On This Day December 29 Click each item below to learn more! Celebrity Birthdays 1808 – 17th U.S. President Andrew Johnson (d. 1875), the first American president to face impeachment. 1936 – Emmy and Tony-winning actress Mary Tyler Moore (“The Dick Van Dyke Show,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Ordinary People”) (d. 2017) 1938 – Golden Globe-winning actor Jon Voight (“Midnight Cowboy,” “Mission: Impossible,” “Pearl Harbor,” “National Treasure,” “Ray Donovan”) 1946 – Singer-songwriter and actress Marianne Faithfull 1947 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor-producer Ted Danson, best known as bartender Sam Malone in the 1980s sitcom “Cheers” 1972 – Actor-producer Jude Law (“Gattaca,” “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” “Cold Mountain,” “A.I.,” “Sherlock Holmes,” “Spy”) History Highlights 1845 – Six months after the Congress of the Republic of Texas votes for annexation by the United States, Texas is admitted into the Union as the 28th state. 1851 – The first Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) location in the U.S. opens in Boston. 1890 – In the tragic final chapter of America’s long war against the Plains Indians, the U.S. Cavalry kills 146 Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. 1940 – On a Sunday evening, German bombers launch their deadliest World War II attack (“Blitz”) on London, destroying buildings and triggering hundreds of fires that make up what is termed “The Second Great Fire of London.” 1972 – Eastern Airlines Flight 401 — an L-1011 jumbo jet en route from New York to Miami — crashes in the Florida Everglades, killing 101 people. Seventy-five survive. Investigators determine that the pilot and co-pilot were distracted by a faulty indicator light and accidentally bumped a lever which deactivated the aircraft’s autopilot setting. 1975 – A bomb explodes inside the main terminal at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, killing 11 people and injuring 75 others. The crime is considered the deadliest terrorist act in the city prior to the infamous September 11, 2001 attack, and remains unsolved to this day. Musical Milestones 1958 – “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late),” by David Seville and the Chipmunks, is the No. 1 single. It holds the top spot for four weeks. The band is later known as Alvin and the Chipmunks. 1962 – The Tornados remain in orbit around No. 1 on the singles chart for a second week with “Telstar.” 1966 – Paul McCartney begins laying down tracks at London’s Abbey Road Studios for “Penny Lane,” derived from the name of a street near John Lennon’s house in Liverpool. 1973 – Three months after his death in a plane crash, folk-rock singer Jim Croce scores his second No. 1 single of the year with “Time In A Bottle.” 1984 – Madonna’s first No. 1 single, “Like a Virgin,” marks its second week atop the Billboard Hot 100. Her breakthrough hit remains a chart-topper for six weeks. The pop superstar goes on to score 11 more No. 1 singles later in her career. 1990 – “Because I Love You (The Postman Song),” by Stevie B,” enters its fourth and final week as a No. 1 single. 2001 – Nickelback is midway through a four-week run as Billboard chart-toppers with “How You Remind Me,” off the band’s “Silver Side Up” album. The track is later named the most played song on U.S. radio during the 2000s by Nielsen Soundscan. 2007 – Alicia Keys reigns over the Billboard Hot 100 for a fifth and final week with “No One.” READ MORE
On this Day June 24 Click each item below to learn more! Celebrity Birthdays 1895 – World heavyweight boxer Jack Dempsey, known as the “Manassa Mauler”(d. 1983) 1919 – Actor Al Molinaro, remembered for his TV sitcom roles as Al Delvecchio in “Happy Days” and Murray Greshler in “The Odd Couple” (d. 2015) 1935 – Director-actor Robert Downey, Sr. (“Putney Swope,” “Tower Heist”) 1942 – Actress Michele Lee (“How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” “Knots Landing,” “Wicked”) 1944 – Grammy-winning rock guitarist and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Jeff Beck, a former member of the band The Yardbirds (d. 2023) 1947 – Actor Peter Weller (“RoboCop,” “RoboCop 2,” “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension,” “Naked Lunch,” “Mighty Aphrodite,” “Longmire”) 1947 – Rock and Roll Hall of Fame drummer and Fleetwood Mac co-founder Mick Fleetwood 1967 – Actress and former “ER” star Sherry Stringfield History Highlights 1901 – The first major exhibition of Pablo Picasso’s artwork opens in Paris. 1947 – Pilot Kenneth Arnold reports seeing strange objects near Mount Rainier, Washington. He describes them as “saucers skipping across the water,” and so the term “flying saucers” is born. 1948 – The Soviet Union begins a blockade of Berlin. Allied forces respond with what would be known as the Berlin Airlift, flying in more than two million tons of supplies over the next year. 1953 – Jacqueline Bouvier and Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy publicly announce their engagement. They marry three months later in Newport, Rhode Island. Kennedy wins election as 35th U.S. president in 1960, and as first lady, Jackie, as she was known, makes restoration of the White House her first major project. 1975 – Wind shear from thunderstorms is blamed for the crash of an Eastern Airlines 727 on final approach to New York’s JFK Airport that leaves 113 dead. The accident leads to the installation of low-level wind shear detectors at airports. 1993 – Yale University computer science professor David Gelernter is seriously injured while opening his mail when a padded envelope explodes in his hands. The bombing, along with 14 others since 1978 that killed three people and injured 23 others, was eventually linked to “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski. 1997 – U.S. Air Force officials release a 231-page report dismissing long-standing claims of an alien spacecraft crash in Roswell, New Mexico, almost exactly 50 years earlier. Musical Milestones 1967 – “Groovin’,” by The Young Rascals, enjoys its fourth and final week as a No. 1 single. 1967 – British rock band Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade Of Pale” lands on the Billboard Hot 100 and climbs as high as No. 5. Meanwhile, in the U.K., it is a No. 1 hit for six weeks. The track becomes one of the anthems of 1967’s so-called “Summer of Love.” 1972 – Sammy Davis, Jr. begins a third and final week on top of the singles chart with his interpretation of “The Candy Man,” from the movie “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.” 1989 – Richard Marx scores his second No. 1 single with “Satisfied.” 1995 – Bryan Adams’ “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?” is No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The track is from the Johnny Depp-Marlon Brando movie “Don Juan DeMarco.” 2000 – Enrique Iglesias kicks off three weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Be With You.” 2006 – “Hips Don’t Lie,” by Shakira featuring Wyclef Jean, begins its second and final week on top of the pop chart. READ MORE