On This Day: September 19

On This Day September 19

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1928 – Actor Adam West, best known for playing Batman in the 1960s TV series (d. 2017)

1933 – Actor David McCallum, best known as secret agent Illya Kuryakin in the 1960s “Man from U.N.C.L.E.” TV series and as Dr. Donald Mallard on “NCIS.”

1940 – Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe-winning songwriter Paul Williams, known for “We’ve Only Just Begun,” “Evergreen,” “Rainy Days and Mondays” and many others 1970s standards.

1941 – Singer Mama Cass Elliot, born Ellen Naomi Cohen, member of the 1960s band The Mamas & the Papas (d. 1974)

1948 – Oscar, Emmy and Tony-winning actor Jeremy Irons (“Brideshead Revisited,” “Reversal of Fortune,” “Kafka,” “The House of the Spirits,” “The Lion King,” “Die Hard With a Vengeance,” “Margin Call,” “The Man Who Knew Infinity”)

1949 – Lesley Hornby, a.k.a. “Twiggy,” the 60s British fashion icon

1964 – Grammy-winning country music singer Trisha Yearwood

1974 – Emmy-winning “The Tonight Show” host and “Saturday Night Live” alum Jimmy Fallon

History Highlights
History Highlights

1881 – U.S. President James Garfield dies of injuries suffered two months earlier when he was shot at a Washington railroad station by a mentally disturbed lawyer and writer named Charles Guiteau. Garfield was getting ready to leave town for a family vacation on the Jersey shore when the attack took place.

1957 – Scientists detonate a 1.8 kiloton nuclear weapon in an underground tunnel at the Nevada Test Site, a 1,375-square-mile research center located north of Las Vegas. The test, known as Rainier, marks the first fully contained underground detonation and produces no radioactive fallout.

1969 – President Richard Nixon tries to appease Vietnam War protesters by announcing the cancellation of two upcoming draft calls. 

1970 – Americans meet and fall in love with a single career woman, TV news producer Mary Richards, when CBS introduces “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” 

1985 – Mother Nature deals Mexico City a devastating one-two punch. A powerful earthquake and almost equally powerful aftershock rock the Mexican capital, killing nearly 10,000 people, injuring 30,000 and causing billions of dollars in damage. 

1994 – “ER,” the medical drama that gave George Clooney’s acting career a shot in the arm, premieres on NBC. The primetime series was the creation of novelist and physician Michael Crichton and captured 116 awards, including 22 Emmys, during a 15-season run.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1960 – Chubby Checker’s “The Twist” kicks off a week on top of the Billboard singles chart and sets off a new dance craze across America.

1966 – “The House of the Rising Sun,” by The Animals, begins its third and final week as a No. 1 hit.

1970 – Diana Ross climbs to the summit of the singles chart with “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” — her first No. 1 since leaving The Supremes. 

1981 – Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel reunite for a free concert in New York’s Central Park that draws half a million fans. 

1987 – The duet “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” by Michael Jackson and Siedah Garrett, off MJ’s “Bad” album, begins a week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. 

1998 – Aerosmith is in the midst of a four-week domination of the pop chart with “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” from the movie “Armageddon.” The song is the band’s first No. 1 hit.

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On this Day: May 6

On this Day May 6

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1856 – Psychiatrist Sigmund Freud, considered the pioneer of psychoanalysis (d. 1939)

1895 – Actor and 1920s silent film era sex symbol Rudolph Valentino (d. 1926)

1915 – Oscar-winning actor-director-writer-producer Orson Welles (“Citizen Kane,” “War of the Worlds”) (d. 1985)

1931 – Baseball Hall of Famer Willie Mays, affectionately known as “The Say Hey Kid”

1945 – Grammy-winning Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Bob Seger (“Night Moves,” “We’ve Got Tonight,” “Against the Wind”)

1955 – Emmy-winning TV host Tom Bergeron (“America’s Funniest Home Videos,” “Dancing With the Stars”)

1961 – Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actor, director and producer George Clooney (“ER,” “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” “Oceans Eleven” and its sequels, “Syriana,” “Michael Clayton,” “Gravity,” “Money Monster”)

1987 – Rapper Meek Mill, born Robert Rihmeek Williams

History Highlights
History Highlights

1935 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an executive order creating the Works Progress Administration (WPA), designed to put unemployed Americans to work during the Great Depression in return for temporary financial assistance.

1937 – The German airship Hindenburg explodes in a fireball while approaching its mooring mast at Lakehurst, New Jersey. Thirty-six people die in the disaster, described by radio reporter Herb Morrison in the historic broadcast featuring his exclamation, “Oh, the humanity!”

1954 – British athlete Sir Roger Bannister becomes the first person to run a mile in under four minutes (3:59.4)

1994 – Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and French President Francois Mitterand preside over a ceremony officially opening a rail tunnel beneath the English Channel. The Channel/Euro Tunnel or Chunnel connects Britain and the European mainland for the first time.

2004 – More than 52 million viewers tune in for “The Last One” (a.k.a. “The One Where They Say Goodbye”), the final episode of NBC’s long-running primetime comedy series “Friends.” The sitcom picked up six Emmys during a 10-season run and turned its six principal cast members into household names.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1967 – Frank and Nancy Sinatra enjoy their fourth and final week atop the singles chart with “Somethin’ Stupid.”

1973 – Paul Simon sets out on his first concert tour without partner Art Garfunkel, using The Jesse Dixon Singers for backup vocals. First stop: Boston. The shows across America and Europe are recorded and released in March 1974 on the album “Paul Simon in Concert: Live Rhymin’.”

1978 – The Bee Gees’ “Night Fever,” from the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack, begins its eighth and final week as a No. 1 single.

1989 – Madonna enters her third and final week on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Like a Prayer.”

1995 – “This Is How We Do It,” by Montell Jordan, is midway through a seven-week domination of the Billboard Hot 100.

2002 – A heart attack claims the life of songwriter and producer Otis Blackwell at the age of 71. Blackwell wrote several rock and roll classics over the years, including “All Shook Up,” “Return To Sender,” “Don’t Be Cruel,” “Great Balls of Fire” and “Fever.”

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