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On this Day August 20

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Celebrity Birthdays

1833 – Benjamin Harrison, 23rd U.S. president (d. 1901)

1931 – Boxing promoter Don King

1942 – Singer-songwriter-producer and actor Isaac Hayes, best known for his soundtrack to the 1971 movie “Shaft,” which garnered him a Best Original Song Oscar (d. 2008)

1946 – Journalist and former network TV anchor Connie Chung

1947 – Actor Ray Wise (“Swamp Thing, ” “RoboCop,” “Twin Peaks,” “Jeepers Creepers 2,” “X-Men: First Class,” “24”)

1948 – Former Led Zeppelin front man Robert Plant 

1952 – Rock singer-songwriter John Hiatt 

1954 – Emmy-winning NBC News “Today” show co-host and weather anchor Al Roker 

1956 – Tony-winning actress Joan Allen (“Burn This,” “The Heidi Chronicles,” “Nixon,” “The Contender,” “The Ice Storm,” “Pleasantville,” “The Notebook,” “The Bourne Supremacy” and its sequels)

1958 – Director-producer-screenwriter David O. Russell (“Flirting with Disaster,” “Three Kings,” “I Heart Huckabees,” “The Fighter,” “Silver Linings Playbook,” “American Hustle”) 

1974 – Golden Globe-winning actress Amy Adams (“Catch Me If You Can.” “Junebug,” “Enchanted,” “Doubt,” “The Fighter,” “American Hustle,” “Big Eyes”)

1992 – Singer-songwriter and actress Demi Lovato, who launched her career on Disney Channel’s “Sonny with a Chance” series

History Highlights

1619 – A Dutch ship carrying 20 enslaved Africans arrives in Jamestown, Virginia, laying the foundation for slavery in the American colonies.

1911 –  A dispatcher in the “New York Times” office sends the first around-the-world telegram.

1953 – The Soviet Union publicly admits to the test detonation of a hydrogen bomb.

1977 – NASA launches the unmanned Voyager 2 spacecraft. This electronic “eye in the sky,” along with its companion Voyager I—set for blast-off two weeks later—still beams back new information about the final frontier of our solar system today.

1980 – Italian mountaineer Reinhold Messner becomes the first person to climb Mount Everest alone and without the use of oxygen tanks.

1986 – The term “going postal” is established on this day after 44-year-old U.S. Postal Service employee Patrick Sherrill opens fire on coworkers in Edmund, Oklahoma. He shoots 20 people, killing 14 of them, before turning the gun on himself.

1989 – Lyle and Erik Menendez shoot their parents, Jose and Kitty, to death in the family’s Beverly Hills mansion. The crime would shock and grip the entire country.

Musical Milestones

1966 – “Summer in the City,” by The Lovin’ Spoonful, is in the midst of a three-week run at No. 1 on the pop chart.

1969 – John, Paul, George and Ringo come together for the last time as they put the finishing touches on the “Abbey Road” album.

1977 – “Best of My Love,” by The Emotions, reaches No. 1 on the singles chart and remains on top for four weeks. It goes on to win a Grammy for Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal.

1983 – The Police rule the Billboard Hot 100 with their Grammy-winning single, “Every Breath You Take,” off the “Synchronicity” album. 

1988 – Steve Winwood rules both the Billboard album chart and Hot 100 chart. “Roll With It” is the No. 1 album while the title track is the No. 1 single.  His work garners Grammy nominations for Album of the Year and Record of the Year. 

1994 – “Stay (I Missed You),” by Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories, begins its third and final week as a No. 1 single. The music video was shot in Loeb’s New York City apartment and directed by Ethan Hawke.

2005 – Mariah Carey has the No. 1 single with her Grammy-winning single, “We Belong Together.”

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