Abraham Lincoln – Time Rewind

On This Day April 26

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On This Day April 15

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Celebrity Birthdays

1452 – Renaissance artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci (d. 1519)

1933 – Country music singer-guitarist and former “Hee Haw” host Roy Clark (d. 2018)

1933 – Actress Elizabeth Montgomery (“Bewitched”) (d. 1995)

1951 – “Hints From Heloise” columnist Heloise Bowles Cruse (d. 1977)

1959 – Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actress Emma Thompson (“Howard’s End,” “The Remains of the Day,” “In the Name of the Father,” “Sense and Sensibility,” “Nanny McPhee,” “Saving Mr. Banks”)

1982 – Actor Seth Rogen (“The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” “Knocked Up,” “Superbad,” “Funny People,” “This Is The End,” “The Long Shot”, “The Disaster Artist”)

1990 – Actress Emma Watson, best known for playing Hermione Granger in the “Harry Potter” movie series and Belle in the live-action adaptation of “Beauty and the Beast”

History Highlights

1865 – President Abraham Lincoln dies from the gunshot wound he sustained the night before while watching a play at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. Lincoln’s death comes only six days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his massive army, effectively ending the American Civil War.

1912 – More than 1,500 lives are lost in the early morning hours when the luxury liner Titanic sinks after striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City.

1947 – Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American in baseball’s major leagues when he debuts with the Brooklyn Dodgers. This becomes a landmark event not only for the sport, but for the U.S. civil rights movement.

1955 – The golden arches rise in Des Plaines, Illinois with the opening of the first McDonald’s restaurant. Customers pay just 15 cents for a hamburger. The restaurant is built for drive-through service only, with indoor seating eventually added in 1962.

1959 – Four months after leading a successful revolution in Cuba, Fidel Castro begins an 11-day U.S. visit. It comes amid escalating tensions between his regime and the American government.

1997 – On the 50 anniversary of his first Major League Baseball game, the league retires Jackie Robinson’s number, 42. Robinson becomes the only player in MLB history to have his number retired across all teams, a sign of the reverence with which he is regarded decades after leading the charge to integrate the major leagues.

2013 – Two bombs go off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three spectators and wounding more than 260 others. Four days later, after an intense manhunt, authorities capture one of the bombing suspects, 19-year-old Dzhohkar Tsarnaev. His older brother and fellow suspect, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, dies following a shootout with police earlier that same day.

Musical Milestones

1967 – Frank Sinatra and his daughter Nancy start a four-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart with “Somethin’ Stupid.” They are the only father-daughter act to ever score a chart-topping single.

1972 – Roberta Flack begins a six-week reign over the singles chart with “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.” The track garners her Grammy Awards for Record and Song of the Year.

1978 – “Night Fever,” by the Bee Gees, blazes through a fifth week on top of the Billboard Hot 100. The disco smash, from the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack, remains a chart-topper for nine weeks.

1989 – “She Drives Me Crazy” by the Fine Young Cannibals is the No. 1 single. The song, from the band’s “The Raw & the Cooked” album, holds the top spot for a week.

1995 – One-hit-wonder Montell Jordan kicks off seven weeks on top of the pop chart with “This Is How We Do It.”

2000 – “Maria Maria,” by Santana featuring The Product G&B, is in the second of 10 weeks as a chart-reigning single. The track, off the “Supernatural” album, goes on to won a Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.

2006 – Daniel Powter is in the middle of five weeks on top of the singles chart with “Bad Day.”

On This Day April 14

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Celebrity Birthdays

1932 – Country music legend Loretta Lynn

1941 – Retired Major League Baseball slugger Pete Rose, a 17-time MLB All-Star and 1973 National League MVP

1960 – Emmy-winning actor and stand-up comedian Brad Garrett, best known for his role as Ray Romano’s sad-sack brother Robert in the sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond”

1968 – Actor Anthony Michael Hall (“Sixteen Candles,” “The Breakfast Club,” “Weird Science,” “Edward Scissorhands”)

1973 – Oscar-winning actor Adrien Brody (“The Thin Red Line,” “The Pianist,” “The Village,” “Midnight in Paris,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “Houdini”)

1977 – Emmy-winning actress Sarah Michelle Gellar (“All My Children,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Cruel Intentions, “Scooby-Doo,” “The Grudge”)

History Highlights

1865 – Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth shoots President Abraham Lincoln during a performance at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. Lincoln dies the next day.

1912 – RMS Titanic strikes an iceberg in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic just before midnight during its maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City. More than 1,500 people perish when the luxury liner sinks less than three hours later.

1918 – During World War I, two pilots from the U.S. Army Air Service’s 94th Aero Squadron engage in America’s first aerial dogfight with enemy aircraft over Europe’s Western Front. In a battle above Toul, France, aviators Douglas Campbell and Alan Winslow shoot down a pair of German two-seaters. Campbell is honored as America’s first “flying ace” about a month later after taking out his fifth enemy plane.

1969 – For the first time in Academy Awards history, there’s a tie for the Best Actress Oscar. The award is shared by Barbra Streisand (“Funny Girl”) and Katharine Hepburn (“The Lion in Winter”).

1988 – The Soviet Union withdraws its military forces from Afghanistan.

Musical Milestones

1962 – “Johnny Angel,” by Shelley Fabares — the actress best known for her role in “The Donna Reed Show” — starts its second and final week as a No. 1 single.

1979 – The Doobie Brothers rule the singles chart with “What a Fool Believes.” The song goes on to capture Song of the Year and Record of the Year Grammys.

1984 – Kenny Loggins’ “Footloose,” from the movie of the same name, wraps up three weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100. The track is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song , but loses to Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called to Say I Love You” from the movie “The Woman in Red.”

1990 – One-hit-wonder Tommy Page begins a week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “I’ll Be Your Everything.” The song spends 13 weeks in the Top 40 and is certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

2001 – “All for You,” by Janet Jackson, begins seven weeks on top of the U.S. pop chart and goes on to win a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording. It becomes the longest-reigning single of 2001.

On This Day February 12

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Celebrity Birthdays

1809 – Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. president (d. 1865)

1809 – Scientist Charles Darwin, who laid the foundations for the theory of evolution in his book, “The Origin of Species” (d. 1882)

1915 – Radio announcer-turned-actor and singer Lorne Greene, best know as Ben Cartwright in the TV western “Bonanza,” and Commander Adama in the sci-fi TV series “Battlestar Galactica” (d. 1987)

1923 – Director-producer Franco Zeffirelli, known for his Shakespeare film adaptations, including “The Taming of the Shrew” and “Romeo and Juliet” (d. 2019)

1934 – Five-time NBA Most Valuable Player and 12-time All-Star Bill Russell, who led the Boston Celtics to 11 championships from 1957 to 1969

1938 – Best-selling author Judy Blume, known for her children’s books and young-adult novels, including “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing” and “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret”

1952 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and former Doobies Brothers vocalist Michael McDonald

1956 – Actor, comedian and former talk show host Arsenio Hall

1968 – Actor Josh Brolin (“The Goonies,” “No Country For Old Men,” “W,” “Milk,” “Men in Black 3,” “Hail, Caesar!”, “Deadpool 2”, “Avengers: Infinity War”, “Once Upon A Deadpool”, “Avengers: Endgame”, )

1980 – Actress Christina Ricci (“The Addams Family,” “Casper,” “The Ice Storm,” “The Opposite of Sex,” “Sleepy Hollow,” “Monster,” “Pan Am”)

History Highlights

1909 – The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded. It is America’s oldest, largest and most widely recognized grassroots-based civil rights organization.

1976 – Oscar-nominated actor Sal Mineo (“Rebel Without a Cause,” “Giant,” “Exodus,” “The Longest Day”) is stabbed to death outside his West Hollywood apartment at the age of 37. It takes authorities more than two years to arrest Lionel Williams, who is convicted of the crime and sentenced to life in prison.

1986 – After spending eight years in Soviet prisons and labor camps, human rights activist Anatoly (Natan) Scharansky is released. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President Ronald Reagan brokered the amnesty deal at a summit meeting three months earlier.

1999 – The five-week impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton comes to an end, with the Senate voting to acquit Clinton on both articles of impeachment: perjury and obstruction of justice.

2002 – Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic goes on trial at The Hague, Netherlands, on charges of genocide and war crimes in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. The trial drags on for four years until Milosevic is found dead of a heart attack in his prison cell at the age of 64.

2008 – Struggling auto giant General Motors (GM) attempts to cut costs by offering buyouts to all 74,000 of its U.S. hourly employees represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW) union.

2008 – Hollywood’s longest work stoppage since 1988 ends when members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) overwhelmingly vote to go back to work following a 100-day walkout. The strike crippled the production of countless TV shows and cost the California economy more than $2 billion. It also gave rise to more reality TV programming that required little or no scripting.

Musical Milestones

1955 – “Sincerely,” by the McGuire Sisters, tops the singles chart and stays there for 10 weeks.

1966 – Petula Clark marks her second and final week atop the Billboard Hot 100 with “My Love.”

1972 – “Let’s Stay Together,” by Al Green, kicks off a week as the No. 1 single. In 2010, the Library of Congress adds it to the National Recording Registry, which collects recordings deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

1977 – Barbra Streisand begins six weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart with the soundtrack to “A Star Is Born.” The track “Evergreen,” which becomes a No. 1 hit, garners a Best Original Song Oscar for Streisand and composer Paul Williams, as well as Grammys for Song of the Year and Female Pop Vocal Performance.

1983 – Men At Work’s “Down Under” climbs to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for a second time, marking its fourth and final week as a chart-topper. The track is among two No. 1 hits off the Aussie band’s “Business As Usual” album.

1994 – “The Power of Love” by Céline Dion begins a four-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

2012 – Adele wins all six Grammy Award categories for which she was nominated. The British singer captures Song of the Year for “Rolling In the Deep” and receives Grammys for Best Pop Solo Performance for “Someone Like You” and Best Pop Vocal Album and Album of the Year for “21.”

On This Day January 1

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Celebrity Birthdays

1735 – American Revolution patriot Paul Revere (d. 1818)

1919 – Author J. D. Salinger, best known for his critically acclaimed novel “The Catcher in the Rye” (d. 2010)

1938 – Tony-winning actor Frank Langella (“Dracula,” “Dave,” “Frost/Nixon,” “Unknown”)

1942 – Country Joe McDonald, lead singer of the 60s psychedelic rock group Country Joe & the Fish

1943 – Actor-comedian Don Novello, best known as Father Guido Salducci on “Saturday Night Live”

1958 – Rapper Grandmaster Flash, born Joseph Saddler, considered one of the pioneers of hip-hop DJing, cutting and mixing

1969 – Actor Morris Chestnut (“Boyz n the Hood,” “The Best Man,” “Ladder 49”)

History Highlights

1818 – Mary Shelley’s classic “Frankenstein” is published.

1863 – President Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation aimed at abolishing slavery in the U.S.

1942 – The United Nations is created when U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill issue a declaration, signed by representatives of 26 countries, vowing to form an international postwar peacekeeping organization.

1959 – Cuban President Fulgencio Batista is overthrown by Fidel Castro’s rebel forces during the Cuban Revolution. Amid celebration and chaos in the capitol of Havana, the U.S. is left to determine how best to deal with the radical Castro and brewing anti-Americanism in Cuba.

1971 – A ban on cigarette advertising on American television takes effect, with the last commercial (for Virginia Slims) broadcast on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” at 11:50 p.m.

1994 – The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) takes effect between Canada, the United States and Mexico. Former President George H.W. Bush signed the NAFTA agreement in 1992 before leaving office.

Musical Milestones

1953 – One of America’s first country music superstars, Hank Williams, dies at the age of 29, but leaves a lasting legacy that continues to influence artists of all musical genres.

1959 – Country music legend Johnny Cash (a.k.a. “The Man in Black”) plays his first of many free concerts at California’s San Quentin Prison.

1962 – From the “Ooops” file: The Beatles audition for London record company Decca on the same day as Brian Poole & the Tremeloes. Decca tells The Beatles, “guitar groups are on their way out,” and signs the Tremeloes.

1966 – Simon & Garfunkel are No. 1 on the singles chart with “The Sounds of Silence.”

1977 – Rod Stewart begins his eighth and final week on top of the pop chart with “Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright).”

1983 – Hall & Oates dominate the Billboard Hot 100 for a third week with “Maneater.”

2000 – “Smooth,” by Santana featuring Rob Thomas, scores its ninth week on top of the Billboard Hot 100. The track will spend one more week at No. 1 and later capture three Grammy Awards: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.

On This Day November 26

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Celebrity Birthdays

1922 – Peanuts cartoonist Charles M. Schulz (d. 2000)

1933 – Grammy, Tony and Emmy-winning singer-actor Robert Goulet (d. 2007)

1938 – Impressionist-comedian Rich Little, known as “the man of a thousand voices”

1939 – Grammy-winning rock singer-songwriter Tina Turner, born Anna Mae Bullock and dubbed the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll” (“River Deep – Mountain High,” “Proud Mary,” “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” “Better Be Good to Me,” “Private Dancer,” “Typical Male”)

1981 – British pop star Natasha Bedingfield (“Unwritten,” “Soulmate,” “I Wanna Have Your Babies”)

History Highlights

1789 – November 26 is the day that President George Washington officially proclaims as Thanksgiving Day after Congress asks him to recommend “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer.” It is next proclaimed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 for the last Thursday in November. In 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt moves Thanksgiving to the next to last Thursday in November, but facing criticism for the move, he signs a bill in 1941 officially establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.

1922 – British archaeologists Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon become the first people to enter King Tutankhamen’s tomb in more than 3,000 years. The sealed burial chambers in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings are found intact along with a collection of several thousand priceless objects, including a gold coffin containing the mummy of the teenage king.

1956 – TV’s longest-running game show, “The Price is Right,” premieres with Bill Cullen as host and Don Pardo as announcer.

1973 – Rose Mary Woods, President Richard Nixon’s personal secretary, tells a federal court that she accidentally erased 18 minutes from a key Watergate tape.

1975 – A federal jury finds Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme guilty of the attempted assassination of President Gerald Ford. Fromme receives a life sentence and manages to escape from prison in 1987. However, she was captured and returned to prison until her 2009 release.

Musical Milestones

1958 – Johnny Cash debuts on the country music chart when “Cry! Cry! Cry!” makes it to No. 14. His next seven singles would all make the country Top 10, with “I Walk the Line” and “There You Go” both reaching No. 1.

1962 – Four lads from Liverpool, England enter Abbey Road Studios for their first recording session as The Beatles, laying down “Please Please Me” and “Ask Me Why.”

1968 – The British rock band Cream, featuring guitarist-vocalist Eric Clapton, plays its farewell concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Considered rock music’s first “super-group,” Cream is most remembered for the 1968 hits “Sunshine of Your Love” (Billboard No. 5) and “White Room” (Billboard No. 6).

1977 – Debby Boone maintains her 10-week hold on the No, 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with “You Light Up My Life.”

1983 – “All Night Long (All Night),” by Lionel Richie, is in the middle of four weeks as a No. 1 single.

1994 – “I’ll Make Love to You,” by Boyz II Men, begins its 14th and final week on top of the pop chart.

1994 – The Eagles kick off two weeks on top of the Billboard album chart with “Hell Freezes Over,” the band’s second live album.

On This Day November 19

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Celebrity Birthdays

1933 – Award-winning TV and radio talk show host Larry King, born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger

1936 – Retired Emmy-winning TV talk show host and comedian Dick Cavett, who tackled controversial topics and featured countless celebrities over the years on “The Dick Cavett Show”

1938 – Media mogul Ted Turner, born Robert Edward Turner III, who founded Cable News Network (CNN) and Turner Broadcasting (TBS)

1942 – Fashion designer Calvin Klein

1961 – Actress-producer Meg Ryan, born Margaret Hyra (“Top Gun,” “When Harry Met Sally…,” “Sleepless in Seattle,” “French Kiss,” “Addicted to Love,” “You’ve Got Mail,” “City of Angels,” “Proof of Life,” “Kate & Leopold”)

1962 – Oscar-winning actress-producer-director Jodie Foster (“Taxi Driver,” “The Accused,” “Silence of the Lambs,” “Contact,” “Anna and the King,” “Panic Room,” “Flightplan,” “Elysium”)

History Highlights

1863 – During the dedication of a military cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln delivers one of the most memorable speeches in American history: the Gettysburg Address.

1954 – The first automatic toll machine in the United States goes into service along the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey, charging motorists 25 cents to pass.

1959 – It’s the end of the road for the Edsel, as Ford Motor Company terminates production of an automobile line that proved to be a marketing disaster.

1964 – Something other than bread pops in and out of the toaster, as Kellogg’s introduces the Pop-Tart in four flavors: strawberry, blueberry, apple currant and brown sugar-cinnamon.

1969 – Apollo 12 becomes the second manned space mission to land on the moon. The crew touches down within walking distance of the Surveyor III spacecraft, which landed in April 1967. The astronauts bring some Surveyor III instruments back to Earth to examine the effects of long-term exposure to the lunar environment.

1975 – “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” opens in theaters, starring Jack Nicholson as a patient in a 1960s psychiatric hospital, and Louise Fletcher as the head nurse. It becomes only the second movie of all time to clinch five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor (Nicholson).

Musical Milestones

1955 – Carl Perkins records “Blue Suede Shoes” at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. Written by Perkins, it is considered one of the first rockabilly recordings. The single reaches No. 2 on the pop chart in 1956 and is later famously covered by Elvis Presley.

1966 – Reigning supreme on the singles chart: “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” by Diana Ross and The Supremes. The track hangs on to the No. 1 position for two weeks and is the Motown sensation’s seventh chart-topper.

1977 – Debby Boone is midway through a 10-week hold on No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “You Light Up My Life.”

1979 – Chuck Berry walks out of prison a free man after serving a four-month sentence for tax evasion.

1983 – Tina Turner has her first chart single in more than a decade with her cover of Al Green’s 1972 hit, “Let’s Stay Together.” The track, from her “Private Dancer” album, climbs as high as No. 26 on the Hot 100.

1994 – Boyz II Men have the No. 1 single with “I’ll Make Love to You.”

2003 – California authorities issue an arrest warrant for Michael Jackson on multiple counts of child molestation and ask the pop superstar to turn himself in and surrender his passport.

2005 – “Gold Digger,” by Kanye West featuring Jamie Foxx, begins its tenth and final week on top of the Billboard singles chart.

On This Day November 6

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Celebrity Birthdays

1854 – Composer John Philip Sousa (“The Stars and Stripes Forever”) (d. 1932)

1914 – Actor Jonathan Harris, born Jonathan Charasuchin, who played Dr. Zachary Smith in the 1960s sci-fi TV series “Lost in Space” (d. 2002)

1931 – Emmy, Oscar, Tony and Grammy-winning director Mike Nichols (“Barefoot in the Park,” “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” “The Graduate,” ” Silkwood,” “Working Girl”) (d. 2014)

1946 – Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actress Sally Field (“Gidget,” “The Flying Nun,” “Smokey and the Bandit,” “Sybil,” “Norma Rae,” “Places in the Heart,” “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Forrest Gump,” “Lincoln”)

1948 – Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey (d. 2016)

1955 – Journalist, author and former First Lady of California, Maria Shriver

1970 – Actor Ethan Hawke (“Dead Poets Society,” “Reality Bites,” “Before Sunrise,” “Gattaca,” “Training Day,” “Before Sunset”)

1988 – Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actress Emma Stone (“Superbad,” “The Help,” “Crazy, Stupid, Love,” “The Amazing Spider-Man,” “Birdman,” “La La Land”)

History Highlights

1860 – Former Illinois congressman Abraham Lincoln is elected 16th U.S. president, handily defeating three other candidates to become the first Republican to win the presidency.

1962 – The United Nations General Assembly adopts a resolution condemning South Africa’s racist apartheid policies and calling on all its members to end economic and military relations with the country.

1977 – Thirty-nine people die when the Kelly Barnes Dam bursts, sending a wall of water through Toccoa Falls College in Georgia.

1987 – “Less Than Zero” opens in theaters. It’s a movie about a group of wealthy, young friends in 1980s L.A., starring Robert Downey, Jr., Andrew McCarthy, James Spader and Jami Gertz.

1990 – Nearly a fifth of the Universal Studios back lot in southern California is destroyed in a massive fire that was deliberately set. The blaze also consumes vintage cars from the 1920s and 30s, causing an estimated $50 million in damage.

Musical Milestones

1961 – Jimmy Dean kicks off a five-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart with “Big Bad John.”

1965 – The Rolling Stones are on Cloud 9 when “Get Off Of My Cloud” hits the top spot on the singles chart and floats there for two weeks.

1971 – The soundtrack to the movie “Shaft,” by Isaac Hayes, tops the U.S. album chart.

1971 – “Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves” marks the first of two weeks as a No. 1 hit for Cher. It’s her first chart-topper as a solo act.

1976 – The Steve Miller Band scores its second Billboard chart-topper with “Rock ‘n’ Me,” off the “Fly Like an Eagle” album.

1982 – Movie music propels Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes to the top of the Billboard singles survey as “Up Where We Belong,” from the motion picture “An Officer And A Gentleman,” begins three weeks at No. 1.

1993 – Meat Loaf starts a five-week run at No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “I’d’ Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That).”

On This Day September 22

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Celebrity Birthdays

1927 – Retired Los Angeles Dodgers manager and National Baseball Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda

1954 – Actress-model-singer Shari Belafonte (“Hotel,” “Beyond Reality,” “Babylon 5: Thirdspace”)

1956 – Singer Debby Boone, best known for her Grammy-winning 70s smash “You Light Up My Life”

1958 – Rock guitarist-singer and 2015 Rock And Roll Hall of Fame inductee Joan Jett

1958 – Golden Globe-winning Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli

1960 – Actor Scott Baio (“Happy Days,” “Joanie Loves Chachi,” “Charles in Charge”)

1987 – Actor Tom Felton, best known for playing the villainous Draco Malfoy in the “Harry Potter” movie series

History Highlights

1862 – President Abraham Lincoln issues a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation establishing January 1, 1863 as the date that more than three million slaves in the U.S. would be freed. While the proclamation only frees between 20,000 and 50,000 slaves within the 10 states still in rebellion, it provides the legal framework for the eventual emancipation of all others.

1953 – The world’s first four-level interchange (“Stack”) opens in Los Angeles at the intersection of the Harbor, Hollywood, Pasadena, and Santa Ana freeways. The Saturday Evening Post called it “a mad motorist’s dream.”

1975 – U.S. President Gerald Ford survives a second assassination attempt in less than three weeks while leaving a San Francisco hotel. Sara Jane Moore had aimed and was getting ready to fire the first shot when a bystander thwarted her plans.

1976 – “Charlie’s Angels” premieres on ABC with Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith and the late Farrah Fawcett as a trio of detectives working for their unseen boss, Charlie, who telephoned in their assignments.

1980 – The Iran-Iraq War begins as Iraqi armed forces invade western Iran along the nations’ joint border. The conflict drags on for eight years.

1982 – “Family Ties” debuts on NBC, starring Michael J. Fox as Alex, the smart, conservative and financially driven teenage son of parents played by Meredith Baxter and Michael Gross.

1994 – NBC introduces “Friends,” starring Courtney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Jennifer Aniston, Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer and Matt Le Blanc. The sitcom becomes one of primetime TV’s most popular shows during a 10-season run.

Musical Milestones

1956 – Elvis Presley is king of the singles chart with “Don’t Be Cruel.” The song remains at No. 1 for 11 weeks. In 2002, it is inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

1962 – “Sherry,” by The Four Seasons, is in the midst of a five-week domination of the pop chart. It is the group’s first No. 1 single. It also spends a week atop the R&B chart.

1969 – The Band release their self-titled album, also known as “The Brown Album,” featuring the tracks “Rag Mama Rag,” “Up on Cripple Creek” and ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” In 2009, the album was preserved into the National Recording Registry.

1973 – “Let’s Get it On,” by Marvin Gaye, returns to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for a second week and becomes his most successful Motown single.

1979 – The Knack hold first place on the singles chart with “My Sharona.”

1984 – “Missing You,” by John Waite, is on top of the singles chart.

1985 – The first Farm Aid concert takes place in Champaign, Illinois, organized by Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp to benefit financially struggling American farmers.

1990 – Wilson Phillips has the No. 1 single with “Release Me.”

2001 – “I’m Real,” by Jennifer Lopez featuring Ja Rule, begins its third week as a No. 1 single.

2007 – Soulja Boy begins his second and final week on top of the singles chart with “Crank That.”

On This Day September 17

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Celebrity Birthdays

1923 – Legendary country music star Hank Williams, Sr. (d. 1953)

1928 – Actor Roddy McDowall, born Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude “Roddy” McDowall, who played Cornelius and Caesar in the original “Planet of the Apes” sci-fi movie and TV series (d. 1998)

1931 – Oscar, Golden Globe, Tony and Emmy-winning actress Anne Bancroft, born Anna Maria Louisa Italiano (“The Graduate,” “The Miracle Worker,” “The Elephant Man, “Agnes of God,” “Malice”) (d. 2005)

1948 – Golden Globe and Emmy-winning actor John Ritter, best known as Jack Tripper in the hit comedy series “Three’s Company” (d. 2003)

1951 – Actress Cassandra Peterson, a.k.a. Elvira, Mistress of the Dark

1965 – Actor Kyle Chandler (“Friday Night Lights,” “Super 8,” “Argo,” “Zero Dark Thirty,” “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “King Kong”)

History Highlights

1787 – Drafted in secret by delegates to the Constitutional Convention, the four-page U.S. Constitution is signed, establishing a framework for the government of the United States and an intricate system of checks and balances.

1862 – At the Battle of Antietam, Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and Union General George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac fight to a standstill along a Maryland creek. The bloodiest day in American military history ends with nearly 23,000 soldiers killed, wounded or missing, and changes the course of the Civil War.

1937 – The stone likeness of President Abraham Lincoln’s face is officially dedicated at Mount Rushmore.

1963 – New programming premieres on ABC: “The Greatest Show on Earth” and “The Fugitive,” the latter of which is made into a movie 30 years later, starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones.

1966 – The spy series “Mission: Impossible” debuts on CBS. Thirty years later, in 1996, the first in a series of “Mission: Impossible” movies is produced starring, starring Tom Cruise.

1972 – The Korean War-era series “M*A*S*H,” starring Alan Alda, begins an 11-year run on CBS

1976 – NASA unveils the first space shuttle, Enterprise, a $10 billion technological marvel that took a decade to develop.

1978 – A milestone is achieved on the road to a Middle East peace, with the signing of the Camp David Accords. U.S. President Jimmy Carter presides as Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli President Menachem Begin agree to end three decades of hostilities between their nations.

1996 – Daytime talk show host Oprah Winfrey launches a television book club. Oprah’s Book Club quickly becomes an influential force in the publishing world, with Winfrey’s endorsements capable of catapulting a previously little-known book onto best-seller lists.

Musical Milestones

1967 – The Doors are banned from “The Ed Sullivan Show” after front man Jim Morrison breaks his agreement with the producers to replace the word “higher” with “better” in the line “Girl, we couldn’t get much higher” in the song “Light My Fire.” After learning that his band would not be welcome back on the program, Morrison reportedly said, “Hey, that’s okay – we just did the Ed Sullivan Show.”

1969 – Media on both sides of the Atlantic report that Paul McCartney of The Beatles is dead — supposedly killed in a car accident in Scotland in November 1966 and that a double had been standing in for him during public appearances. In fact, Paul and his girlfriend, Jane Asher, were vacationing in Kenya at the time.

1977 – Andy Gibb owns the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with “I Just Want to Be Your Everything.”

1988 – Guns N’ Roses begins the second and final week at No. 1 on the singles chart with “Sweet Child o’ Mine,” off the band’s debut album, “Appetite for Destruction.”

1994 – “I’ll Make Love to You,” by Boyz II Men, is in the midst of a 14-week domination of the singles chart.

2005 – “Gold Digger,” by Kanye West featuring Jamie Foxx, kicks off 10 weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

2011 – Adele dominates the pop chart for a week with “Someone Like You,” off her “21” album. It becomes her second U.S. No. 1.

2016 – Barbra Streisand extends her record as the artist with the most No. 1 albums in chart history (11) when “Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway” reaches the top of the Billboard album chart.