automobile – Time Rewind

On This Day January 13

Click each item below to learn more!

On This Day December 3

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1930 – Pioneering French “new wave” director Jean-Luc Godard

1948 – Grammy-winning heavy metal legend Ozzy Osbourne

1960 – Actress Daryl Hannah (“Blade Runner,” “Splash,” “Legal Eagles,” “Roxanne,” “Wall Street,” “Steel Magnolias,” “Kill Bill”)

1960 – Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actress Julianne Moore (“The Hand That Rocks the Cradle,” “Boogie Nights,” “The End of the Affair,” “Far from Heaven,” “The Hours,” “Children of Men,” “Game Change,” “Still Alice”)

1968 – Actor Brendan Fraser (“School Ties,” “Encino Man,” “George of the Jungle,” “The Mummy” trilogy, “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” “Inkheart,” “Gods and Monsters,” “The Quiet American,” “Crash,” “Gimme Shelter”)

1985 – Actress Amanda Seyfried (“Mean Girls,” “Veronica Mars,” “Mamma Mia!” “Red Riding Hood,” “Big Love,” “Les Misérables,” “Lovelace”)

History Highlights

1967 – Dr. Christiaan Barnard performs the world’s first successful human heart transplant in Cape Town, South Africa.

1979 – After five years of production, the last AMC Pacer automobile rolls off a Kenosha, Wisconsin assembly plant.

1984 – An explosion at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India and the resulting leak of deadly methyl isocyanate gas kills over 4,000 people and injures 200,000 others. It is the world’s worst industrial accident.

1992 – The world’s first text message is sent by a British engineer who uses his personal computer to transmit “Merry Christmas” to a mobile phone.

Musical Milestones

1965 – The Beatles release “Rubber Soul,” their sixth studio album. It incorporates a mix of pop, soul and folk musical styles, and contains such classics as “Michelle,” “Drive My Car” and “Nowhere Man.”

1966 – “Winchester Cathedral,” by The New Vaudeville Band, is the hottest song on the radio.

1968 – Elvis Presley’s first TV special airs on NBC and becomes the top-rated program of the year. It has long been considered The King’s comeback show. The 33-year-old Presley recorded the special the previous June.

1977 – Debby Boone is in the midst of a 10-week ride at No. 1 on the singles chart with “You Light Up My Life,” a song that garners her a Best New Artist Grammy.

1994 – Fresh off a 14-week domination of the Billboard singles chart with “I’ll Make Love to You,” Boyz II Men begin two weeks at No. 1 with “On Bended Knee.”

On This Day November 4

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1879 – American cowboy-vaudeville performer-actor Will Rogers (d. 1935)

1916 – Legendary broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite, longtime anchor of the “CBS Evening News,” who was dubbed “the most trusted man in America” (d. 2009)

1918 – Oscar-winning actor-comedian Art Carney, best known as Ed Norton in the 1950s sitcom “The Honeymooners” (d. 2003)

1925 – Emmy-winning actress Doris Roberts (“Everybody Loves Raymond”) (d. 2016)

1937 – Actress Loretta Swit, best remembered for her role as “Hot Lips” Houlihan in the popular TV series “M*A*S*H”

1946 – Former First Lady Laura Bush

1960 – Emmy and Grammy-winning comedian Kathy Griffin

1961 – Actor Ralph Macchio (“Eight is Enough,” “The Karate Kid,” “My Cousin Vinny”)

1969 – Oscar-winning actor Matthew McConaughey (“Dazed and Confused,” “Lone Star,” “Contact,” “Dallas Buyers Club,” “Interstellar,” “True Detective”)

1969 – Grammy-winning rapper-songwriter-producer Sean Combs, previously known as Puff Daddy, P. Diddy and, later, Diddy

History Highlights

1922 – British archaeologist Howard Carter and his crew discover the entrance to King Tutankhamen’s tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings.

1924 – Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming is elected as the first female governor in the United States, winning a special election to succeed her husband, who died just a year and 10 months into his term. Ross remains the only woman ever to have served as a Wyoming governor.

1939 – America’s first air-conditioned car goes on display at the 40th National Automobile Show in Chicago. The mechanical refrigeration unit of the 1940 Packard 180 prototype automatically switched to heating in winter and therefore was not called an air conditioner, but rather a “Weather Conditioner.” It was a $279 option that Packard stopped offering after 1942.

1948 – The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded to T.S. Eliot “for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry.”

1952 – The National Security Agency (NSA) is established by order of President Harry Truman to coordinate communications intelligence work across the entire federal government.

1979 – An angry mob of young Islamic revolutionaries storms the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran and takes 90 Americans hostage. Two weeks later, about half are released. The remaining hostages are held captive for the next 14 months in what is known as the Iran Hostage Crisis.

1990 – “Dances With Wolves,” starring Kevin Costner as an American Civil War-era soldier who forms a bond with a tribe of Sioux Indians, premieres in Los Angeles. The movie, which also marks Costner’s directorial debut, goes on to capture seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and proves the Western genre is not dead.

1995 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated. The 73-year-old leader was walking to his car following a peace rally in Tel Aviv when he was shot by a 27-year-old Israeli extremist who is arrested at the scene of the shooting, and later confesses to the crime.

2008 – Senator Barack Obama (D-Illinois) defeats Senator John McCain (R- Arizona) to become the 44th U.S. president and the first African American elected to the White House.

Musical Milestones

1967 – Lulu is in the middle of a five-week domination of the pop chart with the theme song from the movie “To Sir, With Love,” starring Sidney Poitier.

1972 – “I Can See Clearly Now” puts Johnny Nash on top of the Billboard singles chart and keeps him there for four weeks.

1978 – Anne Murray’s “You Needed Me” becomes her first and only No. 1 single.

1989 – With “Sacrifice,” Elton John becomes only the third artist to score 50 chart singles in the U.K. The others were Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard. “Sacrifice” reaches No. 1 in the U.K. and France, but only climbs to No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100.

1989 – “Listen to Your Heart,” by the Swedish duo Roxette, grabs the top spot on the Billboard singles chart.

1995 – Mariah Carey’s “Fantasy” holds at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Carey makes her directorial debut with the accompanying music video.

2000 – Christina Aguilera wraps up four weeks as a chart-topper with “Come on Over Baby (All I Want Is You).”

2006 – “Money Maker,” by Ludacris featuring Pharrell, begins its second and final week as a No. 1 single.

On This Day November 2

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1734 – American pioneer-explorer-frontiersman Daniel Boone (d. 1820)

1913 – Oscar-winning actor Burt Lancaster (“Elmer Gantry,” “The Swimmer,” “Atlantic City,” “Field of Dreams”) (d. 1994)

1914 – Actor Ray Walston (“My Favorite Martian,” “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”) (d. 2001)

1938 – Journalist and conservative political commentator Pat Buchanan

1942 – Actress Stefanie Powers (“Hart to Hart”)

1961 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter k.d. lang (“Constant Craving,” “Miss Chatelaine”)

1966 – Actor David Schwimmer, best known for playing Ross Geller in the popular NBC sitcom “Friends”

1974 – Grammy-winning rapper-actor Nelly, born Cornell Haynes, Jr. (“Country Grammar,” “Hot in Herre,” “Dilemma,” “Party People,” “Just a Dream”)

History Highlights

1902 – Automobile designer Andrew Riker delivers the first four-cylinder, gas-powered “Locomobile” to a buyer in New York City. It’s a 12-horsepower Model C that sells for $4,000.

1947 – Aviator and engineer Howard Hughes performs the first and only flight of his Spruce Goose, the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built. The entire flight lasts only about a minute, as the mammoth, eight-engine airplane travels for one mile just above the surface of Long Beach Harbor in California. However, it was enough to prove to skeptics that the machine could actually fly.

1948 – In the greatest upset in presidential election history, Democratic incumbent, Harry S. Truman, defeats his Republican challenger, Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York, by just over two million popular votes.

1983 – With the stroke of his pen, President Ronald Reagan designates the third Monday of January a federal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

1992 – Producer, director and screenwriter Hal Roach—best known for producing the “Laurel and Hardy” and “Our Gang” (later called “The Little Rascals”) film comedy series—dies at the age of 100.

Musical Milestones

1963 – “Sugar Shack,” by Jimmy Gilmer and The Fireballs, is in the middle of five weeks on top of the Billboard pop chart.

1968 – The Beatles’ “Hey Jude” is in the midst of a nine-week ride atop the singles chart, forcing Mary Hopkin to settle for second-place with her single “Those Were the Days.”

1974 – His musical commentary on the social strife of 1970s America puts Stevie Wonder on top of the singles chart for a week with “You Haven’t Done Nothin’,” featuring backup vocals by The Jackson 5.

1985 – “Part-Time Lover,” by Stevie Wonder, begins a week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

1991 – Karyn White has the No. 1 single with “Romantic.”

1996 – “Macarena,” by Los del Rio enters the final week of a 14-week domination of the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

2002 – On his 28th birthday, Nelly concludes a tenth and final week at No. 1 on the singles chart with “Dilemma,” featuring Kelly Rowland. The song captures a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at the 45th Grammy Awards.

On this Day August 22

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1862 – Classical composer Claude Debussey (d. 1918)

1920 – Award-winning fantasy, science fiction, horror and mystery author Ray Bradbury, who wrote “The Martian Chronicles” and “Fahrenheit 451” (d. 2012)

1934 – U.S. Army General Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr., nicknamed “Stormin’ Norman,” who commanded the American-led forces that crushed Iraq in the 1991 Persian Gulf War (d. 2012)

1939 – Baseball Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski

1939 – Emmy-winning actress Valerie Harper, who played Rhoda Morgenstern on TV’s “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and its spinoff series, “Rhoda” (d. 2019)

1947 – Actress Cindy Williams, who played Shirley in the 70s sitcom “Laverne & Shirley”

1963 – Singer-songwriter Tori Amos, who released her debut album “Little Earthquakes” in 1992 and whose first five albums went platinum in the U.S.

1967 – Emmy-winning actor Ty Burrell, best known for his role as Phil Dunphy on the ABC comedy series “Modern Family”

1973 – Actress-comedian Kristen Wiig (“Saturday Night Live,” “Knocked Up,” “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story,” “Bridesmaids,” “Girl Most Likely,” “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” “The Skeleton Twins,” “The Martian,” “Ghostbusters”)

History Highlights

1851 – The yacht America, representing the young New York Yacht Club, wins the first America’s Cup. It would be well over 100 years before it was taken away from New York.

1902 – Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first U.S. president to ride in an automobile when he sets out from Connecticut on a driving tour of New England.

1906 – Way before the turntable and CD player are invented, the Victor Talking Machine Company of Camden, New Jersey begins to manufacture the Victrola record player. The hand-cranked unit, with horn cabinet, sells for $200.

1950 – The United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) accepts 23-year-old Althea Gibson into its annual championship at Forest Hills, New York, making her the first African-American player to participate in a U.S. national tennis competition.

1973 – President Richard Nixon appoints Henry Kissinger secretary of state. Kissinger helped ease relations with the Soviet Union and China, and negotiated an end to the Vietnam War, but remains a controversial figure for his role in American actions in Cambodia, Latin America and elsewhere.

1989 – The Texas Rangers’ Nolan Ryan becomes the first pitcher in Major League history to register 5,000 career strikeouts.

Musical Milestones

1960 – Elvis Presley is in the middle of a five-week domination of the singles chart with “It’s Now or Never.”

1964 – “Where Did Our Love Go,” by The Supremes, starts a two-week hold on top of the Billboard Hot 100. It’s the girl group’s first No. 1 hit.

1968 – Bickering among The Beatles while recording “The White Album” prompts Ringo Starr to quit the band. “Back In the USSR” is recorded with Paul McCartney on drums and John Lennon on bass. News of Ringo’s departure is kept secret and he rejoins the band about two weeks later.

1970 – Bread’s “Make It With You” begins one week on top of the Billboard singles survey. It becomes the group’s only No. 1 hit.

1987 – “Who’s That Girl,” the title track of the movie of the same name, boosts Madonna to the top of the Hot 100 chart.

1992 – “End of the Road,” by Boyz II Men,” is in the second of what then was a record-breaking 13 weeks as a No. 1 single. The track goes on to capture two Grammy Awards.

1998 – Brandy & Monica hold the top spot on the pop chart with “The Boy is Mine.”

2009 – The Black Eyed Peas lay claim to the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with “I Gotta Feeling.”

On this Day May 26

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1886 – Singer-actor Al Jolson, born Asa Yoelson in Russia and dubbed “The World’s Greatest Entertainer” (d. 1950)

1907 – Oscar-winning actor John Wayne, born Marion Robert Morrison and nicknamed “The Duke,” who starred in many Westerns, including “The Searchers” and “True Grit” (d. 1979)

1920 – Vocalist Peggy Lee (“”Mañana,” “Lover,” “Fever”) (d. 2002)

1926 – Legendary jazz trumpeter Miles Davis (d. 1991)

1948 – Rock and Roll Hall of Fame singer-songwriter and Fleetwood Mac member Stevie Nicks, best recognized for her vocals in the hits “Dreams,” “Rhiannon” and “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around”

1951 – First American woman astronaut in space, Sally Ride (d. 2012)

1962 – Comedian-actor Bobcat Goldthwait

1962 – Emmy-winning actress Genie Francis, most remembered for her role as Laura on the ABC soap “General Hospital”

1964 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Lenny Kravitz (“Let Love Rule,” “Mama Said,” “American Woman”)

1966 – Actress Helena Bonham Carter (“A Room With a View,” “Howard’s End,” “Fight Club,” “Big Fish,” The King’s Speech,” “Les Misérables”)

1975 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter-rapper-producer Lauryn Hill, formerly of The Fugees (“Doo Wop (That Thing),” “Ex-Factor,” “Everything Is Everything”)

History Highlights

1897 – The first copies of the classic vampire novel “Dracula,” by Irish writer Bram Stoker, appear in London bookshops.

1927 – It’s the end of the road for Ford’s iconic Model T automobile. The 15 millionth and last Model T Ford rolls off a Detroit assembly line with Ford founder Henry Ford in the front passenger seat and his son, Edsel, behind the wheel. The touring car, with hand-stamped VIN 15000000, marked the symbolic end of the groundbreaking automobile’s 19-year production run.

1953 – The first 3-D sci-fi movie premieres in Los Angeles: “It Came from Outer Space,” based on a Ray Bradbury story.

1959 – Harvey Haddix of the Pittsburgh Pirates pitches 12 perfect innings against the Milwaukee Braves before losing, 1-0, in the 13th. It’s the first time a pitcher throws more than nine perfect innings in major league history.

1969 – Apollo 10 returns to Earth after a successful eight-day test of all the components needed for the forthcoming first manned moon landing. During descent from its lunar orbit, the spacecraft sets a record for the fastest speed attained by a manned vehicle.

1972 – Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev and U.S. President Richard Nixon, meeting in Moscow, sign the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) agreements.

1977 – The so-called “human fly,” George Willig, scales the South Tower of New York City’s World Trade Center by attaching himself to a window washing track and walking straight to the top and into the custody of waiting police officers. It takes Willig three and a half hours to make the climb and costs him $1.10 in fines — one penny per floor.

Musical Milestones

1962 -Clarinetist Acker Bilk becomes the first British artist to top the Billboard pop chart when his instrumental, “Stranger on the Shore,” reaches No. 1.

1969 – John Lennon and Yoko Ono begin an eight-day “bed-in” for peace at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, during which they record “Give Peace a Chance” in a room filled with reporters, photographers and supporters. The couple held a similar bed-in two months earlier in Amsterdam.

1973 – The hard rock instrumental “Frankenstein,” by The Edgar Winter Group, reaches the top of the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the band’s only No. 1 hit. One week later, it is bumped by Paul McCartney’s “My Love.”

1979 – Peaches & Herb begin their fourth and final week on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Reunited.”

1984 – “Let’s Hear It For the Boy,” by Deniece Williams, from the soundtrack to the Kevin Bacon movie “Footloose,” is on top of the singles chart.

1990 – Madonna’s “Vogue,” off the “I’m Breathless” album, is in the middle of a three-week domination of the Billboard pop chart.

2001 – “All For You,” by Janet Jackson, begins its seventh and final week as a chart-topper.

2007 – “Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin’),” by T-Pain featuring Yung Joc, is the No. 1 single.