Dick Van Dyke – Time Rewind

On This Day December 18

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On This Day December 13

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Celebrity Birthdays

1925 – Emmy, Tony and Grammy-winning actor-comedian Dick Van Dyke (“Bye Bye Birdie,” “Mary Poppins,” “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” “Diagnosis: Murder,” “Night at the Museum”)

1929 – Oscar, Golden Globe, Emmy and Tony-winning actor Christopher Plummer (“The Sound of Music,” ” A Beautiful Mind,” “Nicholas Nickleby,” “The New World,” “Inside Man,” “Beginners”)

1948 – Rock musician Ted Nugent, best known for his 1977 hit “Cat Scratch Fever”

1957 – Golden Globe-winning actor Steve Buscemi (“Reservoir Dogs,” “Desperado,” “Con Air,” “Fargo,” “Armageddon,” “Boardwalk Empire”)

1967 – Oscar and Grammy-winning actor-comedian and musician Jamie Foxx, born Eric Marlon Bishop (“Ray,” “Django Unchained,” “Dreamgirls,” “Collateral,” “The Soloist”)

1989 – Grammy-winning pop superstar Taylor Swift

History Highlights

1957 – The Ford Motor Company produces the last two-seater Thunderbird. Beginning with the 1958 model year, the car becomes a four-seater, referred to as the “Square Bird.”

1972 – Apollo 17 astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt begin the third and final “extravehicular activity” (EVA) or “moonwalk” during NASA’s last manned mission to the moon.

1983 – The Detroit Pistons defeat the Denver Nuggets by a score of 186-184 in triple overtime, the highest scoring game in the history of the NBA.

2000 – A long and bitter U.S. presidential race finally comes to an end. After five weeks of legal wrangling over the vote count in Florida, Democrat Al Gore—then vice president—concedes to Republican Texas Governor George W. Bush after the Supreme Court rules that the Florida recount must stop.

2000 – Seven convicts escape from a maximum-security prison in South Texas, setting off a manhunt that lasts six weeks. The so-called ‘Texas Seven’ leave behind an ominous note that reads, “You haven’t heard the last of us yet.” A tip from someone that had seen the escapees profiled on TV’s “America’s Most Wanted” crime program leads to their capture.

2003 – Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is captured by U.S. military forces without as single shot being fired. Nine months after he and his family fled Baghdad, he is discovered hiding in an underground hole near his hometown of Tikrit. He stands trial and is executed in December 2006.

Musical Milestones

1969 – The Dutch band Shocking Blue hurtles onto the Billboard Hot 100 with “Venus,” which climbs to No. 1 in the U.S. and eight other countries in 1970. Bananarama’s 1986 cover of the song also becomes a chart-topper.

1975 – Silver Convention soars through its third and final week atop the Billboard Hot 100 with “Fly, Robin, Fly.”

1980 – Kenny Rogers holds the top spot on the Billboard pop chart with “Lady” — a song written by Lionel Richie.

1986 – “The Way It Is,” by Bruce Hornsby and the Range, hits No.1 on the singles chart.

1993 – Janet Jackson’s “Again” is in the middle of a two-week ride atop the singles chart. The song goes on to receive Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for Best Original Song.

On This Day October 3

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Celebrity Birthdays

1900 – Novelist Thomas Wolfe (“You Can’t Go Home Again,” “Look Homeward, Angel”) (d. 1938)

1925 – Author, playwright and political commentator Gore Vidal (“Julian,” “Myra Breckinridge,” “Lincoln”) (d. 2012)

1941 – Singer-songwriter Chubby Checker, born Ernest Evans, credited with inventing the popular 60’s dance “The Twist,” named after his hit single

1949 – Fleetwood Mac guitarist-vocalist Lindsey Buckingham

1950 – Earth, Wind & Fire saxophonist-guitarist Ronnie Laws

1954 – Minister and civil rights activist Al Sharpton

1954 – Blues Hall of Fame guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan (d. 1990)

1964 – Actor Clive Owen (“Closer,” “Sin City,” “Inside Man,” “Derailed,” “Children of Men,” “Shadow Dancer,” “The Confirmation”)

1969 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Gwen Stefani (“Just a Girl,” “Don’t Speak,” “Hey Baby,” “Hollaback Girl,” “What You Waiting For?”)

1973 – Actress Neve Campbell (“Party of Five,” “The Craft,” “Scream” movies)

History Highlights

1955 – “Captain Kangaroo” premieres, starring Bob Keeshan as the captain. On the air until 1985, it is the longest-running children’s TV show until surpassed by “Sesame Street.”

1960 – Set in small-town Mayberry, North Carolina, “The Andy Griffith Show” debuts, featuring Griffith as Sheriff Andy Taylor, Ron Howard (then Ronnie) as his son, Opie, and Don Knotts as Deputy Barnie Fife.

1961 – Viewers discover “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” starring Dick Van Dyke as TV show writer Rob Petrie and Mary Tyler Moore as his wife, Laura, a former dancer.

1962 – Astronaut Wally Schirra pilots the Sigma 7 spacecraft through six orbits around Earth in a nine-hour and 13-minute flight that enters the history books as the first flawless Mercury mission.

1990 – Less than one year after the destruction of the Berlin Wall, East and West Germany end 45 years of separation and come together on what is known as Unity Day.

1995 – A Los Angeles jury acquits football star O.J. Simpson of the brutal 1994 double-murder of his estranged wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, ending an epic 252-day trial that became a media spectacle. An estimated 140 million Americans tune in to live coverage of the verdict.

Musical Milestones

1964 – “Oh, Pretty Woman,” by Roy Orbison, is in the middle of a three-week lock on the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100.

1967 – Legendary folk singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie dies of complications from Huntington’s disease at the age of 55.

1970 – Diana Ross is perched at the summit of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” The track, a cover of the 1967 hit single by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, becomes Ross’ first No. 1 after leaving The Supremes. It also garners her a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

1981 – The Diana Ross-Lionel Richie duet “Endless Love,” from the movie of the same title, begins its eighth week as a No. 1 single.

1992 – Sinead O’Connor belts out a haunting a capella cover of Bob Marley’s “War” on “Saturday Night Live,” then stuns the audience by tearing up a photo of Pope John Paul II while singing about the victory of good over evil. She finishes her performance by shouting, “Fight the real enemy!” O’Connor is subsequently banned from the show for life.

1998 – Monica kicks off three weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 with “The First Night,” which is built around a sample of Diana Ross’s 1976 recording, “Love Hangover.”

2000 – Benjamin Orr, singer and bass player for The Cars, dies of pancreatic cancer at the age of 53. Orr sang lead vocals on the band’s hits “Just What I Needed,” “Let’s Go” and “Drive.”