Dean Martin – Time Rewind

On This Day January 7

Click each item below to learn more!

On This Day December 25

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1821 – Clara Barton, Civil War volunteer nurse who founded the American Red Cross (d. 1912)

1899 – Legendary Oscar-winning actor Humphrey Bogart (“Casablanca,” “Maltese Falcon,” “The African Queen,” “Key Largo”) (d. 1957)

1924 – Emmy-winning “The Twilight Zone” creator-writer Rod Serling (d. 1975)

1946 – Singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett (“Margaritaville,” “Cheeseburger in Paradise”) (d. 2023)

1948 – Grammy-winning country music singer Barbara Mandrell (“Sleeping Single in a Double Bed,” “Years”)

1949 – Oscar-winning actress Sissy Spacek (“Carrie,” “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” “In the Bedroom,” “The Help”)

1952 – Actress CCH Pounder (“Hill Street Blues,” “ER,” “The Practice,” “Law & Order: SVU,”, “Millennium,” “The West Wing,” “The Shield”)

1954 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Annie Lennox, formerly of the 1980s new wave band Eurythmics

History Highlights

1776 – General George Washington and 2,400 of his Continental Army troops cross the icy waters of the Delaware River for a surprise attack against Hessian forces at Trenton, New Jersey.

1914 – Gunfire is replaced with the sounds of Christmas carols as German troops serving in World War I lay down their weapons and break into song on Christmas morning. Russian, French and British troops do the same and even shake hands and exchange cigarettes with enemy soldiers along the eastern and western fronts during the Christmas Truce of 1914.

1962 – “To Kill a Mockingbird,” a film based on the 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by Harper Lee, opens in theaters, starring Gregory Peck, who wins a Best Actor Oscar for his performance as attorney Atticus Finch.

1973 – “The Sting,” starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford as a pair of 1930s grifters, premieres.

1977 – British director, producer and comedic actor Charlie Chaplin, an icon of the silent film era, dies at the age of 88.

1989 – Ousted Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, are executed following a popular uprising.

1989 – Former New York Yankees manager Billy Martin dies in a traffic accident at the age of 61.

1991 – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as president of the Soviet Union just days after 11 of the former Soviet republics establish the Commonwealth of Independent States.

1996 – Six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey is killed in her Boulder, Colorado, home. Her parents call police the following morning to report their daughter missing and discover a ransom note demanding $118,000. The girl’s body is found in the basement that afternoon. The crime becomes a national sensation that remains unsolved today.

Musical Milestones

1941 – Bing Crosby performs the Irving Berlin holiday classic “White Christmas” for the first time on his weekly NBC Radio show “The Kraft Music Hall.” Crosby later performs it in the 1942 movie “Holiday Inn.” It remains the largest-selling single in music history until surpassed by Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind 1997.”

1961 – The Brooklyn-based doo-wop group The Tokens rule the singles chart with “The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh)” — originally written and recorded as “Mbube” in 1939 by Zulu artist Solomon Linda.

1965 – The Dave Clark Five have the No. 1 single with “Over and Over.”

1976 – Rod Stewart claims the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for a seventh straight week with “Tonight’s The Night (Gonna Be Alright).”

1982 – “Maneater,” by Hall & Oates, is mid-way through a four week domination of the singles chart.

1995 – Entertainer Dean Martin, a beloved member of the so-called “Rat Pack,” dies at the age of 78.

2004 – Ludacris has the No. 1 album with “The Red Light District,” which spawns the hit singles “Get Back” and “Number One Spot.”

On This Day December 7

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1915 – Tony and Emmy-winning actor Eli Wallach (“The Misfits,” “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” “Nuts,” “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps”) (d. 2014)

1932 – Oscar-winning actress Ellen Burstyn (“The Exorcist,” “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”)

1947 – Baseball Hall of Famer and former Cincinnati Reds catcher Johnny Bench

1949 – Grammy-winning Rock and Roll Hall of Fame singer-songwriter and actor Tom Waits (“Jersey Girl,” “Hold On,” “One From the Heart”)

1956 – Basketball Hall of Famer and former Indiana Pacers coach/legendary Boston Celtics forward Larry Bird

1979 – Singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles (“Love Song,” “King of Anything”)

History Highlights

1941 – Japanese forces launch a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, thrusting the U.S. into World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt calls it “a date which will live in infamy.”

1963 – Decades before the DVR and years before the first Super Bowl, instant replay is used for the first time during an Army-Navy college football game. As the CBS broadcast replays Rollie Stichweh’s winning touchdown, commentator Lindsey Nelson tells viewers, “Ladies and gentlemen, Army did not score again!”

1972 – Apollo 17 hurtles toward space, carrying a three-man crew to the last moon landing of the Apollo program.

1982 – The nation’s first execution by lethal injection takes place at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas. Charles Brooks, Jr. was convicted of kidnapping and murdering an auto mechanic.

1993 – Colin Ferguson opens fire on a Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) commuter train after it pulls out of New York’s Penn Station, killing six and injuring 19. Other passengers overpower Ferguson when he stops to reload his pistol. The incident comes to be known as the Long Island Rail Road Massacre.

2001 – The heist film “Ocean’s Eleven,” starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Bernie Mac, Don Cheadle, Andy Garcia and Julia Roberts, and directed by Steven Soderbergh, opens in theaters. It is a remake of the 1960 movie of the same name that starred “Rat Pack” members Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr., along with Angie Dickinson.

Musical Milestones

1963 – The Singing Nun begins a four-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart with “Dominique,” which goes on to sell 1.5 million copies in the U.S. and win a Grammy for the year’s best Gospel song.

1974 – One-hit wonder Carl Douglas chops his way to the top of the singles chart with “Kung Fu Fighting.” The song, which holds at No. 1 for two weeks, sells 11 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time.

1985 – “Broken Wings,” by Mr. Mister, begins two weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

1991 – U2 conquer the Billboard album chart with “Achtung Baby,” featuring “One,” “Mysterious Ways,” “Even Better Than The Real Thing” and other popular tracks.

2002 – Eminem is in the midst of a 12-week reign over the Billboard Hot 100 with “Lose Yourself.” The track, from his “8 Mile” movie soundtrack, becomes the first rap song to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song. It also garners Eminem two Grammys.

On this Day June 7

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1905 – Former U.S. boxing heavyweight champion James Braddock (d. 1974)

1909 – Oscar-winning actress Jessica Tandy (“Firefox,” “Driving Miss Daisy,” “Batteries Not Included”) (d. 1994)

1917 – Legendary entertainer and “Rat Pack” member Dean Martin (“Memories Are Made of This,” “That’s Amore,” “Everybody Loves Somebody,” “Volare,” “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head?” (d. 1995)

1940 – Grammy-winning pop, blues and soul-singing superstar and “The Voice UK” coach Tom Jones (“What’s New Pussycat,” “It’s Not Unusual,” “She’s a Lady”)

1952 – Actor Liam Neeson (“The Mission,” “Schindler’s List,” “Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace,” the “Taken” film series, “Michael Collins,” “Love Actually,” “Cold Pursuit”)

1958 – Grammy-winning pop sensation Prince, born Prince Rogers Nelson (d. 2016)

1981 – Retired tennis star-turned reality TV personality Anna Kournikova

1988 – Actor Michael Cera (“Arrested Development,” “Superbad,” “Juno,” “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” “Twin Peaks”)

History Highlights

1913 – A team of four Alaskans stages the first successful ascent of Denali (formerly known as Mount McKinley), the highest point on the American continent at 20,310 feet.

1937 – Known as the “Blonde Bombshell” and the “Platinum Blonde,” and considered one of the most gifted and blatantly sensual Hollywood stars of the 1930s, actress Jean Harlow dies of uremic poisoning (acute kidney failure) at the age of 26.

1942 – Six months after Japan’s devastating attack on Pearl Harbor, the Battle of Midway ends with a U.S. victory over Japan in one of the most decisive naval showdowns of World War II. In the four-day sea and air battle, the outnumbered U.S. Pacific Fleet destroys four Japanese aircraft carriers and loses only one of its own — the USS Yorktown — turning the tide against the previously invincible Japanese navy.

1955 – The TV game show “The $64,000 Question” premieres on CBS, hosted by Hal March.

1965 – In Griswold v. Connecticut, the U.S. Supreme Court guarantees the right to privacy, including the freedom from government intrusion into matters of birth control.

1975 – Sony revolutionizes home entertainment when it introduces consumers to the Betamax videocassette recorder.

Musical Milestones

1963 – Four weeks after recording it, The Rolling Stones release their debut single, “Come On.” It’s the cover of a 1961 Chuck Berry song. The track climbs as high as No. 20 on the U.K. singles chart.

1969 – “The Johnny Cash Show” debuts on ABC. It features musical guests like Louis Armstrong, Arlo Guthrie, Glen Campbell and Linda Ronstadt before going off the air in 1971.

1969 – “Get Back,” by The Beatles with Billy Preston, is in the middle of a five-week run atop the Billboard Hot 100.

1975 – Elton John’s “Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy” debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart, becoming the first album ever to do so. It spawns the hit single, “Someone Saved My Life Tonight.”

1975 – “Thank God I’m a Country Boy,” by John Denver, is the No. 1 single.

1977 – Led Zeppelin play the first of six sold out nights at New York’s Madison Square Garden during their 11th and final North American tour. The most expensive ticket costs $10.50.

1986 – Madonna’s “Live to Tell,” off her “True Blue” album, becomes the pop superstar’s third No. 1 single.

2003 – “21 Questions,” by 50 Cent featuring Nate Dogg, tops the Billboard Hot 100.

2012 – Bob Welch, an early member of Fleetwood Mac and who enjoyed a successful solo career with hits like “Sentimental Lady” and “Ebony Eyes,” dies of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the age of 66.