On This Day: February 25

On This Day February 25

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1913 – Actor Jim Backus, best known for playing stranded millionaire Thurston Howell III in the comedy “Gilligan’s Island” and providing the voice for the cartoon character “Mr. Magoo” (d. 1989)

1935 – Retired syndicated TV talk show host Sally Jessy Raphael

1937 – Retired Emmy-winning CBS News anchor-commentator and author Bob Schieffer

1943 – Singer-songwriter-guitarist and former Beatle George Harrison (d. 2001)

1965 – Comedian Carrot Top, born Scott Thompson

1966 – Actress Tea Leoni, born Elizabeth Téa Pantaleoni (“Bad Boys,” “Deep Impact,” “The Family Man,” “Tower Heist,” “Madam Secretary”) 

1971 – Actor Sean Aston (“The Goonies,” “Rudy,” the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy) 

1976 – Actress Rashida Jones (“The Office,” “Parks and Recreation,” “The Social Network,” “Our Idiot Brother,” “Angie Tribeca”)

1997 – Actress Isabelle Fuhrman, best known for playing a demonic child in “Orphan” and Clove in “The Hunger Games”

History Highlights
History Highlights

1870 – Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Natchez, Mississippi, is sworn into the U.S. Senate, becoming the first African American ever to sit in Congress. He is assigned to serve on the Committee on Education and Labor and the Committee on the District of Columbia.

1916 – German troops seize Fort Douaumont, the most formidable of the forts guarding the walled city of Verdun, France, four days after launching their initial attack. The Battle of Verdun becomes the longest and bloodiest conflict of World War I, lasting 10 months and resulting in over 700,000 casualties.

1950 – The TV comedy “Your Show of Shows,” hosted by Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca, premieres, eventually helping launch the successful entertainment careers of Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Woody Allen and others.

1964 – Twenty-two-year-old Cassius Clay (who later changes his name to Muhammad Ali) stuns odds-makers by dethroning world heavyweight boxing champ Sonny Liston in a seventh-round technical knockout in Miami Beach.

1984 – A massive explosion, triggered when gasoline from a ruptured pipeline ignited, levels a shantytown outside Sao Paulo, Brazil, killing at least 500 people — mostly young children. However, investigators speculate that the actual death toll may have been closer to 700 since many bodies were incinerated in the intense blaze.

1986 – President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines flees the nation after 20 years of rule. Corazon Aquino becomes that nation’s first woman president. 

2004 – “The Passion of the Christ,” Mel Gibson’s controversial film about the final hours of Jesus of Nazareth’s life, opens in U.S. theaters, starring  Jim Caviezel as Jesus. It receives three Oscar nominations.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1956 – Elvis Presley scores his first hit when “I Forgot to Remember to Forget” reaches No. 1 on the Billboard Country & Western chart. The Beatles cover the song in 1964 on the BBC radio show “From Us to You,” with George Harrison on lead vocals.

1956 – “Lisbon Antigua,” by Nelson Riddle, begins a four-week run as a No. 1 single.

1967 – The No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 for a second and final week belongs to The Buckinghams: “Kind of a Drag”

1978 – The Bee Gees are in their fourth and final week at No. 1 on the singles chart with “Stayin’ Alive,” from the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack.

1981 – Christopher Cross, then a little-known musician from Texas, cleans up at the Grammy Awards with five statuettes, including Best New Artist, Album of the Year (“Christopher Cross”) and Song of the Year (“Sailing”).

1984 – “Jump,” by Van Halen, kicks off five weeks atop the U.S. singles chart. The track, off the band’s “1984” album, is ranked among the “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll” by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 

1995 – Madonna begins seven weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Take a Bow,” off her “Bedtime Stories” album. The single becomes her eleventh chart-topper. With it, Madonna replaces Carole King as the female who had written the most No. 1 songs.

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On This Day: November 18

On This Day November 18

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1908 – Peabody-winning actress-comedian Imogene Coca (“Your Show of Shows,” “Vacation”) (d. 2001)

1923 – First American in space, astronaut Alan Shepard (d. 1998)

1939 – Actress Brenda Vaccaro (“Midnight Cowboy,” “Once Is Not Enough,” “Capricorn One,” “Supergirl”)

1942 – Actress Linda Evans (“The Big Valley,” “Dynasty”)

1953 – Comedic actor and “SNL” alum Kevin Nealon (“The Wedding Singer,” “Happy Gilmore,” “Blended”)

1960 – Actress Elizabeth Perkins (“About Last Night…,” “Big,” “Avalon,” “The Flintstones,” “Miracle on 34th Street,” “28 Days,” “Cats & Dogs”)

1968 – Actor, producer and screenwriter Owen Wilson (“The Royal Tenenbaums,” “Wedding Crashers,” “Night at the Museum” trilogy, “You, Me and Dupree,” “Marley & Me,” “The Internship”)

1974 – Actress Chloë Sevigny (“A Map of the World,” “Boys Don’t Cry,” “Big Love”)

History Highlights
History Highlights

1883 – U.S. and Canadian railroads implement five standardized time zones across North America to end years of confusion over local times: Intercolonial (now known as Atlantic Time in eastern Canada), Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific.

1928 – Mickey Mouse debuts in Walt Disney’s “Steamboat Willie,” the first synchronized sound cartoon ever produced. Mickey’s squeaky voice is provided by Mr. Disney himself.

1963 – The Bell Telephone Company introduces the push-button telephone. The first touch-tone telephone is the Western Electric model 1500, with 10 buttons. Engineers tested 15 different keypad layouts before settling on the configuration with 1 at the top left and 0 in the bottom row.

1978 – People’s Temple leader Jim Jones leads hundreds of his followers in a mass murder-suicide at their Jonestown Commune in remote northwestern Guyana.

1991 – Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon free Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite after more than four years in captivity.

1999 – In the early morning hours, a 40-foot-high pyramid of logs for the annual Aggie Bonfire at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas collapses, killing 12 people and injuring 27 others. Investigators determine that the first stack of logs did not have sufficient containment strength.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1956 – Fats Domino appears on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and plays his smash, “Blueberry Hill.”

1957 – Elvis Presley remains perched atop the U.S. singles chart for a fifth straight week with “Jailhouse Rock,” from the movie of the same name.

1963 – “I’m Leaving It Up to You” by Dale & Grace is No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

1971 – Memphis blues singer and musician Herman ‘Junior’ Parker dies at the age of 39 during surgery for a brain tumor. Among his hits were “Feelin’ Good,” “Driving Wheel,” “Next Time You See Me,” “In the Dark” and “Sweet Home Chicago.”

1978 – “52nd Street” becomes Billy Joel’s first No. 1 album. It contains some of his biggest hits to date, including “My Life,” “Big Shot” and “Honesty,” and goes on to capture two Grammy Awards.

1989 – Bad English’s “When I See You Smile” begins its second and final weeks at No, 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. 

1993 – Five months before Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain’s death, the pioneering grunge band records an “MTV Unplugged” special at Sony Music Studios in New York City. The set list consists of lesser-known material and cover versions of songs by The Vaselines, David Bowie, Meat Puppets and Lead Belly. The album goes on to win a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album in 1996.

1995 – “Fantasy.” by Mariah Carey, enters its eighth and final week on top of the pop chart.

2017 – Australian musician and songwriter Malcolm Young, best known as a co-founder, rhythm guitarist, backing vocalist and songwriter for the hard rock band AC/DC, dies at the age of 64.

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