On This Day: January 27

On This Day January 27

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1756 – Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (d. 1791)

1832 – Writer Lewis Carroll (“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” “Through the Looking-Glass”) (d. 1898)

1921 – Actress Donna Reed (“It’s a Wonderful Life,” “From Here to Eternity,” “The Donna Reed Show”) (d. 1986)

1940 – Emmy-winning actor James Cromwell (“Babe,” “Star Trek: First Contact,” “L.A. Confidential,” “The Green Mile,” “Six Feet Under,” “American Horror Story: Asylum”)

1944 – Pink Floyd founding member-drummer and auto racer Nick Mason

1948 – Dancer-actor Mikhail Baryshnikov (“The Turning Point,” “White Nights,” “Sex and the City”)

1956 – Actress Mimi Rogers (“Someone to Watch Over Me,” “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery”)

1959 – TV host and political commentator Keith Olbermann 

1964 – Actress Bridget Fonda (“Single White Female,” “Point of No Return,” “Jackie Brown”)

1979 – Actress Rosamund Pike (“Die Another Day,” “Pride and Prejudice,” “Jack Reacher,” “Gone Girl,” “Entebbe”)

History Highlights
History Highlights

1888 – The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C. for “the increase and diffusion of geographical knowledge.”

1910 – Thomas Crapper, widely considered the prime developer of the flush toilet mechanism still in use today, dies at the age of 73.

1945 – Soviet troops reach the Auschwitz concentration camp complex and liberate some 7,000 remaining prisoners who survived the Holocaust, but were ill and dying. An estimated 1.1 million Auschwitz prisoners were killed between 1940 and 1945.

1965 – Ford introduces the Shelby GT 350, a version of the Mustang sports car developed by auto racer/car designer Carroll Shelby. The vehicle features a 306-horsepower V-8 engine and remains in production through 1971.

1967 – A launch pad fire during a preflight test at Cape Kennedy, Florida, kills Apollo 1 astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee. An investigation determines that a faulty electrical wire inside the command module was the probable cause.

1973 – In Paris, the U.S., South Vietnam, Viet Cong, and North Vietnam formally sign “An Agreement Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam.”

1996 – Tennis great Monica Seles wins her first Grand Slam title since her 1993 stabbing by a mentally unstable fan during a tournament in Hamburg, Germany that led her to take a two-year hiatus from the sport.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1956 – RCA Records releases Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel,” which sells 300,000 copies in its first week to become Presley’s first Gold record. That spring, it spends seven weeks on top of the pop chart.

1962 – With the American dance craze going strong, the hottest song on the radio is “Peppermint Twist” by Joey Dee & The Starliters. The track holds at No. 1 for three weeks.

1973 – Stevie Wonder sneaks into the top spot on the singles chart with “Superstition,” from his “Talking Book” album that also contains the hit “You Are The Sunshine of My Life.”

1984 – King of Pop, Michael Jackson, suffers second and third degree burns on his scalp during the filming of a Pepsi commercial in Los Angeles.

1991 – Grammy-winning pop legend Whitney Houston performs “The Star Spangled Banner” at Super Bowl XXV in Tampa, Florida to such excellent response that a single (that eventually reaches No. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100) and video are rush-released. Houston’s appearance comes amid heightened patriotism across the U.S. during the Persian Gulf War.

1996 – “One Sweet Day” by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men is in the midst of an unprecedented 16 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100.

2001 – Destiny’s Child enjoys the final week of an 11-week reign over the Billboard Hot 100 with “Independent Women, Part I.”

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On this Day: July 21

On this Day July 21

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1899 – Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway (d. 1961)

1920 – Grammy-winning violinist Isaac Stern (d. 2001)

1924 – Comedic actor Don Knotts (“The Andy Griffith Show,” “Three’s Company,” “Pleasantville”) (d. 2006)

1926 – Oscar-winning director-producer Norman Jewison (“In The Heat of The Night,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Moonstruck,” “The Hurricane”)

1948 – Singer-songwriter Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens (“Father and Son,” “Wild World,” “Peace Train,” “Moonshadow,” “Morning Has Broken”)

1951 – Oscar-winning actor-comedian Robin Williams (“Mork and Mindy,” “Dead Poets Society,” “Good Morning, Vietnam,” “Good Will Hunting,” “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Aladdin, “Night at the Museum”)) (d. 2014)

1957 – Comedian-actor and “SNL” alum Jon Lovitz (“A League of Their Own,” “The Wedding Singer”)

1978 – Actor-producer Josh Hartnett (“Pearl Harbor,” “Black Hawk Down,” “Sin City”)  

History Highlights
History Highlights

1861 – In the first major clash of the Civil War, the Battle of Bull Run, a large Union force under General Irvin McDowell is routed by a Confederate army led by General Pierre G.T. Beauregard.

1925 – The so-called “Monkey Trial” ends with Tennessee high school biology teacher John Scopes found guilty of teaching evolution in class. He is fined $100.

1955 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower presents his “Open Skies” plan at the Geneva summit. It calls on the U.S. and Soviet Union to exchange maps showing the location of every military installation in their respective nations.

1961 – Astronaut Virgil “Gus” Grissom, piloting Liberty Bell 7, becomes the second American to go into space in a suborbital mission. 

1970 – After 11 years of construction, the Aswan High Dam across the Nile River in Egypt is completed.

2005 – Terrorists attempt to attack the London transit system with bombs planted on three subways and a bus, however none detonates completely. The plot comes two weeks after terrorists killed 52 people and wounded over 700 others in the largest attack on Great Britain since World War II.

2011 – NASA’s 30-year space shuttle program comes to an end with the early-morning landing of shuttle Atlantis (STS-135) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The 13-day mission to the International Space Station was the 33rd for Atlantis and 135th for NASA’s shuttle fleet.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1958 – The Coasters are chart-toppers with “Yakety Yak.” While this now-classic single spends just one week at No. 1 on the pop chart, it enjoys a seven-week run on top of the R&B chart.

1962 – “Roses Are Red (My Love),” by Bobby Vinton, is the No. 1 single.

1973 – Jim Croce’s “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” kicks off two weeks as a No. 1 single. It is Croce’s final chart-topper before his death in a plane crash that September.

1984 – Prince is midway through a five-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “When Doves Cry,” from his “Puple Rain” album.

1987 – Geffen Records releases Guns N’ Roses’ debut album, “Appetite for Destruction,” featuring hard rock anthems “Sweet Child O’Mine” and “Welcome to the Jungle.” The album goes on to top the Billboard 200 and becomes the best-selling debut album ever by a band.

1990 – “She Ain’t Worth It,” by Glenn Medeiros featuring Bobby Brown, kicks off two weeks on top of the pop chart.

2001 – Usher maintains his grip on the top spot of the singles chart with “U Remind Me.”

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