On This Day: April 3

On This Day April 3

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1924 – Oscar-winning actor Marlon Brando (“A Streetcar Named Desire,” “On The Waterfront,” “The Godfather” trilogy, “Apocalypse Now”) (d. 2004)

1924 – Golden Globe and Grammy-winning actress and singer Doris Day (“Sentimental Journey,” “Pillow Talk,” “The Doris Day Show”) (d. 2019)

1934 –  Primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall, best known for her extensive studies of chimpanzees in their African habitat

1958 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor and frequent “SNL” host Alec Baldwin (“Beetlejuice,” “The Hunt for Red October,” “Glengarry Glen Ross,” “The Cooler,” “The Departed,” “It’s Complicated,” “30 Rock”)

1961 – Golden Globe-winning actor, comedian, singer and “SNL” alum Eddie Murphy (“48 Hours,” “Trading Places,” “Beverly Hills Cop,” “Coming to America,” “The Nutty Professor,” “Shrek,” “Dreamgirls”)

1986 – TV and film actress Amanda Bynes (“The Amanda Show,” “What a Girl Wants,” “Hairspray”)

History Highlights
History Highlights

1860 – The Pony Express launches, with horse and rider relay teams simultaneously leaving St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California as part of a new effort to speed up U.S. mail delivery. 

1948 – President Harry S. Truman signs the Economic Recovery Act of 1948 — later known as the Marshall Plan — which would foster the recovery of war-torn Europe. 

1968 – Stanley Kubrick’s science fiction classic, “2001: A Space Odyssey” — regularly voted as one of the greatest movies ever made, but whose philosophical meaning most fans cannot explain — opens in theaters around the U.S.

1968 – Another sci-fi classic opens at U.S. theaters. It’s “Planet of the Apes,” starring Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter and Maurice Evans. It’s the story about an astronaut crew that crash-lands on a planet in the distant future where intelligent talking apes rule and humans are oppressed and enslaved.

1974 – More than 140 tornadoes rip through 11 states within 16 hours. The “Super Tornado Outbreak” kills 330 people and injures more than 6,000 others.

1978 – At the 50th annual Academy Awards, Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall” wins the Oscar for Best Picture, beating out George Lucas’ “Star Wars.”

1986 – IBM unveils its first laptop computer. The 5140 “Convertible” retails for $1,995 and weighs 13 pounds.

1996 –  FBI agents arrest accused Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski at his rural Montana cabin. Kaczynski was linked to 16 mail bombs that killed three people and injured 23 others during an 18-year period.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1956 – Elvis Presley is a guest on “The Milton Berle Show,” live from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hancock in San Diego, California. He performs “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Shake Rattle And Roll” and “Blue Suede Shoes.” It is estimated that one out of every four Americans watched the program.

1961 – The Marcels start a three-week run on top of the singles chart with their doo-wop rendition of the Rodgers and Hart song, “Blue Moon.”

1971 – The Temptations score their second No. 1 single with “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me),” which holds the top spot for two weeks.

1971 – Six months after her death, Janis Joplin holds the top spot on the Billboard album chart with “Pearl,” which features her smash, “Me and Bobby McGee.” The album remains at No. 1 for nine weeks.

1976 – “Disco Lady,” by the so-called ‘Philosopher of Soul,’ Johnnie Taylor, is No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart and remains there for four weeks.

1982 – Joan Jett & the Blackhearts are in the middle of a seven-week domination of the Billboard Hot 100 with “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll.”

1990 – Grammy-winning jazz singer and pianist Sarah Vaughan, considered one of the greatest vocalists of the 20th century, dies of lung cancer at the age of 66.

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On this Day: May 11

On this Day May 11

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1888 – Acclaimed songwriter Irving Berlin (“White Christmas, “Cheek to Cheek,” “God Bless America”), who was a major contributor to the Great American Songbook (d. 1989)

1904 – Surrealist artist Salvador Dali (d. 1989)

1911 – Actor Phil Silvers (“The Phil Silvers Show,” “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”) (d. 1985)

1927 – Comedian and political satirist Mort Sahl, considered the first modern stand-up comedian

1941 – Rock singer-songwriter Eric Burdon, former lead vocalist for the bands The Animals and War

1952 – Actress Frances Fisher (“Unforgiven,” “Titanic,” “House of Sand and Fog,” “Laws of Attraction,” “The Lincoln Lawyer,” “Resurrection”)

1959 – Former MTV VJ and Sirius XM “80s on 8” DJ Martha Quinn

1963 – Tony-winning actress Natasha Richardson (“A Month in the Country,” “Patty Hearst,” The Parent Trap,” “Maid in Manhattan”) (d. 2009)

1964 – Actor Tim Blake Nelson (“Donnie Brasco,” “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” “Minority Report,” “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”) 

History Highlights
History Highlights

1927 – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is established to promote the movie industry.

1947 – The B.F. Goodrich Company of Akron, Ohio, announces development of a tubeless tire, a technological innovation that would make automobiles safer and more efficient.

1949 – Israel becomes a member of the United Nations.

1953 – A powerful F5 tornado sweeps across downtown Waco, Texas, killing 114 people. Violent weather also causes death and destruction in Flint, Michigan and Worcester, Massachusetts.

1976 – “Marcus Welby, M.D.,” makes his final house call as the popular ABC medical drama starring Robert Young airs for the last time. The series premiered in 1969.

1987 – Klaus Barbie, the former Nazi Gestapo chief of German-occupied Lyon, France, goes on trial more than four decades after the end of World War II. The so-called “Butcher of Lyon” is charged with 177 crimes against humanity.

1997 – This is a landmark day for Artificial Intelligence (AI). Chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov resigns after 19 moves in a game against Deep Blue, a chess-playing computer developed by scientists at IBM. This was the sixth and final game of their match, which Kasparov lost two games to one, with three draws.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1959 – The instrumental “The Happy Organ,” by organist-pianist Dave ‘Baby’ Cortez, is the No. 1 single for a week and becomes a fixture at roller skating rinks across the U.S. Cortez makes one more trip to the Top-10 during his career with “Rinky Dink” in 1962.

1963 – Little Peggy March wraps up three weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 with “I Will Follow Him.”

1970 – The three-disk soundtrack to the Woodstock Festival is released and goes gold within two weeks.

1972 – John Lennon makes a guest appearance on “The Dick Cavett Show” and claims the FBI is tapping his phone.

1981 – Jamaican singer-songwriter and guitarist Bob Marley, who introduced international audiences to reggae music, dies of cancer at the age of 36. Marley is posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, and in 2001, receives a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

1985 – Madonna has the No. 1 single with “Crazy for You,” from the soundtrack to the movie “Vision Quest,” starring Matthew Modine and Linda Fiorentino. The track garners Madonna her first Grammy nomination in the Best Female Pop Vocal Performance category.

1991 – “Joyride,” by Swedish pop duo Roxette, is the No. 1 single for a week.

1996 – Mariah Carey begins her second and final week on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Always Be My Baby.”

2002 – Ashanti maintains her hold on the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Foolish.” The track remains a chart-topper for 10 weeks.

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