cult – Time Rewind

On This Day April 19

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On This Day February 28

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Celebrity Birthdays

1923 – Actor Charles Durning (“The Front Page,” “North Dallas Forty,” “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas”) (d. 2012)

1931 – Actor Gavin MacLeod, best known for his TV roles as Murray, the news writer in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” and as Captain Stubing in “The Love Boat”

1939 – Tony Award-winning actor, dancer, singer, theatre director, producer and choreographer Tommy Tune

1940 – Auto racing legend Mario Andretti

1948 – Tony Award-winning actress Bernadette Peters (“Dames at Sea,” “The Jerk,” “Pennies from Heaven,” “Silent Movie”)

1957 – Actor-producer John Turturro (“Do The Right Thing,” “Barton Fink,” “The Quiz Show,” “The Big Lebowski,” “Brother, Where Art Thou?,” the “Transformers” movie series)

History Highlights

1953 – Cambridge University scientists James Watson and Francis Crick announce that they have confirmed the double-helix structure of DNA, the molecule containing human genes. They are later honored with the Nobel Prize for their achievement.

1958 – A school bus in Prestonsburg, Kentucky hits a tow truck and plunges down an embankment into the rain-swollen Big Sandy River. The driver and 26 children die in what remains the worst school bus accident in U.S. history.

1983 – After 11 seasons, CBS broadcasts the finale of the popular sitcom “M*A*S*H” as a special two and a half-hour episode (“Goodbye, Farewell and Amen”) watched by 77 percent of the viewing audience. It’s the largest viewership ever for a single TV show up to that time.

1993 – Four federal agents are killed in Waco, Texas after attempting to serve an arrest warrant for weapons charges on Branch Davidian sect leader David Koresh, triggering a 51-day standoff.

1994 – U.S. fighter planes shoot down four Serbian warplanes engaged in a bombing mission that violates Bosnia’s no-fly zone. It marks the first military action in the 45-year history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Musical Milestones

1970 – “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” by Simon & Garfunkel, tops the singles chart and remains there for six weeks. It captures Record of the Year and Song of the Year Grammys in 1971 and goes on to sell over six million copies worldwide.

1976 – The No. 1 single comes from a prime time police drama on ABC-TV. It’s “Theme From S.W.A.T.” by Rhythm Heritage.

1976 – Paul Simon’s “Still Crazy After All These Years” captures an Album Of The Year Grammy. In his acceptance speech, Simon tells the audience, “I’d like to thank Stevie Wonder, who didn’t make an album this year.”

1981 – Eddie Rabbitt hops to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “I Love a Rainy Night.”

1983 – U2 release “War,” the Irish rock band’s third studio album, which gives us their earliest signature songs, “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “New Year’s Day.”

1987 – Bon Jovi holds the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with what becomes their signature song: “Livin’ on a Prayer”

1996 – At the 38th Annual Grammy Awards, Kiss shock the audience by appearing in full makeup. Introduced by rapper Tupac Shakur (2Pac), it marks the first time in more than 15 years that all four band members appeared together. Just a few weeks later, they announce a reunion tour.

1998 – Céline Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”, the theme from the blockbuster movie “Titanic,” is captain of the pop chart.

On This Day January 25

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Celebrity Birthdays

1882 – British novelist and journalist Virginia Woolf (d. 1941)

1931 – Actor Dean Jones (“The Love Bug,” “That Darn Cat”) (d. 2015)

1938 – Singer Etta James, best known for her Grammy-winning hit, “At Last” (d. 2012)

1943 – Director-screenwriter Tobe Hooper, best known for the horror classics, “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” and “Poltergeist” (d. 2017)

1957 – Singer-turned-actress Jenifer Lewis (“Dreamgirls,” “Beaches,” “Sister Act,” Cars,” “The Princess and the Frog”)

1981 – Grammy-winning R&B singer-songwriter Alicia Keys (“Fallin’,” “You Don’t Know My Name,” “If I Ain’t Got You,” “Diary,” “No One,” “Empire State of Mind”)

History Highlights

1924 – The first Winter Olympic Games open in Chamonix, France with athletes representing 16 nations. The event was originally called “Winter Sports Week.”

1949 – The first Emmy Awards ceremony, honoring excellence in television, is held at the Hollywood Athletic Club in Los Angeles. Ventriloquist Shirley Dinsdale becomes the first recipient of an Emmy for her show, “Judy Splinters.” Television was still a new medium at the time, with only about 50,000 American households owning a TV set.

1959 – American Airlines ushers in the Jet Age with the first scheduled transcontinental flight of a Boeing 707 from Los Angeles (LAX) to New York (Idlewild Airport, later known as Kennedy Airport/JFK).

1961 – Beginning a tradition that continues today, John F. Kennedy holds the first live televised presidential news conference, just five days after his inauguration as 35th U.S. president. An estimated 65 million viewers tune in.

1971 – Charles Manson and three of his cult followers are convicted of the brutal 1969 murders of actress Sharon Tate and six others.

1995 – The world comes dangerously close to nuclear war when Russia activates its nuclear missile arsenal for the first time in history after its early-warning defense system detects a missile launch near Norway. Russian leaders suspect it might be a U.S. attack, but it turns out to be a harmless scientific rocket that Norway launched to study the aurora borealis, or northern lights.

Musical Milestones

1964 – “There! I’ve Said It Again,” by Bobby Vinton, begins its fourth and final week as a No. 1 single. It’s the last song to occupy the top spot on the pop chart before The Beatles have their first No. 1 — “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”

1969 – Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” enjoys a seventh and final week on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

1975 – Carpenters deliver a No. 1 single with their cover of The Marvelettes’ “Please Mr. Postman.” It becomes the brother-sister duo’s 12th million-selling single gold record.

1986 – Barbra Streisand kicks off a three-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart with “The Broadway Album.”

1992 – “All 4 Love,” by Color Me Badd, replaces Michael Jackson’s “Black or White” as the No. 1 single and holds the top spot for a week

1997 – Toni Braxton is in the midst of an 11-week reign over the pop chart with “Un-Break My Heart.”

2014 – “Timber,” by Pitbull featuring Ke$ha, is in the midst of a three-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

On this Day August 9

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Celebrity Birthdays

1927 – Actor Robert Shaw (“A Man For All Seasons,” “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three,” “Jaws,” “Black Sunday”) (d. 1978)

1944 – Actor Sam Elliott (“Gunsmoke,” “Mask,” “Road House,” “Tombstone,” “The Big Lebowski,” “Ghost Rider,” “The Golden Compass,” “Grandma,” “The Ranch”)

1957 – Golden Globe-winning actress Melanie Griffith (“Something Wild, “Working Girl,” “Shining Through,” “Crazy in Alabama”)

1963 – Six-time Grammy-winning pop sensation Whitney Houston (d. 2012)

1968 – Actor Eric Bana (“Black Hawk Down,” “Hulk,” “Munich,” “Star Trek”)

1968 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actress Gillian Anderson, best known for playing Special Agent Dana Scully in the hit sci-fi series “The X-Files.”

1985 – Actress Anna Kendrick (“Up in the Air,” “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” “The Twilight Saga,” “Pitch Perfect,” “Pitch Perfect 2,” “Into the Woods”)

History Highlights

1936 – African American track star Jesse Owens captures his fourth Gold medal at the Berlin Olympic Games in the 4×100-meter relay. His relay team set a new world record of 39.8 seconds. In their strong showing in track and field, Owens and other African American athletes struck a publicity blow to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, who planned to use the international event to showcase supposed Aryan superiority.

1945 – Three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, the U.S. drops a second atomic bomb on Japan. This time the target is Nagasaki. The attack leads to Japan’s unconditional surrender and brings hostilities in World War II to a close. The combined attacks leave some 200,000 people dead and level both cities.

1969 – In one of the most horrifying crimes of the 1960s, members of Charles Manson’s cult, the Manson Family, murder five people in the Beverly Hills home of director Roman Polanski. Polanski’s pregnant wife, 26-year-old actress Sharon Tate, is among the victims.

1974 – Gerald Ford becomes the 38th U.S. president, taking the oath of office on the heels of the Richard Nixon resignation.

1975 – The Louisiana Superdome opens and an exhibition game there sees the Houston Oilers trounce the hometown New Orleans Saints by a score of 31-7.

2010 – JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater quits his job in dramatic fashion after his flight lands at New York’s JFK International Airport. He gets on the public address system, swears at a passenger whom he claimed treated him rudely, grabs a beer and slides down the plane’s emergency chute onto the tarmac.

Musical Milestones

1959 – “Stagger Lee,” by Lloyd Price, begins a four-week hold on the top spot on the singles chart.

1969 – Blood, Sweat, & Tears’ Grammy-winning self-titled album tops the Billboard 200. The album delivers the Top 5 hits “And When I Die,” “Spinning Wheel” and “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy.”

1975 – The Bee Gees dominate the Billboard Hot 100 with their second No. 1 hit in the U.S.: “Jive Talkin’.” The single holds the top spot for two weeks.

1980 – Olivia Newton-John is in the midst of a four-week reign over the pop chart with “Magic.”

1995 – Deadheads everywhere mourn as a heart attack claims the life of Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia at the age of 53. Rolling Stone magazine’s 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time ranks Garcia at No. 13.

1997 – “I’ll Be Missing You,” by Puff Daddy featuring Faith Evans and 112, continues its domination over the Billboard Hot 100.

2003 – “Crazy in Love,” by Beyoncé featuring Jay-Z, is the No. 1 single. The track holds the top spot for eight weeks.

2008 – Katy Perry is in the middle of a seven-week domination of the pop chart with “I Kissed a Girl.”