On This Day: February 25

On This Day February 25

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1913 – Actor Jim Backus, best known for playing stranded millionaire Thurston Howell III in the comedy “Gilligan’s Island” and providing the voice for the cartoon character “Mr. Magoo” (d. 1989)

1935 – Retired syndicated TV talk show host Sally Jessy Raphael

1937 – Retired Emmy-winning CBS News anchor-commentator and author Bob Schieffer

1943 – Singer-songwriter-guitarist and former Beatle George Harrison (d. 2001)

1965 – Comedian Carrot Top, born Scott Thompson

1966 – Actress Tea Leoni, born Elizabeth Téa Pantaleoni (“Bad Boys,” “Deep Impact,” “The Family Man,” “Tower Heist,” “Madam Secretary”) 

1971 – Actor Sean Aston (“The Goonies,” “Rudy,” the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy) 

1976 – Actress Rashida Jones (“The Office,” “Parks and Recreation,” “The Social Network,” “Our Idiot Brother,” “Angie Tribeca”)

1997 – Actress Isabelle Fuhrman, best known for playing a demonic child in “Orphan” and Clove in “The Hunger Games”

History Highlights
History Highlights

1870 – Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Natchez, Mississippi, is sworn into the U.S. Senate, becoming the first African American ever to sit in Congress. He is assigned to serve on the Committee on Education and Labor and the Committee on the District of Columbia.

1916 – German troops seize Fort Douaumont, the most formidable of the forts guarding the walled city of Verdun, France, four days after launching their initial attack. The Battle of Verdun becomes the longest and bloodiest conflict of World War I, lasting 10 months and resulting in over 700,000 casualties.

1950 – The TV comedy “Your Show of Shows,” hosted by Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca, premieres, eventually helping launch the successful entertainment careers of Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Woody Allen and others.

1964 – Twenty-two-year-old Cassius Clay (who later changes his name to Muhammad Ali) stuns odds-makers by dethroning world heavyweight boxing champ Sonny Liston in a seventh-round technical knockout in Miami Beach.

1984 – A massive explosion, triggered when gasoline from a ruptured pipeline ignited, levels a shantytown outside Sao Paulo, Brazil, killing at least 500 people — mostly young children. However, investigators speculate that the actual death toll may have been closer to 700 since many bodies were incinerated in the intense blaze.

1986 – President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines flees the nation after 20 years of rule. Corazon Aquino becomes that nation’s first woman president. 

2004 – “The Passion of the Christ,” Mel Gibson’s controversial film about the final hours of Jesus of Nazareth’s life, opens in U.S. theaters, starring  Jim Caviezel as Jesus. It receives three Oscar nominations.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1956 – Elvis Presley scores his first hit when “I Forgot to Remember to Forget” reaches No. 1 on the Billboard Country & Western chart. The Beatles cover the song in 1964 on the BBC radio show “From Us to You,” with George Harrison on lead vocals.

1956 – “Lisbon Antigua,” by Nelson Riddle, begins a four-week run as a No. 1 single.

1967 – The No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 for a second and final week belongs to The Buckinghams: “Kind of a Drag”

1978 – The Bee Gees are in their fourth and final week at No. 1 on the singles chart with “Stayin’ Alive,” from the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack.

1981 – Christopher Cross, then a little-known musician from Texas, cleans up at the Grammy Awards with five statuettes, including Best New Artist, Album of the Year (“Christopher Cross”) and Song of the Year (“Sailing”).

1984 – “Jump,” by Van Halen, kicks off five weeks atop the U.S. singles chart. The track, off the band’s “1984” album, is ranked among the “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll” by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 

1995 – Madonna begins seven weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Take a Bow,” off her “Bedtime Stories” album. The single becomes her eleventh chart-topper. With it, Madonna replaces Carole King as the female who had written the most No. 1 songs.

READ MORE
On this Day: May 3

On this Day May 3

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1469 – Italian philosopher and writer Niccolo Machiavelli (d. 1527)

1903 – Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe-winning singer and actor Bing Crosby (“White Christmas,” “Going My Way,” “High Society”) (d. 1977)

1906 – Oscar-winning actress Mary Astor (“Beau Brummel,” “The Great Lie,” “The Maltese Falcon”) (d. 1987)

1919 – Grammy-winning folk singer-songwriter and activist Pete Seeger (d. 2014)

1921 – Boxing legend Sugar Ray Robinson (d. 1989)

1932 –  Actor, film historian, television host and author Robert Osborne, best known for more than 20 years as the marquee host of the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) cable channel (d. 2017) 

1933 – “The Godfather of Soul,” Grammy-winning singer James Brown (“Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” “I Got You (I Feel Good)” (d. 2006)

1934 – Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Frankie Valli, born Francesco Stephen Castelluccio, lead singer of The Four Seasons (“Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Sherry,” “Grease”)

1951 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Christopher Cross (“Sailing,” “Ride Like the Wind,” “Arthur’s Theme-Best That You Can Do”)

1975 – Actress Christina Hendricks, best known for her role as Joan Harris in the “Mad Men” TV series

1975 – Actor and tap dancer Dulé Hill (“She’s All That,” “The West Wing,” “Psych”)

History Highlights
History Highlights

1937 – Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone With the Wind” captures the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and becomes one of the best-selling novels of all time.

1948 – The “CBS Evening News” premieres as a 15-minute telecast anchored by Douglas Edwards. He is succeeded in 1962 by Walter Cronkite and the show is expanded to 30 minutes. Subsequent anchors have included Dan Rather, Bob Schieffer, Katie Couric and Scott Pelley.

1952 – The Kentucky Derby is televised for the first time, and the winner of the 78th Run for the Roses is Hill Gail.

1971 – National Public Radio (NPR) presents its first broadcast, “All Things Considered,” hosted by Robert Conley.

1973 – Chicago’s Sears Tower (now Willis Tower) is topped out as the world’s tallest building. It loses that distinction in 1997 when the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur are completed.

1980 – Thirteen-year-old Cari Lightner of Fair Oaks, California, is killed by a drunk driver while walking to a church carnival. Her tragic death compels her mother, Candy Lightner, to found Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), a non-profit organization committed to raising awareness about driving while intoxicated (DWI) and to promote tough legislation against the crime.

1986 – Fifty-four-year-old Bill Shoemaker, riding 18/1 shot Ferdinand, becomes the oldest jockey ever to win the Kentucky Derby. The victory becomes one of Shoemaker’s 8,833 wins — a record that stands until 1999, when broken by Laffit Pincay, Jr. 

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1969 – The 5th Dimension own the top spot on the singles chart with “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures).” The medley was written for the 1967 musical “Hair” and goes on to win both Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Group Grammy Awards in 1970.

1975 – Tony Orlando and Dawn start a three-week run at No.1 on the singles chart with “He Don’t Love You, (Like I Love You),” the group’s third chart-topper.

1976 –  Paul McCartney & Wings kick off the “Wings Over America” tour at the Tarrant County Convention Hall in Fort Worth, Texas. It is McCartney’s first U.S. concert appearance since The Beatles’ farewell show at Candlestick Park in 1966. 

1980 – “Call Me,” by Blondie, is midway through a six-week domination of the Billboard Hot 100. The song is from the soundtrack to “American Gigolo,” starring Richard Gere.

1980 – Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band begin a six-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart with “Against The Wind.”

1986 – Robert Palmer has a No. 1 single with “Addicted to Love.” The music video features Palmer singing in front of a band of beautiful women dressed and made up to look alike as they “play” their instruments. It becomes one of the most iconic videos of the 1980s.

1997 – “Hypnotize,” by The Notorious B.I.G., begins three weeks as a Billboard No. 1. However, the hip-hop legend isn’t alive to enjoy the success. He was killed in a Los Angeles drive-by shooting two months earlier. 

2008 – “Lollipop,” by Lil Wayne featuring Static Major, negins a week at No. 1 on the singles chart.

READ MORE