On This Day: December 1

On This Day December 1

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1935 – Oscar-winning screenwriter-actor-director Woody Allen (“Annie Hall,” “Manhattan,” “Hannah and Her Sisters”)

1939 – Pro golfer Lee Trevino

1940 – Standup comedian-actor Richard Pryor (d. 2005)

1945 – Grammy, Golden Globe and Emmy-winning singer-actress Bette Midler, best known for her pop hits “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” and “Wind Beneath My Wings” and the movies “The Rose,” “Beaches” and “For the Boys”

1946 – Singer-songwriter Gilbert O’Sullivan, best known for his 1970s hits “Alone Again (Naturally)”, “Clair” and “Get Down”

1951 – Actor Treat Williams (“Hair,” “Prince of the City,” “Once Upon a Time in America,” “The Late Shift,” “127 Hours”)

1970 – Comedian and “SNL” alum Sarah Silverman (“School of Rock,” “Wreck-It Ralph,” “A Million Ways to Die in the West”)

History Highlights
History Highlights

1891 – James Naismith shoots and scores! The 30-year-old physical education teacher from the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts invents basket ball (originally two words) using two peach baskets and a ball. At the 1936 Summer Olympic Games, the year basketball was introduced to the international competition, Naismith was in Berlin, Germany to present medals to the winning teams of the three North American countries: United States, Gold; Canada, Silver; and Mexico, Bronze.

1913 – The Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line.

1914 – The Maserati company is founded in Bologna, Italy, and goes on to produce its first car in 1926.

1953 – The first issue of “Playboy” magazine is published, featuring a nude Marilyn Monroe centerfold. More than 50,000 copies sell at 50 cents apiece.

1955 – Rosa Parks is arrested in Montgomery, Alabama for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man — a violation of the city’s racial segregation laws. The incident, which triggers a year-long boycott of the city’s bus system, is considered the birth of the modern civil rights movement.

1992 – Workers drill a hole through a wall of rock 132 feet beneath the English Channel connecting both ends of a tunnel linking Great Britain with the European mainland for the first time in 8,000 years. The Channel Tunnel or “Chunnel” finally opens for passenger service in 1994.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1957 – Buddy Holly and the Crickets appear on “The Ed Sullivan Show” performing “That’ll Be The Day” and “Peggy Sue.” Sam Cooke is a guest on the same show performing “You Send Me.”

1958 – The Teddy Bears are No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “To Know Him is to Love Him.” It remains a chart-topper for three weeks. 

1962 – The Four Seasons are midway through a five-week domination of the singles chart with “Big Girls Don’t Cry.”

1973 – “Top of the World” puts the Carpenters on top of the singles chart, where they remain for two weeks. It is the duo’s second No. 1 single following “(They Long to Be) Close to You” in 1970.

1984 – Wham! begins its third and final week with a No. 1 single: “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.”

1990 – “I’m Your Baby Tonight,” by Whitney Houston, begins a week-long run at No. 1 on the pop chart. It is Houston’s eighth chart-topping single.

2001 – Mary J. Blige has the No. 1 single with “Family Affair.”

2007 – Alicia Keys kicks off five weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “No One,” from her “As I Am” album. The track captures Grammys for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song.

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On this Day: August 22

On this Day August 22

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1862 – Classical composer Claude Debussey (d. 1918)

1920 – Award-winning fantasy, science fiction, horror and mystery author Ray Bradbury, who wrote “The Martian Chronicles” and “Fahrenheit 451” (d. 2012)

1934 – U.S. Army General Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr., nicknamed “Stormin’ Norman,” who commanded the American-led forces that crushed Iraq in the 1991 Persian Gulf War (d. 2012)

1939 – Baseball Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski

1939 – Emmy-winning actress Valerie Harper, who played Rhoda Morgenstern on TV’s “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and its spinoff series, “Rhoda” (d. 2019)

1947 – Actress Cindy Williams, who played Shirley in the 70s sitcom “Laverne & Shirley” (d. 2023)

1963 – Singer-songwriter Tori Amos, who released her debut album “Little Earthquakes” in 1992 and whose first five albums went platinum in the U.S.

1967 – Emmy-winning actor Ty Burrell, best known for his role as Phil Dunphy on the ABC comedy series “Modern Family”

1973 – Actress-comedian Kristen Wiig (“Saturday Night Live,” “Knocked Up,” “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story,” “Bridesmaids,” “Girl Most Likely,” “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” “The Skeleton Twins,” “The Martian,” “Ghostbusters”)

History Highlights
History Highlights

1851 – The yacht America, representing the young New York Yacht Club, wins the first America’s Cup. It would be well over 100 years before it was taken away from New York.

1902 – Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first U.S. president to ride in an automobile when he sets out from Connecticut on a driving tour of New England. 

1906 – Way before the turntable and CD player are invented, the Victor Talking Machine Company of Camden, New Jersey begins to manufacture the Victrola record player. The hand-cranked unit, with horn cabinet, sells for $200. 

1950 – The United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) accepts 23-year-old Althea Gibson into its annual championship at Forest Hills, New York, making her the first African-American player to participate in a U.S. national tennis competition.

1973 – President Richard Nixon appoints Henry Kissinger secretary of state. Kissinger helped ease relations with the Soviet Union and China, and negotiated an end to the Vietnam War, but remains a controversial figure for his role in American actions in Cambodia, Latin America and elsewhere. 

1989 – The Texas Rangers’ Nolan Ryan becomes the first pitcher in Major League history to register 5,000 career strikeouts. 

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1960 – Elvis Presley is in the middle of a five-week domination of the singles chart with “It’s Now or Never.”

1964 – “Where Did Our Love Go,” by The Supremes, starts a two-week hold on top of the Billboard Hot 100. It’s the girl group’s first No. 1 hit. 

1968 – Bickering among The Beatles while recording “The White Album” prompts Ringo Starr to quit the band. “Back In the USSR” is recorded with Paul McCartney on drums and John Lennon on bass. News of Ringo’s departure is kept secret and he rejoins the band about two weeks later.

1970 – Bread’s “Make It With You” begins one week on top of the Billboard singles survey. It becomes the group’s only No. 1 hit.

1987 – “Who’s That Girl,” the title track of the movie of the same name, boosts Madonna to the top of the Hot 100 chart.

1992 – “End of the Road,” by Boyz II Men,” is in the second of what then was a record-breaking 13 weeks as a No. 1 single. The track goes on to capture two Grammy Awards.

1998 – Brandy & Monica hold the top spot on the pop chart with “The Boy is Mine.”

2009 – The Black Eyed Peas lay claim to the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with “I Gotta Feeling.”

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