On This Day April 3 Click each item below to learn more! Celebrity Birthdays 1924 – Oscar-winning actor Marlon Brando (“A Streetcar Named Desire,” “On The Waterfront,” “The Godfather” trilogy, “Apocalypse Now”) (d. 2004) 1924 – Golden Globe and Grammy-winning actress and singer Doris Day (“Sentimental Journey,” “Pillow Talk,” “The Doris Day Show”) (d. 2019) 1934 – Primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall, best known for her extensive studies of chimpanzees in their African habitat 1958 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor and frequent “SNL” host Alec Baldwin (“Beetlejuice,” “The Hunt for Red October,” “Glengarry Glen Ross,” “The Cooler,” “The Departed,” “It’s Complicated,” “30 Rock”) 1961 – Golden Globe-winning actor, comedian, singer and “SNL” alum Eddie Murphy (“48 Hours,” “Trading Places,” “Beverly Hills Cop,” “Coming to America,” “The Nutty Professor,” “Shrek,” “Dreamgirls”) 1986 – TV and film actress Amanda Bynes (“The Amanda Show,” “What a Girl Wants,” “Hairspray”) History Highlights 1860 – The Pony Express launches, with horse and rider relay teams simultaneously leaving St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California as part of a new effort to speed up U.S. mail delivery. 1948 – President Harry S. Truman signs the Economic Recovery Act of 1948 — later known as the Marshall Plan — which would foster the recovery of war-torn Europe. 1968 – Stanley Kubrick’s science fiction classic, “2001: A Space Odyssey” — regularly voted as one of the greatest movies ever made, but whose philosophical meaning most fans cannot explain — opens in theaters around the U.S. 1968 – Another sci-fi classic opens at U.S. theaters. It’s “Planet of the Apes,” starring Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter and Maurice Evans. It’s the story about an astronaut crew that crash-lands on a planet in the distant future where intelligent talking apes rule and humans are oppressed and enslaved. 1974 – More than 140 tornadoes rip through 11 states within 16 hours. The “Super Tornado Outbreak” kills 330 people and injures more than 6,000 others. 1978 – At the 50th annual Academy Awards, Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall” wins the Oscar for Best Picture, beating out George Lucas’ “Star Wars.” 1986 – IBM unveils its first laptop computer. The 5140 “Convertible” retails for $1,995 and weighs 13 pounds. 1996 – FBI agents arrest accused Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski at his rural Montana cabin. Kaczynski was linked to 16 mail bombs that killed three people and injured 23 others during an 18-year period. Musical Milestones 1956 – Elvis Presley is a guest on “The Milton Berle Show,” live from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hancock in San Diego, California. He performs “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Shake Rattle And Roll” and “Blue Suede Shoes.” It is estimated that one out of every four Americans watched the program. 1961 – The Marcels start a three-week run on top of the singles chart with their doo-wop rendition of the Rodgers and Hart song, “Blue Moon.” 1971 – The Temptations score their second No. 1 single with “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me),” which holds the top spot for two weeks. 1971 – Six months after her death, Janis Joplin holds the top spot on the Billboard album chart with “Pearl,” which features her smash, “Me and Bobby McGee.” The album remains at No. 1 for nine weeks. 1976 – “Disco Lady,” by the so-called ‘Philosopher of Soul,’ Johnnie Taylor, is No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart and remains there for four weeks. 1982 – Joan Jett & the Blackhearts are in the middle of a seven-week domination of the Billboard Hot 100 with “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll.” 1990 – Grammy-winning jazz singer and pianist Sarah Vaughan, considered one of the greatest vocalists of the 20th century, dies of lung cancer at the age of 66. READ MORE
On This Day October 30 Click each item below to learn more! Celebrity Birthdays 1735 – One of America’s Founding Fathers, second U.S. President John Adams (d. 1826) 1939 – Rock singer-songwriter Grace Slick, who performed with Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Starship 1945 – Actor Henry Winkler, best remembered for playing “The Fonz” in the popular ABC sitcom “Happy Days” 1951 – Actor Harry Hamlin (“Clash of the Titans,” “L.A. Law,” “Mad Men”) 1957 – Actor Kevin Pollak (“Avalon,” “A Few Good Men,” “Grumpy Old Men,” “The Usual Suspects”) 1970 – Actress Nia Long (“The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” “Third Watch,” “Boiler Room,” the “Big Momma’s House” movies, “Are We There Yet?”) History Highlights 1938 – In what could be called an early case of fake news, actor Orson Welles terrifies radio listeners across the United States with his “War of the Worlds” broadcast — a dramatization of H.G. Wells’ tale about a Martian invasion. 1968 – “The Lion in Winter,” starring Peter O’Toole and Katharine Hepburn, opens at the box office. The movie goes on to capture three Oscars, including a Best Actress win for Hepburn. 1974 – An historic boxing match-up called the “Rumble in the Jungle” sees Muhammad Ali knock out George Foreman in the eighth round in Zaire (now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo), in central Africa. 1975 – The New York Daily News runs its infamous front-page headline ‘Ford to City: Drop Dead’ in reference to President Gerald Ford’s speech the day before denying federal assistance to help New York City avert bankruptcy. 1991 – A so-called “perfect storm” churns across the North Atlantic, producing powerful and deadly waves along the coasts of New England and Canada. The Gloucester, Massachusetts-based fishing boat Andrea Gail and its six-member crew are lost in the nor’easter, which inspires the best-selling book, “The Perfect Storm,” by Sebastian Junger, and a blockbuster movie starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg. Musical Milestones 1965 – “Yesterday,” by The Beatles, marks its fourth and final week on top of the Billboard Hot 100. 1971 – Rod Stewart concludes a five-week run atop the Billboard Hot 100 with “Maggie May.” 1976 – Chicago has the No. 1 single with “If You Leave Me Now,” which goes on to capture the band’s first Grammy. 1982 – The Australian band Men At Work climbs to the top of the U.S. singles chart with “Who Can It Be Now?” One week earlier, the group performed that song and their other hit, “Down Under,” on “Saturday Night Live,” and the following February, won a Best New Artist Grammy. 1993 – Mariah Carey’s “Dreamlover” marks the end of an eight-week run on top of the Billboard singles chart. It is her seventh No. 1 hit. 2004 – Usher and Alicia Keys rule the pop chart with “My Boo,” which holds the No. 1 spot for six weeks. READ MORE