On this Day August 9 Click each item below to learn more! Celebrity Birthdays 1927 – Actor Robert Shaw (“A Man For All Seasons,” “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three,” “Jaws,” “Black Sunday”) (d. 1978) 1944 – Actor Sam Elliott (“Gunsmoke,” “Mask,” “Road House,” “Tombstone,” “The Big Lebowski,” “Ghost Rider,” “The Golden Compass,” “Grandma,” “The Ranch”) 1957 – Golden Globe-winning actress Melanie Griffith (“Something Wild, “Working Girl,” “Shining Through,” “Crazy in Alabama”) 1963 – Six-time Grammy-winning pop sensation Whitney Houston (d. 2012) 1968 – Actor Eric Bana (“Black Hawk Down,” “Hulk,” “Munich,” “Star Trek”) 1968 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actress Gillian Anderson, best known for playing Special Agent Dana Scully in the hit sci-fi series “The X-Files.” 1985 – Actress Anna Kendrick (“Up in the Air,” “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” “The Twilight Saga,” “Pitch Perfect,” “Pitch Perfect 2,” “Into the Woods”) History Highlights 1936 – African American track star Jesse Owens captures his fourth Gold medal at the Berlin Olympic Games in the 4×100-meter relay. His relay team set a new world record of 39.8 seconds. In their strong showing in track and field, Owens and other African American athletes struck a publicity blow to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, who planned to use the international event to showcase supposed Aryan superiority. 1945 – Three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, the U.S. drops a second atomic bomb on Japan. This time the target is Nagasaki. The attack leads to Japan’s unconditional surrender and brings hostilities in World War II to a close. The combined attacks leave some 200,000 people dead and level both cities. 1969 – In one of the most horrifying crimes of the 1960s, members of Charles Manson’s cult, the Manson Family, murder five people in the Beverly Hills home of director Roman Polanski. Polanski’s pregnant wife, 26-year-old actress Sharon Tate, is among the victims. 1974 – Gerald Ford becomes the 38th U.S. president, taking the oath of office on the heels of the Richard Nixon resignation. 1975 – The Louisiana Superdome opens and an exhibition game there sees the Houston Oilers trounce the hometown New Orleans Saints by a score of 31-7. 2010 – JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater quits his job in dramatic fashion after his flight lands at New York’s JFK International Airport. He gets on the public address system, swears at a passenger whom he claimed treated him rudely, grabs a beer and slides down the plane’s emergency chute onto the tarmac. Musical Milestones 1959 – “Stagger Lee,” by Lloyd Price, begins a four-week hold on the top spot on the singles chart. 1969 – Blood, Sweat, & Tears’ Grammy-winning self-titled album tops the Billboard 200. The album delivers the Top 5 hits “And When I Die,” “Spinning Wheel” and “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy.” 1975 – The Bee Gees dominate the Billboard Hot 100 with their second No. 1 hit in the U.S.: “Jive Talkin’.” The single holds the top spot for two weeks. 1980 – Olivia Newton-John is in the midst of a four-week reign over the pop chart with “Magic.” 1995 – Deadheads everywhere mourn as a heart attack claims the life of Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia at the age of 53. Rolling Stone magazine’s 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time ranks Garcia at No. 13. 1997 – “I’ll Be Missing You,” by Puff Daddy featuring Faith Evans and 112, continues its domination over the Billboard Hot 100. 2003 – “Crazy in Love,” by Beyoncé featuring Jay-Z, is the No. 1 single. The track holds the top spot for eight weeks. 2008 – Katy Perry is in the middle of a seven-week domination of the pop chart with “I Kissed a Girl.” READ MORE
On this Day July 3 Click each item below to learn more! Celebrity Birthdays 1878 – Composer and playwright George M. Cohan (“Over There,” “Give My Regards to Broadway,” “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy”) (d. 1942) 1883 – Author Franz Kafka (“Amerika,” “The Trial,” “The Castle”) (d. 1924) 1937 – Playwright Tom Stoppard (“Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” “Every Good Boy Deserves Favour”) 1947 – Pulitzer Prize-winning author and columnist Dave Barry 1956 – Emmy-winning TV talk show host Montel Williams 1962 – Golden Globe-winning actor-producer Tom Cruise (“Risky Business,” “Top Gun,” “The Color of Money,” “Cocktail,” “Rain Man,” “Days of Thunder,” “A Few Good Men,” “The Firm,” “Jerry Maguire,” the “Mission: Impossible” movie franchise, “Edge of Tomorrow”) 1980 – Actress Olivia Munn (“Beyond the Break,” “Magic Mike,” “The Newsroom,” “Mortdecai,” “X-Men: Apocalypse”) History Highlights 1775 – George Washington rides out in front of the American troops gathered at Cambridge Common in Massachusetts and draws his sword, formally taking command of the 16,000-member Continental Army. 1863 – On the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s last attempt at breaking the Union line ends in failure, bringing the most decisive battle of the American Civil War to an end. 1958 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Rivers and Harbors Flood Control Bill, which allocates funds to improve flood-control and water-storage systems across the United States. 1985 – The sci-fi adventure/comedy “Back to the Future,” starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd and directed by Robert Zemeckis, opens in U.S. theaters. It becomes a cult classic, spawning two sequels, an animated series, a theme park ride, several video games, a series of comic books and a stage musical. 1986 – President Ronald Reagan, with First Lady Nancy Reagan by his side, presides over the relighting of the renovated Statue of Liberty. It re-opens to the public two days later during Liberty Weekend, celebrating the monument’s centennial. 1988 – While sailing through the Persian Gulf, the U.S. Navy cruiser Vincennes shoots down an Iranian passenger jet that it mistakes for a hostile fighter plane. All 290 people on board are killed. The U.S. government admits to the error a month later, and in 1996, agrees to pay $62 million in damages to the families of the Iranians that perished in the attack. Musical Milestones 1969 – The Newport Jazz Festival features huge musical acts not typically associated with jazz: Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, Blood Sweat & Tears and more. 1969 – Shortly after leaving The Rolling Stones, band founder and guitarist Brian Jones is found dead in his swimming pool at the age of 27. 1970 – An audience of more than 300,000 gathers for the second annual Atlanta Pop Festival, featuring the Allman Brothers, Jimi Hendrix, Jethro Tull, Johnny Winter, Mountain, Procol Harum and Rare Earth. 1971 – The No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 is Carole King’s “It’s Too Late,” off her legendary, Grammy-winning “Tapestry” album. 1971 – The body of 27-year-old Doors frontman Jim Morrison is discovered by his girlfriend in the bathtub of their rented apartment in Paris, France. The cause of death was officially labeled heart failure, thus averting an autopsy under French law. 1974 – The “Tony Orlando & Dawn” variety show premieres on CBS. 1982 – The Human League capture the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Don’t You Want Me,” from their “Dare” album. The track holds at No. 1 for three weeks. 1999 – Jennifer Lopez is in the middle of a five-week domination of the pop chart with “If You Had My Love.” 2004 – “Burn,” by Usher, begins the last of a seven-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart. READ MORE