I Love Lucy – Time Rewind

On This Day March 4

Click each item below to learn more!

On This Day October 15

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1924 – Former Chrysler Corp. Chairman and Ford Motor Co. President Lee Iacocca (d. 2019)

1937 – Actress-singer Linda Lavin (“Alice”)

1943 – Actress-director Penny Marshall (“Laverne & Shirley,” “Big,” “Awakenings,” “A League of Their Own,” “Riding in Cars With Boys”) (d. 2018)

1946 – Singer-songwriter Richard Carpenter of the 1970s sibling pop duo, the Carpenters

1959 – Sarah Ferguson (“Fergie”), Duchess of York

1959 – TV chef-restaurateur Emeril Lagasse

History Highlights

1863 – The H.L. Hunley, the world’s first successful combat submarine, sinks during a test run, killing its inventor and seven crew members. The vessel is recovered, and four months later, becomes the first submarine to destroy a ship (USS Housatonic) in battle.

1915 – Exotic dancer and spy Mata Hari is executed by a French firing squad after it was discovered that she also worked for the Germans.

1951 – Television’s first, long-running, sitcom hit, “I Love Lucy,” debuts, starring comedian Lucille Ball and her real-life husband, Desi Arnaz. The half-hour show runs for six seasons on CBS, becoming one of the most beloved and enduring TV comedies of all time.

1966 – With the stroke of his pen, President Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) creates the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).

1989 – During a game against his old team, the Edmonton Oilers, Canadian ice hockey legend Wayne Gretzky breaks Gordie Howe’s National Hockey League career scoring record of 1,850 points.

1990 – Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end Cold War tensions with the United States.

1991 – After a bitter confirmation hearing, the U.S. Senate votes 52 to 48 to confirm Clarence Thomas as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Musical Milestones

1930 – Legendary composer and bandleader Duke Ellington (a.k.a. “The Duke”) records his first big hit, “Mood Indigo.” Ellington explained that he wrote the the track, originally titled “Dreamy Blues,” in 15 minutes while waiting for his mother to finish cooking dinner.

1964 – Composer Cole Porter, whose musical notes fill much of the Great American Songbook, dies at the age of 73.

1966 – The Four Tops hit No.1 on the singles chart with “Reach Out And I’ll Be There.”

1973 – Ten years after her death, Patsy Cline (“Walkin’ After Midnight,” “I Fall to Pieces,” “Crazy,” “Sweet Dreams”) becomes the first female solo performer to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

1977 – Debby Boone begins 10 weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “You Light Up My Life.”

1983 – “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” by Bonnie Tyler, is in the middle of four weeks as a Billboard chart-topper.

1988 – UB40’s version of the Neil Diamond song “Red, Red Wine” spends a week on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

1994 – Boyz II Men are in the midst of a 14-week ride atop the pop chart with “I’ll Make Love to You.”

2006 – CBGB, the iconic New York City nightclub considered the birthplace of the punk rock movement, closes its doors after 33 years of business. The club, nestled in Manhattan’s East Village, helped launch the careers of such pioneering artists as the Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads, Patti Smith Group and Joan Jett.

On this Day August 17

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1786 – Tennessee woodsman Davy Crockett, known as the “King of the Wild Frontier,” who was elected to Congress and died while fighting at the Alamo (d. 1836)

1920 – Actress-singer Maureen O’Hara, born Maureen FitzSimons (“Sinbad the Sailor,” “The Black Swan,” “Miracle on 34th Street,” “Our Man in Havana, “The Parent Trap”) (d. 2015)

1943 – Oscar-winning actor Robert De Niro (“The Godfather: Part II,” “Taxi Driver,” “The Deer Hunter,” “Raging Bull,” “The King of Comedy,” “Goodfellas,” “Backdraft,” “Cape Fear,” “A Bronx Tale,” “Casino,” “Meet The Parents,” “Shark Tale,” “Silver Linings Playbook,” “The Intern”)

1958 – Singer-songwriter Belinda Carlisle, former lead singer of the Go-Go’s (“Mad About You,” “I Get Weak,””Circle in the Sand,” “Leave a Light On,” “Heaven Is a Place on Earth”)

1960 – Oscar-winning actor-director Sean Penn (“Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” “Dead Man Walking,” “The Thin Red Line,” “Sweet and Lowdown,” “I Am Sam,” “Mystic River,” “21 Grams,” “Into The Wild,” “Milk,” “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”)

1969 – Actor and former New Kids on the Block band member Donnie Wahlberg (“Ransom,” the “Saw” movie series, “The Sixth Sense,” “Dreamcatcher,” “Righteous Kill,” “Blue Bloods”)

History Highlights

1962 – East German border guards open fire on two 18-year-old men scrambling for freedom by scaling the Berlin Wall to enter West Berlin. One escapes with cuts and bruises, but the second — Peter Fechter — is killed, setting off clashes between angry West German witnesses and communist police officers.

1969 – Camille, the third deadliest hurricane of all time, batters the Mississippi Delta as it comes ashore near Bay Saint Louis. The storm kills 259 people and causes more than a billion dollars in damage.

1978 – Double Eagle II becomes first balloon to cross the Atlantic when it lands near Paris 137 hours after leaving Presque Isle, Maine.

1979 – Actress Vivian Vance, who played Ethel Mertz in TV’s “I Love Lucy,” loses her battle with breast cancer at the age of 70.

1998 – President Bill Clinton becomes the first sitting U.S. president to testify before the Office of Independent Council as the subject of a grand jury investigation.

Musical Milestones

1959 – Legendary jazz trumpeter Miles Davis releases “Kind of Blue,” the best-selling jazz record of all time and a production that is regarded by critics of all musical genres as a masterpiece.

1968 – The Doors begin four weeks on top of the Billboard album chart with “Waiting For The Sun.” The band’s only No. 1 album spawns their second chart-topping single, “Hello, I Love You.”

1969 – British rockers The Who take the stage in the pre-dawn hours of the third day of the Woodstock music festival and perform a 25-song set, including all the tracks from their rock opera “Tommy.”

1974 – “The Night Chicago Died,” by Paper Lace, is the No. 1 single. That band, from Nottingham, England, recorded the original version of “Billy. Don’t Be a Hero,” which only became a chart-topping smash when it was covered by Bo Donaldson and The Heywoods.

1985 – “Shout,” by Tears for Fears, begins its third and final week as a Billboard No. 1. The track is from the British duo’s chart-topping “Songs From the Big Chair” album.

1991 – Bryan Adams rules the singles chart with “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You,” from the movie “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,” starring Kevin Costner.

1996 – The Spanish dance song “Macarena,” by Los del Rio, is in the midst of 14 weeks as a No. 1 single.

On this Day August 6

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1911 – Actress-comedienne Lucille Ball, who was immortalized in the popular 1950s TV sitcom “I Love Lucy” (d. 1989)

1917 – Actor Robert Mitchum (“The Story of G.I. Joe,” “Crossfire,” “Out of the Past,”, “The Night of the Hunter,” “The Enemy Below,” “Cape Fear,” “El Dorado”) (d. 1997)

1928 – American pop artist and cultural icon Andy Warhol (d. 1987)

1962 – Actress Michelle Yeoh (“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Tomorrow Never Dies”)

1970 – Director M. Night Shyamalan (“The Sixth Sense,” “Unbreakable,” “Signs,” “Lady in the Water.” “The Last Airbender,” “After Earth”)

1972 – Singer Geri Halliwell, a.k.a. “Ginger Spice” of the British pop group Spice Girls

History Highlights

1890 – The first execution by electric chair takes place at Auburn Prison in New York with William Kemmler facing the death penalty for the hatchet murder of his girlfriend, Tillie Ziegler.

1945 – An American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, drops the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, leveling most of the city under a massive mushroom cloud. Some 70,000 people are killed in a matter of seconds.

1959 – Chevrolet unveils plans to produce the Corvair, a revolutionary rear-engine compact car that goes on to ignite controversy and debate over its safety.

1965 – President Lyndon Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act, guaranteeing African Americans the right to vote. The bill makes it illegal to impose restrictions on federal, state and local elections that were designed to deny the vote to blacks.

2009 – John Hughes, the influential writer-director who captured the humor and angst of the teen experience, 1980s style, in hit movies such as “Sixteen Candles,” “The Breakfast Club” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” dies at 59.

Musical Milestones

1960 – Chubby Checker appears on TV’s “American Bandstand” and performs “The Twist,” which goes on to become a national sensation and No. 1 single.

1973 – A traffic accident leaves Motown sensation Stevie Wonder in a coma for four days and permanently robs him of his sense of smell. Amazingly, he’s back in the recording studio eight weeks later.

1981 – Stevie Nicks releases her first solo album, “Bella Donna,” featuring “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” a duet with Tom Petty that reaches No. 3 on the Billboard singles chart.

1982 – “Pink Floyd The Wall” opens in movie theaters, based on the British rock band’s 1979 album of the same name.

1988 – Almost a year to the day after debuting at No. 182 on the Billboard album chart, “Appetite for Destruction,” by Guns N’ Roses, reaches No. 1, fueled by the band’s tour and widespread airplay for the hit singles “Welcome to the Jungle,” “Paradise City” and “Sweet Child o’ Mine.”

1994 – Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories begins a three-week run at No. 1 on the pop chart with “Stay (I Missed You).”

2004 – After years of cocaine use, funk legend Rick James is found dead of a heart attack at his Hollywood home at the age of 56. James was best known for his 1981 smash, “Super Freak.”

2005 – “We Belong Together,” by Mariah Carey, is midway through a 10-week run on top of the Billboard Hot 100.