On This Day: April 26

Musical Milestones

1969 – The Edwin Hawkins Singers hit the singles chart with the gospel song “Oh Happy Day,” which eventually soars to No. 4 and million-selling status. It becomes the first gospel track to cross over to the pop chart. 

1975 – B.J. Thomas owns the hottest single in America with “(Hey Won’t You Play), Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song.” 

1980 – Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” begins its 15th and final week on top of the Billboard album chart. It becomes the best-selling album of 1980.

1986 – “Kiss,” by Prince and The Revolution, holds at No. 1 on the singles chart for a second week. The song clinches Prince a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group.

1988 – A jury in White Plains, New York finds Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger not guilty of copyright infringement. Reggae singer Patrick Alley had sued Jagger for $7 million over the song “Just Another Night,” claiming the chorus’s lyrics were similar to his version. Jagger provided jurors with a rare glimpse into his work habits by playing homemade and studio tapes demonstrating the development of his song.

1997 – “Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down,” by Puff Daddy featuring Mase, wraps up a six-week run as a Billboard chart-topper.

2013 – George Jones, known as “the greatest voice in country music,”  dies in Nashville at the age of 81. 

History Highlights

1865 – Presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth is killed by Union soldiers that track him to a Virginia farm 12 days after Booth fatally shot Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C.

1954 – More than 1.8 million children participate in the Salk polio vaccine field trials. Dr. Jonas Salk developed the vaccine in an effort to wipe out polio — an infectious disease occurring primarily in children that can result in paralysis. A year later, researchers declare the vaccine safe and effective, and it becomes a standard part of childhood immunizations across the U.S.

1984 – President Ronald Reagan visits China — the first such mission by a U.S. president since the historic Nixon trip in 1972. 

1986 – An explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine sets off fires that release deadly radioactive material into the air, becoming the world’s worst nuclear disaster. 

1986 – Almost a decade after meeting at a celebrity tennis tournament,  TV news reporter Maria Shriver weds movie actor and former bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger. The marriage lasts 25 years.

1989 – An American entertainment icon, comedian Lucille Ball (“I Love Lucy”) dies at the age of 78.

1994 – South Africa’s 18 million blacks vote in multi-party elections for the first time ever and anti-Apartheid crusader Nelson Mandela is elected president.

Celebrity Birthdays

1933 – Emmy, Tony and Golden Globe-winning comedian-actress Carol Burnett

1936 – Guitarist and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Duane Eddy

1958 – Actor Giancarlo Esposito (“Do The Right Thing,” “School Days,” “The Usual Suspects,” “Malcolm X,” “Breaking Bad”) 

1963 – Martial artist-actor Jet Li (“The War Lords,” “Lethal Weapon 4,” “Romeo Must Die,” “Kiss of the Dragon,” “The Forbidden Kingdom”)

1965 – Actor-comedian Kevin James (“Everybody Loves Raymond,” “The King of Queens,” “Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” “Grown Ups,” “Zookeeper,” “Pixels”) 

1980 – Actor Channing Tatum (“Coach Carter,” “21 Jump Street,” “22 Jump Street,” “She’s the Man,” “The Dilemma,” “White House Down,” “Foxcatcher,” “The Hateful Eight,” “Hail, Caesar!”, “Smallfoot”)

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The Wall

Pink Floyd

Parade: Music from the Motion Picture "Under the Cherry Moon"

Prince

Polio: An American Story

David M. Oshinsky

Love, Lucy

Lucille Ball

This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection

Carol Burnett

Do The Right Thing

Starring Ossie Davis, Danny Aiello and Giancarlo Esposito, and directed by Spike Lee

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On This Day: April 15

Musical Milestones

1967 – Frank Sinatra and his daughter Nancy start a four-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart with “Somethin’ Stupid.” They are the only father-daughter act to ever score a chart-topping single.

1972 – Roberta Flack begins a six-week reign over the singles chart with “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.” The track garners her Grammy Awards for Record and Song of the Year.

1978 – “Night Fever,” by the Bee Gees, blazes through a fifth week on top of the Billboard Hot 100. The disco smash, from the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack, remains a chart-topper for nine weeks.

1989 – “She Drives Me Crazy” by the Fine Young Cannibals is the No. 1 single. The song, from the band’s “The Raw & the Cooked” album, holds the top spot for a week.

1995 – One-hit-wonder Montell Jordan kicks off seven weeks on top of the pop chart with “This Is How We Do It.”

2000 – “Maria Maria,” by Santana featuring The Product G&B, is in the second of 10 weeks as a chart-reigning single.

History Highlights

1912 – More than 1,500 lives are lost in the early morning hours when the luxury liner Titanic sinks after striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City. 

1947 – Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American in baseball’s major leagues when he debuts with the Brooklyn Dodgers. This becomes a landmark event not only for the sport, but for the U.S. civil rights movement.

1955 – The golden arches rise in Des Plaines, Illinois with the opening of the first McDonald’s restaurant. Customers pay just 15 cents for a hamburger.

1959 – Four months after leading a successful revolution in Cuba, Fidel Castro begins an 11-day U.S. visit. It comes amid escalating tensions between his regime and the American government.

2013 – Two bombs go off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three spectators and wounding more than 260 others. Four days later, after an intense manhunt, authorities capture one of the bombing suspects, 19-year-old Dzhohkar Tsarnaev. His older brother and fellow suspect, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, dies following a shootout with police earlier that same day.

Celebrity Birthdays

1452 – Renaissance artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci (d. 1519)

1933 – Country music singer-guitarist and former “Hee Haw” host Roy Clark 

1933 – Actress Elizabeth Montgomery (“Bewitched”)  (d. 1995)

1951 – “Hints From Heloise” columnist Heloise Bowles Cruse 

1959 – Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actress Emma Thompson (“Howard’s End,” “The Remains of the Day,” “In the Name of the Father,” “Sense and Sensibility,” “Nanny McPhee,” “Saving Mr. Banks”)

1982 – Actor Seth Rogen (“The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” “Knocked Up,” “Superbad,” “Funny People,” “This Is The End,” “The Long Shot”, “The Disaster Artist”)

1990 – Actress Emma Watson, best known for playing Hermione Granger in the “Harry Potter” movie series and Belle in the live-action adaptation of “Beauty and the Beast”

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Somethin' Stupid

Frank and Nancy Sinatra

Saturday Night Fever (Original Movie Soundtrack)

Bee Gees, Tavares, KC and the Sunshine Band, Yvonne Elliman and other artists

The Last Night on the Titanic: Unsinkable Drinking, Dining, and Style

Veronica Hinke

I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography of Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson

Sense and Sensibility

Starring Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet, and directed by Ang Lee

50/50

Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen and Anna Kendrick, and directed by Jonathan Levine

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On This Day: April 8

Musical Milestones

1964 – Diana Ross and The Supremes record “Where Did Our Love Go,” which eventually becomes the first of the girl group’s five No. 1 singles.

1967 – The Turtles’ “Happy Together” marks its third and final week as a No. 1 single.

1972 – America gallops into its third and final week atop the Billboard Hot 100 with “A Horse with No Name.”

1975 – “Toys in the Attic,” the third studio album from Aerosmith, is released. It contains the hit singles “Walk This Way” and “Sweet Emotion” and becomes the Boston rockers’ best-selling album to date, with more than 8 million copies sold.

1989 – “The Look” by Roxette is the No. 1 single and becomes the Swedish duo’s international breakthrough hit after success in Europe.

1995 – “Take a Bow” marks its seventh and final week as a No. 1 single, becoming Madonna’s longest-reigning chart-topper.

2000 – “Maria Maria,” by Santana featuring The Product G&B, kicks off 10 weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100. The track goes on to capture the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. 

History Highlights

1974 – Playing for the Atlanta Braves, Hank Aaron hits the 715th home run of his career, breaking the record set by Babe Ruth in 1935. The historic shot is hit off of Al Downing of the Los Angeles Dodgers into the left field bullpen at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. 

1985 – The government of India files suit against Union Carbide for the Bhopal disaster which killed more than 2,200 people.  

1986 – Actor-director Clint Eastwood is elected mayor of Carmel, California, and serves for two years.  

1992 – Tennis great Arthur Ashe stuns the world when he announces that he has AIDS, acquired from a blood transfusion during heart bypass surgery he underwent in 1983. Ashe, the first black man to win Wimbledon, dies from the disease less than a year later at age 49.

2013 – Margaret Thatcher, the first female prime minister of Britain, dies in London at the age of 87 from a stroke. Serving from 1979 to 1990, Thatcher was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century. She was nicknamed the “Iron Lady” because of her her fierce determination and unyielding will.

Celebrity Birthdays

1892 – Actress Mary Pickford, known as “America’s Sweetheart,” as she became a legend of the silent film era (d. 1979)

1938 – Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who, along with the U.N., won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001 

1963 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Julian Lennon (“Too Late for Goodbyes,” “Valotte”)

1966 – Golden Globe-winning actress Robin Wright (“The Princess Bride,” “Forrest Gump,” “House of Cards”)

1968 – Oscar and Emmy-winning actress Patricia Arquette (“True Romance,” “Flirting With Disaster,” “Medium,” “Boyhood”)  

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Toys in the Attic

Aerosmith

Supernatural

Santana

I Had a Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story

Hank Aaron

Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain

Starring Kal Penn, Mischa Barton and Martin Sheen, and directed by Ravi Kumar

Mary Pickford: Queen of the Movies

Christel Schmidt

The Princess Bride

Starring Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin and Chris Sarandon, and directed by Rob Reiner

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On This Day: March 18

Musical Milestones

1967 – “Penny Lane,” written by Paul McCartney, leads The Beatles to No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart.

1972 – “Heart of Gold” becomes Neil Young’s first, and to date, only No. 1 single. The track appears on his “Harvest” album.

1978 – The Bee Gees begin an eight-week ride on top of the singles chart with “Night Fever,” off the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack.

1982 – Former Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes lead singer Teddy Pendergrass is paralyzed from the neck down following a car crash in Philadelphia.

1995 – Madonna is mid-way through a seven-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart with “Take a Bow,” off her “Bedtime Stories” album.”

2000 – “Say My Name,” by Destiny’s Child,” begins three weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

History Highlights

1931 – The first electric razor goes on sale in the U.S., developed by the Schick corporation. It revolutionizes personal grooming by minimizing the risk of nicks and cuts.

1937 – With just minutes left to the school day, a thunderous natural gas explosion levels the combined junior-senior high school in the small East Texas town of New London, killing 294 students and teachers. It is considered the worst school disaster in U.S. history.

1965 – Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov becomes the first person to walk in space when he leaves his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes.

1968 – “The Producers,” starring Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel, opens at movie theaters around the U.S., eventually garnering a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for writer-director Mel Brooks.

Celebrity Birthdays

1837 – Twenty-second and twenty-fourth U.S. President Grover Cleveland (d. 1908)

1926 – Actor and TV host Peter Graves, best remembered as Jim Phelps in the CBS spy series “Mission: Impossible” and the pilot in “Airplane!” (d. 2010)

1938. -Country music singer-guitarist Charley Pride

1941 – Soul singer and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Wilson Pickett (“In The Midnight Hour,” “Mustang Sally”) (d. 2006)

1962 – Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe-winning actress and singer-songwriter Irene Cara (“Fame,” “Flashdance… What a Feeling”)

1963 – Actress, singer and former Miss America Vanessa Williams

1970 – Golden Globe and Grammy-winning actress-rapper Queen Latifah, born Dana Elaine Owens

1979 – Grammy-winning Maroon 5 frontman and NBC’s “The Voice” coach Adam Levine

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Greatest Hits

Neil Young

Saturday Night Fever [The Original Movie Soundtrack]

Bee Gees / Various Artists

The First Soviet Cosmonaut Team: Their Lives and Legacies

Colin Burgess and Rex Hall

The Producers

Starring Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder and Dick Shawn, and directed by Mel Brooks

Mission: Impossible - The Sixth TV Season

Starring Peter Graves and Greg Morris

Fame

Starring Irene Cara, Lee Curreri and Laura Dean, and directed by Alan Parker

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On This Day: January 28

Musical Milestones

1967 – The Monkees are in the middle of a seven-week ride atop the Billboard Hot 100 with “I’m a Believer.”

1978 – Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” — which contains the hits “Dreams,” “Don’t Stop” and “Go Your Own Way, among other now-classic tracks — is No.1 on the U.S. album chart. It goes on to capture a Grammy for Album of the Year.

1978 – “Baby Come Back,” by Player, begins its third and final week as a No. 1 single. 

1984 – “Owner of a Lonely Heart,” off Yes’ “90125” album, rules the Billboard Hot 100 for a second and final week.

1985 – Forty-five of the world’s top recording artists gather in a Los Angeles studio to record “We Are the World” to help raise funds for Ethiopian famine relief. The song, written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and produced by Quincy Jones, reaches No. 1 on the singles chart three months later.

1995 – TLC marks the first of four weeks as Billboard singles chart-toppers with “Creep.”

2006 – “Grillz,” by Nelly featuring fellow rappers Paul Wall, Ali & Gipp, is the No. 1 single.  

History Highlights

1915 – The American merchant ship William P. Frye becomes the first casualty of World War I as a German cruiser opens fire and sinks the vessel. Despite apologies from the German government, the attack sparks outrage in the U.S.

1922 – Ninety-eight guests are killed, 133 others are injured when the roof of Washington, D.C.’s Knickerbocker Theatre collapses under the weight of a heavy snowfall. The disaster ranks as one of Washington’s worst, and the “Knickerbocker Snowstorm,” as it is known, still holds the record for Washington’s single greatest snowfall.

1958 – The interlocking stud-and-tube plastic Lego brick is patented by Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, whose father founded the Lego toy company (“Lego,” from the Danish term “leg godt,” meaning “play well”). Bricks manufactured today remain compatible with the original ones.

1964 – The State Department accuses the Soviet Union of shooting down an unarmed Air Force trainer jet over East Germany, killing its three occupants.

1986 – A nation watches in horror as Space Shuttle Challenger (STS-51-L) explodes 73 seconds into flight, killing teacher Christa McAuliffe — who was to have been the first civilian in space — and fellow crew members Dick Scobee, Michael Smith, Judith Resnick, Ellison Onizuka, Ronald McNair and Gregory Jarvis.

1997 – Four apartheid-era police officers, appearing before a tribunal in South Africa, admit to the 1977 killing of Stephen Biko, a leader of the South African “Black consciousness” movement.

Celebrity Birthdays

1912 – Abstract expressionist artist Jackson Pollock (d. 1956)

1936 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor-director Alan Alda (“M*A*S*H,” “Same Time, Next Year,” “The Four Seasons,” “Everyone Says I Love You,” “The West Wing,” “The Aviator”)

1959 – Director Frank Darabont (“The Shawshank Redemption,” “The Green Mile,” “The Mist”)

1968 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan (“Building a Mystery,” “Angel,” “Fallen”) 

1977 – Former ‘N Sync band member, actor and TV personality Joey Fatone Jr. 

1981 – Actor-producer Elijah Wood (“Avalon,” “The Ice Storm,” “Deep Impact,” “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” “Sin City,” “Happy Feet”)

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Rumours

Fleetwood Mac

We Are The World

U.S.A. For Africa

Brick by Brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry

David Robertson and Bill Breen

Space Shuttle Disaster: The Tragic Mission of the Challenger

Henry M. Holden

M*A*S*H: The Complete Collection

Starring Alan Alda, Wayne Rogers, Harry Morgan, Mike Farrell, Loretta Swit and others

The Green Mile

Starring Tom Hanks, David Morse and Bonnie Hunt, and directed by Frank Darabont

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On This Day: January 13

Musical Milestones

1962 – Chubby Checker returns to the top of the singles chart with “The Twist.” The song first reached No. 1 in September 1960, becoming the only record in American chart history to top the singles survey on two separate occasions. 

1969 – Elvis Presley begins a 10-day recording session that would produce his final No. 1 single, “Suspicious Minds.” The tracks are recorded at American Sound Studios in Memphis, marking Presley’s first hometown recording since his Sun Records days in 1956. 

1973 – Carly Simon starts a five-week run at No. 1 on the album chart with “No Secrets,” which contains her smash single “You’re So Vain.”

1996 – The Mariah Carey/Boyz II Men collaboration “One Sweet Day” is mid-way through an unprecedented 16-week ride atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

2001 – Destiny’s Child, featuring Beyonce, has the No. 1 single with “Independent Women, Part I.” 

History Highlights

1910 – Radio pioneer and electron tube inventor Lee de Forest demonstrates the world’s first radio broadcast to the public in New York City. He successfully broadcasts a live performance of Enrico Caruso from The Metropolitan Opera. 

1942 – Henry Ford patents a plastic-bodied automobile that is 30 percent lighter than ordinary cars. 

1982 – Air Florida Flight 90—a Boeing 737 jet—takes off from Washington National Airport and suddenly plummets into the 14th Street Bridge, plowing through cars and sliding into the icy waters of the Potomac River. The crash kills 78 people, including four motorists. 

1982 – At nearly the same time as the Air Florida disaster, on the other side of D.C., a Metro Rail commuter train derails, killing three. 

Celebrity Birthdays

1919 – Actor Robert Stack (“The Untouchables,” “Unsolved Mysteries”) (d. 2013)

1931 – Actor and “The Match Game” panelist Charles Nelson Reilly (d. 2007)

1961 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus, best known for her role as Elaine in the NBC sitcom “Seinfeld” 

1964 – Actress Penelope Ann Miller (“Biloxi Blues,” “Kindergarten Cop”)

1966 – Actor and race car driver Patrick Dempsey, best known as “McDreamy” from the hit TV medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy”

1977 – Actor and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Orlando Bloom (“The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series, “Troy”) 

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The Very Best Of Chubby Checker

Chubby Checker

No Secrets

Carly Simon

Lee de Forest: King of Radio, Television, and Film

Mike Adams

Air Crash Investigations Death in the Potomac the Crash of Air Florida Flight 90

George Cramoisi

Grey's Anatomy: Season 1

Starring Patrick Dempsey, Ellen Pompeo and Sandra Oh

Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl

Starring Orlando Bloom, Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush, and directed by Gore Verbinski

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On This Day: December 16

Musical Milestones

1957 – Elvis Presley wraps up a seven-week lock on the top spot of the Billboard singles chart with “Jailhouse Rock.”

1972 – Billy Paul starts a three-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart with “Me and Mrs Jones.”

1983 – British rockers The Who announce their breakup. However, it was not to last, as the band gets back together in 1985 for Live Aid (a massive, duel-venue benefit concert for African famine relief) and then launches a full-fledged reunion tour in 1989.

1995 – “One Sweet Day,” by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men, is in its third week as a No. 1 single. It holds the top spot for a record-breaking total of 16 weeks.

2000 – Destiny’s Child rules the Billboard Hot 100 with “Independent Women Part I,” from the movie, “Charlie’s Angels.” This track remains a No. 1 single for 11 weeks.

History Highlights

1773 – Massachusetts colonists disguised as Mohawk Indians board three British ships docked in Boston Harbor and dump 342 chests of tea into the water to protest tea taxes. The raid comes be known as the Boston Tea Party.

1944 – The deadliest conflict of World War II occurs on this day. The Germans launch the last major offensive of the war, Operation Mist, also known as the Ardennes Offensive and the Battle of the Bulge, an attempt to push the Allied front line west from northern France to northwestern Belgium.

1951 – “Just the facts, ma’am.” The police detective series “Dragnet,” which launched on NBC Radio in 1949, premieres on NBC Television, starring Jack Webb as detective Joe Friday. Webb was the show’s creator and also served as director/producer. The series runs through 1970.

1960 – This day marks the worst commercial aviation disaster of its time. A United Airlines DC-8 and a TWA Super Constellation collide over New York City, sending one aircraft hurtling into Staten Island and the other into a Brooklyn neighborhood. The crash kills 134 people, including six on the ground.

1973 – Buffalo Bills running back O.J. Simpson becomes the first player in the National Football League to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a single season.

Celebrity Birthdays

1770 – Composer-pianist Ludwig van Beethoven (d. 1827)

1775 – Author Jane Austen (“Sense and Sensibility,” “Pride and Prejudice,” “Mansfield Park,” “Emma”) (d. 1817)

1917 – Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, whose short story, “The Sentinel,” inspired the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” (d. 2008)

1938 – Golden Globe-winning actress-director Liv Ullmann (“The Emigrants,” “Scenes from a Marriage,” “Face to Face”)

1941 – CBS “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl

1943 – Emmy-winning TV producer-writer Steven Bochco (“Hill Street Blues,” “L.A. Law,” “Doogie Howser, M.D.”)

1947 – Actor Ben Cross, best known for playing British Olympic athlete Harold Abrahams in the movie “Chariots of Fire”

1962 – Former Chicago Bears defensive lineman William “The Refrigerator” Perry

1963 – Actor Benjamin Bratt (“Law & Order,” “Demolition Man,” “Traffic,” “Miss Congeniality,” “Private

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ELV1S: 30 #1 Hits

Elvis Presley

The Who: The Ultimate Collection

The Who

The Best of Dragnet

Starring Jack Webb and Ben Alexander

Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party and the Making of America

Benjamin L. Carp

Beethoven: 9 Symphonies (5 CDs)

Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique and John Eliot Gardiner

Pride And Prejudice

Jane Austen

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On This Day: December 3

Musical Milestones

1965 – The Beatles release “Rubber Soul,” their sixth studio album. It incorporates a mix of pop, soul and folk musical styles, and contains such classics as “Michelle,” “Drive My Car” and “Nowhere Man.”

1966 – “Winchester Cathedral,” by The New Vaudeville Band, is the hottest song on the radio.

1968 – Elvis Presley’s first TV special airs on NBC and becomes the top-rated program of the year. It has long been considered The King’s comeback show. The 33-year-old Presley recorded the special the previous June. 

1977 – Debby Boone is in the midst of a 10-week ride at No. 1 on the singles chart with “You Light Up My Life,” a song that garners her a Best New Artist Grammy.

1994 – Fresh off a 14-week domination of the Billboard singles chart with “I’ll Make Love to You,” Boyz II Men begin two weeks at No. 1 with “On Bended Knee.”

History Highlights

1967 – Dr. Christiaan Barnard performs the world’s first successful human heart transplant in Cape Town, South Africa.

1979 – After five years of production, the last AMC Pacer automobile rolls off a Kenosha, Wisconsin assembly plant.

1984 – An explosion at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India and the resulting leak of deadly methyl isocyanate gas kills over 4,000 people and injures 200,000 others. It is the world’s worst industrial accident.

1992 – The first text message in history is sent by a British engineer who uses his computer to transmit “Merry Christmas” to a mobile phone.

Celebrity Birthdays

1930 – Pioneering French “new wave” director Jean-Luc Godard

1948 – Grammy-winning heavy metal legend Ozzy Osbourne

1960 – Actress Daryl Hannah (“Blade Runner,” “Splash,” “Legal Eagles,” “Roxanne,” “Wall Street,” “Steel Magnolias,” “Kill Bill”)

1960 – Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actress Julianne Moore (“The Hand That Rocks the Cradle,” “Boogie Nights,” “The End of the Affair,” “Far from Heaven,” “The Hours,” “Children of Men,” “Game Change,” “Still Alice”)

1968 – Actor Brendan Fraser (“School Ties,” “Encino Man,” “George of the Jungle,” “The Mummy” trilogy, “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” “Inkheart,” “Gods and Monsters,” “The Quiet American,” “Crash,” “Gimme Shelter”)

1985 – Actress Amanda Seyfried (“Mean Girls,” “Veronica Mars,” “Mamma Mia!” “Red Riding Hood,” “Big Love,” “Les Misérables,” “Lovelace”)

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Rubber Soul

The Beatles

Return Of The King: Elvis Presley's Great Comeback

Gillian G. Gaar

Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain

Kal Penn, Mischa Barton, Martin Sheen

Writing on the Wall: Social Media - The First 2,000 Years

Tom Standage

Splash

Starring Tom Hanks, Daryl Hannah and Eugene Levy, and directed by Ron Howard

Still Alice

Starring Julianne Moore, Kristen Stewart and Alec Baldwin, and directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland

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On This Day: November 28

Musical Milestones

1960 – Elvis Presley scores his 15th chart-topping single when “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” reaches No. 1 on the pop chart. It holds the top spot for six weeks.

1970 – Ex-Beatle George Harrison makes his solo Billboard chart debut with “My Sweet Lord,” a song he is later found guilty of having “subconsciously plagiarized” from Ronnie Mack’s “He’s So Fine,” which was a smash for The Chiffons.

1974 – John Lennon joins Elton John on stage at New York’s Madison Square Garden for what becomes Lennon’s last concert appearance. He performs three songs: “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night,” “I Saw Her Standing There,” and “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.”

1987 – The Bill Medley-Jennifer Warnes duet, “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life,” from the movie “Dirty Dancing,” is No. 1 on the singles chart.

1998 – “Lately,” by one-hit-wonder Divine, tops the Billboard Hot 100 for a week.

2001 – Aretha Franklin sues the supermarket tabloid “Star” for $50 million dollars claiming that her reputation was damaged by a December 2000 article that alleged she had alcohol problems.

2007 – Kanye West and stuntman Evel Knievel settle a copyright dispute over West’s use of the name “Evel Kanyevel” in a music video. The 69-year-old daredevil claimed his image was harmed by the video’s “vulgar, sexual nature.” The clip for “Touch The Sky” shows the rap star attempting to cross a canyon on a rocket-powered motorcycle.

History Highlights

1942 – The deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history strikes the Cocoanut Grove in Boston, killing 492 people and injuring hundreds more. Investigators never determined what sparked the inferno. The disaster led to sweeping changes in fire codes

1964 – The U.S. scores one in the Space Race as NASA launches Mariner 4 on a successful fly-by mission to Mars.

1975 – “As The World Turns” and “The Edge of Night” become the last American soaps to switch from live broadcasts to videotape.

1994 – Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is beaten to death in a Wisconsin prison while serving 15 consecutive life terms for the rape, murder and dismemberment of 17 men and boys.

Celebrity Birthdays

1929 – Motown Records founder Berry Gordy, Jr.

1943 – Oscar, Emmy and Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and composer Randy Newman, best known for his 1977 hit “Short People” and movie soundtracks including the animated blockbuster “Toy Story” series and “Monsters, Inc.”

1949 – Singer, actor and multi-instrumentalist Paul Shaffer, best known as the bandleader for David Letterman’s late-night TV shows

1950 – Golden Globe-winning actor Ed Harris (“The Right Stuff,” “The Abyss,” “Pollack,” “Apollo 13,” “The Rock,” “The Truman Show,” “A Beautiful Mind,” “Man on a Ledge,” “Westworld”)

1959 – Actor-producer Judd Nelson (“The Breakfast Club,” “St. Elmo’s Fire,” “New Jack City,” “Suddenly Susan”)

1962 – Comedian, director and former “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart

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ELV1S: 30 #1 Hits

Elvis Presley

All Things Must Pass

George Harrison

Fire in the Grove

John C. Esposito

The Serial Killer Files

Harold Schechter

The Breakfast Club

Starring Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Paul Gleason and Ally Sheedy, and directed by John Hughes

The Daily Show (The Book): An Oral History

Chris Smith and Jon Stewart

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On This Day: November 13

Musical Milestones

1965 – The Rolling Stones enjoy their second and final week at No. 1 on the pop chart with “Get Off of My Cloud.” 

1968 – The Beatles rule the airwaves as “Hey Jude” cruises through its seventh week as a No. 1 single. The band hired a 36-piece orchestra for the recording and offered the musicians twice their usual rate to sing and clap along to the song.

1976 – “Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright),” by Rod Stewart, begins an eight-week hold on the top spot of the Billboard Hot 100. It becomes Stewart’s second U.S. No. 1.

1982 – Men At Work kick off a 15-week run at No. 1 on the album chart with their debut album, “Business As Usual,” which goes on to sell more than five million copies in the U.S. It contains the hits “Who Can It Be Now?” and “Down Under.”

1993 – Meat Loaf scores his first No. 1 single with “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That).” The song later earns him a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo.

1999 – The Grammy-winning single “Smooth,” by Santana featuring Rob Thomas, is in the middle of a 12-week domination of the Billboard Hot 100.

2012 – The original collage by artist Peter Blake that was reproduced and included in copies of The Beatles’ 1967 classic “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album sells to an unnamed bidder for around $88,000 during an auction of modern British art at Sotheby’s in London.

History Highlights

1927 – The Holland Tunnel, linking New York City to New Jersey beneath the Hudson River, opens to traffic with each crossing costing 50 cents. Nearly 52,000 vehicles travel the tunnel on its first day.

1965 – Ninety people die in a fire aboard the cruise ship S.S. Yarmouth Castle between Miami and Nassau, The Bahamas. More than 400 others are rescued before the ship sinks.

1969 – Thousands of Vietnam War protesters stage a symbolic “March Against Death” in Washington, D.C., calling out the names of U.S. servicemen killed in combat as they pass the White House.

1974 – Chemical technician and union activist Karen Silkwood is killed in a mysterious one-car crash in Oklahoma at the age of 28. Silkwood worked at the Kerr-McGee plutonium plant in Crescent, Oklahoma and was critical of plant safety. The night she died, she was driving to meet with a union representative and a reporter for The New York Times, reportedly with documents proving unsafe plant conditions that led to her own exposure to radioactivity. 

1982 – The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C. The long-awaited memorial is a simple V-shaped black-granite wall inscribed with the names of the nearly 60,000 Americans who died in the Vietnam War.

Celebrity Birthdays

1850 – Novelist Robert Louis Stevenson (“Treasure Island,” “Kidnapped,” “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”) (d. 1894)

1934 – Actor-director-producer Garry Marshall, who created some of the most popular TV sitcoms of all time, including “The Odd Couple,” “Mork & Mindy,” “Happy Days” and “Laverne & Shirley” and hit movies like “Pretty Woman” and “The Princess Diaries” (d. 2016)

1947 – Tony-winning actor Joe Mantegna (“Three Amigos,” “The Godfather Part III,” “Forget Paris,” “Up Close & Personal,” “Criminal Minds”)

1954 – Actor Chris Noth (“Law & Order,” “Sex and the City”)

1955 – Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and Tony-winning actress, comedian and “The View” host Whoopi Goldberg, born Caryn Elaine Johnson

1967 – Actor Steve Zahn (“Strange Wilderness,” “Suburbia,” “Happy Texas,” “Crimson Tide,” “Stuart Little,” “Hamlet,” “Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” “Dr. Dolittle 2”)

1967 – Late-night TV talk show host-comedian Jimmy Kimmel, born James Christian Kimmel

Own a Piece of This Day

Shop Here:

A Night on the Town

Rod Stewart

Business As Usual

Men At Work

The Killing of Karen Silkwood

Richard Rashke

Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam

Bernard Edelman

Treasure Island

Robert Louis Stevenson

Pretty Woman

Starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts, and directed by Garry Marshall

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