Harry Potter – Time Rewind

On This Day April 15

Click each item below to learn more!

On This Day February 21

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1946 – Emmy and Tony-winning actress Tyne Daly (“Cagney & Lacey,” “Judging Amy,” “Gypsy”)

1946 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor Alan Rickman (“Die Hard,” “Galaxy Quest,” the “Harry Potter” series, “Something the Lord Made,” “Eye in the Sky”) (d. 2016)

1955 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor-producer Kelsey Grammer (“Cheers,” “Frasier,” “Toy Story 2,” “X-Men: Last Stand”)

1963 – Actor William Baldwin (“Flatliners,” “Backdraft,” “Sliver,” “The Squid and the Whale,” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”)

1979 – Actress Jennifer Love Hewitt (“Party of Five,” “I Know What You Did Last Summer”)

1987 – Actress Ellen Page (“Juno,” “Whip It,” “Inception”, “X-Men” Series)

History Highlights

1885 – The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated. The monument, built in the shape of an Egyptian obelisk, underwent two phases of construction: one private (1848-1854) and one public (1876-1884). When completed, it was the tallest structure in the world at 555 feet, 5-1/8 inches.

1925 – The New Yorker magazine publishes its first edition.

1948 – The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) is officially incorporated and goes on to become one of America’s most popular spectator sports as well as a multi-billion-dollar industry.

1965 – Malcolm X, an African American nationalist and religious leader, is assassinated by rival Black Muslims while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity in New York City.

1972 – Richard Nixon makes the first presidential visit to the People’s Republic of China in an effort to normalize Sino-American relations.

1995 – National Aviation Hall of Famer Steve Fossett lands safely in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada, completing the first ever solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon. Sadly, Fossett is declared dead in 2008 after a plane he was piloting vanished over the Nevada desert in September 2007. He was 63.

Musical Milestones

1970 – Sly & the Family Stone begin the second and final week as chart-toppers with “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin).”

1976 – Paul Simon begins his third and final week on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.” The track, off his Grammy-winning “Still Crazy After All These Years” album, is the only No. 1 Simon has ever achieved as a solo act.

1976 – The Willie Nelson-Waylon Jennings album “Outlaws” becomes the first country music album to go platinum.

1981 – Dolly Parton rules the singles chart with the title track from the motion picture “9 to 5.” Parton co-stars in the movie with Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dabney Coleman.

1987 – “Livin’ on a Prayer,” by Bon Jovi, is in the midst of a four-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart.

1990 – “Let the River Run,” by Carly Simon, wins Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture at the 32nd annual Grammy Awards. The track, which had previously been honored with an Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Original Song, is from the movie “Working Girl,” starring Melanie Griffith, Sigourney Weaver and Harrison Ford.

1998 – Usher wraps up two weeks as a Billboard chart-topper with “Nice & Slow.”

2004 – “Slow Jamz,” by Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx, begins a week on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

On This Day November 16

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1907 – Emmy-winning actor Burgess Meredith (“Of Mice and Men,” the 1960s “Batman” TV series, “Rocky,” “Grumpy Old Men”) (d. 1997)

1964 – Grammy-winning jazz pianist-singer Diana Krall

1967 – Actress Lisa Bonet (“The Cosby Show,” “Angel Heart”)

1972 – Actress Missi Pyle, born Andrea Kay Pyle (“Galaxy Quest,” “The Artist,” “Big Fish,” “50 First Dates,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “Gone Girl”)

1977 – Ukrainian figure skater Oksana Baiul, who captured gold at the 1994 Olympic Games

1977 – Golden Globe-winning actress Maggie Gyllenhaal (“Donnie Darko,” “Secretary,” Adaptation,” “World Trade Center,” “The Dark Knight,” “Crazy Heart”)

History Highlights

1907 – Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory collectively enter the United States as Oklahoma, the 46th state.

1915 – The patent for the iconic curved glass Coca-Cola bottle is awarded to the Root Glass Company of Terre Haute, Indiana. Coca-Cola and Root Glass enter into an agreement to have six glass companies across the U.S. use the bottle shape. The contract called for the bottles to be colored with “German Green” which was later renamed “Georgia Green” in honor of Coke’s home state.

1945 – The United States implements “Operation Paperclip,” a top secret program that brings 88 German scientists to America to help develop rocket technology. The moves stirs controversy because many of the scientists, including Apollo program pioneer Wernher von Braun, had served under the Nazi regime.

1973 – President Richard Nixon authorizes construction of the Alaska Pipeline to meet America’s growing energy demands while reducing the nation’s reliance on foreign oil.

1977 – After terrifying audiences with “Jaws” two years earlier, director Steven Spielberg dazzles moviegoers with visitors from other worlds as “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” opens in movie theaters.

1981 – Sixteen million TV viewers tune in to “General Hospital” on ABC for the much-anticipated Luke and Laura wedding.

2001 – “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” opens in U.S. movie theaters kicking off one of the most successful movie franchises of all time based on novels written by J. K. Rowling.

Musical Milestones

1959 – “The Sound of Music” premieres on Broadway.

1963 – Siblings Nino Tempo and April Stevens have the No 1 single with “Deep Purple,” which goes on to capture a Best Rock and Roll Record Grammy Award.

1968 – “Hey Jude,” by The Beatles, is in the middle of a nine-week domination of the singles chart.

1974 – John Lennon rules the Billboard Hot 100 with “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night.” The song features backup vocals and piano by Elton John.

1985 – Starship starts a two-week run at No.1 on the Billboard singles chart with “We Built This City.” The track, which music critics have panned over the years, is from the band’s “Knee Deep in the Hoopla” album, which spawns another chart-topping single, “Sara.”

1996 – “No Diggity” by Blackstreet, featuring Dr. Dre and Queen Pen, is in the midst of a four-week ride on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

2002 – Eminem begins his second week on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Lose Yourself,” from the movie “8 Mile,” in which the rapper stars. The track holds at No. 1 for 12 weeks.

On this Day August 24

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1947 – Golden Globe-winning actress Anne Archer (“Paradise Alley,” “Short Cuts,” “Patriot Games,” “Clear and Present Danger,” “Man of the House,” “Fatal Attraction”)

1958 – Actor-comedian Steve Guttenberg (“Diner,” “The Day After,” “Police Academy,” “Cocoon,” “Short Circuit,” “Three Men and a Baby,” “The Big Green”)

1960 – Baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, Jr., a.k.a. “Iron Man”

1961 – Actor Jared Harris (“Mad Men,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows,” “Lincoln,” “Man From U.N.C.L.E.”)

1962 – Talk show host-turned-actor Craig Kilborn (“Old School,” “The Benchwarmers,” “Cursed”)

1965 – Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actress Marlee Matlin (“Children of a Lesser God,” “Switched at Birth,” “The West Wing”)

1973 – Stand-up comedian-screenwriter-actor Dave Chappelle (“Chappelle’s Show”)

1988 – Actor Rupert Grint, best known for playing Ron Weasley in the “Harry Potter” movie series

History Highlights

79 A.D. – Mount Vesuvius erupts in southern Italy, devastating the prosperous Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum and killing about 20,000 people. Buried under a thick layer of volcanic ash and mud, the cities are never rebuilt.

1814 – British troops enter Washington, D.C. and burn the White House in retaliation for the American attack on the city of York in Ontario, Canada, in June of 1812.

1981 – Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for the murder of musical great John Lennon eight months earlier.

1991 – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as secretary-general of the Soviet Communist Party after a failed coup attempt against him.

2012 – Anders Behring Breivik, the man who killed 77 people in a 2011 bombing and shooting attack in Norway, is sentenced to 21 years in prison, the maximum allowed under Norwegian law.

Musical Milestones

1963 – Stevie Wonder becomes the first artist ever with both a No. 1 album and single in the same week. His No. 1 album is “Little Stevie Wonder / The 12 Year Old Genius” and No. 1 single is “Fingertips Part 2.” And if that’s not enough, it’s also the first ever live recording to top the singles chart.

1968 – Diana Ross and the Supremes go their separate ways.

1974 – Paul Anka begins three weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart with “(You’re) Having My Baby,” his first No. 1 hit since 1959’s “Lonely Boy.”

1985 – “The Power of Love,” by Huey Lewis and the News — featured in the movie “Back To The Future” — kicks off two weeks on top of the singles chart. The track receives an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song at the 58th Academy Awards, but loses to Lionel Richie’s “Say You, Say Me.”

1991 – Bryan Adams holds on to the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You,” from the soundtrack to “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.”

1996 – “Macarena,” by Los Del Rio, is in the midst of a 14-week domination of the pop chart.

2009 – The Los Angeles County Coroner rules Michael Jackson’s death a homicide caused by a mix of drugs meant to treat insomnia.