On This Day: January 19

On This Day January 19

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1807 – U.S. Civil War Confederate General Robert E. Lee (d. 1870)

1809 – Poet Edgar Allen Poe (“The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Raven”) (d. 1849)

1923 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actress Jean Stapleton, best known for her role as Edith Bunker in TV’s “All in the Family” (d. 2013)

1930 – Golden Globe-winning actress Tippi Hedren (“The Birds,” “Marnie”)

1939 – Rock and Roll and Country Music Hall of Famer Phil Everly of The Everly Brothers (d. 2014)

1942 – Tony Award-winning actor and singer Michael Crawford (“Phantom of the Opera”)

1943 – Rock legend Janis Joplin (d. 1970)

1946 – Grammy-winning singer, actress and Country Music Hall of Famer Dolly Parton

1947 – Emmy-winning TV chef Paula Deen

History Highlights
History Highlights

1825 – Ezra Daggett and Thomas Kensett secure a patent for the tin can as a means of preserving food. Consequently, this is known as National Tin Can Day.

1937 – Millionaire Howard Hughes sets a transcontinental air record, flying his H-1 Racer from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey in just under 7.5 hours. Hughes breaks the record he set a year earlier by about two hours. He averaged 332 miles an hour during the 2,490-mile flight.

1955 – Dwight Eisenhower becomes the first U.S. president to allow a filmed news conference to be used on television and in movie newsreels. The 33-minute conference was cut to 28-1/2 minutes to fit TV formats. 

1983 – Klaus Barbie, the Nazi Gestapo chief of Lyons, France during the German occupation, is arrested in Bolivia for his crimes against humanity. As chief of Nazi Germany’s secret police in occupied France, Barbie (a.k.a. “The Butcher of Lyons”) sent thousands of French Jews and Resistance members to their deaths in concentration camps, while torturing, abusing, or executing many others.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1959 – The Platters serve up the hottest single on this day with “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” which holds the top spot for three weeks.

1967 – The Beatles begin recording “A Day In The Life” at Abbey Road Studios in London. According to John Lennon, the inspiration for the song came largely from Tara Browne, the heir to the Guinness fortune, who was killed in a London car crash a year earlier.

1971 – Tracks from The Beatles’ “The White Album,” including “Helter Skelter,” are played in a California courtroom to determine if any songs could have influenced Charles Manson and his followers to murder actress Sharon Tate and four others in a 1969 killing spree.

1974 – Al Wilson’s “Show And Tell” is No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

1980 – Pink Floyd’s concept album, “The Wall,” begins a 15-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart and goes on to sell more than 8 million copies. 

1993 – Members of Fleetwood Mac reunite to perform at U.S. President Bill Clinton’s Inaugural Ball. The band’s hit, “Don’t Stop,” had been the theme of his presidential campaign.

1994 – Elton John, John Lennon, The Band, The Grateful Dead, Duane Eddy, Willie Dixon, Bob Marley, Johnny Otis, and Rod Stewart are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in New York. Stewart is stranded in Los Angeles and unable to attend because of the massive earthquake that had struck two days earlier.

READ MORE
On This Day: November 2

On This Day November 2

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1734 – American pioneer-explorer-frontiersman Daniel Boone (d. 1820)

1913 – Oscar-winning actor Burt Lancaster (“Elmer Gantry,” “The Swimmer,” “Atlantic City,” “Field of Dreams”) (d. 1994)

1914 – Actor Ray Walston (“My Favorite Martian,” “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”) (d. 2001)

1938 – Journalist and conservative political commentator Pat Buchanan

1942 – Actress Stefanie Powers (“Hart to Hart”)

1961 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter k.d. lang (“Constant Craving,” “Miss Chatelaine”)

1966 – Actor David Schwimmer, best known for playing Ross Geller in the popular NBC sitcom “Friends”

1974 – Grammy-winning rapper-actor Nelly, born Cornell Haynes, Jr. (“Country Grammar,” “Hot in Herre,” “Dilemma,” “Party People,” “Just a Dream”)

History Highlights
History Highlights

1902 – Automobile designer Andrew Riker delivers the first four-cylinder, gas-powered “Locomobile” to a buyer in New York City. It’s a 12-horsepower Model C that sells for $4,000.

1947 – Aviator and engineer Howard Hughes performs the first and only flight of his Spruce Goose, the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built. The entire flight lasts only about a minute, as the mammoth, eight-engine airplane travels for one mile just above the surface of Long Beach Harbor in California. However, it was enough to prove to skeptics that the machine could actually fly.

1948 – In the greatest upset in presidential election history, Democratic incumbent, Harry S. Truman, defeats his Republican challenger, Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York, by just over two million popular votes.

1983 – With the stroke of his pen, President Ronald Reagan designates the third Monday of January a federal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

1992 – Producer, director and screenwriter Hal Roach—best known for producing the “Laurel and Hardy” and “Our Gang” (later called “The Little Rascals”) film comedy series—dies at the age of 100.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1963 – “Sugar Shack,” by Jimmy Gilmer and The Fireballs, is in the middle of five weeks on top of the Billboard pop chart. By the end of the month, the track is certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for selling more than a million copies.

1968 – The Beatles’ “Hey Jude” is in the midst of a nine-week ride atop the singles chart, forcing Mary Hopkin to settle for second-place with her single “Those Were the Days.”

1974 – His musical commentary on the social strife of 1970s America puts Stevie Wonder on top of the singles chart for a week with “You Haven’t Done Nothin’,” featuring backup vocals by The Jackson 5.

1985 – “Part-Time Lover,” by Stevie Wonder, begins a week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

1991 – Karyn White has the No. 1 single with “Romantic.”

1996 – “Macarena,” by Los del Rio enters the final week of a 14-week domination of the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

2002 – On his 28th birthday, Nelly concludes a tenth and final week at No. 1 on the singles chart with “Dilemma,” featuring Kelly Rowland. The song captures a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at the 45th Grammy Awards.

READ MORE