On This Day December 2 Click each item below to learn more! Celebrity Birthdays 1925 – Five-time Tony Award-winning actress Julie Harris (“The Member of the Wedding,” “I Am a Camera,” “The Lark,” “East of Eden,” “The Haunting”) (d. 2013) 1944 – Actress Cathy Lee Crosby (“The Laughing Policeman,” “Wonder Woman”) 1946 – Fashion designer Gianni Versace (d. 1997) 1968 – Actress Lucy Liu (“Ally McBeal,” “Charlie’s Angels,” “Kill Bill,” “Chicago,” “Southland,” the “Kung Fu Panda” series, “Elementary”) 1973 – Retired international tennis champion Monica Seles 1978 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado (“Turn Off the Light,” “I’m Like a Bird”) 1981 – Grammy-winning pop superstar Britney Spears History Highlights 1823 – President James Monroe delivers a speech establishing American neutrality in future European conflicts—a policy that comes to be known as the Monroe Doctrine. 1954 – The U.S. Senate votes to condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy for “conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute.” The move was prompted by McCarthy’s controversial investigation of suspected communists in the federal government, military and civilian society. 1970 – The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is established to protect the public health and environment. 1982 – Sixty-one-year-old Barney Clark becomes the first human recipient of a permanent artificial heart. Near death at the time of the operation, Clark survives 112 days after the surgery. 1997 – Nominated for a staggering nine Academy Awards, “Good Will Hunting” premieres in Los Angeles and goes on to earn childhood friends Ben Affleck and Matt Damon a Best Original Screenplay Oscar — propelling them to Hollywood fame. The movie, directed by Gus Van Sant, also garners Robin Williams the only Oscar of his career — for Best Supporting Actor. 2001 – Enron Corporation files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, exposing one of the largest corporate scandals in U.S. history. Before its collapse, the Houston-based energy trading giant employed some 20,000 people who now had to pack their belongings and look for new jobs. Investors lost billions. Musical Milestones 1967 – The Monkees rule the Billboard singles chart with “Daydream Believer,” the band’s third and final No. 1 hit. The track holds the top spot for four weeks. 1972 – “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” by The Temptations, is the No. 1 single. The song is the legendary Motown band’s last No. 1 hit and goes on to capture three Grammys. 1978 – The Neil Diamond-Barbra Streisand duet, “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers,” is on top of the Billboard Hot 100. 1983 – Michael Jackson’s groundbreaking “Thriller” video, featuring narration by Vincent Price and directed by John Landis, premieres. In 2009, it is inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress — the first music video to ever receive this honor — for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant. 1989 – Milli Vanilli are chart toppers for a second straight week with “Blame It on the Rain.” 1995 – “One Sweet Day,” by Mariah Carey and Boys II Men, begins an incredible 16-week ride atop the Billboard singles chart. 2000 – “Independent Women Part I,” by Destiny’s Child, is in the midst of an 11-week domination of the Billboard Hot 100. The track is from the 2000 movie adaptation of “Charlie’s Angels.” 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
On This Day September 15 Click each item below to learn more! Celebrity Birthdays 1254 – Venetian merchant and explorer Marco Polo (d. 1324) 1890 – Mystery author and playwright Agatha Christie (d. 1976) 1907 – Actress Fay Wray, most remembered for playing the lead in the original “King Kong” movie (d. 2004) 1922 – Jackie Cooper, the first child actor to be nominated for an Oscar (“Our Gang,” “Little rascals,” “The Champ’) (d. 2011) 1946 – Oscar-winning screenwriter-director Oliver Stone (“Platoon,” “Scarface,” “Born on the Fourth of July,” “JFK,” “Natural Born Killers”) 1946 – Oscar-winning actor Tommy Lee Jones (“Coal Miner’s Daughter,” “Men in Black,” “The Fugitive,” “No Country for Old Men,” “Lincoln,” “Jason Bourne”) 1977 – Actor Tom Hardy (“Black Hawk Down,” “Star Trek: Nemesis,” “Inception,” “The Dark Knight Rises,” “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “Dunkirk,” “Venom”) 1984 – Prince Harry of Wales History Highlights 1916 – The tank makes its debut as a battlefield weapon, attacking German troops as part of a British assault near Bois d’Elville, or Delville Wood, on the Western Front, during the Battle of the Somme in World War I. 1942 – Three Japanese torpedoes slam into the American aircraft carrier USS Wasp off Guadalcanal in the South Pacific during World War II. The attack claims the lives of nearly 200 of the ship’s 2,000 crewmen. The wreckage of the Wasp was discovered at the bottom of the Coral Sea in January 2019. 1954 – The iconic scene of Marilyn Monroe laughing as her skirt is blown up by the blast of air from a Manhattan subway vent is shot during the filming of “The Seven Year Itch,” directed by Billy Wilder. 1959 – Nikita Khrushchev becomes the first Soviet leader to visit the United States. During the next two weeks, Khrushchev’s visit dominates the headlines and provides some dramatic and humorous moments in the history of the Cold War. 1963 – Four young black girls are killed in a bombing at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, that investigators determine to be a racially motivated terrorist attack. The bombing, which shocks the nation, is Birmingham’s third in 11 days following a federal order to integrate the Alabama schools. 1978 – Muhammad Ali defeats Leon Spinks to win the world heavyweight boxing title for the third time in his career, becoming the first fighter ever to do so. 1981 – The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approves Sandra Day O’Connor as the first female Supreme Court justice. 1982 – Gannett publishes the first edition of a new national daily newspaper called USA Today. 2008 – The venerable Wall Street brokerage firm Lehman Brothers seeks Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, becoming the largest victim of the subprime mortgage crisis that would devastate financial markets and contribute to the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression. Musical Milestones 1956 – Elvis Presley is king of the pop chart with “Don’t Be Cruel,” which becomes his biggest-selling single and, in 2002, is inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The B-side of the disc contains “Hound Dog,” which climbs to No. 2 a few weeks later. 1962 – “Sherry,” by The Four Seasons, is the No. 1 single and remains on top of the pop chart for five weeks. 1965 – Ford Motor Company is the first automaker to introduce factory-installed 8-track tape players in a car — the 1966 Mustang and Thunderbird — a year before 8-track equipment is available for home use. 1973 – Originally a Top-10 country hit for Tanya Tucker, Helen Reddy takes “Delta Dawn” to No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart. 1983 – Huey Lewis and the News release “Sports,” which goes on to top the Billboard album chart the following summer and spawns four Top-10 hits, including “The Heart of Rock & Roll” and “I Want a New Drug.” 1984 – Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got to Do with It” begins its third and final week as a No. 1 single. The track goes on to capture Song of the Year and Record of the Year Grammys. 1990 – “Release Me,” by Wilson Phillips, claims the top spot on the singles chart and holds there for two weeks. 2001 – “I’m Real,” by Jennifer Lopez featuring Ja Rule, is No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. READ MORE