Berlin Airlift – Time Rewind

On this Day August 13

Musical Milestones

1964 – The Supremes record “Baby Love,” which climbs to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 that fall, becoming the Motown sensation’s second chart-topper.

1965 – The Beatles touch down at New York’s Kennedy International Airport for their second North American tour, which includes their now-legendary performance before nearly 56,000 fans at Shea Stadium.

1966 – “Summer in the City,” by The Lovin’ Spoonful, begins three weeks as a No. 1 single. It is the first song ever produced that features a jack-hammer sound effect.

1975 – Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band begin their “Born to Run” tour at New York’s Bottom Line night club.

1977 – Bachman-Turner Overdrive (BTO), the band that gave us “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” and “Let It Ride,” breaks up.

1977 – Andy Gibb begins his third and final week on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “I Just Want to Be Your Everything.”

1980 – The band Devo releases the new wave/synth-pop single “Whip It,” which climbs as high as No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song continues to get heavy airplay on 80s and new wave-format radio stations.

1982 – Soul singer Joe Tex dies at his home in Navasota, Texas, following a heart attack at the age of 49. He had nine Top 40 hits during his music career, including the 1972 No. 2 single. “I Gotcha.”

1983 – The Police are in the midst of an eight-week domination of the pop chart with “Every Breath You Take,” off their Grammy-winning “Synchronicity” album.

1994 – “Stay (I Missed You),” by Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories, is in the middle of a three-week run on top of the Billboard Hot 100. The single earns Loeb the distinction of being the first artist to have a No. 1 hit before even being signed to a record label.

2005 – Mariah Carey rules the pop chart with “We Belong Together,” off her “The Emancipation of Mimi” album.

History Highlights

1907 – The first taxicab hits the streets of New York City.

1942 – Walt Disney’s classic animated film “Bambi” premieres at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. It becomes Disney’s fifth animated feature.

1948 – Responding to heightened Soviet pressure on western Berlin, U.S. and British planes airlift a record amount of supplies into sections of the city under American and British control. Pilots had to navigate weather so bad that the day became known as “Black Friday.”

1961 – Berlin, Germany becomes a divided city, as East German soldiers lay barbed wire and bricks to prevent residents of the Soviet-controlled eastern part of the city from fleeing to the democratically controlled western section. The Berlin Wall becomes one of the most iconic symbols of the Cold War.

1981 – President Ronald Reagan signs the Economic Recovery Tax Act (ERTA), an historic package of tax and budget reductions that sets the tone for his administration’s overall economic policy, often referred to as “Reaganomics.”

1995 – Former New York Yankees slugger and Baseball Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle dies of liver cancer at the age of 63.

Celebrity Birthdays

1860 – Markswoman and Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show star Annie Oakley (d. 1926)

1899 – Legendary director Alfred Hitchcock, nicknamed the “Master of Suspense” (“Psycho,” “Rear Window,” “North by Northwest,” “Vertigo,” “Dial M for Murder,” “The Birds”) (d. 1980)

1926 – Former Cuban President Fidel Castro (d. 2016)

1929 – Actor Pat Harrington, Jr., most recognized as building superintendent Dwayne Schneider on the CBS sitcom “One Day at a Time” (d. 2016)

1930 – Internationally acclaimed Hawaiian entertainer Don Ho, most remembered for his 1966 hit single “Tiny Bubbles” (d. 2007)

1949 – French high wire artist Philippe Petit, famous for his 1974 World Trade Center high-wire walk

1951- Singer-songwriter Dan Fogelberg (“The Power of Gold,” “Longer”) (d. 2007)

1959 – Former “Partridge Family” co-star and talk show host Danny Bonaduce

1962 – Actor John Slattery, best known for his portrayal of Roger Sterling in the “Mad Men” TV series

Own a Piece of This Day

SHOP HERE:

The Lovin' Spoonful Greatest Hits

The Lovin’ Spoonful

Synchronicity (Remastered)

The Police

Confessions of a New York Taxi Driver

Eugene Salomon

The Berlin Wall: A World Divided, 1961-1989

Frederick Taylor

The Colonel and Little Missie

Larry McMurtry

Rear Window

Starring James Stewart, Grace Kelly and Raymond Burr, and directed by Alfred Hitchcock

On this Day June 26

Musical Milestones

1961 – Gary U.S. Bonds kicks off two weeks on top of the pop chart with “Quarter to Three,” ranked among The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list.

1965 – The most popular single is The Byrds’ interpretation of Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man.”

1971 – “It’s Too Late,” by Carole King, is in the middle of a five-week run on top of the Billboard Hot 100. The track goes on to capture a Record of the Year Grammy — one of four Grammys associated with King’s “Tapestry” album.

1976 – Paul McCartney and Wings hold the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Silly Love Songs.”

1977 – Elvis Presley makes his last ever live stage appearance when he plays to a crowd of 18,000 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis. Less than two months later, the 42-year-old music legend is dead.

1982 – Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder enter their seventh and final week as chart-toppers with “Ebony and Ivory.”

1993 – Janet Jackson rules the Billboard Hot 100 with “That’s the Way Love Goes.”

1999 – Jennifer Lopez is midway through a five-week run atop the singles chart with “If You Had My Love.”

2004 – Usher holds at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for a sixth week with “Burn.”

History Highlights

1927 – Coney Island’s iconic Cyclone roller coaster begins operating. The ride quickly becomes a fan favorite, with long lines of repeat customers paying 25 cents per ride. In 1988, it is designated a New York City Landmark, and in 1991, it is added to the National Register of Historic Places.

1948 – Known as the “Berlin Airlift,” U.S. and British planes begin delivering food and supplies through airdrops to (West) Berlin, Germany after Soviet forces seal off rail, road, and water access with a blockade. The crisis finally ends almost a year later when Soviet forces lift the blockade on land access to the city.

1959 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Queen Elizabeth II preside at a ceremony marking the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, which creates a navigational channel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes.

1963 – President John F. Kennedy speaks the famous words, “Ich bin ein Berliner,” in a speech before cheering throngs in democratic West Berlin.

1974 – Grocery shopping is revolutionized with the introduction of the bar code. The first item scanned is a pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit chewing gum at a supermarket in Troy, Ohio.

1993 – President Bill Clinton punishes Iraq for a plot to assassinate former U.S. President George H. W. Bush.

2015 – Marking a major milestone for civil rights, the Supreme Court rules that same-sex marriage cannot be banned in the United States and that all same-sex marriages must be recognized nationwide, finally granting same-sex couples equal rights to heterosexual couples under the law.

Celebrity Birthdays

1904 – Actor Peter Lorre, born László Loewenstein in Hungary (d. 1964)

1911 – Babe Didrikson Zaharias, considered the world’s greatest woman athlete (d. 1956)

1956 – Rock musician-actor Chris Isaak (“Wicked Game,” “Baby Did A Bad, Bad Thing,” “Somebody’s Crying”)

1970 – Actor Chris O’Donnell (“Scent of a Woman,” “Batman Forever,” “Batman & Robin,” “NCIS” Los Angeles”)

1970 – Emmy-winning actor-comedian and producer Sean Hayes, best known for his starring role in the sitcom “Will & Grace”

1974 – Retired New York Yankees star shortstop Derek Jeter

1980 – NFL quarterback Michael Vick, who served nearly two years in prison for his role in illegal dog fighting

1992 – Actress Jennette McCurdy, best known for her role as Sam Puckett in the Nickelodeon sitcom “iCarly” and its spin-off, “Sam & Cat, which co-starred Ariana Grande

1993 – Actress-turned-Grammy-winning pop sensation Ariana Grande (“The Way,” “Break Free,” “Problem,” “Thank U, Next”)

Own a Piece of This Day

SHOP HERE:

At The Speed of Sound (Deluxe/Remastered)

Paul McCartney and Wings

Elv1s: 30 #1 Hits

Elvis Presley

Images of America: Coney Island and Astroland

Charles Denson

The Berlin Airlift: The History and Legacy of the First Major Crisis of the Cold War

Charles River Editors

Casablanca

Starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Peter Lorre, and directed by Michael Curtiz

Wonder Girl: The Magnificent Sporting Life of Babe Didrikson Zaharias

Don Van Natta

On this Day June 24

Musical Milestones

1967 – “Groovin’,” by The Young Rascals, enjoys its fourth and final week as a No. 1 single.

1967 – British rock band Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade Of Pale” lands on the Billboard Hot 100 and climbs as high as No. 5. Meanwhile, in the U.K., it is a No. 1 hit for six weeks. The track becomes one of the anthems of 1967’s so-called “Summer of Love.”

1972 – Sammy Davis, Jr. begins a third and final week on top of the singles chart with his interpretation of “The Candy Man,” from the movie “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.”

1989 – Richard Marx scores his second No. 1 single with “Satisfied.”

1995 – Bryan Adams’ “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?” is No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The track is from the Johnny Depp-Marlon Brando movie “Don Juan DeMarco.”

2000 – Enrique Iglesias kicks off three weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Be With You.”

2006 – “Hips Don’t Lie,” by Shakira featuring Wyclef Jean, begins its second and final week on top of the pop chart.

History Highlights

1901 – The first major exhibition of Pablo Picasso’s artwork opens in Paris.

1947 – Pilot Kenneth Arnold reports seeing strange objects near Mount Rainier, Washington. He describes them as “saucers skipping across the water,” and so the term “flying saucers” is born.

1948 – The Soviet Union begins a blockade of Berlin. Allied forces respond with what would be known as the Berlin Airlift, flying in more than two million tons of supplies over the next year.

1953 – Jacqueline Bouvier and Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy publicly announce their engagement. They marry three months later in Newport, Rhode Island. Kennedy wins election as 35th U.S. president in 1960, and as first lady, Jackie, as she was known, makes restoration of the White House her first major project.

1975 – Wind shear from thunderstorms is blamed for the crash of an Eastern Airlines 727 on final approach to New York’s JFK Airport that leaves 113 dead. The accident leads to the installation of low-level wind shear detectors at airports.

1993 – Yale University computer science professor David Gelernter is seriously injured while opening his mail when a padded envelope explodes in his hands. The bombing, along with 14 others since 1978 that killed three people and injured 23 others, was eventually linked to “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski.

1997 – U.S. Air Force officials release a 231-page report dismissing long-standing claims of an alien spacecraft crash in Roswell, New Mexico, almost exactly 50 years earlier.

Celebrity Birthdays

1895 – World heavyweight boxer Jack Dempsey, known as the “Manassa Mauler”(d. 1983)

1919 – Actor Al Molinaro, remembered for his TV sitcom roles as Al Delvecchio in “Happy Days” and Murray Greshler in “The Odd Couple” (d. 2015)

1935 – Director-actor Robert Downey, Sr. (“Putney Swope,” “Tower Heist”)

1942 – Actress Michele Lee (“How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” “Knots Landing,” “Wicked”)

1944 – Grammy-winning rock guitarist and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Jeff Beck, a former member of the band The Yardbirds

1947 – Actor Peter Weller (“RoboCop,” “RoboCop 2,” “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension,” “Naked Lunch,” “Mighty Aphrodite,” “Longmire”)

1947 – Rock and Roll Hall of Fame drummer and Fleetwood Mac co-founder Mick Fleetwood

1967 – Actress and former “ER” star Sherry Stringfield

Own a Piece of This Day

SHOP HERE:

The Best of Sammy Davis, Jr. : The Millennium Collection

Sammy Davis, Jr.

Greatest Hits

Richard Marx

And They Called It Camelot

Stephanie Marie Thornton

UNABOMBER: How the FBI Broke Its Own Rules to Capture the Terrorist Ted Kaczynski

Jim Freeman

Truth

Jeff Beck

Robocop

Starring Peter WellerNancy Allen and Dan O’Herlihy, and directed by Paul Verhoeven