On This Day March 9 Click each item below to learn more! Celebrity Birthdays 1934 – Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who became the world’s first man in space in 1961 (d. 1968) 1936 – Country music singer-songwriter and nightclub owner Mickey Gilley (“Urban Cowboy,” “Room Full of Roses”) 1940 – Golden Globe-winning actor Raul Julia (“Kiss of the Spider Woman,” “The Addams Family,” “Presumed Innocent,” “The Burning Season,” “Street Fighter”) (d. 1994) 1943 – American chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer (d. 2008) 1960 – Actress Linda Fiorentino (“Vision Quest,” “The Last Seduction”) 1964 – Oscar-winning actress Juliette Binoche (“The Unbearable Lightness of Being,” “The English Patient,” “Chocolat,” “Caché,” “Breaking and Entering,” “Flight of the Red Balloon”) 1979 – Golden Globe-winning actor Oscar Isaac (“Inside Llewyn Davis,” “A Most Violent Year,” “Show Me a Hero,” “Ex Machina,” “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, “X-Men: Apocalypse”, “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”) History Highlights 1959 – The Barbie doll makes her glamorous debut at the American Toy Fair in New York, retailing for $3. Barbie was the creation of Ruth Handler — American businesswoman, inventor and co-founder of Mattel — who wanted “a doll through which [a little girl could] project herself into her dream of her future.” 1964 – The Ford Motor Company produces the first Mustang. Starting price: $2,368. An estimated 22,000 orders are placed that day – a full month before a single “pony car” even hits the showroom. More than 400,000 units sell in the first year, four times Ford‘s own estimates. 1985 – The Adopt-a-Highway program launches when the first sign is posted along State Highway 69 in Tyler, Texas. The program, in which local businesses support trash cleanup along a designated section of highway, quickly spreads across the U.S. and on to Canada, Japan and New Zealand. 1996 – Legendary cigar-chomping comedian George Burns dies at his Beverly Hills home just weeks after celebrating his 100th birthday. 2005 – “CBS Evening News” anchor and managing editor Dan Rather delivers his last newscast, 24 years after succeeding his predecessor, Walter Cronkite. Musical Milestones 1959 – “Venus,” by Frankie Avalon, tops the Billboard pop chart and stays there for five weeks. 1963 – The Four Seasons, featuring Frankie Valli, hold the top spot on the singles chart with “Walk Like a Man.” 1974 – One-hit wonder and Canadian native Terry Jacks basks in the glow of the No. 1 spot on the singles chart with “Seasons in the Sun.” He holds the top spot for three weeks. The original song was written in French in 1961 under the title of “Le Moribond” (“The Dying Man”) by Belgian poet-composer Jacques Brel. 1985 – REO Speedwagon begins three weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Can’t Fight This Feeling,” off the “Wheels Are Turnin'” album. 1991 – Mariah Carey kicks off two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart with “Someday,” her third consecutive chart-topper. 1997 – Rapper-songwriter and actor Notorious B.I.G., born Christopher Wallace and also known as Biggie Smalls, is shot to death while stopped at a red light in Los Angeles. He is just 24. 2002 – “Ain’t It Funny,” by Jennifer Lopez featuring Ja Rule, begins six weeks as a Billboard No. 1 single. READ MORE
On This Day September 1 Click each item below to learn more! Celebrity Birthdays 1922- Actress Yvonne DeCarlo (“The Ten Commandments,” “The Munsters”) (d. 2007) 1923- Former world heavyweight boxing champion Rocky Marciano, born Rocco Francis Marchegiano (d. 1969) 1933 – Country Music Hall of Famer and Rockabilly Hall of Famer Conway Twitty, born Harold Lloyd Jenkins (d. 1993) 1938 – Attorney and Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz 1939 – Tony, Emmy and Grammy-winning actress-comedian Lily Tomlin (“Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In,” “9 to 5,” “All of Me,” “The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe,” “Flirting with Disaster,” “Tea with Mussolini,” “I Heart Huckabees,” “A Prairie Home Companion”) 1946 – Singer-songwriter and Bee Gees founder Barry Gibb 1950 – TV psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw 1957 – Grammy-winning musician Gloria Estefan, born Gloria Fajardo, lead singer of the 80s band Miami Sound Machine History Highlights 1807 – Former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr is acquitted of plotting to annex parts of Louisiana and Spanish territory in Mexico to be used toward the establishment of an independent republic. 1964 – Pitcher Masanori Murakami becomes the first Japanese man to play in U.S. Major League Baseball. He pitches a scoreless 8th inning for the San Francisco Giants in a 4-1 loss to the New York Mets at Shea Stadium. 1972 – In what is billed as the “Match of the Century,” American chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer defeats Russian Boris Spassky during the World Chess Championship in Reykjavik, Iceland. Fischer, from Brooklyn, NY, became the first American to win the competition since its inception in 1866. The victory also marked the first win for a non-Russian in 24 years. 1983 – A Soviet fighter jet shoots down Korean Air Lines Flight 007 after the New York to Seoul flight enters Soviet airspace. All 269 aboard the 747 jumbo jet are killed, including U.S. Congressman Lawrence McDonald. President Ronald Reagan condemns the incident as a “massacre.” 1985 – An expedition led by oceanographer Dr. Robert Ballard locates the wreck of the RMS Titanic 73 years after the luxury liner sank to the bottom of the North Atlantic. 1989 – The first Lexus is sold, marking the beginning of Toyota’s new luxury line of automobiles. 1998 – A federal law takes effect requiring that all cars and light trucks sold in the United States have air bags installed in the front seats as standard equipment. Seat belts had been required since the 1960s, and some auto manufacturers had begun voluntarily providing air bags before 1998. Musical Milestones 1962 – Tommy Roe is on top of the singles chart with “Sheila.” It’s the re-recorded version of a track first released in 1960 when Roe was part of a band called The Satins. 1973 – “Brother Louie,” by one-hit-wonder Stories, enters its second and final week as a No. 1 single. The track, about an interracial love affair, was originally recorded by British soul band Hot Chocolate, which just a few months earlier took it to No. 7 on the U.K. singles chart. 1977 – Blondie, featuring former Playboy Bunny Debbie Harry, signs its first major record company contract with Chrysalis Records. 1980 – Fleetwood Mac ends a nine-month world tour with a performance at the Hollywood Bowl. Lindsay Buckingham tells the audience, “This is our last show. For a long time.” 1984 – “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” by Queen of Rock and Roll Tina Turner, begins three weeks on top of the U.S. singles chart. The track, off Turner’s “Private Dancer” album, goes on to capture three Grammy Awards: Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. In 2012, it is inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. 1990 – “If Wishes Came True,” by Sweet Sensation, bumps Mariah Carey’s “Vision of Love” to become the No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100. 2001 – Alicia Keys enters a third week atop the singles chart with her Grammy-winning debut single “Fallin’. READ MORE