On This Day: December 14

On This Day December 14

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1932 – Country singer Charlie Rich (“Behind Closed Doors,” “The Most Beautiful Girl”) (d. 1995)

1935 – Actress Lee Remick (“Anatomy of a Murder,” “Days of Wine and Roses,” “The Omen”) (d. 1991)

1946 – Former Hollywood mogul Michael Ovitz

1946 – Oscar-winning actress and author Patty Duke (“The Miracle Worker,” “Valley of the Dolls,” “Hawaii Five-0,” “Glee”) (d. 2016)

1948 – Actress and “scream queen” Dee Wallace (“E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” “The Hills Have Eyes,” “The Howling,” “Cujo”)

1965 – Baseball Hall of Famer and former Houston Astros second baseman Craig Biggio

1988 – Actress-singer Vanessa Hudgens, best known for playing Gabriella Montez in the “High School Musical” series

History Highlights
History Highlights

1799 – George Washington, the American revolutionary leader and first U.S. president, dies of acute laryngitis at his estate in Mount Vernon, Virginia at the age of 67.

1900 – The quantum theory of modern physics is born on this day as German physicist Max Planck publishes his groundbreaking study of the effect of radiation on a “blackbody” substance.

1909 – Workers place the last of the 3.2 million 10-pound bricks that pave the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

1911 – A team led by Roald Amundsen becomes the first to reach the South Pole — beating out British rival Robert Falcon Scott.

1946 – The United Nations General Assembly votes to establish its headquarters in New York City.

1961 – President John F. Kennedy formally announces that the United States will increase aid to South Vietnam, which would include the expansion of the U.S. troop commitment.

2012 – A deranged gunman shoots and kills 20 first-graders and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut before turning the gun on himself. Investigators discover that Adam Lanza had shot and killed his mother at her nearby home before driving to the school and opening fire. The tragedy becomes the second-deadliest mass-shooting in the U.S. at that time.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1963 – Grammy-winning “Queen of the Blues,” Dinah Washington, dies at the age of 39 after mixing alcohol and weight-reduction pills.

1968 – Marvin Gaye scores his first No. 1 single when “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” starts five weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

1969 – The Jackson 5 make their first network television appearance in the U.S. as guests on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

1977 – “Saturday Night Fever” opens in New York, starring John Travolta and featuring a soundtrack that helped shape the disco era.

1979 – The Clash release “London Calling” in the U.K. (it is released in the U.S. about a month later). The double album receives widespread acclaim and, in 2003, is ranked eighth on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

1980 – John Lennon fans around the world stage a silent vigil to honor the beloved musician who, six days earlier, was gunned down outside his Manhattan apartment building.

1991 – Michael Jackson kicks off four weeks atop the Billboard album chart with “Dangerous.”

1996 – “Un-Break My Heart,” by Toni Braxton, is the No. 1 single. It remains a chart-topper for 11 weeks.

2002 – Eminem maintains a 12-week reign over the Billboard Hot 100 with “Lose Yourself,” from the soundtrack to the 2002 movie “8 Mile.”

2013 – “Wrecking Ball,” by Miley Cyrus, strikes the top of the pop chart and holds there for a week.

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On this Day: August 19

On this Day August 19

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1871 – Aviation pioneer Orville Wright (d. 1948)

1883 –  French fashion designer Coco Chanel (d. 1971)

1921 – “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry (d. 1991) 

1940 – Singer-songwriter Johnny Nash, best known for his 1972 smash “I Can See Clearly Now” (d.2020)

1940 – Actress Jill St. John, born Jill Arlyn Oppenheim (“The Lost World,” “Come Blow Your Horn,” “Diamonds Are Forever,” “Sitting Target”)

1946 – Bill Clinton, 42nd U.S. president

1947 – Actor Gerald McRaney (“Simon & Simon,” “Major Dad,” “Promised Land,” “Jericho,” “House of Cards”)

1955 – Actor Peter Gallagher (“Sex, Lies, and Videotape,” “The Player,” “While You Were Sleeping,” “The O.C.,” “Covert Affairs”)

1963 – Actor John Stamos (“General Hospital,” “Full House,” “Fuller House,” “ER,” “Jake in Progress,” “Necessary Roughness”)

1965 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actress Kyra Sedgwick (“Singles,” “Heart and Souls,” “Something to Talk About,” “Phenomenon,” “The Closer”)

1965 – Actor Kevin Dillon (“Platoon,” “No Escape,” “Entourage”)

1966 – Grammy-winning country singer-songwriter Lee Ann Womack (“I Hope You Dance,” “Something Worth Leaving Behind,” “I May Hate Myself In the Morning”)

1969 – Actor-producer Matthew Perry, best known for playing Chandler Bing on the hit TV sitcom “Friends”

History Highlights
History Highlights

1909 – The first race is held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway before a crowd of 12,000. Austrian driver Louis Schwitzer wins the five-lap event behind the wheel of a Stoddard-Dayton traveling at an average speed of 57.4 miles per hour.

1960 – A Soviet military court sentences American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers to 10 years in prison for spying. Powers had pleaded guilty to spying for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) after his plane was shot down at high altiitude above the Soviet Union.

1969 – Some 8,000 volunteers begin a massive cleanup of Max Yasgur’s Bethel, New York dairy farm after nearly half a million people leave the muddy, garbage-strewn site of the iconic Woodstock music festival. Decades later, archaeologists begin digging up remnants of the event.

1977 – Beloved, cigar-chomping comedian Groucho Marx dies at the age of 86. A member of the comedic Marx Brother,  he spent nearly seven decades making people laugh with his snappy one-liners and sharp wit. 

1981 – ABC airs its final episode of “Charlie’s Angels” after a five-year run. The detective series starred Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith and Farrah Fawcett. 

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1967 – The Beatles have their 14th No. 1 single with “All You Need Is Love.”

1972 – Gilbert O’Sullivan begins his fourth and final week on top of the pop chart with “Alone Again (Naturally).”

1978 – “Three Times a Lady,” by The Commodores featuring Lionel Richie, begins its second and final week on top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The single is the band’s first No. 1 hit and garners two Grammy nominations for Song of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group, or Chorus.

1989 – Richard Marx is in the midst of a three-week run at No. 1 on the pop chart with “Right Here Waiting” — his third consecutive chart-topper.

1995 – TLC’s “Waterfalls” wraps up a seven-week domination of the singles chart. The music video goes on to win four MTV Video Music Awards.

2000 – “Incomplete,” by American R&B artist Sisqó, tops the Billboard Hot 100 chart. 

2006 – Fergie kicks off three weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “London Bridge.”

2017 – “Despacito,” by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber, is in the midst of a 16-week domination of the U.S. pop chart.

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