Alan Shepard – Time Rewind

On This Day February 5

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On This Day November 18

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Celebrity Birthdays

1908 – Peabody-winning actress-comedian Imogene Coca (“Your Show of Shows,” “Vacation”) (d. 2001)

1923 – First American in space, astronaut Alan Shepard (d. 1998)

1939 – Actress Brenda Vaccaro (“Midnight Cowboy,” “Once Is Not Enough,” “Capricorn One,” “Supergirl”)

1942 – Actress Linda Evans (“The Big Valley,” “Dynasty”)

1953 – Comedic actor and “SNL” alum Kevin Nealon (“The Wedding Singer,” “Happy Gilmore,” “Blended”)

1960 – Actress Elizabeth Perkins (“About Last Night…,” “Big,” “Avalon,” “The Flintstones,” “Miracle on 34th Street,” “28 Days,” “Cats & Dogs”)

1968 – Actor, producer and screenwriter Owen Wilson (“The Royal Tenenbaums,” “Wedding Crashers,” “Night at the Museum” trilogy, “You, Me and Dupree,” “Marley & Me,” “The Internship”)

1974 – Actress Chloë Sevigny (“A Map of the World,” “Boys Don’t Cry,” “Big Love”)

History Highlights

1883 – U.S. and Canadian railroads implement five standardized time zones across North America to end years of confusion over local times: Intercolonial (now known as Atlantic Time in eastern Canada), Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific.

1928 – Mickey Mouse debuts in Walt Disney’s “Steamboat Willie,” the first synchronized sound cartoon ever produced. Mickey’s squeaky voice is provided by Mr. Disney himself.

1963 – The Bell Telephone Company introduces the push-button telephone. The first touch-tone telephone is the Western Electric model 1500, with 10 buttons. Engineers tested 15 different keypad layouts before settling on the configuration with 1 at the top left and 0 in the bottom row.

1978 – People’s Temple leader Jim Jones leads hundreds of his followers in a mass murder-suicide at their Jonestown Commune in remote northwestern Guyana.

1991 – Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon free Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite after more than four years in captivity.

1999 – In the early morning hours, a 40-foot-high pyramid of logs for the annual Aggie Bonfire at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas collapses, killing 12 people and injuring 27 others. Investigators determine that the first stack of logs did not have sufficient containment strength.

Musical Milestones

1956 – Fats Domino appears on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and plays his smash, “Blueberry Hill.”

1957 – Elvis Presley remains perched atop the U.S. singles chart for a fifth straight week with “Jailhouse Rock,” from the movie of the same name.

1963 – “I’m Leaving It Up to You” by Dale & Grace is No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

1971 – Memphis blues singer and musician Herman ‘Junior’ Parker dies at the age of 39 during surgery for a brain tumor. Among his hits were “Feelin’ Good,” “Driving Wheel,” “Next Time You See Me,” “In the Dark” and “Sweet Home Chicago.”

1978 – “52nd Street” becomes Billy Joel’s first No. 1 album. It contains some of his biggest hits to date, including “My Life,” “Big Shot” and “Honesty,” and goes on to capture two Grammy Awards.

1989 – Bad English’s “When I See You Smile” begins its second and final weeks at No, 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

1993 – Five months before Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain’s death, the pioneering grunge band records an “MTV Unplugged” special at Sony Music Studios in New York City. The set list consists of lesser-known material and cover versions of songs by The Vaselines, David Bowie, Meat Puppets and Lead Belly. The album goes on to win a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album in 1996.

1995 – “Fantasy.” by Mariah Carey, enters its eighth and final week on top of the pop chart.

2017 – Australian musician and songwriter Malcolm Young, best known as a co-founder, rhythm guitarist, backing vocalist and songwriter for the hard rock band AC/DC, dies at the age of 64.

On this Day May 5

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Celebrity Birthdays

1818 – Karl Marx, political theorist, philosopher and economist, best known for writing “Das Kapital” and “The Communist Manifesto” (d. 1883)

1914 – Actor Tyrone Power (“Witness for the Prosecution,” “The Mark of Zorro”) (d. 1958)

1927 – Actress Pat Carroll (“The Danny Thomas Show, “ Laverne & Shirley,” “ER”)

1942 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Tammy Wynette, dubbed “The First Lady of Country Music” and best known for her 1968 hit “Stand by Your Man” (d. 1998)

1943 – Actor, writer and comedian Michael Palin, best known as a member of the British comedy troupe Monty Python

1945 – Former MTV music news host, Rolling Stone magazine editor, film critic and author Kurt Loder

1959 – Emmy-winning TV journalist and former “NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams

1983 – Actor Henry Cavill (“The Tudors,” “The Immortals,” “Man of Steel,” “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” “Superman v Batman: Dawn of Justice”)

1988 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Adele, born Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (“Rolling in the Deep,” “Someone Like You,” “Hello”)

1989 – Grammy-winning singer-dancer Chris Brown (“Run It!,” “Kiss Kiss,” “Forever,” “Look at Me Now,” “Beautiful People”)

History Highlights

1862 – During the Battle of Puebla, Mexican troops under General Ignacio Zaragoza — outnumbered three to one — defeat invading French forces. The historic event is marked each year with Cinco de Mayo celebrations.

1925 – Teacher John Scopes is arrested for violating the Butler Act, which prevents the teaching of evolution in Tennessee schools. He is later tried in the famous Scopes Monkey Trial.

1945 – One woman and five children are killed in rural Oregon while attempting to drag a Japanese balloon out the woods. The balloon was armed and exploded after the group began tampering with it. They were the first and only known American civilians killed in the continental U.S. during World War II.

1955 – The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) becomes a sovereign state when the U.S., France and Great Britain end their 10-year military occupation. The move clears the way for West Germany to rearm and become a full-fledged member of the western alliance against the Soviet Union.

1961 – Astronaut Alan Shepard becomes the first American to travel into outer space during a suborbital flight of 15 minutes aboard the Mercury capsule named Freedom 7.

1985 – President Ronald Reagan angers Jewish leaders and Holocaust survivors by visiting the Bitburg war cemetery in Germany, unaware that the cemetery houses the graves of 49 Nazi officers.

2002 – “Spider-Man” becomes first movie to top $100 million in an opening weekend. Directed by Sam Raimi and starring Tobey Maguire in the title role, the eagerly awaited comic book adaptation rakes in a staggering $114.8 million.

Musical Milestones

1891 – New York’s Carnegie Hall opens with acclaimed Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky as guest conductor.

1956 – Elvis Presley’s self-titled debut album reaches No. 1 on the Billboard album chart and remains there for 10 weeks. It’s the album that brings us “Blue Suede Shoes.”

1962 – The soundtrack to the Oscar-winning movie musical “West Side Story,” featuring the music of Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, begins 54 weeks on top of the Billboard album chart. It goes on to capture a Grammy Award for Best Sound Track Album – Original Cast.

1962 – “Soldier Boy,” by The Shirelles, marches to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and remains there for three weeks.

1973 – “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree,” by Tony Orlando and Dawn, is midway through a four-week domination of the pop chart.

1979 – Peaches & Herb kick off four weeks at No. 1 on the singles chart with “Reunited.”

1986 – Cleveland is selected as the home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, beating out New York, San Francisco, Memphis and Chicago. It opens to the public on September 2, 1995.

1990 – Sinead O’Connor is No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with a song penned by Prince: “Nothing Compares 2 U.”

2001 – Janet Jackson holds the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with “All For You.”