On This Day: February 22

On This Day February 22

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1732 – First U.S. President George Washington (d. 1799)

1907 – Actor Robert Young (“Father Knows Best,” “Marcus Welby, M.D.”) (d. 1998)

1932 – Massachusetts Senator Edward (Ted) Kennedy  (d. 2009)

1944 – Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme (“Melvin and Howard,” “Swing Shift,” “Married to the Mob,” “The Silence of the Lambs,” “Philadelphia”)

1950 – Retired NBA legend Julius “Dr. J” Erving

1959 – Golden Globe-winning actor Kyle MacLachlan (“Dune,” “Blue Velvet,” “Twin Peaks,” “Sex and the City,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Portlandia”)

1966 – Comedian and “Saturday Night Live” (“SNL”) alum Rachel Dratch 

1975 – Golden Globe-winning actress, producer and director Drew Barrymore (“E.T.: The Extraterrestrial,” “Boys on the Side,” “Charlie’s Angels,” “50 First Dates,” “Grey Gardens,” “Blended”)

History Highlights
History Highlights

1959 – In a photo finish, Lee Petty emerges as the winner of the first Daytona 500 auto race. 

1980 – One of the most dramatic upsets in Olympics history takes place in Lake Placid, New York. In what is known as “The Miracle on Ice,” the underdog U.S. hockey team, made up of college players, defeats the four-time defending Gold medal-winning Soviet team 4-3 at the XIII Olympic Winter Games.

1987 – Pop art pioneer, filmmaker and cultural icon Andy Warhol dies at the age of 58.

2014 – One of the world’s most-wanted criminals, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera — head of the Sinaloa cartel, the world’s biggest drug trafficking organization — is arrested in a joint U.S.-Mexican operation in Mexico, after outrunning authorities for more than a decade. 

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1960 – Percy Faith starts a nine-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart with “Theme From A Summer Place.”

1975 – The Average White Band scores No. 1 on the singles chart with “Pick Up The Pieces,” while the album containing that track, “AWB,” tops the Billboard album chart.

1989 – Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Tina Turner, wins the Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocalist for her “Tina Live in Europe” album.

1990 – Milli Vanilli (Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan) win the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. Nine months later, they are stripped of the honor after they are caught lip-syncing and admit they never sang a single note on the acclaimed “Girl You Know It’s True” album.

1992 – “I’m Too Sexy,” by British band Right Said Fred, marks its third and final week as a No. 1 single.

1997 – The Spice Girls begin four weeks as Billboard chart-toppers with “Wannabe,” the band’s debut single.

1998 – Madonna releases the Grammy-winning “Ray of Light.” With its use of electronica and techno-pop, the album represents a departure from Madonna’s traditional sound. It contains the hits “Frozen,” “Ray of Light” and “The Power of Good-Bye.”

2003 – “All I Have,” by Jennifer Lopez featuring LL Cool J, rules the Billboard Hot 100. Lopez goes on to name her 2016 Las Vegas Residency Show after the song.

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On this Day: June 11

On this Day June 11

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1913 – Legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi (d. 1970)

1933 – Actor-comedian and author Gene Wilder, born Jerome Silberman (“Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” “The Producers,” “Blazing Saddles,” “Young Frankenstein”) (d. 2016)

1945 – Actress-author Adrienne Barbeau (“The Fog,” “Creepshow,” “Escape From New York”)

1956 – Pro Football Hall of Famer Joe Montana, who played for the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs

1959 – Golden Globe-winning actor-comedian and musician Hugh Laurie, best known for his starring role in the TV series “House”

1969 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor Peter Dinklage (“Death at a Funeral,” “The Station Agent,” “Elf,” “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” “Ice Age: Continental Drift,” “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian,” “Pixels,” “Game of Thrones”)

1978 – Actor Joshua Jackson (“Dawson’s Creek,” “The Mighty Ducks,” Fringe”)

1986 -Emmy-winning actor Shia LaBeouf (“Even Stevens,” “Holes,” “Transformers,” “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”)

History Highlights
History Highlights

1944 – Lieutenant John F. Kennedy receives the prestigious Navy and Marine Corps Medal in recognition of his heroic, life-saving actions as a gunboat pilot during World War II. Kennedy, who goes on to become America’s 35th president, also receives a Purple Heart for wounds sustained in battle. He is the only president to have earned either of those high honors.

1955 – Carnage at Le Mans, as an Austin-Healey and Mercedes-Benz collide, showering flaming wreckage onto spectators. Eighty-two people are killed and at least 100 injured in one of auto racing’s worst accidents.

1962 – Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin become the only prisoners to successfully escape from Alcatraz prison. No one ever saw or heard from them again, although there were multiple unconfirmed sightings over the years.

1967 – The Six-Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors ends with a United Nations-brokered ceasefire. That November, the U.N. Security Council adopts a resolution establishing a formula for Arab-Israeli peace whereby Israel would withdraw from territories occupied in the war in exchange for peace with its neighbors.

1963 – An outspoken opponent of school desegregation, Alabama Governor George Wallace physically blocks two African American students from entering the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. President John F. Kennedy responds by federalizing the Alabama National Guard and ordering troops to escort the students to their classes. Wallace then steps aside, but that evening, Kennedy delivers a national address about segregation regarded by many historians as one of the turning points in the civil rights movement.

1977 – MLK assassin James Earl Ray escapes from Brushy Mountain State Prison in Tennessee, but is recaptured three days later.

1979 – Cancer claims the life of screen legend John Wayne (“El Dorado,” “Rio Bravo,” “True Grit,” “The Comancheros”) at the age of 72.

1982 –  Steven Spielberg’s “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” opens in U.S. theaters and becomes a box office bonanza. The movie launches the career of actress Drew Barrymore, and in 1994, is selected for preservation in the National Film Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” 

1986 – “Bueller… Bueller…” The now-classic John Hughes film, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” starring Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck and Mia Sara, opens in U.S. theaters.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1957 – Elvis Presley releases “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear,” which becomes a No. 1 hit a month later.

1960 – The Hollywood Argyles claim the top spot on the pop chart with “Alley-Oop,” based on the comic strip of the same name.

1966 – The Rolling Stones rule the Billboard singles chart with “Paint it Black,” which holds at No. 1 for two weeks.

1977 – “I’m Your Boogie Man” becomes the fourth chart-topping hit for KC and the Sunshine Band.

1983 – Irene Cara is in the middle of a six-week run on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Flashdance…What a Feeling,” from the “Flashdance” movie soundtrack.

1988 – London’s Wembley Stadium hosts Freedomfest, a concert celebrating the 70th birthday of imprisoned anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela. Performers include Whitney Houston, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Dire Straits, Stevie Wonder, Tracy Chapman, George Michael, Eric Clapton, UB40, The Eurythmics and Simple Minds. The concert is broadcast to about a billion people in 67 countries.

1994 – “I Swear,” by All-4-One is in the midst of an 11-week reign over the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

2011 – Pink Floyd’s 1973 album, “The Dark Side Of The Moon,” re-enters the Billboard album chart at No. 47 and reaches a milestone of 1,000 weeks on the charts. This classic contains such fan favorites as “Time,” “Money” and “Breathe (In the Air).” To date, more than 50 million copies have sold worldwide.

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