On This Day: November 28

On This Day November 28

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1929 – Motown Records founder Berry Gordy, Jr.

1943 – Oscar, Emmy and Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and composer Randy Newman, best known for his 1977 hit “Short People” and movie soundtracks including the animated blockbuster “Toy Story” series and “Monsters, Inc.”

1949 – Singer, actor and multi-instrumentalist Paul Shaffer, best known as the bandleader for David Letterman’s late-night TV shows

1950 – Golden Globe-winning actor Ed Harris (“The Right Stuff,” “The Abyss,” “Pollack,” “Apollo 13,” “The Rock,” “The Truman Show,” “A Beautiful Mind,” “Man on a Ledge,” “Westworld”)

1959 – Actor-producer Judd Nelson (“The Breakfast Club,” “St. Elmo’s Fire,” “New Jack City,” “Suddenly Susan”)

1962 – Comedian, director and former “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart

History Highlights
History Highlights

1520 – Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan leads a fleet of three ships through treacherous waters below South America to become the first European explorer to reach the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic.

1895 – Driving a gas-powered horseless carriage known as the Duryea Motor Wagon at an average speed of 5 miles per hour in the Chicago snow, J. Frank Duryea wins America’s first auto race. Frank and his brother, Charles, designed and manufactured the vehicle.

1942 – The deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history strikes the Cocoanut Grove in Boston, killing 492 people and injuring hundreds more. Investigators never determined what sparked the inferno. The disaster led to sweeping changes in fire codes

1964 – The U.S. scores one in the Space Race as NASA launches Mariner 4 on a successful fly-by mission to Mars.

1975 – “As The World Turns” and “The Edge of Night” become the last American soaps to switch from live broadcasts to videotape.

1994 – Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is beaten to death in a Wisconsin prison while serving 15 consecutive life terms for the rape, murder and dismemberment of 17 men and boys.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1925 – The Grand Ole Opry, one of the longest-lived and most popular showcases for country music, begins broadcasting live from Nashville, Tennessee. At the time, it is known as the WSM Barn Dance.

1960 – Elvis Presley scores his 15th chart-topping single when “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” reaches No. 1 on the pop chart. It holds the top spot for six weeks.

1970 – Ex-Beatle George Harrison makes his solo Billboard chart debut with “My Sweet Lord,” a song he is later found guilty of having “subconsciously plagiarized” from Ronnie Mack’s “He’s So Fine,” which was a smash for The Chiffons.

1974 – John Lennon joins Elton John on stage at New York’s Madison Square Garden for what becomes Lennon’s last concert appearance. He performs three songs: “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night,” “I Saw Her Standing There,” and “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.”

1987 – The Bill Medley-Jennifer Warnes duet, “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life,” from the movie “Dirty Dancing,” is No. 1 on the singles chart.

1998 – “Lately,” by one-hit-wonder Divine, tops the Billboard Hot 100 for a week.

2001 – Aretha Franklin sues the supermarket tabloid “Star” for $50 million dollars claiming that her reputation was damaged by a December 2000 article that alleged she had alcohol problems.

2007 – Kanye West and stuntman Evel Knievel settle a copyright dispute over West’s use of the name “Evel Kanyevel” in a music video. The 69-year-old daredevil claimed his image was harmed by the video’s “vulgar, sexual nature.” The clip for “Touch The Sky” shows the rap star attempting to cross a canyon on a rocket-powered motorcycle.

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On this Day: July 22

On this Day July 22

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1940 – Emmy-winning “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek (d. 2020)

1946 – Actor-director Danny Glover (“Lethal Weapon” series, “The Color Purple,” “Angels in the Outfield,” “2012,” “Death at a Funeral”) 

1947 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, guitarist, drummer and Eagles co-founder Don Henley (“Dirty Laundry”, “The Boys of Summer”, “All She Wants to Do Is Dance”, “The Heart of the Matter”, “The Last Worthless Evening”, “Sunset Grill”, “New York Minute” and “The End of the Innocence”)

1949 – Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe-winning composer Alan Menken, known for his many Disney movie soundtracks

1955 – Actor Willem Dafoe (“Platoon,” “To Live and Die in L.A.” “Shadow of the Vampire,” “The Last Temptation of Christ,” the “Spider-Man” trilogy)

1964 – Actor-comedian John Leguizamo (“Hanging With the Homeboys,” “Ice Age,” “ER”) 

1964 – Actor-comedian and “SNL” alum David Spade (“Tommy Boy,” “Black Sheep,” “Just Shoot Me,” “Joe Dirt,” “Grown Ups”) 

1992 – Actress and pop superstar Selena Gomez (“Wizards of Waverly Place,” “Ramona and Beezus,” “Monte Carlo”)

History Highlights
History Highlights

1916 – A massive parade in San Francisco marking Preparedness Day, in anticipation of the United States entering World War I, is interrupted when a suitcase bomb explodes, killing 10 bystanders and wounding 40 others.

1933 – Some 50,000 cheering New Yorkers greet aviator Wiley Post at Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field as he completes the first solo flight around the world. Post logged 15,596 miles in seven days, 18 hours and 49 minutes — the fastest circumnavigation of the globe.

1934 – FBI agents gun down Public Enemy No. 1 — notorious bank robber and murderer John Dillinger, outside Chicago’s Biograph movie theater. Dillinger and his mob gang terrorized the Midwest, killing 10 men, wounding seven others, robbing banks and police arsenals, and staging three jail breaks — killing a sheriff during one and wounding two guards in another.

1937 – The U.S. Senate rejects President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s efforts to add more justices to the Supreme Court — his so-called “court-packing” plan. 

1942 –  Agricultural chemist George Washington Carver arrives in Dearborn, Michigan at the invitation of Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford to begin collaborating on crop experiments.

1987 – Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev indicates that he will accept a worldwide ban on intermediate-range nuclear missiles.

1991 – Milwaukee police arrest serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer after discovering dismembered victims and other evidence in his apartment. Dahmer is tried and convicted for the murders of 17 males between 1978 and 1991. While serving time in prison, he is attacked and killed by a fellow inmate in 1994.

2003 – U.S. Army Private Jessica Lynch, a prisoner-of-war who was rescued from an Iraqi hospital, receives a hero’s welcome when the 20-year-old returns to her hometown of Palestine, West Virginia. Following her return, new details of her capture and rescue emerge suggesting the original accounts were exaggerated to create positive feelings about the war.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1967 – “Windy,” by The Association, blows through the top of the singles chart for a fourth and final week.

1972 – “Lean on Me,” by Bill Withers, begins its third and final week on top of the Billboard Hot 100. The song is Withers’ only No. 1 on both the pop and soul charts.

1977 – During a performance, Tony Orlando announces he is retiring, which shocks the rest of his act — Dawn — since he had never mentioned his plans to them.  

1977 – Elvis Costello releases his debut album, “My Aim is True,” which helps usher in the new wave genre and packs fan favorites including “Alison” and “(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes.” Subsequent pressings of the album for U.S. distribution contain the popular track, “Watching the Detectives.” In 2007, the album is inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

1978 – Andy Gibb is in the midst of a seven-week reign over the pop chart with “Shadow Dancing.”

1989 – Martika begins two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart with “Toy Soldiers.” 

1995 – “Waterfalls,” by TLC, is in the middle of seven weeks as the No. 1 single.

2000 – Eminem has the No. 1 album with “The Marshall Mathers LP, which goes on to capture three Grammy Awards.

2006 – Three years after his death, country music legend Johnny Cash claims the top spot on the Billboard album chart with “American V: A Hundred Highways.”

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