George Burns – Time Rewind

On This Day February 29

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On This Day March 9

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Celebrity Birthdays

1934 – Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who became the world’s first man in space in 1961 (d. 1968)

1936 – Country music singer-songwriter and nightclub owner Mickey Gilley (“Urban Cowboy,” “Room Full of Roses”)

1940 – Golden Globe-winning actor Raul Julia (“Kiss of the Spider Woman,” “The Addams Family,” “Presumed Innocent,” “The Burning Season,” “Street Fighter”) (d. 1994)

1943 – American chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer (d. 2008)

1960 – Actress Linda Fiorentino (“Vision Quest,” “The Last Seduction”)

1964 – Oscar-winning actress Juliette Binoche (“The Unbearable Lightness of Being,” “The English Patient,” “Chocolat,” “Caché,” “Breaking and Entering,” “Flight of the Red Balloon”)

1979 – Golden Globe-winning actor Oscar Isaac (“Inside Llewyn Davis,” “A Most Violent Year,” “Show Me a Hero,” “Ex Machina,” “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, “X-Men: Apocalypse”, “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”)

History Highlights

1959 – The Barbie doll makes her glamorous debut at the American Toy Fair in New York, retailing for $3. Barbie was the creation of Ruth Handler — American businesswoman, inventor and co-founder of Mattel — who wanted “a doll through which [a little girl could] project herself into her dream of her future.”

1964 – The Ford Motor Company produces the first Mustang. Starting price: $2,368. An estimated 22,000 orders are placed that day – a full month before a single “pony car” even hits the showroom. More than 400,000 units sell in the first year, four times Ford‘s own estimates.

1985 – The Adopt-a-Highway program launches when the first sign is posted along State Highway 69 in Tyler, Texas. The program, in which local businesses support trash cleanup along a designated section of highway, quickly spreads across the U.S. and on to Canada, Japan and New Zealand.

1996 – Legendary cigar-chomping comedian George Burns dies at his Beverly Hills home just weeks after celebrating his 100th birthday.

2005 – “CBS Evening News” anchor and managing editor Dan Rather delivers his last newscast, 24 years after succeeding his predecessor, Walter Cronkite.

Musical Milestones

1959 – “Venus,” by Frankie Avalon, tops the Billboard pop chart and stays there for five weeks.

1963 – The Four Seasons, featuring Frankie Valli, hold the top spot on the singles chart with “Walk Like a Man.”

1974 – One-hit wonder and Canadian native Terry Jacks basks in the glow of the No. 1 spot on the singles chart with “Seasons in the Sun.” He holds the top spot for three weeks. The original song was written in French in 1961 under the title of “Le Moribond” (“The Dying Man”) by Belgian poet-composer Jacques Brel.

1985 – REO Speedwagon begins three weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Can’t Fight This Feeling,” off the “Wheels Are Turnin'” album.

1991 – Mariah Carey kicks off two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart with “Someday,” her third consecutive chart-topper.

1997 – Rapper-songwriter and actor Notorious B.I.G., born Christopher Wallace and also known as Biggie Smalls, is shot to death while stopped at a red light in Los Angeles. He is just 24.

2002 – “Ain’t It Funny,” by Jennifer Lopez featuring Ja Rule, begins six weeks as a Billboard No. 1 single.

On This Day February 16

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Celebrity Birthdays

1935 – Musician, record producer and U.S. Congressman Sonny Bono, best known as half of the Sonny & Cher pop duo (d. 1998)

1952 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter James Ingram (“One Hundred Ways,” “Baby Come to Me,” “Yah Mo B There,” “I Don’t Have the Heart”) (d. 2019)

1957 – Emmy and Grammy-winning actor LeVar Burton (“Roots,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “Reading Rainbow”)

1958 – Grammy-winning rapper and actor Ice-T, born Tracy Marrow (“New Jack City,” “Ricochet,” “Law & Order SVU”)

1959 – Retired tennis champion and sports commentator John McEnroe

1964 – Actor Christopher Eccleston (“28 Days Later,” “Thor: The Dark World,” “Doctor Who”)

History Highlights

1923 – English archaeologist Howard Carter opens the tomb of the ancient Egyptian ruler King Tutankhamen.

1959 – Fidel Castro is sworn in as prime minister of Cuba after leading a guerrilla campaign that forced right-wing dictator Fulgencio Batista into exile.

1968 – The nation’s first 911 emergency telephone system goes into service in Haleyville, Alabama. Today, across the U.S., an estimated 240 million calls a year are made to 911.

1984 – Bill Johnson becomes the first American man to win an Olympic gold medal in downhill skiing, a sport long dominated by European athletes.

Musical Milestones

1959 – “Stagger Lee,” by Lloyd Price, is in the middle of a four-week run at No. 1 on the pop chart.

1964 – The Beatles are guests on “The Ed Sullivan Show” for a second time, with this broadcast originating from the Deauville Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida. CBS gave away 4,500 tickets, however the hotel could only accommodate 2,600 people.

1974 – A Bob Dylan album reaches the top of the Billboard album chart for the first time. “Planet Waves,” featuring a collaboration with The Band, holds the top spot for four weeks.

1975 – After a four-season run as half of “The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour,” Cher gets her own weekly variety show on CBS, simply called “Cher.” The series features guests like Elton John, Bette Midler, David Bowie, Bill Cosby, the Smothers Brothers, George Burns, Steve Martin and more.

1980 – “Do That to Me One More Time” becomes the Captain & Tennille’s second No. 1 single.

1985 – “Careless Whisper,” by Wham! featuring George Michael, tops the Billboard singles chart and stays there for three weeks.

1991 – “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now),” by C+C Music Factory featuring Freedom Williams and Martha Wash begins its seconmd and final week on top of the pop chart.

2002 – Usher begins his fifth and final week atop the Billboard Hot 100 with “U Got It Bad.”

2008 – “Low,” by Flo-Rida featuring T-Pain, is in the middle of 10 weeks as a No. 1 single.

On This Day January 20

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Celebrity Birthdays

1896 – Oscar-winning comedian-actor-singer and writer George Burns, born Nathan Birnbaum (“The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show,” “The Sunshine Boys,” “Oh, God!”) (d. 1996)

1920 – Actor DeForest Kelley, who played Dr. “Bones” McCoy in the “Star Trek” TV and movie series (d. 1999)

1920 – Italian film director Federico Fellini (La strada,” “Le notti di Cabiria,” “8 1/2,” “Amarcord”) (d. 1993)

1930 – Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to set foot on the moon

1946 – Director David Lynch (“Eraserhead,” “The Elephant Man,” “Blue Velvet,” “Twin Peaks,” “Wild at Heart,” “Lost Highway,” “Mulholland Drive”)

1952 – Singer-songwriter and guitarist Paul Stanley, born Stanley Bert Eisen, of the rock band Kiss

1966 – Actor Rainn Wilson, best known for his role as Dwight Schrute in the TV comedy, “The Office.”

History Highlights

1841 – During the First Opium War, China cedes the island of Hong Kong to the British with the signing of the Chuenpi Convention — an agreement seeking an end to the first Anglo-Chinese conflict.

1937 – Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated as U.S. president for the second time. His first inauguration, in 1933, was held in March, but the 20th Amendment, passed later that year, made January 20 the official inauguration date for all future presidents.

1961 – President John F. Kennedy is sworn into office and delivers his inaugural address outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. The speech concludes with his now-famous line: “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”

1980 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter calls for the 1980 Summer Olympics to be moved from the planned host city, Moscow, or canceled altogether if the Soviet Union fails to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan within a month.

1981 – Minutes after Ronald Reagan’s inauguration as the 40th U.S. president, 52 American captives held at the American embassy in Teheran, Iran, are released, ending the 444-day Iran Hostage Crisis.

1984 – Hungarian-born Olympic gold medal swimmer and actor Johnny Weissmuller, who played Tarzan in the movies, dies at the age of 79.

1993 – Actress, fashion icon and philanthropist Audrey Hepburn (“Roman Holiday,” “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” “My Fair Lady”) dies of colon cancer at the age of 63. Hepburn remains among just a handful of performers who have won Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and Tony Awards.

2009 – On a freezing day in Washington, D.C., Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th U.S. president. The son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas, Obama was the first African-American to win election to the nation’s highest office.

Musical Milestones

1964 – The British Invasion is on as Capitol Records releases “Meet the Beatles!,” the band’s second album in the U.S.

1965 – American disc jockey Alan Freed is 43 years old when he dies from cirrhosis brought on by alcoholism. Freed, a 1986 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, is credited with coining the term “rock ‘n’ roll.” His career was destroyed by the payola scandal that shook up the American broadcasting industry in the early 1960s.

1968 – “Judy in Disguise (with Glasses),” a parody of The Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” puts John Fred and his Playboy Band at No. 1 on the singles chart for two weeks.

1971 – “What’s Going On,” by Marvin Gaye, is released and introduces fans to a different, more personal side of the Motown star in this anthem about social injustice. The song spends five weeks on top of the Hot Soul Singles chart before crossing over to the Billboard Hot 100, where it climbs to No. 2.

1973 – Carly Simon begins her third and final week on top of the singles chart with “You’re So Vain.” After years of speculation, Simon eventually admits that the song refers to actor Warren Beatty.

1988 – Mick Jagger presides as The Beatles are inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Paul McCartney decides not to attend, issuing a statement citing ongoing business differences among The Beatles.

1990 – Michael Bolton rules the Billboard Hot 100 with “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You.” The single holds the No. 1 spot for three weeks.

1996 – The Mariah Carey-Boyz II Men collaboration, “One Sweet Day,” is midway through a 16-week ride on top of the Billboard singles chart –the longest-running No. 1 song in the chart’s history at that time.

2007 – “Irreplaceable,” Beyoncé, is in its sixth week on top of the Billboard Hot 100. The track remains there for another four weeks and clinches a Record of the Year Grammy nomination.