apartheid – Time Rewind

On This Day February 11

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On This Day January 28

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Celebrity Birthdays

1912 – Abstract expressionist artist Jackson Pollock (d. 1956)

1936 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor-director Alan Alda (“M*A*S*H,” “Same Time, Next Year,” “The Four Seasons,” “Everyone Says I Love You,” “The West Wing,” “The Aviator”)

1959 – Director Frank Darabont (“The Shawshank Redemption,” “The Green Mile,” “The Mist”)

1968 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan (“Building a Mystery,” “Angel,” “Fallen”)

1977 – Singer, actor and TV personality Joey Fatone, former member of NSYNC, one of the most popular boy bands of all time

1981 – Actor-producer Elijah Wood (“Avalon,” “The Ice Storm,” “Deep Impact,” “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” “Sin City,” “Happy Feet”)

History Highlights

1915 – The American merchant ship William P. Frye becomes the first casualty of World War I as a German cruiser opens fire and sinks the vessel. Despite apologies from the German government, the attack sparks outrage in the U.S.

1922 – Ninety-eight guests are killed, 133 others are injured when the roof of Washington, D.C.’s Knickerbocker Theatre collapses under the weight of a heavy snowfall. The disaster ranks as one of Washington’s worst, and the “Knickerbocker Snowstorm,” as it is known, still holds the record for Washington’s single greatest snowfall.

1958 – The interlocking stud-and-tube plastic Lego brick is patented by Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, whose father founded the Lego toy company (“Lego,” from the Danish term “leg godt,” meaning “play well”). The colorful bricks have covered playroom floors for generations. In fact, it’s estimated that Lego has since produced the equivalent of 62 bricks for every human being on the planet.

1964 – The State Department accuses the Soviet Union of shooting down an unarmed Air Force trainer jet over East Germany, killing its three occupants.

1986 – A nation watches in horror as Space Shuttle Challenger (STS-51-L) explodes 73 seconds into flight, killing teacher Christa McAuliffe — who was to have been the first civilian in space — and fellow crew members Dick Scobee, Michael Smith, Judith Resnick, Ellison Onizuka, Ronald McNair and Gregory Jarvis.

1997 – Four apartheid-era police officers, appearing before a tribunal in South Africa, admit to the 1977 killing of Stephen Biko, a leader of the South African “Black consciousness” movement.

Musical Milestones

1967 – The Monkees are in the middle of a seven-week ride atop the Billboard Hot 100 with “I’m a Believer,” a song written by Neil Diamond.

1978 – “Baby Come Back,” by Player, begins its third and final week as a No. 1 single.

1984 – “Owner of a Lonely Heart,” off Yes’ “90125” album, rules the Billboard Hot 100 for a second and final week.

1985 – Forty-five of the world’s top recording artists gather in a Los Angeles studio to record “We Are the World” to help raise funds for Ethiopian famine relief. The song, written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and produced by Quincy Jones, reaches No. 1 on the singles chart three months later.

1995 – TLC marks the first of four weeks as Billboard singles chart-toppers with “Creep.”

2006 – “Grillz,” by Nelly featuring fellow rappers Paul Wall, Ali & Gipp, is the No. 1 single.

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 12

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Celebrity Birthdays

1913 – U.S. Olympic track and field legend Jesse Owens, known as “The Buckeye Bullet” (d. 1980)

1931 – Country music singer George Jones (d. 2013)

1940 – Actress Linda Gray, who played Sue Ellen Ewing in the TV series “Dallas”

1943 – Singer-songwriter Maria Muldaur, best known for her 1974 smash “Midnight at the Oasis”

1944 – Grammy-winning soul singer-songwriter and producer Barry White (d. 2003)

1951 – Actor Joe Pantoliano (“Risky Business,” “The Matrix,” “The Sopranos”)

1973 – Actor Paul Walker, best remembered for his role in “The Fast and the Furious” movie franchise (d. 2013)

1980 – Retired NBA/Houston Rockets star center and Basketball Hall of Famer Yao Ming

1981 – Grammy, Oscar and Golden Globe-winning singer-actress Jennifer Hudson (“Dreamgirls,” “Sex and the City,” “The Secret Life of Bees,” “Winnie Mandela”)

History Highlights

1940 – Four teenagers stumble upon prehistoric cave paintings while following their dog into a cavern near Montignac, France. The site, consisting primarily of animal renderings, is known as the Lascaux grotto.

1953 – In what is considered the “social event of the season,” Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts marries Washington Times-Herald photographer Jacqueline Bouvier in Newport, Rhode Island. Kennedy is elected the 35th president of the United States seven years later.

1974 – Violence erupts in the streets of Boston on the first day of school over court-ordered busing intended to integrate the public schools. One student describes the experience as resembling “a war zone.”

1977 – Anti-Apartheid leader Steven Biko dies from head trauma suffered during a police beating days earlier.

1978 – The sitcom “Taxi,” starring Judd Hirsch and Danny DeVito, premieres on ABC.

1992 – Best known for his role as the murderous Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic “Psycho,” actor Anthony Perkins dies from AIDS-related pneumonia at age 60.

Musical Milestones

1964 – The Animals rule the Billboard Hot 100 with “The House of the Rising Sun,” which also makes it to No. 1 on the U.K. singles chart.

1966 – With a blend of comedy and music, “The Monkees” TV show debuts on NBC and runs for nearly two years.

1970 – “War,” by Edwin Starr, begins its third and final week as a No. 1 single.

1981 – The Diana Ross-Lionel Richie duet “Endless Love” is midway through a nine-week run as the No. 1 single.

1987 – Michael Jackson kicks off his Bad World Tour by playing the first of three sold-out shows in Tokyo, Japan. By the end of the tour, the King of Pop had performed for more than four million fans during 123 concerts in 15 countries.

1998 – Aerosmith’s single, “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” from the movie “Armageddon,” tops the Billboard Hot 100 for a second week.

2003 – The “Man in Black,” country music legend Johnny Cash, dies in Nashville of complications from diabetes at the age of 71. Cash was one of country music’s biggest stars throughout the ’50s and ’60s, scoring more than 100 hit singles.

On this Day June 17

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Celebrity Birthdays

1904 – Tony-winning actor Ralph Bellamy (“His Girl Friday,” “The Winds of War,” “Trading Places”) (d. 1991)

1943 – Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich

1943 – Grammy, Emmy and Tony-winning singer-songwriter-arranger Barry Manilow (“I Write the Songs,” “Mandy,” “Copacabana”)

1951 – Actor-comedian Joe Piscopo, best remembered for his Frank Sinatra impersonations on “Saturday Night Live” in the 1980s

1960 – Actor Thomas Haden Church (“Wings,” “Sideways,” “Spider-Man 3”)

1963 – Actor Greg Kinnear (“As Good As It Gets,” “You’ve Got Mail,” “Stuck on You,” “Little Miss Sunshine,” “Green Zone”)

1980 – American tennis star Venus Williams

1987 – Grammy-winning rapper and producer Kendrick Lamar, born Kendrick Lamar Duckworth, who has the distinction of being the first artist ever to win a Pulitzer Prize for Music for a genre other than classical or jazz

History Highlights

1885 – The disassembled Statue of Liberty, a gift of friendship from the people of France to the American people, arrives to great fanfare in New York Harbor aboard the French Navy ship, Isère. It will take a year to reassemble all its parts.

1928 – Aviator Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, as she completes a flight from Newfoundland to Wales in about 21 hours.

1972 – Five men are arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office-apartment-hotel complex in Washington, D.C. The busts eventually lead to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in the Watergate scandal.

1991 – The South African Parliament repeals the Population Registration Act, removing what served as the foundation of apartheid. The law, first enacted in 1950, required the racial classification of all South Africans at birth.

1994 – The NBA playoffs are interrupted as TV networks break in with live coverage of perhaps the most famous car chase ever to take place on Los Angeles freeways. It’s football legend O.J. Simpson, inside a white Ford Bronco, being pursued as a double-murder suspect by a convoy of police cars.

Musical Milestones

1965 – The New York Academy of Music hosts the first-ever American performances of two British bands that would become staples of the classic rock scene: The Moody Blues and The Kinks.

1967 – “Groovin’,” by The Young Rascals, makes a return trip to the top of the Billboard singles chart. It spent two weeks there in mid-May and begins another two-week stay this time around.

1972 – Sammy Davis, Jr. holds at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “The Candy Man,” from the movie “Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory.” It is the only chart-topper of Davis’ long career as a celebrated entertainer and Rat Pack member.

1972 – The Rolling Stones’ “Exile On Main Street” starts a four-week run on top of the Billboard album chart. The double-album features “Rocks Off’,” “Rip This Joint,” “Happy” and “Tumbling Dice.”

1978 – Andy Gibb is the hottest act on the singles chart with “Shadow Dancing,” which holds the top spot for seven weeks.

1986 – Kate Smith, one of the most successful American singers of the 1920s-40s and best known for her rendition of “God Bless America,” dies at the age of 79.

1995 – Bryan Adams’ “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?” is in the middle of a five-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart. The song is from the soundtrack to the movie “Don Juan DeMarco,” starring Johnny Depp.

2006 – “Hips Don’t Lie, by Shakira featuring Wyclef Jean, begins two weeks on top of the pop chart.

On this Day June 10

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Celebrity Birthdays

1895 – Hattie McDaniel, first African American actress to receive an Academy Award, which she won for her supporting role as Mammy in “Gone With the Wind” (d. 1952)

1922 – Actress-singer Judy Garland, best known for her role as Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz” (d. 1969)

1921 – Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, husband of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms

1928 – Children’s author-illustrator Maurice Sendak (“Where the Wild Things Are,” “Little Bear”) (d. 2012)

1962 – Actress Gina Gershon (“Showgirls,” “Face/Off,” “The Insider,” “Killer Joe,” “House of Versace”)

1963 – Actress Jeanne Tripplehorn (“Basic Instinct,” “The Firm,” “Big Love,” “Criminal Minds”)

1965 – Model-actress Elizabeth Hurley (“Passenger 57,” the first two “Austin Powers” movies, “Bedazzled”)

1982 – U.S. Olympic champion figure skater Tara Lipinksi

1983 – Actress Leelee Sobieski (“Joan of Arc,” “The Glass House,” “Deep Impact”)

History Highlights

1692 – Bridget Bishop, the first Massachusetts Bay colonist to be tried in the Salem witch trials, is hanged after being found guilty of the practice of witchcraft.

1752 – Benjamin Franklin flies a kite during a thunderstorm and collects ambient electrical charge in a Leyden jar, enabling him to demonstrate the connection between lightning and electricity along with an understanding of positive and negative charges. His experiment leads to development of the lightning rod, which grounded buildings thereby helping prevent deadly fires.

1935 – Alcoholics Anonymous, also known as AA, is founded by two recovering alcoholics — Bill W., a New York stockbroker, and Dr. Bob S., an Ohio surgeon. Today, the organization continues to fulfill the pair’s original mission to help alcoholics stop drinking and stay sober.

1943 – Hungarian Laszlo Biro patents the ballpoint pen. In many languages, the word for ballpoint pen is “biro.”

1967 – In the Middle East, the Six-Day War ends when Israel and Syria agree to a U.N.-brokered ceasefire.

1980 – A letter written by imprisoned anti-apartheid crusader Nelson Mandela and smuggled out of Robben Island prison, is shared publicly by the African National Congress (ANC). The letter is a call to arms against apartheid.

2007 – An estimated 12 million viewers tune in to “Made in America” — the final episode of HBO’s critically acclaimed, award-winning Mob family drama, “The Sopranos,” starring James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli, Lorraine Bracco and Steven Van Zandt.

Musical Milestones

1967 – Aretha Franklin begins her second and final week on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Respect.”

1972 – Sammy Davis, Jr. starts a three-week run with a No. 1 single — his only chart-topper. It’s “Candy Man,” from the movie “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.”

1976 – The first concert ever performed at the Seattle Kingdome features Paul McCartney and Wings, and draws a crowd of more than 67,000 — beating the record attendance that The Beatles had a decade earlier at New York’s Shea Stadium.

1978 – John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John conquer the singles chart with “You’re The One That I Want,” from the movie in which they co-star: “Grease.”

1989 – Bette Midler tops the singles chart with “Wind Beneath My Wings,” from the film “Beaches.”

1995 – Bryan Adams reigns over the pop chart with “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?” The track, from the Johnny Depp movie movie “Don Juan DeMarco,” holds at No. 1 for five weeks.

2000 – The Grammy-winning single “Maria Maria,” by Santana featuring The Product G&B, begins its tenth and final week on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

2004 – Pioneering R&B/soul singer Ray Charles (“I Can’t Stop Loving You,” “Hit the Road Jack,” “What’d I Say,” “Georgia on My Mind”) — a 1986 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee — dies of complications from liver disease at the age of 73.