John Hinckley Jr – Time Rewind

On This Day April 27

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On This Day March 30

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Celebrity Birthdays

1746 – Artist Francisco Goya (d. 1828)

1853 – Artist Vincent Van Gogh (d. 1890)

1926 – TV game show host Peter Marshall

1930 – Actor John Astin, best known as Gomez Addams in the hit TV series “The Addams Family”

1937 – Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actor-director Warren Beatty (“Splendor in the Grass,” “Bonnie and Clyde,” “Shampoo,” “Reds,” “Bulworth,” “Rules Don’t Apply”)

1945 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Eric Clapton, born former member of the bands the Yardbirds, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Derek and the Dominos and Cream, and considered one of the world’s greatest guitarists and the only musician to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 3 times.

1957 – Comedian-actor Paul Reiser (“Diner,” “Aliens,” “Mad About You”)

1962 – Grammy-winning rap icon and actor M.C. Hammer, born Stanley Kirk Burrell (“U Can’t Touch This,” “2 Legit 2 Quit”)

1964 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman (“Fast Car,” “Talkin’ Bout A Revolution”)

1968 – Grammy-winning singer Celine Dion, best known for “My Heart Will Go On,” from the blockbuster 1997 movie “Titanic”

1979 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and pianist Norah Jones (“Don’t Know Why,” “Sunrise,” “Here We Go Again”)

History Highlights

1814 – European forces allied against Napoleonic France march triumphantly into Paris, formally ending a decade of French domination on the continent.

1842 – Anesthesia is used for the first time in an operation by Dr. Crawford Long.

1858 – The first wooden pencil featuring a built-in rubber eraser on top is patented by Philadelphia inventor Hymen Lipman, who later sells his patent for $100,000 (about $2 million in today’s market). In 1875, The Supreme Court invalidates the patent, ruling that because the pencil combined two existing devices, it was not a legitimate invention. Nevertheless, this is observed as National Pencil Day.

1867 – U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward signs a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska for $7.2 million. Despite the bargain price of roughly two cents an acre, the Alaskan purchase is ridiculed in Congress and in the press as “Seward’s Folly.”

1964 – The popular game show “Jeopardy!” premieres on NBC with host Art Fleming. Alex Trebek takes over in 1984 and continues hosting until his death in 2020.

1981 – President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C. hotel by John Hinckley, Jr., who claims he was seeking to gain the attention of actress Jodie Foster. Hinckley is found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to a psychiatric hospital until 2016, when he is allowed to live with his mother in her Virginia home. Reagan is released from the hospital less than two weeks after the attempted assassination.

2009 – President Barack Obama issues an ultimatum to struggling American automakers General Motors (GM) and Chrysler: In order to receive additional bailout loans from the government, he says, the companies need to dramatically change the way they run their businesses.

Musical Milestones

1957 – Buddy Knox becomes the first artist in the Rock ‘n’ Roll era to write his own No. 1 hit when “Party Doll” tops the Billboard singles chart. Knox goes on to score four more Top 40 hits between 1957 and 1961.

1963 – “He’s So Fine,” by The Chiffons, tops the Billboard Hot 100 and holds there for four weeks.

1963 – Seventeen-year-old Lesley Gore records her breakthrough hit, “It’s My Party.” The song, produced by Quincy Jones, reaches No. 1 that June.

1967 – The Beatles pose in costume for the “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” cover photo shoot. Designed by British pop artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth, the cover goes on to win a Grammy Award.

1974 – John Denver’s “Sunshine on My Shoulders” reaches the top of the Billboard pop chart.

1985 – “One More Night,” by Phil Collins, begins two weeks on top of the singles chart. It is Collins’ second U.S. chart-topper. The first was “Against All Odds” in 1984.

1991 – Gloria Estefan begins two weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Coming Out of the Dark.”

2002 – “Ain’t It Funny,” by Jennifer Lopez featuring Ja Rule, is mid-way through a six-week domination of the singles chart.

On this Day June 21

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Celebrity Birthdays

1905 – Nobel prize-winning philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre (s. 1980)

1921 – Actress Jane Russell, considered a Hollywood sex symbol during the 1940s and 50s (“The Outlaw,” “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” “Son of Paleface”) (d. 2011)

1925 – Oscar and Tony-winning actress Maureen Stapleton (“Reds,” “Cocoon”) (d. 2006)

1932 – Grammy-winning film composer and arranger Lalo Schifrin (“Mission: Impossible,” Dirty Harry“ films, “ “Bullitt”)

1940 – Emmy-winning actress Mariette Hartley (“Peyton Place,” “The Incredible Hulk”)

1944 – Singer-songwriter Ray Davies, who founded the band The Kinks

1947 – Actress Meredith Baxter (“Bridget Loves Bernie,” “Family Ties”)

1973 – Actress-singer Juliette Lewis (“Cape Fear,” “Natural Born Killers,” “Old School,” “Whip It”)

1979 – Actor Chris Pratt (“Everwood,” “The O.C.,” “Parks and Recreation,” “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Jurassic World,” “Fallen Kingdom,” “Jurassic World Dominion”)

1982 – Prince William, Duke of Cambridge

1985 – Singer-songwriter and model Lana Del Rey, born Elizabeth Woolridge Grant (“Video Games,” “Summertime Sadness”)

History Highlights

1956 – Playwright Arthur Miller defies the House Committee on Un-American Activities and refuses to name suspected communists. The move garners him a contempt of court conviction which is later reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

1964 – Three civil rights workers—James E. Chaney and Andrew Goodman, both 21, and Michael Schwerner, 24—disappear in Mississippi. It’s later determined that they were killed by a group of Ku Klux Klansmen. In 2005, exactly 41 years later, Edgar Killen is convicted of manslaughter in trio’s deaths. The case was dramatized in the 1988 movie “Mississippi Burning.”

1982 – A jury finds John Hinckley, Jr. not guilty of attempted murder by reason of insanity in connection with the shooting of President Ronald Reagan outside a Washington, D.C. hotel.

1989 – The U.S. Supreme Court decides in the case of Texas v. Johnson that burning the American flag is protected under the First Amendment.

Musical Milestones

1964 – Twenty-year-old Peter Roberts of Liverpool, England climbs a drainpipe to the eighth floor of the Sydney, Australia hotel where The Beatles are staying to meet the band. John Lennon is so impressed, he invites him in to their room for a drink.

1969 – “Get Back,” by The Beatles with Billy Preston, begins its fifth and final week as a Billboard No. 1.

1975 – The Captain & Tennille are chart-toppers with “Love Will Keep Us Together,” the duo’s first big hit which holds at No. 1 for four weeks.

1980 – “Funkytown,” by Lipps Inc., kicks off its fourth and final week as a Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper. The track, off the band’s “Mouth to Mouth” album, is considered the swan song for the disco era.

1981 – Donald Fagan and Walter Becker announce the break-up of Steely Dan. However, in 1993, the group resumes playing concerts and in the early 2000s releases two albums of new material, the first of which earns a Grammy for Album of the Year.

1997 – “I’ll Be Missing You,” by Puff Daddy and Faith Evans featuring 112, tops the Billboard Hot 100. It remains at No. 1 for 11 weeks and goes on to win a Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.

2008 – Lil Wayne featuring Static claims the top spot on the singles chart with “Lollipop.”