On This Day: April 12

On This Day April 12

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1932 – Singer and ukulele player Tiny Tim, born Herbert Buckingham Khaury (d. 1996)

1940 – Oscar and Grammy-winning jazz musician Herbie Hancock 

1947 – Bestselling author Tom Clancy (“Patriot Games,” “The Hunt for Red October,” “Clear and Present Danger”) (d. 2013)

1947 – Comedian and retired “Late Show” host David Letterman

1950 – Actor-singer and former teen heartthrob David Cassidy (“The Partridge Family”) (d.2017)

1956 – Actor-director Andy Garcia (“The Untouchables,” “The Godfather Part III,” “Stand and Deliver,” “Oceans Eleven” and its sequels, “The Lost City”)

1957 – Grammy-winning country music singer-songwriter Vince Gill (“When I Call Your Name,” “Go Rest High On That Mountain,” “I Still Believe in You”)

1971 – Actress-director Shannen Doherty (“Little House on the Prairie,” “Our House,” “Beverly Hills 90210,” “Charmed”) 

1979 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actress Claire Danes (“My So-Called Life,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “The Rainmaker,” “Homeland”)  

History Highlights
History Highlights

1861 – The Civil War — the bloodiest four years in American history — begins in the early-morning hours when Confederate troops open fire on Union-held Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s Charleston Bay. Neither side anticipated the length of the war nor the devastation that the conflict would bring.

1945 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies during his fourth term in office, leaving Vice President Harry Truman in charge of a nation still embroiled in World War II. 

1961 – The Space Race between the U.S. and Soviet Union begins as the Soviets launch Vostok I. Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space, making a single orbit around Earth in just under two hours.

1981 – The U.S. achieves a space exploration milestone with the inaugural space shuttle flight. Shuttle Columbia represents the first manned U.S. space mission since Apollo-Soyuz in July 1976. The shuttle is also the first reusable manned spacecraft.

2003 – Fifty years after their introduction, tokens for the New York City subway system are sold for the last time, replaced by the Metro Card.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1954 – Bill Haley and his Comets record “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around The Clock” at Pythian Temple studios in New York City. The song, widely credited with bringing rock ‘n’ roll into the mainstream, becomes a worldwide No. 1 and the biggest-selling pop single, with sales exceeding 25 million. 

1963 – Bob Dylan performs his first major solo concert at Town Hall in Manhattan. Dylan’s 24-song set includes “Blowin’ In The Wind,” “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” “Highway 51” and “Last Thoughts On Woody Guthrie.”

1969 – The 5th Dimension soar to the top of the singles chart with “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In,” which holds at No. 1 for six weeks.

1973 – Stevie Wonder is just 23 years old when he makes a guest appearance on the children’s television show Sesame Street. Wonder interacts with several beloved characters in segments throughout the program, including Grover, whom he teaches how to sing. He also performs his smash hit, “Superstition.”

1975 – Elton John claims the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks with “Philadelphia Freedom,” a song he wrote for his good friend, international tennis legend Billie Jean King.  “Philadelphia Freedom” is the name of the tennis team that King coached at the time.

1986 – Falco wraps up three weeks atop the Billboard singles chart with “Rock Me Amadeus.”

1997 – “Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down,” by Puff Daddy featuring Mase, is in the midst of a six-week domination of the Billboard Hot 100.

2003 – 50 Cent rules the singles chart with “In da Club,” which remains at No. 1 for nine weeks. 

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On This Day: November 21

On This Day November 21

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1904 – Nobel Prize–winning novelist and short-story writer Isaac Bashevis Singer (d. 1991)

1937 – Emmy, Golden Globe and Grammy-winning actress and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital ambassador Marlo Thomas (“That Girl,” “Free to Be…You and Me”)

1944 – Actor-director Harold Ramis (“Ghostbusters,” “Stripes,” “Caddyshack,” “Groundhog Day”) (d. 2014)

1945 – Oscar-winning actress Goldie Hawn (“Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In,” “Cactus Flower,” “The Sugarland Express,” “Private Benjamin,” “Swing Shift”)

1965 – Icelandic singer-songwriter Björk, born Björk Guðmundsdóttir (“Birthday,” “Human Behaviour,” “Big Time Sensuality”)

1985 – Singer-songwriter and actress Carly Rae Jepsen, best known for her 2012 hit “Call Me Maybe”

History Highlights
History Highlights

1783 – French chemistry teacher Jean-François Pilatre de Rozier and military officer François Laurent, the marquis d’ Arlandes, make the first untethered hot-air balloon flight, traveling 5.5 miles over Paris in about 25 minutes.

1877 – Inventor Thomas Edison announces that he has developed a hand-cranked, tinfoil covered cylinder capable of reproducing recorded sound — a “talking machine” that comes to be known as the phonograph. It marks the first time in history that a person’s voice could be recorded and saved.

1964 – New York’s Verrazano Narrows Bridge — then the world’s longest suspension bridge — opens to traffic. The span connects Brooklyn and Staten Island high above the entrance to New York Harbor.

1980 – The second worst hotel fire in modern U.S. history breaks out at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, claiming 85 lives and injuring more than 700 people.

1980 – Millions of viewers tune in to the prime-time CBS drama “Dallas” to find out who shot J.R., ending eight months of suspense in a storyline that establishes the television cliffhanger. The show becomes the highest-rated TV episode until the “M*A*S*H” finale beats it in 1983. 

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1968 – The Supremes and The Temptations release a collaboration: “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me.” It peaks at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 behind Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.”

1970 – The Partridge Family parks its tour bus on top of the pop chart for three weeks with “I Think I Love You,” which was featured in the first episode of “The Partridge Family” TV series, starring Shirley Jones and David Cassidy.

1975 – Queen releases “A Night at the Opera,” the band’s breakthrough album, which contains the hits “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “You’re My Best Friend.”

1981 – Olivia Newton-John begins a 10-week lock on the No. 1 spot on the singles chart with “Physical.”

1987 – Billy Idol’s cover of the Tommy James and the Shondell’s hit “Mony Mony” spends a week on top of the Billboard Hot 100. 

1998 – “Doo Wop (That Thing),” by Lauryn Hill, begins its second and final week as a No. 1 single.

2003 – George Harrison’s first guitar, a 1956 Rosetti-276 Egmond 105 steel string guitar, sells at a London auction for $800,000.

2017 – Teen idol David Cassidy dies of liver failure at the age of 67. Cassidy was best known as Keith Partridge, the son of Shirley Partridge (played by his real-life stepmother, Shirley Jones), in the popular 1970s musical-sitcom, “The Partridge Family.”

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