On This Day: April 16

On This Day April 16

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1867 – Wilbur Wright, who along with his brother Orville, is considered a pioneer of flight (d. 1912)

1889 – Silent film icon Charlie Chaplin (d. 1977)

1935 – Pop vocalist Bobby Vinton (“Roses Are Red,” “Blue Velvet,” “Mr. Lonely“) 

1939 – Pop singer Dusty Springfield {“Wishin’ and Hopin’,” “The Look of Love”)   (d. 1999)

1947 – Retired NBA legend and Basketball Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, born Ferdinand Lewis (Lew) Alcindor, Jr. 

1954 – Emmy and Tony-winning actress Ellen Barkin (“Buckaroo Banzai,” “The Big Easy,” “Sea of Love,” “Switch”)

1965 – Actor-comedian Martin Lawrence (“Bad Boys,” “Blue Streak,” “Big Momma’s House”)

1971 – Grammy-winning Tejano superstar Selena Quintanilla (d. 1995)

1993 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and record producer Chance The Rapper, born Chancelor Bennett (“Confident,” “Coloring Book”)

History Highlights
History Highlights

1947 – A powerful explosion aboard a chemical-laden freighter docked at Texas City, near Houston, touches off fires that destroy much of the city. Nearly 600 people are killed in what is still considered one of the worst industrial accidents in U.S. history.  

1947 – Multimillionaire financier and presidential adviser Bernard Baruch coins the term “Cold War” to describe relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. The phrase sticks, and for more than four decades is a fixture of American diplomacy.

1968 – The longest night game in Major League Baseball ends in the Houston Astrodome in the wee hours of the morning with the Astros shutting out the New York Mets 1-0 in 24 innings. 

1972 – The Chinese government sends President Richard Nixon two giant pandas as a sign of friendship. The gesture becomes known as “Panda Diplomacy.” Female panda Ling-Ling and male companion Hsing-Hsing make their home at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.

2007 – In one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history, 32 people are gunned down on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, by a student at the college who would later take his own life.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1964 – The Beatles film chase scenes for their movie, “A Hard Day’s Night,” with actors dressed as policemen (“Bobbies”) in the Notting Hill Gate area of London. That evening, the Fab Four record the title track at Abbey Road Studios.

1966 – “(You’re My) Soul and Inspiration,” by The Righteous Brothers, is in the middle of three weeks as a No. 1 single. Billboard goes on to rank the track as the No. 3 single for all of 1966.

1973 – Paul McCartney’s first television special, “James Paul McCartney,” airs on ABC-TV. The show, which includes performances by McCartney and Wings, is broadcast in the U.K. about a month later.

1977 – The hottest song on the radio is “Don’t Give Up on Us,” by David Soul, best known as the star of the 1970s TV police drama, “Starsky & Hutch.”

1983 – “Billie Jean,” from Michael Jackson’s Grammy-winning “Thriller” album, wraps up seven weeks as a No. 1 single.

1994 – R. Kelly is midway through a four-week ride at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Bump ‘N Grind.”

2005 – “Candy Shop,” by 50 Cent featuring Olivia, is in the midst of a nine-week domination of the U.S. pop chart.

2018 – Kendrick Lamar becomes the first rapper to win the Pulitzer Prize. The honor is for his 2017 album, “DAMN.” The recognition is part of a growing acceptance of hip-hop by reigning cultural institutions.

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On this Day: June 17

On this Day June 17

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1904 – Tony-winning actor Ralph Bellamy (“His Girl Friday,” “The Winds of War,” “Trading Places”) (d. 1991)

1943 – Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich

1943 – Grammy, Emmy and Tony-winning singer-songwriter-arranger Barry Manilow (“I Write the Songs,” “Mandy,” “Copacabana”)

1951 – Actor-comedian Joe Piscopo, best remembered for his Frank Sinatra impersonations on “Saturday Night Live” in the 1980s

1960 – Actor Thomas Haden Church (“Wings,” “Sideways,” “Spider-Man 3”)

1963 – Actor Greg Kinnear (“As Good As It Gets,” “You’ve Got Mail,” “Stuck on You,” “Little Miss Sunshine,” “Green Zone”)

1980 – American tennis star Venus Williams

1987 – Grammy-winning rapper and producer Kendrick Lamar, born Kendrick Lamar Duckworth, who has the distinction of being the first artist ever to win a Pulitzer Prize for Music for a genre other than classical or jazz

History Highlights
History Highlights

1885 – The disassembled Statue of Liberty, a gift of friendship from the people of France to the American people, arrives to great fanfare in New York Harbor aboard the French Navy ship, Isère. It will take a year to reassemble all its parts.

1928 – Aviator Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, as she completes a flight from Newfoundland to Wales in about 21 hours.

1972 – Five men are arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office-apartment-hotel complex in Washington, D.C. The busts eventually lead to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in the Watergate scandal.

1991 – The South African Parliament repeals the Population Registration Act, removing what served as the foundation of apartheid. The law, first enacted in 1950, required the racial classification of all South Africans at birth.

1994 – The NBA playoffs are interrupted as TV networks break in with live coverage of perhaps the most famous car chase ever to take place on Los Angeles freeways. It’s football legend O.J. Simpson, inside a white Ford Bronco, being pursued as a double-murder suspect by a convoy of police cars.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1965 – The New York Academy of Music hosts the first-ever American performances of two British bands that would become staples of the classic rock scene: The Moody Blues and The Kinks.

1967 – “Groovin’,” by The Young Rascals, makes a return trip to the top of the Billboard singles chart. It spent two weeks there in mid-May and begins another two-week stay this time around.

1972 – Sammy Davis, Jr. holds at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “The Candy Man,” from the movie “Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory.” It is the only chart-topper of Davis’ long career as a celebrated entertainer and Rat Pack member.

1972 – The Rolling Stones’ “Exile On Main Street” starts a four-week run on top of the Billboard album chart. The double-album features “Rocks Off’,” “Rip This Joint,” “Happy” and “Tumbling Dice.”

1978 – Andy Gibb is the hottest act on the singles chart with “Shadow Dancing,” which holds the top spot for seven weeks.

1986 – Kate Smith, one of the most successful American singers of the 1920s-40s and best known for her rendition of “God Bless America,” dies at the age of 79.

1995 – Bryan Adams’ “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?” is in the middle of a five-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart. The song is from the soundtrack to the movie “Don Juan DeMarco,” starring Johnny Depp.

2006 – “Hips Don’t Lie, by Shakira featuring Wyclef Jean, begins two weeks on top of the pop chart.

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