July – Time Rewind

On this Day July 8

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On this Day July 31

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Celebrity Birthdays

1945 – Singer-songwriter and former Fleetwood Mac member Bob Welch (d. 2012)

1956 – Actor Michael Biehn (“Logan’s Run,” “The Terminator”)

1958 – Marc Cuban, entrepreneur, Dallas Mavericks owner and panelist on ABC’s “Shark Tank”

1962 – Actor Wesley Snipes (“Mo’ Better Blues,” “New Jack City,” “Passenger 57,” “Demolition Man,” “Money Train,” “Blade”)

1965 – British author J.K. Rowling, best known for her “Harry Potter” series

1979 – Actor-comedian-author B.J. Novak (“The Office,” “Inglorious Basterds,” “Saving Mr. Banks”)

History Highlights

1961 – The first tie in All-Star Game history takes place at Fenway Park in Boston when the game is stopped in the ninth inning because of rain.

1964 – Ranger 7 sends back the first close-up photographs of the moon.

1971 – Humans take the first drive on the moon, Apollo 15 astronauts David Scott and James Irwin cruise the dusty and bumpy surface in their lunar rover vehicle (LRV). It marks NASA’s first use of an LRV, which, among other tasks, enabled the astronauts to collect 179 pounds of lunar rocks and soil to be studied back on Earth.

1975 – Former Teamsters Union leader Jimmy Hoffa disappears from the parking lot of a suburban Detroit restaurant, never to be seen or heard from again. In 1982, he is officially declared dead.

1981 – Cries of “play ball” echo throughout American ballparks after a seven-week players’ strike centered around compensation for free agents ends.

Musical Milestones

1968 – The Beatles begin a two-day recording session at London’s Trident Studios to produce “Hey Jude.”

1971 – James Taylor has the No. 1 single with “You’ve Got a Friend,” written by Carole King, which goes on to capture Grammy Awards both for Taylor (Best Male Pop Vocal Performance) and King (Song of the Year).

1976 – Jazz and soul singer-guitarist George Benson’s “Breezin’” begins two weeks on top of the Billboard album chart.

1993 – UB40 is on top of the singles chart with their cover of Elvis Presley’s “(I Can’t Help) Falling In Love.” The song remains at No. 1 for seven weeks. Elvis’ original version from 1961 only got as high as No. 2.

1999 – Christina Aguilera kicks off five weeks at No. 1 the Billboard Hot 100 with “Genie in a Bottle.”

2004 – Usher wraps up two weeks at No. 1 on the singles chart with Confessions Part II.

On this Day July 30

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Celebrity Birthdays

1863 – Industrialist and Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford

1890 – Baseball Hall of Famer Casey Stengel

1941 – Singer-songwriter Paul Anka

1947 – Actor and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

1961 – Emmy and Tony-winning actor Laurence Fishburne (“Boyz n the Hood,” “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” “The Matrix” trilogy, “Mission: Impossible III”)

1963 – Actress-comedian Lisa Kudrow, best known for her role as Phoebe in the popular sitcom “Friends”

1964 – Actress Vivica Fox (“Days of Our Lives,” “Independence Day,” “Batman & Robin,” “Alias”)

1969 – Actor Simon Baker (“L.A. Confidential,” “Land of the Dead,” “The Devil Wears Prada,” “The Mentalist”)

1970 – Director Christopher Nolan (“Memento,” “Inception,” “Batman Begins,” “The Dark Knight Rises,” “Interstellar”)

1974 – Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actress Hilary Swank (“Million Dollar Baby,” “Boys Don’t Cry,” “Amelia”)

History Highlights

1935 – Literature’s first paperback is introduced by Penguin Books in London. It’s “Ariel” by André Maurois, who traces the life of the poet Shelley.

1945 – A Japanese submarine torpedoes the U.S. Navy cruiser U.S.S. Indianapolis in Pacific waters after it delivers the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima. The ship sinks in just 12 minutes. Of the approximately 1,200 crewmen, 300 go down with the ship. The rest face exposure, dehydration, saltwater poisoning and shark attacks while floating with few lifeboats and almost no food or water.

1956 – Two years after pushing to have the phrase “under God” inserted into the United States’ pledge of allegiance, President Dwight Eisenhower signs a law declaring “In God We Trust” the nation’s official motto.

1965 – President Lyndon Johnson signs the Medicare bill into law, granting seniors access to affordable healthcare. The bill-signing ceremony takes place at the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, where former President Harry S. Truman is enrolled as Medicare’s first beneficiary and receives the first Medicare card.

2003 – The last of over 21 million Volkswagen Beetles, known as the “Volkswagen Type 1,” rolls off an assembly line in Puebla, Mexico, ending nearly 70 years of production. The baby blue car is sent to a museum in Wolfsburg, Germany, where VW is headquartered.

Musical Milestones

1966 – The Beatles own the No. 1 position on the Billboard album chart with “Yesterday…And Today.” The album, released in the U.S. and Canada only, holds the top spot for five weeks. It contains such fan favorites as “Drive My Car,” “Yesterday,” “We Can Work It Out,” “Nowhere Man” and “Day Tripper.”

1966 – The Troggs claim the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Wild Thing.” The track was originally recorded by the American rock band, The Wild Ones, in 1965, but never charted. The Troggs’ version holds at No. 1 for two weeks and reaches No. 2 on the pop chart in their native U.K.

1977 – Andy Gibb kicks off three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart with “I Just Want to Be Your Everything.”

1988 – “Roll With It” by Steve Winwood begins four weeks as a No. 1 single.

1994 – All-4-One wraps up an 11-week domination of the singles chart with “I Swear.”

2003 – Record producer Sam Phillips, who founded the legendary Sun Record Company and Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, dies of respiratory failure. He discovered Elvis Presley and worked with other musical greats, including Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, B.B. King and Jerry Lee Lewis.

2005 – Mariah Carey owns the top spot on the singles chart with “We Belong Together,” which holds at No. 1 for 14 non-consecutive weeks.

On this Day July 29

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Celebrity Birthdays

1936 – Former Labor Secretary, American Red Cross President and North Carolina Senator Elizabeth Dole

1953 – Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker Ken Burns

1953 – Musician Geddy Lee, lead singer-bassist for the rock band Rush

1966 – Country music singer-songwriter Martina McBride

1972 – Actor Wil Wheaton (“Stand By Me,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “The Big Bang Theory”)

1974 – Actor Josh Radnor, best known as Ted Mosby from the Emmy-winning sitcom “How I Met Your Mother”

History Highlights

1921 – Adolf Hitler becomes the leader of the National Socialist German Workers’ (Nazi) Party. Under Hitler, the Nazi Party becomes a mass movement and rules Germany as a totalitarian state from 1933 to 1945.

1958 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an act creating a civilian agency that comes to be known as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to direct U.S. space policy.

1976 – David Berkowitz, the so-called “Son of Sam,” kills one woman and seriously wounds another in the first of a series of attacks that would terrorize New York City for the next year.

1981 – Nearly a billion TV viewers around the world tune in to witness the marriage of Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, to Lady Diana Spencer, a young English schoolteacher.

1996 – American track & field legend Carl Lewis wins his fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal in the long jump — propelling himself 27 feet 10 3/4 inches at the Summer Games in Atlanta. It is the ninth and final Olympic gold of Lewis’ storied career.

2000 – Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, one of Hollywood’s highest-profile couples, tie the knot in Malibu, California during a ceremony estimated to cost around $1 million. The marriage lasts just five years.

Musical Milestones

1967 – The Doors set fire to the Billboard Hot 100, as “Light My Fire” begins three weeks at No. 1. It is the band’s first of two career chart-toppers.

1972 – Gilbert O’Sullivan’s “Alone Again, Naturally” begins four weeks on top of the singles chart.

1974 – The Mamas & the Papas singer Cass Elliot dies in her sleep from a heart attack after playing a sold-out show in London. She is just 32. Rumors spread around the world, and continue today, claiming that Mama Cass choked to death on a ham sandwich. But an autopsy confirmed a heart attack as cause of death with no trace of food in her windpipe.

1978 – The soundtrack to the movie musical “Grease,” featuring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, reaches No. 1 on the Billboard album chart. It becomes the second best-selling album ever released and top-selling soundtrack in history with about 45 million copies sold worldwide.

1989 – “Toy Soldiers,” by one-hit-wonder Martika, tops the Billboard Hot 100 for a second and final week.

1995 – TLC is in the midst of a seven-week domination of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Waterfalls.”

2000 – NSYNC’s “It’s Gonna Be Me” kicks off two weeks on top of the pop chart.

On this Day July 28

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Celebrity Birthdays

1866 – Children’s author-illustrator Beatrix Potter (“The Tale of Peter Rabbit”) (d. 1943)

1901 – Singer-actor-bandleader Rudy Vallée (d. 1986)

1929 – Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (d. 1994)

1943 – Former New Jersey Senator and Basketball Hall of Famer Bill Bradley

1945 – Cartoonist Jim Davis, creator of “Garfield”

1948 – Actress Sally Struthers, best remembered as Gloria in the 70s sitcom “All in the Family”

1964 – Actress Lori Loughlin, who played Rebecca in ABC’s “Full House”

1993 – Pop singer-songwriter Cher Lloyd (“I Wish” and “Sirens”)

History Highlights

1868 – Following its ratification by the necessary three-quarters of U.S. states, the 14th Amendment is officially adopted into the U.S. Constitution. It grants citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, including formerly enslaved people.

1933 – The first singing telegram is sent to singer Rudy Vallée on his 32nd birthday.

1945 – The pilot of a U.S. Army B-25 bomber gets lost in thick fog above New York City and crashes into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building, killing 14 people. Because it was a Saturday morning, there were fewer people inside the skyscraper than would have been there on a weekday.

1965 – President Lyndon Johnson orders an increase in the number of American troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000.

1978 – “National Lampoon’s Animal House,” a movie spoof about 1960s college fraternities starring John Belushi and directed by John Landis, opens in U.S. theaters.

2016 – Former Secretary of State, Senator and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton accepts the Democratic nomination for president, becoming the first woman to lead a major U.S. political party.

Musical Milestones

1956 – Elvis Presley scores his second No. 1 hit with “I Want You, I Need You, I Love You.” The song tops Billboard’s Best Sellers in Stores chart (predecessor of the Hot 100, which is introduced in 1958).

1962 – “Roses Are Red (My Love),” by Bobby Vinton, is in the middle of four weeks as a Billboard chart-topper.

1973 – In what is considered the largest rock concert to date, more than 600,000 people attend the Watkins Glen Summer Jam in upstate New York to catch performances by the Allman Brothers, the Band and the Grateful Dead.

1984 – Prince is in the middle of a five-week run on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “When Doves Cry,” from his “Purple Rain” soundtrack. The song is his first No. 1.

1990 – “She Ain’t Worth It,” by Glenn Medeiros featuring Bobby Brown, is in its second week as a No. 1 single.

1998 – Brandy & Monica are in the midst of 13 weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “The Boy is Mine.”

2001 – Usher begins his fourth and final week at No. 1 on the pop chart with “U Remind Me.”

On this Day July 27

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Celebrity Birthdays

1922 – Emmy and Peabody Award-winning TV writer-producer Norman Lear (“All in the Family,” “The Jeffersons,” “Maude,” “Good Times”)

1944 – Singer Bobbie Gentry, who claimed Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance honors for the 1967 hit “Ode to Billie Joe”

1948 – Olympic gold medal figure skater Peggy Fleming

1949 – Singer Maureen McGovern, the talent behind the 1973 hit “The Morning After” from the movie “The Poseidon Adventure”

1972 – Comedian-actress and “SNL” alum Maya Rudolph (“50 First Dates,” “Grown-ups,” “Bridesmaids”)

1977 – Golden Globe-winning actor Jonathan Rhys Myers (“Prozac Nation,” “Bend It Like Beckham,” “Match Point,” “Elvis”)

History Highlights

1940 – Bugs Bunny makes his debut in the Merrie Melodies cartoon “A Wild Hare,” and remains an American cultural icon all these decades later.

1953 – After three years of combat, the United States, the People’s Republic of China, North Korea, and South Korea agree to an armistice, bringing the Korean War to an end.

1965 – President Lyndon Johnson signs the Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act into law, requiring cigarette makers to print health warnings on every pack of smokes.

1974 – The Watergate scandal boils over as the House Judiciary Committee recommends that President Richard Nixon be impeached and removed from office for obstruction of justice.

2003 – Entertainer Bob Hope—known for his decades of overseas tours to perform for American troops and who hosted 18 Oscar ceremonies and received five honorary awards from the Academy—dies at the age of 100.

Musical Milestones

1940 – “Billboard” magazine publishes its first music popularity chart. The No. 1 song for the week ending July 27, 1940 is “I’ll Never Smile Again” by Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra with vocals provided by Frank Sinatra and The Pied Pipers.

1959 – Paul Anka is in the middle of four weeks at No. 1 on the singles chart with “Lonely Boy.”

1963 – Jan & Dean ride the tide through a second week on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Surf City.” It’s the first surf song to become a national chart-topper.

1974 – “Annie’s Song,” a tribute to his wife, propels John Denver to the top of the singles chart.

1976 – Nearly four years after U.S. immigration officials threaten to deport him, John Lennon acquires his green card. It allows Lennon to settle in the U.S., where he lived, raised a son and remained until his tragic death on December 8, 1980.

1991 – “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You” by Bryan Adams kicks off seven weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100. The track appears on the “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” movie soundtrack as well as on Adams’ sixth studio album, “Waking Up the Neighbours.”

1996 – The No. 1 song in the U.S. is “You’re Makin’ Me High”/”Let It Flow,” by Toni Braxton. The track holds the top spot for a week.

2002 – Rap sensation Nelly rules the Billboard pop chart with “Hot in Herre,” which remains a chart-topper for seven weeks.

On this Day July 26

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Celebrity Birthdays

1928 – Oscar and Golden Globe-winning director Stanley Kubrick (“Spartacus,” “Dr. Strangelove,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “A Clockwork Orange,” “The Shining,” “Full Metal jacket,” “Eyes Wide Shut”) (d. 1999)

1943 – Legendary Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger

1945 – Oscar, Tony, Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actress Dame Helen Mirren (“Prime Suspect,” “Caligula,” “Shadowboxer,” “Elizabeth I,” “The Queen,” “Hitchcock,” “Woman in Gold”)

1956 – Olympic gold medal figure skater Dorothy Hamill

1959 – Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actor-director-producer Kevin Spacey (“Seven,” “The Usual Suspects,” “L.A. Confidential,” “American Beauty,” “House of Cards,” “Elvis & Nixon”), who went on to face multiple accusations of sexual misconduct

1964 – Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actress Sandra Bullock (“The Net,” “Speed,” “Miss Congeniality,” “The Blind Side,” “Gravity”)

1965 – Emmy-winning actor Jeremy Piven, best known for his role as Hollywood agent Ari Gold in the TV series and movie “Entourage”

1973 – Actress Kate Beckinsale (“Pearl Harbor,” “Underworld,” “The Aviator,” “Click,” “Total Recall”)

History Highlights

1775 – Signed, sealed and delivered. The U.S. Postal Service is established and the Continental Congress appoints Benjamin Franklin as first Postmaster General.

1908 – The Office of the Chief Examiner, later named the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is founded. It begins with a short memo signed by Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte, describing a “regular force of special agents” available to investigate certain cases of the U.S. Department of Justice.

1947 – President Harry Truman signs the National Security Act, creating the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

1964 – Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa is convicted of fraud and conspiracy. The man long suspected of mafia ties serves four years in prison before President Richard Nixon commutes his sentence.

1990 – President George H. W. Bush signs the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into law, extending civil rights protections to people with disabilities, guaranteeing them equal employment opportunities as well as accessibility to buildings and transportation.

Musical Milestones

1952 – Vera Lynn is in the midst of a nine-week ride on top of the Billboard singles survey with “Auf Wiederseh’n Sweetheart.”

1968 – Motown Records signs the Jackson 5 to a one-year contract.

1969 – Johnny Cash releases the single, “A Boy Named Sue,” which was recorded five months earlier during a performance at California’s San Quentin State Prison.

1975 – Disco anthem “The Hustle,” by Van McCoy and the Soul City Symphony, boogies its way to the top of the singles chart.

1984 – Movie-goers line up to see the premiere of “Purple Rain,” the semi-autobiographical story of musician Prince.

1986 – Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer,” off his “So” album, is the No. 1 single. The accompanying music video goes on to capture a record nine awards at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards. Gabriel also earns three Grammy nominations: Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, Song of the Year and Record of the Year.

1997 – “I’ll Be Missing You,” by Puff Daddy and Faith Evans featuring 112, tops the Billboard Hot 100.

On this Day July 25

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Celebrity Birthdays

1894 – Oscar-winning actor Walter Brennan (“The King of Jazz,” “Come and Get It,” “Kentucky,” “The Westerner”)

1907 – Actor Jack Gilford (“A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” “Cabaret,” “Save The Tiger,” “Cocoon”) (d. 1990)

1923- Actress Estelle Getty, best known for playing Sophia in the TV sitcom “The Golden Girls” (d. 2008)

1955 – Supermodel-actress (and Mrs. David Bowie) Iman

1965 – Actress-writer-producer Illeana Douglas (“Grace of My Heart,” “To Die For,” “Ghost World”)

1967 – Golden Globe-winning actor Matt LeBlanc, best known for playing Joey in the hit NBC sitcom “Friends”

1978 – World’s first test-tube baby, Louise Joy Brown

History Highlights

1898 – More than 16,000 U.S. troops invade Puerto Rico asserting that they are liberating the inhabitants from Spanish colonial rule, which had recently granted the island’s government limited autonomy. The island, as well as Cuba and the Philippines, were spoils of the Spanish-American War, which ended the following month.

1943 – Benito Mussolini, fascist dictator of Italy, is voted out of power by his own Grand Council and arrested upon leaving a meeting with King Vittorio Emanuele, who tells Il Duce that the war is lost.

1953 – Big changes take place for New York City commuters as the subway token is introduced, and the cost of riding the underground rises from a dime to 15 cents.

1956 – The Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria collides with the MS Stockholm in heavy fog off the coast of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, and sinks the next day, killing 51.

1978 – Louise Joy Brown, the world’s first baby to be conceived throughin vitro fertilization (IVF) is born at Oldham and District General Hospital in Manchester, England.

1984 – Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to walk in space. She spends more than 3.5 hours outside the Salyut 7 space station along with a crewmate, welding, brazing and testing a new multipurpose tool. Savitskaya was twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union, the highest honor bestowed by her country, and later entered Soviet politics.

1985 – The world learns that screen legend Rock Hudson has AIDS through a written announcement released by his publicist. He becomes the first celebrity to go public with such a diagnosis, which was still stigmatized at that time.

Musical Milestones

1965 – Bob Dylan goes electric and fans go ballistic at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island. Folk music purists are outraged when Dylan swaps his acoustic guitar for an electric one.

1970 – Carpenters kick off four weeks on top of the Billboard singles chart with “(They Long to Be) Close to You.”

1975 – “A Chorus Line” premieres, becoming the longest running Broadway show.

1981 – Stevie Nicks has her first solo chart success when “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” reaches No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was written by Tom Petty, who assists on vocals.

1987 – Heart enters its third and final week on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Alone.”

On this Day July 24

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Celebrity Birthdays

1802 – French author Alexandre Dumas (“The Three Musketeers,” “The Count of Monte Cristo”) (d. 1870)

1897 – Aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart (d. 1937)

1936 – Comedian-actress Ruth Buzzi, who starred in the TV comedy-variety show “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In”

1949 – Actor-comedian Michael Richards, best known as Kramer in TV sitcom “Seinfeld”

1951 – Actress Lynda Carter, who played TV’s “Wonder Woman”

1968 – Emmy and Tony-winning actress-singer Kristin Chenoweth (“Pushing Daisies,” “The West Wing,” “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” “Wicked”)

1969 – Hip-hop/R&B star and actress Jennifer Lopez

1982 – Oscar-winning actress Anna Paquin (“The Piano,” “X-Men,” “True Blood”)

History Highlights

1948 – The Looney Tunes character Marvin the Martian debuts in the cartoon “Haredevil Hare.”

1950 – The 62-foot-tall Bumper 8 is the first rocket to be launched from Florida’s Cape Canaveral — known then as the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

1969 – Apollo 11 splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean following the crew’s historic moon landing.

1978 – New York Yankees manager Billy Martin resigns in what becomes an ongoing love/hate relationship with team owner George Steinbrenner. The move comes less than 24 hours after Martin lambasted All-Star Reggie Jackson and Steinbrenner while speaking to reporters at Chicago’s O’Hare airport where the Yankees were waiting to board a flight to Kansas City. “The two men deserve each other,” Martin told reporters. “One’s a born liar, the other’s convicted.”

1980 – Actor-comedian Peter Sellers, best known for his portrayal of Inspector Clouseau in the “Pink Panther” movie series as well as his ability to play multiple roles in a single film (“Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb”), dies of a heart attack at the age of 54.

1983 – With his team trailing 4–3 in the top half of the ninth inning at Yankee Stadium with two outs, the Kansas City Royals’ George Brett hits a two-run homer to give his team the lead. However, Yankees manager Billy Martin, who noticed a large amount of pine tar on Brett’s bat, requests that the umpires inspect his bat. The umpires rule that the amount on the bat exceeded the allowable amount, they nullify Brett’s home run and call him out, enabling the Yankees to win. This becomes known as the “Pine Tar Incident,” still considered among the wildest moments in baseball.

Musical Milestones

1971 – Paul Revere & the Raiders gallop to the top of the singles chart with “Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian).”

1976 – “Kiss and Say Goodbye,” by The Manhattans, is the most popular single.

1982 – Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” reaches No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remains there for six weeks. It is the theme song for the movie “Rocky III,” starring Sylvester Stallone, which was released on May 28, 1982, one day before EMI Records released the single.

1993 – U2 begins a two-week run on top of the Billboard album chart with “Zooropa,” the band’s fourth No. 1. “Zooropa” goes on win to a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 1994.

1999 – The theme to the summer blockbuster “Wild, Wild West” begins one week as a No. 1 single. Will Smith, who stars in the movie, sings with background vocals by Dru Hill and Kool Moe Dee.

On this Day July 20

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Celebrity Birthdays

1822 – Scientist Gregor Mendel, known as the father of modern genetics (d. 1884)

1919 – Explorer Sir Edmund Hillary, the first climber to reach the summit of Mount Everest (d. 2008)

1938 – Actress Diana Rigg, who played Emma Peel from the 60s British TV spy drama “The Avengers”

1938 – Golden Globe-winning actress Natalie Wood (“Miracle on 34th Street,” “Splendor in the Grass,” “Rebel Without a Cause,” “West Side Story”) (d. 1981)

1945 – Singer-songwriter Kim Carnes, best known for her 1981 hit single “Bette Davis Eyes”

1947 – Grammy-winning rock guitarist Carlos Santana, who pioneered the fusion of rock and Latin American music

1969 – Actor Josh Holloway, best known for playing Sawyer on the ABC series “Lost”

1971 – Golden Globe-winning actress Sandra Oh (“The Princess Diaries,” “Under the Tuscan Sun,” “Sideways,” “Grey’s Anatomy”)

1973 – Actor, rapper and songwriter Omar Epps (“Juice,” “ER,” “Breakfast of Champions,” “House,” “Resurrection”)

History Highlights

1944 – A plot to murder German dictator Adolf Hitler fails as a bomb planted in a briefcase goes off, but leaves him only slightly wounded. Known as Operation Valkyrie, the assassination attempt was masterminded by senior-level German military officials who wanted to remove Hitler in order to establish a new government. Hitler’s would-be assassins are executed after being discovered.

1969 – More than a billion people around the world are glued to TV sets and radios as Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes the first human to step onto the surface of the moon. He famously marks the landmark event by saying, “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.”

1973 – Actor and martial arts icon Bruce Lee dies unexpectedly at the age of 32, just before the release of his film, “Enter the Dragon.” The official cause of death is a brain edema, possibly triggered by a reaction to a prescription painkiller that Lee was reportedly taking for a back injury.

1976 – On the seventh anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, Viking 1, an unmanned U.S. planetary probe, becomes the first spacecraft to successfully land on the surface of Mars.

1976 – In Major League Baseball, “Hammerin'” Hank Aaron hits his 755th and final home run during the Milwaukee Brewers’ game against the California Angels.

1977 – A flash flood washes over Johnstown, Pennsylvania, killing 84 people and causing millions of dollars in damage. The disaster marks the third time that floods, caused by dam failures, devastate the same community. The Great Flood of 1889 killed more than 2,000 people in Johnstown. A second flood in 1936 left two dozen people dead.

2012 – Twelve people are killed and 70 others are injured when a gunman opens fire inside a crowded movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. The theater was packed with Batman fans that were there for a midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises.” The tragedy becomes the deadliest mass shooting in Colorado since the Columbine shooting in 1999 in which 12 high school students and a teacher were gunned down.

Musical Milestones

1963 – Beach music is the favorite on this day, as Jan and Dean’s “Surf City” hits No. 1 on the singles chart.

1968 – Trumpeter Hugh Masekela begins a two-week run on top of the singles chart with the jazz instrumental “Grazing in the Grass.” In 2018, the song is inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

1968 – Heavy metal strikes the album chart for the first time in the form of Iron Butterfly’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida,” which was originally supposed to be titled “In The Garden of Eden.” The 17-minute title track takes up all of Side Two and was edited down to 2:53 for release as a single.

1974 – Early disco hit “Rock Your Baby,” by George McCrae, begins its second and final week as a No. 1 single.

1985 – Duran Duran begin their second and final week on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “A View to a Kill,” from the James Bond movie of the same name.

1986 – The movie “Sid & Nancy,” based on the life of Sex Pistol Sid Vicious, premieres in London, starring Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb.

1991 – One-hit-wonder EMF kick off a week at No. 1 on the pop chart with “Unbelievable.”

1996 – “How Do U Want It,” by 2Pac featuring K-Ci & JoJo, grabs the top spot on the Billboard single chart. The track remains at No. 1 for a week.

2002 – “Hot in Herre,” by Nelly, is in the midst of a seven-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The track garners Nelly a 2003 Grammy for Best Male Rap Solo Performance, a brand new category at the time.