On This Day: March 7

On This Day March 7

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1934 – Longtime NBC weatherman and “Today” show personality Willard Scott 

1945 – Actor John Heard (“Awakenings,” “Home Alone,” “The Pelican Brief”) (d. 2017)

1956 – Emmy, Tony and Golden Globe-winning actor Bryan Cranston (“Saving Private Ryan,” “Malcolm in the Middle,” “Little Miss Sunshine,” “Breaking Bad,” “Argo,” “Trumbo,” “The Infiltrator,” “Isle of Dogs,” “The Upside”)

1964 – Emmy-winning comedian Wanda Sykes (“The Chris Rock Show,” “The New Adventures of Old Christine,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm”)

1970 – Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actress Rachel Weisz (“Stealing Beauty,” “The Mummy,” “The Constant Gardener,” “The Bourne Legacy,” “Oz the Great and Powerful,” “The Favourite”)

1974 – Actress-producer Jenna Fischer (“The Office,” “Blades of Glory,” “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story,” “The Promotion,” “Hall Pass”)

1980 – Actress Laura Prepon (“That ‘70s Show,” “Slackers,” “Lightning Bug,” “The Pornographer: A Love Story,” “The Killing Game,” “Orange is the New Black”) 

History Highlights
History Highlights

1876 – Alexander Graham Bell receives a patent for his revolutionary invention, the telephone, which remains a vital communications tool around the world today.

1924 – “The New Republic” publishes Robert Frost’s poem “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening.” The work, beginning with the famous line “Whose woods these are, I think I know. His house is in the village though,” introduces millions of American students to poetry.

1933 – Unemployed during the Great Depression, Charles Darrow creates the board game Monopoly, which he personally sells for two years until Parker Brothers begins mass-marketing it in 1935. Darrow dies a millionaire in 1967.

1965 – A peaceful civil rights demonstration ends in violence in Selma, Alabama when many of the protesters are tear-gassed and beaten by white state troopers and sheriff’s deputies. The day’s events become known as “Bloody Sunday” and mark a tragic but important milestone in America’s civil rights movement. The clash was reported on national television and other media, spurring demonstrations in 80 cities across the country over the next few days.

1999 – Acclaimed screenwriter-director-producer Stanley Kubrick (“Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “A Clockwork Orange,” “The Shining,” “Full Metal Jacket,” “Eyes Wide Shut”) dies in England at the age of 70.

2010 – Kathryn Bigelow becomes the first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Director, for the movie “The Hurt Locker,” about an American bomb squad that disables explosives in Iraq in 2004. Bigelow beats out directing heavyweights James Cameron (coincidentally, her ex-husband),  Lee Daniels, Jason Reitman and Quentin Tarantino.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1964 – “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” by The Beatles, is in the middle of a seven-week domination of the Billboard Hot 100. It is the band’s first No. 1 hit in the U.S. and marks the rising tide of the British Invasion and Beatlemania.

1966 – Tina Turner records her vocals for the legendary Phil Spector-produced “River Deep Mountain High.”

1970 – Just as Simon & Garfunkel split, the acclaimed pop duo’s final collaboration, “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” starts a 10-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart.

1987 – The Beastie Boys become the first rap act to have a No. 1 album with their debut work, “Licensed To Ill.” The album contains fan favorites including “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party)” and “No Sleep till Brooklyn.”

1992 – Mr. Big is in the middle of three weeks as Billboard Hot 100 chart-toppers with “To Be With You.”

1998 – Céline Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On,” the theme from the blockbuster movie “Titanic,” begins its second and final week on top of the pop chart.

2009 – Flo Rida is in the middle of a six-week domination of the singles chart with “Right Round,” which was inspired by Dead or Alive’s 1985 hit, “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record).”

READ MORE
On this Day: August 5

On this Day August 5

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1906 – Golden Globe-winning director and actor John Huston (“The Maltese Falcon,” “The African Queen,” “Chinatown”) (d. 1987)

1930 – Astronaut Neil Armstrong, who was the first human to set foot on the moon (d. 2012)

1935 – Actor John Saxon, born Carmine Orrico, best known for his work in westerns and horror films, as well as Bruce Lee’s 1973 movie, “Enter the Dragon” (d. 2020)

1945 – Actress Loni Anderson (“WKRP in Cincinnati”) 

1956 – Actress Maureen McCormick, best known for playing Marcia Brady in the sitcom “The Brady Bunch”

1962 – Retired basketball Hall of Famer and current Georgetown University head coach Patrick Ewing

1963 – Actor Mark Strong (“Syriana,” “Sherlock Holmes,” “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” “Green Lantern,” “Zero Dark Thirty,” “The Imitation Game,” “Kingsman: The Secret Service”)

1964 – Rapper and Beastie Boys founder Adam Yauch (d. 2012)

History Highlights
History Highlights

1858 – The first telegraph line across the Atlantic Ocean is completed, stretching nearly 2,000 miles at depths of up to two miles. It is put to use on August 16, as U.S. President James Buchanan and Queen Victoria exchange formal introductory and complimentary messages.

1914 – The world’s first electric traffic signal is installed at the corner of Euclid Avenue and East 105th Street in Cleveland, Ohio.

1962 – Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe is found dead in her Los Angeles home at the age of 36. An investigation determines that her death was “caused by a self-administered overdose of sedative drugs and that the mode of death is probable suicide.”

1963 – Representatives of the U.S., Soviet Union and Great Britain sign the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which prohibits the testing of nuclear weapons in outer space, underwater or in the atmosphere. The treaty is hailed as an important first step toward the control of nuclear weapons.

1981 – President Ronald Reagan begins firing more than 11,000 striking air traffic controllers for defying his order to return to work. The move slowed commercial air travel for months.

1983 – “Risky Business” opens in theaters, propelling actor Tom Cruise to stardom. The movie’s most iconic scene features Cruise dancing at home in his underpants to Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock and Roll.”

1998 – Seventy-year-old Marie Noe is arrested and charged with the suffocation murders of eight of her 10 children over a 50-year period.

2002 – Divers recover the rusty turret of the ironclad Civil War-era warship U.S.S. Monitor, which sank 140 years earlier in a storm off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. 

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1957 – “American Bandstand” debuts on national television (ABC) with host Dick Clark, and helps make rock ‘n roll more “acceptable” to skeptical parents by bringing music and dancing kids into their homes. It also provides exposure to up-and-coming bands.

1966 – The Beatles release their seventh studio album, “Revolver,” in the U.K. It’s the first album to feature backwards music — a George Harrison guitar solo played in reverse in “I’m Only Sleeping.”

1967 – The Doors are chart-toppers for a second straight week with “Light My Fire.”

1978 – The Rolling Stones climb to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Miss You,” the group’s eighth No. 1 hit. The track is from the band’s “Some Girls” album, which also delivers the hits “Beast of Burden” and “Shattered.”

1981 – Singer-songwriter and actress Olivia Newton-John, who starred with John Travolta in the 1978 movie “Grease,” is honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1989 – Prince’s “Batdance,” from the movie “Batman,” starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson, soars to No. 1 on the singles chart. 

1995 – “Waterfalls,” by TLC, holds on to the No. 1 slot on the Billboard Hot 100 for a fifth consecutive week.

2000 – NSYNC rules the pop chart for a second and final week with “It’s Gonna Be Me.”

READ MORE