On This Day April 15 Click each item below to learn more! Celebrity Birthdays 1452 – Renaissance artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci (d. 1519) 1933 – Country music singer-guitarist and former “Hee Haw” host Roy Clark (d. 2018) 1933 – Actress Elizabeth Montgomery (“Bewitched”) (d. 1995) 1951 – “Hints From Heloise” columnist Heloise Bowles Cruse (d. 1977) 1959 – Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actress Emma Thompson (“Howard’s End,” “The Remains of the Day,” “In the Name of the Father,” “Sense and Sensibility,” “Nanny McPhee,” “Saving Mr. Banks”) 1982 – Actor Seth Rogen (“The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” “Knocked Up,” “Superbad,” “Funny People,” “This Is The End,” “The Long Shot”, “The Disaster Artist”) 1990 – Actress Emma Watson, best known for playing Hermione Granger in the “Harry Potter” movie series and Belle in the live-action adaptation of “Beauty and the Beast” History Highlights 1865 – President Abraham Lincoln dies from the gunshot wound he sustained the night before while watching a play at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. Lincoln’s death comes only six days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his massive army, effectively ending the American Civil War. 1912 – More than 1,500 lives are lost in the early morning hours when the luxury liner Titanic sinks after striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City. 1947 – Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American in baseball’s major leagues when he debuts with the Brooklyn Dodgers. This becomes a landmark event not only for the sport, but for the U.S. civil rights movement. 1955 – The golden arches rise in Des Plaines, Illinois with the opening of the first McDonald’s restaurant. Customers pay just 15 cents for a hamburger. The restaurant is built for drive-through service only, with indoor seating eventually added in 1962. 1959 – Four months after leading a successful revolution in Cuba, Fidel Castro begins an 11-day U.S. visit. It comes amid escalating tensions between his regime and the American government. 1997 – On the 50 anniversary of his first Major League Baseball game, the league retires Jackie Robinson’s number, 42. Robinson becomes the only player in MLB history to have his number retired across all teams, a sign of the reverence with which he is regarded decades after leading the charge to integrate the major leagues. 2013 – Two bombs go off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three spectators and wounding more than 260 others. Four days later, after an intense manhunt, authorities capture one of the bombing suspects, 19-year-old Dzhohkar Tsarnaev. His older brother and fellow suspect, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, dies following a shootout with police earlier that same day. Musical Milestones 1967 – Frank Sinatra and his daughter Nancy start a four-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart with “Somethin’ Stupid.” They are the only father-daughter act to ever score a chart-topping single. 1972 – Roberta Flack begins a six-week reign over the singles chart with “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.” The track garners her Grammy Awards for Record and Song of the Year. 1978 – “Night Fever,” by the Bee Gees, blazes through a fifth week on top of the Billboard Hot 100. The disco smash, from the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack, remains a chart-topper for nine weeks. 1989 – “She Drives Me Crazy” by the Fine Young Cannibals is the No. 1 single. The song, from the band’s “The Raw & the Cooked” album, holds the top spot for a week. 1995 – One-hit-wonder Montell Jordan kicks off seven weeks on top of the pop chart with “This Is How We Do It.” 2000 – “Maria Maria,” by Santana featuring The Product G&B, is in the second of 10 weeks as a chart-reigning single. The track, off the “Supernatural” album, goes on to won a Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. 2006 – Daniel Powter is in the middle of five weeks on top of the singles chart with “Bad Day.” READ MORE
On This Day November 29 Click each item below to learn more! Celebrity Birthdays 1927 – Retired Hall of Fame sportscaster Vin Scully, play-by-play announcer for the Brooklyn and later the Los Angeles Dodgers for 67 seasons 1935 – Golden Globe-winning actress Diane Ladd, born Rose Diane Lanier (“Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” “Alice,” “Wild at Heart,” “Rambling Rose”) 1940 – Jazz trumpeter Chuck Mangione, best known for his 1978 smash “Feels So Good” 1949 – Comedian-actor Garry Shandling (“It’s Garry Shandling’s Show,” “The Larry Sanders Show”) (d. 2016) 1954 – Oscar-winning director Joel Coen of the Coen Brothers (“Blood Simple,” “Raising Arizona,” “Miller’s Crossing,” “Fargo,” “The Big Lebowski,” “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” “No Country for Old Men,” “A Serious Man,” “True Grit”) 1955 – Comedian-actor and TV host-judge Howie Mandel (“St. Elsewhere,” “Deal or No Deal,” “Bobby’s World,” “America’s Got Talent”) 1960 – Actress Cathy Moriarty (“Raging Bull,” “Soapdish,” “The Mambo Kings,” “Casper,” “Analyze That,” “The Bounty Hunter”) 1961 – Emmy-winning actress Kim Delaney (“NYPD Blue,” “All My Children,” “Philly,” “CSI: Miami”) 1962 – Actor-director Andrew McCarthy (“St. Elmo’s Fire,” “Mannequin,” “Weekend at Bernie’s,” “Pretty in Pink,” “Less Than Zero,” “Orange is the New Black”) 1964 – Golden Globe-winning actor Don Cheadle (“Boogie Nights,” “Hotel Rwanda,” “Crash,” “House of Lies,” “Iron Man 2,” “Iron Man 3,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Captain America: Civil War”) History Highlights 1929 – American explorer Richard Byrd and three companions make the first flight over the South Pole. 1947 – Despite strong Arab opposition, the United Nations votes for the partition of Palestine and the creation of an independent Jewish state. 1962 – Britain and France announce a joint agreement to design and build Concorde, the world’s first supersonic airliner. 1963 – One week after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, President Lyndon Johnson establishes the Warren Commission to investigate the fatal shooting. Led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Commission later concludes that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. 1981 – Actress Natalie Wood, who starred in such movies as “Rebel Without a Cause,” “Splendor in the Grass” and “West Side Story,“ drowns in a boating accident near California’s Catalina Island at the age of 43. Although the Hollywood star’s death was officially labeled accidental, suspicion continues to swirl around the case. 1986 – Two-time Oscar nominee Cary Grant (“The Philadelphia Story,” “The Awful Truth,” “His Girl Friday,” “Notorious,” “North By Northwest”) dies of a stroke at the age of 82. Musical Milestones 1969 – “Come Together/Something,” by The Beatles, claims the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for a week. It is the band’s 18th chart-topper. 1975 – Silver Convention soars to the top of the singles chart with “Fly, Robin, Fly.” The disco smash nests there for three weeks. 1986 – Bon Jovi has its first No. 1 single with “You Give Love a Bad Name,” off the “Slippery When Wet” album. The track remains on top of the Billboard Hot 100 for a week. 1997 – Barbra Streisand’s “Higher Ground,” her first album in four years, tops the Billboard album chart. It contains the Grammy-nominated duet, “Tell Him,” with Celine Dion. 2001 – Beatles guitarist, singer and songwriter George Harrison loses his battle with cancer at the age of 58. 2003 – “Baby Boy,” by Beyoncé featuring Sean Paul, wraps up a nine-week run as a Billboard chart-topper. READ MORE
On this Day May 28 Click each item below to learn more! Celebrity Birthdays 1892 – Football, baseball and Olympics star Jim Thorpe (d. 1953) 1908 – James Bond author Ian Fleming (d. 1964) 1944 – Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, attorney for U.S. President Donald Trump 1944 – Grammy-winning R&B vocalist Gladys Knight, who, along with The Pips, had many Top 40 hits, including “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” “Midnight Train to Georgia” and “Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me” 1945 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter John Fogerty, former lead singer of Creedence Clearwater Revival (“Susie Q,” “Proud Mary,” “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?” “Centerfield,” “The Old Man Down the Road”) 1968 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Kylie Minogue (“Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” “Slow,” “2 Hearts”) 1977 – Conservative TV personality Elisabeth Hasselbeck, formerly a co-host of TV’s “The View” 1983 – YouTube star and prank video artist Roman Atwood History Highlights 1892 – The Sierra Club is founded by naturalist John Muir. The organization promotes environmental conservation through public policy and has helped with the development of national parks across the United States. 1957 – National League owners vote unanimously to allow the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers to move to San Francisco and Los Angeles, respectively. 1961 – Several internationally read newspapers publish British lawyer Peter Benenson’s article “The Forgotten Prisoners”, launching the Appeal for Amnesty campaign which calls for the release of all those imprisoned around the world for peacefully expressing their beliefs. 1987 – In a daring attempt to ease Cold War tensions, 19-year-old West German pilot Mathias Rust evades Soviet air defenses and lands a private plane in Moscow’s Red Square. He serves 18 months in a Soviet prison for his stunt. 1998 – Comedic actor Phil Hartman, best known for his work on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” (“SNL”) and “NewsRadio” and FOX’s “The Simpsons,” is shot to death in his sleep by his wife, Brynn, in a murder-suicide that horrifies fans and colleagues. Phil Hartman was just 49. 2014 – Author and poet Maya Angelou, who published more than 30 books, including 1969’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” — a best-selling memoir about the racism and abuse she experienced growing up — dies at the age of 86. Musical Milestones 1966 – Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Percy Sledge begins two weeks with the most popular single on U.S. radio: “When a Man Loves a Woman.” 1966 – Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass reach No.1 on the Billboard album chart with “What Now My Love,” setting a new record with four albums in the Top 10. The other three are “South of the Border,” “Going Places” and “Whipped Cream and Other Delights.” 1976 – The Allman Brothers Band, considered one of the principal architects of Southern rock, breaks up. 1977 – Stevie Wonder is in the midst of a three-week domination of the pop chart with “Sir Duke,” from his Grammy-winning “Songs in the Key of Life” album. 1983 – Irene Cara commandeers the Billboard Hot 100 with “Flashdance…What a Feeling,” from the “Flashdance” movie soundtrack. The single remains at No. 1 for six weeks and goes on to capture an Academy Award for Best Original Song, a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. 1983 – More than 750,000 fans attend the four-day US Festival ’83’ which opens in California, featuring The Clash, U2, David Bowie, The Pretenders, Van Halen, Stray Cats, Men At Work, Judas Priest, Stevie Nicks and Ozzy Osbourne. 1994 – “I Swear,” by All-4-One,” is the No. 1 single. 2005 – Gwen Stefani begins her fourth and final week as a chart-topping artist with “Hollaback Girl.” READ MORE