On this Day: July 5

On this Day July 5

Musical Milestones

1954 – Working together for the first time in a recording studio with Scotty Moore and Bill Black, Elvis Presley fools around during a break with an up-tempo version of “That’s All Right.” Producer Sam Phillips has them repeat the jam and records it. The track becomes Presley’s first release on Sun Records. 

1969 – “Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet,” by Henry Mancini, begins its second and final week as a No. 1 single. 

1975 – The Captain & Tennille rule the singles chart with “Love Will Keep Us Together,” which goes on to clinch a Record of the Year Grammy.

1980 – “Glass Houses,” by Billy Joel, is in the midst of a six-week run on top of the Billboard album chart.

1986 – Billy Ocean hits No. 1 on the singles chart with “There’ll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry).” 

1986 – Janet Jackson’s “Control” tops the Billboard album chart, making the 20-year-old the youngest artist since 13-year-old ‘Little’ Stevie Wonder to clinch the No. 1 spot. The album spawns five Top-5 singles, including “What Have You Done for Me Lately” and “Let’s Wait Awhile.”

1997 – “I’ll Be Missing You,” by Puff Daddy and Faith Evans featuring 112, is on top of the Billboard Hot 100. The track is an homage to slain rapper, The Notorious B.I.G. 

2008 – Katy Perry kicks off seven weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “I Kissed a Girl.”

History Highlights

1946 – French engineer Louis Réard and fashion designer Jacques Heim introduce the bikini — the two-piece bathing suit described as “smaller than the world’s smallest swimsuit” — at a Paris fashion show, and revolutionize swimwear.

1950 – Private Kenneth Shadrick, a 19-year-old infantryman from West Virginia, becomes the first American casualty in the Korean War. Shadrick, a member of a bazooka squad, had just fired his weapon at a Soviet-made tank when he was struck by enemy machine-gun fire.

1971 – President Richard Nixon certifies the 26th Amendment of the Constitution, lowering the U.S. voting age from 21 to 18. 

1975 – Arthur Ashe becomes the first African American man to win a Wimbledon singles title when he defeats Jimmy Connors. 

1996 – Dolly the sheep — the first mammal successfully cloned from an adult cell — is born at the Roslin Institute in Scotland. Her birth is not publicly announced until the following February.

2003 – The World Health Organization (WHO) announces that the global spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) has stopped, after the disease killed about 775 people in 26 countries. Despite the announcement, four new cases are diagnosed in early 2004.

Celebrity Birthdays

1810 – Legendary showman P. T. Barnum, who founded the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (d. 1891)

1929 – Golden Globe-winning actress Katherine Helmond (“Family Plot,” “Soap,” “Who’s The Boss?” “Brazil,” “Everybody Loves Raymond”) (d. 2019)

1950 – Singer-songwriter Huey Lewis, front man for the 1980s chart-topping band Huey Lewis and The News 

1963 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actress Edie Falco (“Law & Order,” “Oz,” “The Sopranos,” “Nurse Jackie”) 

1980 – TV personality and disc jockey DJ Pauly D, born Paul DelVecchio (“Jersey Shore”)

1980 – Actress Eva Green (“The Dreamers,” “Kingdom of Heaven,” “Casino Royale,” “Womb”)

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The Essential Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley

Control

Janet Jackson

Days Of Grace: A Memoir

Arthur Ashe and Arnold Rampersad

Clone: The Road to Dolly and The Path Ahead

Gina Kolata

Barnum's Own Story: The Autobiography of P. T. Barnum

P. T. Barnum

The Sopranos: The Complete Series

Starring James Gandolfini and Edie Falco

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On this Day: June 28

On this Day June 28

Musical Milestones

1969 – The No. 1 single comes from the big screen. It’s “Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet,” by Henry Mancini.

1975 – Elton John is captain of the Billboard album chart with “Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy,” which remains at No. 1 for six weeks. The album contains the hit “Someone Saved My Life Tonight.”

1975 – The Captain & Tennille are Billboard chart-toppers with “Love Will Keep Us Together.” The song, from the husband-and-wife team’s debut album of the same name, was written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield.

1980 – “Coming Up (Live at Glasgow)” by Paul McCartney & Wings begins a three-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The track was recorded on December 17, 1979 during the band’s tour of the UK.

1997 – “I’ll Be Missing You,” a tribute to slain rapper The Notorious B.I.G. by Puff Daddy and Faith Evans featuring 112, is in the midst of an 11-week domination of the Billboard singles chart.

2003 – Clay Aiken commandeers the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks with “This Is the Night.” Aiken has “American Idol” to thank for his musical career. He was a second-place finalist in Season 2 of the reality singing competition. 

History Highlights

1836 – Fourth U.S. President James Madison, drafter of the Constitution, recorder of the Constitutional Convention and author of the “Federalist Papers,” dies on his tobacco plantation in Virginia.

1953 – Workers at a Chevrolet plant in Flint, Michigan, begin building the first Corvette, a two-seater sports car that quickly becomes an American automotive icon. It rolls off the assembly line two days later. Only 300 Corvettes were built for the 1953 model year — all Polo white with red upholstery.

1969 – A police raid of the Stonewall Inn — a gay club located on New York City’s Christopher Street — turns violent as patrons and local sympathizers begin rioting against police officers. The clashes become a watershed moment in the struggle for gay rights in the U.S. In 2016, the Stonewall Inn was designated as the first national monument honoring the LGBTQ movement. The monument covers 7.7 acres, including nearby Christopher Park.

1975 – One of television’s most successful writers, “The Twilight Zone” creator Rod Serling dies of a heart attack at the age of 50. During his career, Serling racked up more Emmy Awards for dramatic writing than anyone in history. He also won a Golden Globe and Peabody Award for productions other than “The Twilight Zone.”

1997 – Boxing fans are horrified as Mike Tyson bites both of Evander Holyfield’s ears in the third round of their heavyweight rematch. The attack leads to his disqualification from the match and suspension from boxing.

Celebrity Birthdays

1926 – Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and Tony-winning comedic director-writer-producer Mel Brooks (“The Producers,” “Blazing Saddles,” “Young Frankenstein,” “Silent Movie,” “High Anxiety,” “History of the World, Part I,” “Spaceballs,” “Robin Hood: Men in Tights”)

1932 – Actor Pat Morita (“Happy Days,” “The Karate Kid”) (d. 2005)

1948 – Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actress Kathy Bates (“Misery,” “Fried Green Tomatoes,” “Delores Claiborne,” “Titanic,” “Primary Colors,” “About Schmidt,” “American Horror Story”)

1966 – Actor John Cusack (“Say Anything,” “The Grifters,” “Grosse Pointe Blank,” “Being John Malkovich,” “High Fidelity,” “2012,” “The Raven”)

1971 – Engineer, inventor and entrepreneur Elon Musk, who established PayPal, Tesla Motors and SpaceX

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Greatest Hits: The Best of Henry Mancini

Henry Mancini

Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy

Elton John

The Stonewall Reader

New York Public Library

The Twilight Zone, Season 1

Rod Serling

Fried Green Tomatoes

Starring Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy, Mary Stuart Masterson and Mary-Louise Parker, and directed by Jon Avnet

Say Anything

Starring John Cusack, Ione Skye and John Mahoney, and directed by Cameron Crowe

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On this Day: June 14

On this Day June 14

Musical Milestones

1969 – “Get Back,” by The Beatles with Billy Preston, is in the midst of a five-week run on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

1975 – “Sister Golden Hair,” by the band America, begins one week on top of the Billboard singles chart.

1975 – Janis Ian releases “At Seventeen,” which peaks at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and goes on to win a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, beating out Linda Ronstadt, Olivia Newton-John and Helen Reddy.

1980 – Billy Joel starts a six-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart with “Glass Houses.” It becomes Joel’s second chart-topping album and contains his first No. 1 single, “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me.” It is nominated for an Album of the Year Grammy, but Joel wins a Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance.

1986 – Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald begin three weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with their duet “On My Own.” LaBelle and McDonald really were on their own, recording their vocal parts separately. It was only after the song reached No. 1 that they met.

1994 – Grammy, Oscar and Golden Globe-winning composer-conductor-arranger Henry Mancini (“Moon River,” “Love Theme from Romeo And Juliet,” “The Pink Panther” and “Peter Gunn” themes) dies at the age of 70.

1995 – Some 60 million viewers tune in for Diane Sawyer’s interview with Michael Jackson and his bride, Lisa Marie Presley, on ABC’s PrimeTime Live. The widely advertised “no holds barred” interview was the first Jackson had given since being accused of child molestation by a 13-year-old boy in 1993.

1997 – “I’ll Be Missing You,” by Puff Daddy and Faith Evans featuring 112, kicks off 11 weeks as a No. 1 single.

2003 – “21 Questions,” by 50 Cent featuring Nate Dogg, is in the middle of four weeks on top of the pop chart.

History Highlights

1777 – The Continental Congress passes the Flag Act, a resolution stating that “the flag of the United States be 13 alternate stripes red and white” and that “the Union be 13 stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation.” The national flag becomes known as the “Stars and Stripes.”

1885 – America’s first Flag Day is celebrated when Wisconsin schoolteacher Bernard J. (B.J.) Cigrand arranges for his students to observe June 14 (the 108th anniversary of the official adoption of The Stars and Stripes) as “Flag Birthday.”  For years, Cigrand — known today as the “Father of Flag Day” — lobbied to have June 14 designated for a national celebration of the American flag. In 1948, 17 years after Cigrand’s death, President Harry S. Truman signed a Congressional Act into law, establishing a voluntary observance, but not an official national holiday.

1922 – President Warren G. Harding dedicates a memorial site in Baltimore for “Star Spangled Banner” composer Francis Scott Key, and in addressing the crowd, becomes the first U.S. president to have his voice transmitted by radio. Harding was the first president to own a radio and to have one installed in the White House.

1951 – Engineers take the wraps off the first commercial computer, the UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer).

1954 – On Flag Day, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a bill into law adding the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance. Exactly two years later, he signs another measure into law officially declaring “In God We Trust” to be the nation’s official motto.

1968 – Acclaimed pediatrician and author, Dr. Benjamin Spock, an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War, is convicted of aiding draft resistors. His two-year prison term is reversed on appeal in 1969, but for the rest of his life, Spock continues to engage in political protests and peace activism.

1976 – “The Gong Show,” a prime-time amateur talent contest, premieres on NBC with host Chuck Barris.

1982 – Argentina surrenders to Great Britain, ending the Falkland Islands War.

1985 – Shiite Hezbollah gunmen hijack TWA Flight 847 from Athens, Greece to Rome, forcing the plane to land in Beirut, Lebanon, where they execute a U.S. Navy diver on board.

Celebrity Birthdays

1811 – American abolitionist and author Harriet Beecher Stowe, who rose to fame in with the 1851 publication of her best-selling book, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (d. 1896)

1909 – Actor and folk singer Burl Ives (d. 1995)

1931 – Actress Marla Gibbs, best known for her role as the sarcastic maid in the TV sitcom “The Jeffersons”

1931 – Acclaimed Motown saxophonist and vocalist Junior Walker, born Autry DeWalt II, who led the 60s R&B band Jr. Walker & the All Stars (d. 1995)

1946 – U.S. President Donald Trump

1961 – Singer-songwriter Boy George, born George Alan O’Dowd, best known as lead singer of the 80s pop band Culture Club

1969 – Retired German tennis great Steffi Graf, who won 22 grand slam singles titles as well as Olympic gold

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America's Greatest Hits / History

America

Glass Houses

Billy Joel

A Grand Old Flag:
A History of the United States Through its Flags

Kevin Keim

Dr. Spock's The First Two Years: The Emotional and Physical Needs of Children from Birth to Age 2

Dr. Benjamin Spock

The Jeffersons:
The Complete Series

Starring Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford and Marla Gibbs

Greatest Hits

Culture Club

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