Continental Army – Time Rewind

On This Day December 23

Click each item below to learn more!

On This Day December 11

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1931 – Emmy, Oscar, Tony and Grammy-winning actress Rita Moreno, born Rosita Dolores Alverio (“West Side Story,” “The Electric Company,” “Oz”)

1938 – Legendary jazz pianist McCoy Tyner, best known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet (d. 2020)

1940 – Emmy-winning actress Donna Mills (“Play Misty For Me,” “Knot’s Landing,” “General Hospital”)

1944 – Pop and country singer Brenda Lee (“I’m Sorry,” “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”)

1947 – Actress Teri Garr (“Young Frankenstein,” “Tootsie,” “Mr. Mom”)

1954 – Singer Jermaine Jackson, formerly of the Jackson 5

1958 – Mötley Crüe founder and bassist Nikki Sixx

1973 – Actor and hip hop artist Mos Def, a.k.a. Yasiin Bey, born Dante Smith (“Monster’s Ball,” “Something the Lord Made,” “Next Day Air,” “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” “16 Blocks,” “Be Kind Rewind,” “The Italian Job,” “Bamboozled,” “Brown Sugar”)

History Highlights

1777 – General George Washington marches 12,000 soldiers of his Continental Army from Whitemarsh to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania for the winter, but the troops are delayed when they encounter British forces.

1936 – After ruling for less than a year, Edward VIII becomes the first English monarch to voluntarily abdicate the throne. He announces his decision during a national broadcast. The move follows condemnation by the British government, the public and the Church of England of his decision to marry American divorcée Wallis Simpson, and causes a constitutional crisis for the British Empire.

1946 – The United Nations General Assembly votes to establish the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), an organization to help provide relief and support to children living in countries devastated by World War II.

1972 – The crew of Apollo 17 performs the sixth and final manned lunar landing.

2008 – Financier Bernard Madoff is arrested at his New York City apartment and charged with masterminding a long-running Ponzi scheme later estimated to involve around $65 billion, making it one of the biggest investment frauds in Wall Street history.

Musical Milestones

1961 – “Please Mr. Postman,” by The Marvelettes, tops the singles chart.

1961 – Elvis Presley kicks off a 20-week run on top of the Billboard album chart with the soundtrack to the movie “Blue Hawaii.” The King’s seventh No. 1 album is nominated for a Grammy.

1964 – Legendary soul singer Sam Cooke is shot to death by a Los Angeles motel manager in what investigators call a justifiable homicide. The manager claimed Cooke attacked her after trying to rape a young woman he was with. Cooke was 33.

1976 – Rod Stewart owns the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright).” The single remains at No. 1 for eight weeks, becoming the last chart-topping hit of 1976 and the first of 1977.

1982 – One-hit wonder Toni Basil reaches the top of the singles chart with “Mickey.”

1993 – Janet Jackson begins two weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 with “Again,” off her “Janet” album. It is also used as the closing track to the 1993 movie, “Poetic Justice,” starring Jackson and rapper-actor Tupac Shakur.

2004 – “Drop It Like It’s Hot,” by Snoop Dogg featuring Pharrell, is the No. 1 single.

On this Day August 7

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1903 – Paleontologist, archaeologist and anthropologist Louis Leakey (d. 1972)

1904 – Nobel Peace Prize–winning academic and U.N. diplomat Ralph Bunche (d. 1971)

1942 – Pop-country singer B.J. Thomas (“Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head,” “(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song,” “Don’t Worry Baby”)

1942 – Grammy-winning writer and “A Prairie Home Companion” creator-host Garrison Keillor

1955 – Actor Wayne Knight, best known as Newman from the NBC sitcom “Seinfeld”

1960 – Actor David Duchovny, best known for playing Special Agent Fox Mulder in “The X-Files”

1963 – Actor Harold Perrineau (“Oz,” “28 Weeks Later,” “The Matrix Reloaded,” “The Matrix Revolutions,” “The Killing Jar,” “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Lost”)

1975 – Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron (“The Devil’s Advocate,” “Mighty Joe Young,” “The Cider House Rules,” “Monster,” “North Country,” “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “Atomic Blonde”)

History Highlights

1782 – General George Washington, commander in chief of the Continental Army, creates the “Badge for Military Merit” — a decoration for valor consisting of a purple, heart-shaped piece of silk with the word “Merit” stitched across the face. Only three soldiers were awarded the badge before it fell into disuse. It was revived in 1932 as the Purple Heart, consisting of a bust of Washington below a coat of arms.

1959 – The sheaves of wheat image on the U.S. penny is replaced with the Lincoln Memorial.

1959 – NASA launches the Explorer 6 satellite to study trapped radiation, galactic cosmic rays and geomagnetism in the upper atmosphere. It is the first spacecraft to transmit images of Earth from orbit.

1972 – Yogi Berra, Sandy Koufax, Lefty Gomez and Early Wynn are inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

1974 – After six years of planning and preparation, French high-wire artist Philippe Petit walks a tightrope a quarter mile above the streets of Manhattan between the World Trade Center towers.

1990 – President George H. W. Bush orders the launch of Operation Desert Shield in response to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait on August 2. The order prepares American troops to join an international coalition in the war against Iraq that would be launched as Operation Desert Storm in January 1991.

2005 – Longtime ABC News anchor and reporter Peter Jennings loses his battle with cancer at the age of 67.

2005 – The seven-person crew of a small Russian submarine (Priz) is rescued by an unmanned British submersible that freed the sub after its propellers became entangled in fishing nets deep in Pacific waters.

Musical Milestones

1965 – “I’m Henry VIII, I Am” by Herman’s Hermits is the best-selling single in the U.S. It’s the band’s second Billboard No. 1.

1971 – The Bee Gees achieve a milestone when “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” becomes the trio’s first No. 1 single. The song holds the top spot for four weeks.

1976 – Heartbreak is the theme of another No. 1 single: “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” by Elton John and Kiki Dee, which remains on top of the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks.

1982 – “Eye of the Tiger,” from the movie “Rocky III,” is midway through a six-week domination of the pop chart. The track garners Survivor a Grammy for Best Rock Performance by Duo or Group With Vocal.

1982 – Fleetwood Mac kicks off five weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with “Mirage,” the band’s third chart-topping album, which contains the Top-20 hits “Hold Me” and “Gypsy.”

1993 – UB40 is mid-way through a seven-week occupation of the top spot on the singles chart with their cover of Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love.”

1999 – Christina Aguilera rules the pop chart with “Genie in a Bottle.” The track holds at No. 1 for five weeks.

2004 – “Slow Motion,” by rapper Juvenile featuring Soulja Slim, kicks off two weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

On this Day July 3

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1878 – Composer and playwright George M. Cohan (“Over There,” “Give My Regards to Broadway,” “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy”) (d. 1942)

1883 – Author Franz Kafka (“Amerika,” “The Trial,” “The Castle”) (d. 1924)

1937 – Playwright Tom Stoppard (“Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” “Every Good Boy Deserves Favour”)

1947 – Pulitzer Prize-winning author and columnist Dave Barry

1956 – Emmy-winning TV talk show host Montel Williams

1962 – Golden Globe-winning actor-producer Tom Cruise (“Risky Business,” “Top Gun,” “The Color of Money,” “Cocktail,” “Rain Man,” “Days of Thunder,” “A Few Good Men,” “The Firm,” “Jerry Maguire,” the “Mission: Impossible” movie franchise, “Edge of Tomorrow”)

1980 – Actress Olivia Munn (“Beyond the Break,” “Magic Mike,” “The Newsroom,” “Mortdecai,” “X-Men: Apocalypse”)

History Highlights

1775 – George Washington rides out in front of the American troops gathered at Cambridge Common in Massachusetts and draws his sword, formally taking command of the 16,000-member Continental Army.

1863 – On the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s last attempt at breaking the Union line ends in failure, bringing the most decisive battle of the American Civil War to an end.

1958 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Rivers and Harbors Flood Control Bill, which allocates funds to improve flood-control and water-storage systems across the United States.

1985 – The sci-fi adventure/comedy “Back to the Future,” starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd and directed by Robert Zemeckis, opens in U.S. theaters. It becomes a cult classic, spawning two sequels, an animated series, a theme park ride, several video games, a series of comic books and a stage musical.

1986 – President Ronald Reagan, with First Lady Nancy Reagan by his side, presides over the relighting of the renovated Statue of Liberty. It re-opens to the public two days later during Liberty Weekend, celebrating the monument’s centennial.

1988 – While sailing through the Persian Gulf, the U.S. Navy cruiser Vincennes shoots down an Iranian passenger jet that it mistakes for a hostile fighter plane. All 290 people on board are killed. The U.S. government admits to the error a month later, and in 1996, agrees to pay $62 million in damages to the families of the Iranians that perished in the attack.

Musical Milestones

1969 – The Newport Jazz Festival features huge musical acts not typically associated with jazz: Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, Blood Sweat & Tears and more.

1969 – Shortly after leaving The Rolling Stones, band founder and guitarist Brian Jones is found dead in his swimming pool at the age of 27.

1970 – An audience of more than 300,000 gathers for the second annual Atlanta Pop Festival, featuring the Allman Brothers, Jimi Hendrix, Jethro Tull, Johnny Winter, Mountain, Procol Harum and Rare Earth.

1971 – The No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 is Carole King’s “It’s Too Late,” off her legendary, Grammy-winning “Tapestry” album.

1971 – The body of 27-year-old Doors frontman Jim Morrison is discovered by his girlfriend in the bathtub of their rented apartment in Paris, France. The cause of death was officially labeled heart failure, thus averting an autopsy under French law.

1974 – The “Tony Orlando & Dawn” variety show premieres on CBS.

1982 – The Human League capture the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Don’t You Want Me,” from their “Dare” album. The track holds at No. 1 for three weeks.

1999 – Jennifer Lopez is in the middle of a five-week domination of the pop chart with “If You Had My Love.”

2004 – “Burn,” by Usher, begins the last of a seven-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart.