On this Day: July 17

On this Day July 17

Musical Milestones

1959 – Billie Holiday, widely regarded as the greatest jazz vocalist of all time, dies at the age of 44 of heart and liver disease following years of alcohol and drug abuse.

1961 – “Tossin’ and Turnin’,” by Bobby Lewis, is No. 1 on both the Billboard singles and R&B charts. It remains atop the singles chart for seven weeks and the R&B chart for 10.

1967 – Iconic jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer John Coltrane dies of liver cancer at age 40. 

1968 – The Beatles’ psychedelic cinematic adventure, “Yellow Submarine,” premieres in London, introducing fans to Blue Meanies and a host of new hits. The animated movie musical opens in the U.S. four months later.

1971 – Carole King enters her fifth and final week on top of the Billboard pop chart with “It’s Too Late,” off her Grammy-winning “Tapestry” album.

1982 – “Don’t You Want Me,” by The Human League, begins its third and final week as a No. 1 single.

1999 – Destiny’s Child is No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Bills, Bills, Bills.”

History Highlights

1955 – Disneyland, America’s first theme park, opens in Anaheim, California. The Walt Disney Company built the $17 million complex on 160 acres of former orange groves and it quickly became a cash cow. Each year, Disneyland hosts over 14 million visitors who spend close to $3 billion.

1975 – Two Cold War adversaries meet in space for the docking of the U.S. spacecraft Apollo 18 and the Soviet’s Soyuz 19. It is the final Apollo mission.

1980 – Ronald Reagan, an actor who went on to become governor of California, accepts the Republican nomination for the U.S. presidency at the party’s national convention in Detroit. 

1981 – A walkway at the Hyatt Regency in Kansas City, Missouri collapses during a dance party, killing 114 people and injuring more than 200. 

1996 – Minutes after takeoff from New York’s JFK International Airport, a TWA 747 jetliner bound for Paris explodes over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 230 people aboard. A lengthy and extensive investigation concludes that the flight was brought down by a fuel tank explosion, but others dispute the findings citing eyewitness accounts of missile-like objects that allegedly flew toward the plane.

Celebrity Birthdays

1899 – Oscar-winning actor James Cagney (“Yankee Doodle Dandy,” “Angels With Dirty Faces,” “Love Me or Leave Me”) (d. 1986)

1912 – Radio and TV host Art Linkletter (“House Party,” “People Are Funny”) (d. 2010)

1917 – Comedian-actress-author Phyllis Diller (d. 2012)

1935 – Actress-singer Diahann Carroll (“Julia,” “Claudine,” “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” “Dynasty”) (d. 2019)

1935 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor Donald Sutherland (“M*A*S*H,” “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” “Ordinary People,” “Backdraft,” “Space Cowboys,” “The Hunger Games” movie series)

1950 – Singer-songwriter Phoebe Snow, best known for her 1975 chart-topping hit “Poetry Man” (d. 2011)

1951 – Actress-singer-dancer Lucie Arnaz (“Here’s Lucy,” “The Jazz Singer,” “Down to You”)  

1952 – Actor David Hasselhoff (“Knight Rider,” “Baywatch,” “Click,” “Dodgeball,” “The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie,” “Hop”)

1976 – Country music singer Luke Bryan (“All My Friends Say,” “Rain Is a Good Thing,” “Someone Else Calling You Baby,” “I Don’t Want This Night to End”)

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Billie Holiday's Greatest Hits

Billie Holiday

Tapestry

Carole King

The Disneyland Story

Sam Gennawey

TWA 800: The Crash, the Cover-Up, and the Conspiracy

Jack Cashill

Yankee Doodle Dandy

Starring James CagneyJoan Leslie andWalter Huston, and directed by Michael Curtiz

Space Cowboys

Starring Clint EastwoodTommy Lee Jones and Donald Sutherland, and directed by Clint Eastwood

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On this Day: July 10

On this Day July 10

Musical Milestones

1950 – NBC Television introduces “Your Hit Parade,” a program that originally launched on radio in 1935, featuring vocalists covering the top hits of the week.

1961 – “Tossin’ and Turnin’,” by Bobby Lewis, begins seven weeks at No. 1 on the singles chart.

1965 – The Rolling Stones score their first U.S. No. 1 single with “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” which holds the top spot for four weeks. In 1998, it is inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Rolling Stone magazine has ranked the track No. 2 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

1976 – “Afternoon Delight,” by the Starland Vocal Band, kicks off a two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

1982 – “Don’t You Want Me,” from The Human League’s “Dare” album, is in the midst of three weeks as a Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper. It remains the British band’s best known and most commercially successful recording.

1993 – The trio SWV conquers the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks with “Weak.”

1999 – Jennifer Lopez begins her fifth and final week on top of the singles chart with “If You Had My Love.”

2004 – First time is the charm for Fantasia, whose first single, “I Believe,” debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. She rose to fame as winner of the third season of “American Idol” in 2004.

History Highlights

1850 – Vice President Millard Fillmore is sworn in as the 13th U.S. president. President Zachary Taylor had died the day before of a severe intestinal ailment. Fillmore becomes only the second man to inherit the presidency due to death.

1925 – The so-called “Monkey Trial” begins with John Thomas Scopes, a young high school science teacher, accused of teaching evolution in violation of a Tennessee state law. 

1962 –  Swedish engineer Nils Bohlin receives a U.S. patent for the three-point, lap-and-shoulder seatbelt he invented while head of safety at Volvo. Considered one of the most significant safety innovations of all time, the seatbelt is credited with saving millions of lives and preventing at least as many injuries in car crashes around the world. Bohlin received a gold medal from the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Science in 1995 and, in 1999, was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame.

1962 – NASA launches Telstar, the world’s first communications satellite, from Cape Canaveral. Two days later, the man-made orb relays the first transatlantic television signal from Maine to France.

1978 – The ABC News nightly “World News Tonight” broadcast premieres, featuring co-anchors Frank Reynolds in Washington, D.C., Max Robinson in Chicago and Peter Jennings in London. 

1985 – French secret service agents plant two bombs on the hull of the Rainbow Warrior, the flagship of international conservation group Greenpeace, and sink the vessel in Auckland Harbor New Zealand. One crew member is killed in the blast, which was aimed at stopping the Rainbow Warrior from a protest mission to a French nuclear test site in the South Pacific.

1992 – The Alaska court of appeals overturns the conviction of Joseph Hazelwood, former captain of the oil tanker Exxon Valdez, citing a federal statute that gave him immunity from prosecution for the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

Celebrity Birthdays

1920 – NBC and ABC television newscaster-commentator David Brinkley (d. 2003)

1926 – Actor Fred Gwynne, best remembered for his roles as Herman Munster in the 1960s sitcom, “The Munsters,” and as Judge Chamberlain Haller in his last film, 1992’s “My Cousin Vinny” (d. 1993)

1939 – R&B-gospel singer Mavis Staples of The Staple Singers 

1943 – Tennis great Arthur Ashe (d. 1993)

1945 – Actor Ron Glass, best known for playing Detective Ron Harris in the ABC sitcom “Barney Miller” (d. 2016)

1947 – Folk musician Arlo Guthrie (“Alice’s Restaurant Massacree,” “City of New Orleans”)

1972 – Actress-comedian and TV host Sofía Vergara, best known for her role as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett in the ABC sitcom “Modern Family”

1976 – Actor Adrian Grenier (“The Adventures of Sebastian Cole,” “Entourage,” “The Devil Wears Prada,” “Drive Me Crazy”)

1980 – Singer-actress and reality TV star Jessica Simpson (“I Wanna Love You Forever,” “Irresistible”)

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Tossin' and Turnin'

Bobby Lewis

Hot Rocks (1964-1971)

The Rolling Stones

The Scopes Monkey Trial: The History of 20th Century America’s Most Famous Court Case

Charles River Editors

Confessions of a Greenpeace Dropout: The Making of a Sensible Environmentalist

Patrick Moore

Barney Miller, Season 1

Starring Hal Linden, Max Gail, Ron Glass, Abe Vigoda and Jack Soo

Entourage, Season 1

Starring Kevin Connolly, Adrian Grenier, Kevin Dillon, Jerry Ferrara and Jeremy Piven

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