Hudson River – Time Rewind

On This Day January 15

Click each item below to learn more!

On This Day January 23

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1737 – John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress and first to sign the Declaration of Independence (d. 1793)

1919 – Comedian, writer and actor Ernie Kovacs (d. 1962)

1930 – Poet and playwright Derek Walcott, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 (d. 2017)

1933 – Tony-winning actress-dancer-singer Chita Rivera (“The Rink,” “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” “West Side Story,” “Sweet Charity,” “Chicago”)

1944 – Golden Globe-winning actor Rutger Hauer (“Blade Runner,” “The Hitcher,” “Ladyhawke,” “Sin City,” “The Blood of Heroes,” “Batman Begins,” “Hobo with a Shotgun”) (d. 2019)

1951 – Retired pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, who became a hero after safely landing a crippled passenger jet on the Hudson River in 2008, an event dubbed the “Miracle on the Hudson”

1957 – Princess Caroline of Monaco

1964 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actress Mariska Hargitay, best known as Detective Olivia Benson in the NBC crime series “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”

History Highlights

1849 – Elizabeth Blackwell becomes the first woman physician in U.S. history when she earns a medical degree from the all-male Geneva Medical College in upstate New York, graduating at the top of her class at the age of 28. Blackwell devotes her life to advocating for women in the healthcare professions and, in 1868, opens a women’s medical college in New York City.

1957 – The Wham-O toy company introduces the first aerodynamic plastic disc known as the Frisbee, and forever changes outdoor recreation. The disc was the creation of Walter Frederick Morrison, who originally named it the Pluto Platter.

1968 – North Korea seizes the U.S. intelligence-gathering ship USS Pueblo and interrogates its 83 crew members claiming the vessel violated North Korean territorial waters while spying.

1973 – President Richard Nixon announces that a peace accord had been reached in Paris to end the Vietnam War.

1975 – The ABC sitcom “Barney Miller” debuts. It’s about an NYPD precinct captain played by Hal Linden, and the shenanigans he endures with his detectives.

1976 – Singer, actor, athlete and civil rights activist Paul Robeson dies at the age of 77.

1977 – The miniseries “Roots,” based on the book by Alex Haley, debuts. It runs for eight consecutive nights on ABC Television and becomes the single most-watched program in American history, drawing about 100 million viewers.

1997 – One day after her unanimous confirmation by the U.S. Senate, Madeline Albright is sworn in as America’s first female Secretary of State by Vice President Al Gore.

Musical Milestones

1961 – Bert Kaempfert begins his third and final week on top of the Billboard pop chart with “Wonderland By Night.”

1965 – Petula Clark strolls to the top of the singles chart with “Downtown” and remains there for two weeks. The recording features Led Zeppelin founder Jimmy Page on guitar. Page was a studio session player at the time.

1971 – “Knock Three Times,” by Dawn featuring Tony Orlando, tops the Billboard Hot 100 and remains there for three weeks.

1986 – The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its first members at a ceremony in New York City. Inductees include Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley.

1988 – Michael Jackson owns the No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100: “The Way You Make Me Feel,” off his “Bad” album.

2000 – Santana’s “Supernatural” reaches the top of Billboard album chart for the second time. The album, which contains the hit single “Smooth,” ultimately remains at No. 1 for 12 non-consecutive weeks and goes on to capture eight Grammy awards.

On This Day January 15

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1913 – Actor Lloyd Bridges (“Sea Hunt,” “Airplane!” “East of Eden”) (d. 1998)

1929 – Nobel Peace Prize-winning civil rights leader and Baptist minister Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (d. 1968)

1937 – Oscar-winning actress Margaret O’Brien (“Jane Eyre,” “Meet Me in St. Louis”)

1951 – Singer, dancer, comedian and actress Charo, born María del Rosario Mercedes Pilar Martínez Molina Baez

1957 – Actor-director Mario Van Peebles (“21 Jump Street,” “New Jack City,” “Baadasssss!”)

1968 – Emmy-winning actor Chad Lowe (“ER,” “Melrose Place,” “Life Goes On,” “Pretty Little Liars”)

1981 – Grammy-winning rapper Pitbull, born Armando Christian Pérez (“I Know You Want Me,” “Give Me Everything,” “Timber”)

1988 – Grammy-winning DJ Skrillex, born Sonny John Moore

History Highlights

1943 – The world’s largest office building, The Pentagon, is dedicated in Arlington, Virginia, as the home of the U.S. Department of Defense, which was then known as the U.S. War Department.

1967 – The first Super Bowl is played in Los Angeles with the Green Bay Packers defeating the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10.

1974 – Nostalgic sitcom “Happy Days,” starring Henry Winkler as super-cool biker Arthur “The Fonz” Fonzarelli, premieres. Ron Howard co-stars as Fonzie’s friend, Richie Cunningham. The show, created by Garry Marshall, runs for 11 seasons and was one of the highest-rated series of the 1970s.

1981 – The award-winning dramatic police series “Hill Street Blues” debuts on NBC.

2009 – In what comes to be called the “Miracle on the Hudson,” a US Airways passenger jet makes an emergency landing in the frigid Hudson River between Manhattan and New Jersey after a bird strike disables its engines during take-off from LaGuardia Airport. All 155 passengers and crew of the Airbus A-320 survive, and pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger is hailed as a hero. In 2016, the story is made into a movie directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Tom Hanks as “Sully.”

Musical Milestones

1966 – The Beatles have a No. 1 single with “We Can Work It Out.”

1972 – Don McLean’s classic track, “American Pie,” conquers the Billboard singles chart and holds the top spot for four weeks.

1977 – “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” by Leo Sayer is the hottest song on the radio.

1983 – “Down Under” puts Men At Work on top of the Billboard singles chart. It’s the second single from the Australian band’s “Business As Usual” album to reach No. 1.

1994 – Mariah Carey’s “Hero” marks its fourth and final week as a No. 1 single.

2005 – “Let Me Love You,” by Mario, is in the middle of nine weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 and later garners a Grammy nomination for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.

On This Day December 21

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1935 – Former TV talk show host Phil Donahue (“The Phil Donohue Show,” later simply called “Donohue”)

1937 – Oscar-winning actress and 1980s fitness guru Jane Fonda (“Barefoot in the Park,” “Klute,” “Coming Home,” “The Newsroom”)

1948 – Actor-producer Samuel L. Jackson (“Jurassic Park,” “Pulp Fiction,” “Jackie Brown,” “The Incredibles,” “Snakes on a Plane,” “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” “Django Unchained,” and several of the Marvel Studios “Avengers” movies)

1954 – Retired U.S. tennis star Chris Evert

1957 – Emmy-winning actor, writer and comedian Ray Romano, best known for the CBS sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond”

1966 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor and singer-songwriter Kiefer Sutherland (“Stand by Me,” “The Lost Boys,” “Young Guns,” “Flatliners,” A Few Good Men,” “The Three Musketeers,” “24,” “Designated Survivor”)

History Highlights

1913 – The first crossword puzzle is compiled by journalist Arthur Wynne and published in the New York World newspaper. It was originally called “Word-Cross” and ran as a feature in the paper’s “Fun” section.

1937 – The Lincoln Tunnel officially opens, allowing motorists to drive between New Jersey and Manhattan beneath the Hudson River.

1968 – NASA successfully launches Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell, Jr., and William Anders aboard.

1980 – Socialite Martha “Sunny” von Bulow is found comatose on the bathroom floor of her Newport, Rhode Island mansion — the result of what appeared to be an insulin overdose. Her husband stands trial for attempted murder in what becomes one of the most sensational high society court dramas of all time.

1988 – Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York explodes in midair over Lockerbie, Scotland. All 243 passengers and 16 crew members aboard the 747 are killed along with 11 Lockerbie residents on the ground. A bomb hidden inside an audio cassette player detonates in the cargo hold when the plane reaches an altitude of 31,000 feet.

Musical Milestones

1968 – “I Heard it Through the Grapevine,” by Marvin Gaye, is No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for a second week and remains a chart-topper all through January 1969.

1969 – The Supremes make their final TV appearance together with Diana Ross on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” singing a medley of their hits.

1970 – Elvis Presley arrives unannounced at The White House for a meeting with President Richard Nixon to offer his services in the administration’s war on drugs.

1974 – “Cat’s in the Cradle” becomes Harry Chapin’s first and only No. 1 single. The track receives a Grammy nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

1985 – Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” album passes Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” to become the second longest-lasting LP on the Billboard Top 10, holding there for 79 weeks. Only “The Sound of Music,” with Julie Andrews, lasted longer at 109 weeks.

2002 – Eminem rules the Billboard Hot 100 with “Lose Yourself,” whcih remains a chart-topper for 12 weeks.

2012 – “Gangnam Style,” by Korean rapper Psy, becomes the first YouTube video to garner one billion views.

On This Day October 24

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1930 – Rock & roll singer The Big Bopper, born Jiles Perry “J.P.” Richardson, Jr., who died in a plane crash with musicians Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens (d. 1959)

1939 – Oscar-winning actor F. Murray Abraham (“Amadeus,” “Finding Forrester,” “Mighty Aphrodite,” “Inside Llewyn Davis,” “Grand Budapest Hotel”)

1947 – Oscar and Tony-winning actor Kevin Kline (“Sophie’s Choice,” “The Big Chill,” “A Fish Called Wanda,” “Dave,” “Cry Freedom”)

1960 – Tony-winning actor B.D. Wong (“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “Seven Years in Tibet,” “Oz,” “Awake,” “Jurassic Park,” “Jurassic World”)

1986 – Grammy-winning rapper-actor Drake, born Aubrey Drake Graham, best known as Jimmy Brooks in TV’s “Degrassi: The Next Generation,” and for hit songs like “Best I Ever Had” and “Take Care”

History Highlights

1901 – On her 63rd birthday, widowed schoolteacher Annie Edson Taylor becomes the first person to take the plunge over Niagara Falls in a wooden barrel and survive. Dubbing herself “Queen of the Mist,” Taylor had hoped the publicity stunt would generate money for her retirement, but 19 years later, she dies in poverty.

1929 – Frenzied trading begins on the New York Stock Exchange and culminates days later with the Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, which sends the United States into the Great Depression.

1931 – New York Governor Franklin Roosevelt dedicates the George Washington Bridge, a majestic span linking New York to New Jersey over the Hudson River. The bridge was the longest of its kind in the world at that time — 3,500 feet — and was completed ahead of schedule and under budget.

1945 – The United Nations (U.N.) is established to promote cooperation among the nations of the world. A charter officially creating the U.N. had been ratified four months earlier by China, France, the Soviet Union, the U.S., the U.K. and other signatories.

1978 – The U.N. General Assembly urges member states to call attention to the danger of the arms race and promote disarmament, so it declares October 24 – 30 Disarmament Week.

2003 – The iconic Concorde passenger jet makes its last commercial flight, traveling at twice the speed of sound from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to London’s Heathrow Airport. The supersonic aircraft enjoyed three decades of uninterrupted service with British Airways and Air France until a July 2000 crash in Paris killed 113 people.

Musical Milestones

1962 – Soul music legend James Brown records his landmark “Live At The Apollo” album, which is inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998 and, in 2003, is ranked No. 24 in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

1964 – “Do Wah Diddy Diddy.” by Manfred Mann, begins its second and final week as a No. 1 single.

1973 – John Lennon sues the U.S. government over the FBI’s wiretapping of his phone. The former Beatle had been under surveillance because of his political activism, and along with his wife Yoko Ono, faced the threat of deportation.

1978 – Rolling Stone Keith Richards pleads guilty in a Canadian court to a charge of heroin possession. He receives a one-year suspended sentence and is ordered to play a charity concert for the blind.

1987 – Michael Jackson’s “Bad,” from the album of the same name, begins two weeks as the No. 1 single.

1992 – Boyz II Men notch another week on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “End of the Road.”

1998 – Monica is at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “The First Night,” a track that features a sampling of Diana Ross’ 1976 smash, “Love Hangover.”

2009 – The No. 1 song belongs to Britney Spears with “3.”

On this Day May 15

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1905 – Film, stage and TV actor Joseph Cotten (“The Philadelphia Story,” “Citizen Kane,” “Journey Into Fear”) (d. 1994)

1909 – Golden Globe-winning actor James Mason (“North by Northwest,” “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” “A Star is Born,” “Lolita”) (d. 1984)

1918 – Country Music Hall of Fame artist Eddy Arnold (d. 2008)

1937 – Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, born Maria Jana Korbelova, the first woman to serve in that Cabinet position

1948 – Ambient music composer-producer Brian Eno

1952 – Actor-writer Chazz Palminteri (“A Bronx Tale,” “Bullets Over Broadway,” “The Usual Suspects”)

1981 – Actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who played Meadow Soprano in the HBO series “The Sopranos”

History Highlights

1896 – Seventy-three people are killed and homes and businesses are leveled when a powerful tornado churns through Sherman, Texas. The twister is believed to be a rare F5 tornado, with winds exceeding 260 miles per hour.

1930 – Ellen Church, a registered nurse and licensed pilot, becomes the world’s first airline stewardess, working Boeing Air Transport’s (predecessor to United Airlines) Oakland, California to Chicago route.

1940 – A new chapter in women’s fashion is written with the introduction of the nylon stocking, which lands on store shelves across New York City. By the end of the day, shoppers purchase 780,000 pairs. By the end of 1940, more than 64 million pairs of nylons sell. However, the following year, with the U.S. drawn into World War II, the three most common sheer stocking materials — silk, nylon, and rayon — are sacrificed to the war effort.

1963 – The final Mercury mission begins with the launch of Faith 7. Astronaut Gordon Cooper becomes the first American to spend more than a day in space. He orbits Earth 22 times in 34 hours and 20 minutes — the longest U.S. space flight at that time.

1972 – Alabama Governor George Wallace is shot and paralyzed while campaigning in Maryland for the U.S. presidency.

1988 – More than eight years after intervening in Afghanistan to support the pro-communist government, Soviet troops begin to withdraw.

2009 – After decades of environmental damage and legal wrangling, General Electric (GE) finally begins its government-mandated effort to clean the Hudson River. Between 1947 and 1977, GE dumped an estimated 1.3 million pounds of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into the waterway.

Musical Milestones

1961 – Del Shannon begins his fourth and final week as a chart-topper with “Runaway.”

1965 – Herman’s Hermits begin the third and final week on top of the pop chart with “Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter” — the band’s first No. 1 hit in the U.S.

1967 – Paul McCartney meets American photographer Linda Eastman for the first time, during a Georgie Fame concert at the Bag O’Nails nightclub in London. They marry less than two years later.

1971 – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young score their second No. 1 album with “4 Way Street,” consisting of live recordings from shows at the Fillmore East in New York and The Forum in Los Angeles.

1976 – The Sylvers burn up the singles chart when their disco hit, “Boogie Fever,” reaches No. 1.

1982 – Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney begin a seven-week hold on to the top of the Billboard singles chart with “Ebony and Ivory.”

1993 – “That’s the Way Love Goes,” by Janet Jackson, is the No. 1 single and maintains that spot for eight weeks. The track goes on to capture a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song.

1999 – Ricky Martin burns up the Billboard Hot 100 with “Livin’ la Vida Loca,” which is in the middle of five weeks as a No. 1 single.

2010 – “OMG,” by Usher featuring will.i.am, begins four non-sequentional weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The track is Usher’s ninth chart-topper and the second will.i.am collaboration.