Woodstock” soundtrack hits the top of the Billboard album chart and remains there for four weeks. 

1970 – The No. 1 single in the U.S. is “Mama Told Me (Not to Come)” by Three Dog Night.  The song, written by Randy Newman, holds the top spot for two weeks.

1987 – “Alone,” by Heart, kicks off three weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the sibling duo’s biggest hit in the U.S.

1992 – “Baby Got Back,” by American rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot, is in the midst of five weeks as a No. 1 single.

1998 – Brandy and Monica are in the middle of a 13-week domination of the Billboard Hot 100 with “The Boy is Mine.”

2009 – The Black Eyed Peas kick off 14 weeks on top of the U.S. singles chart with “I Gotta Feeling,” the longest-running No. 1 single of 2009. The song is goes on to win a Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.

READ MORE