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On This Day November 18

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Celebrity Birthdays

1908 – Peabody-winning actress-comedian Imogene Coca (“Your Show of Shows,” “Vacation”) (d. 2001)

1923 – First American in space, astronaut Alan Shepard (d. 1998)

1939 – Actress Brenda Vaccaro (“Midnight Cowboy,” “Once Is Not Enough,” “Capricorn One,” “Supergirl”)

1942 – Actress Linda Evans (“The Big Valley,” “Dynasty”)

1953 – Comedic actor and “SNL” alum Kevin Nealon (“The Wedding Singer,” “Happy Gilmore,” “Blended”)

1960 – Actress Elizabeth Perkins (“About Last Night…,” “Big,” “Avalon,” “The Flintstones,” “Miracle on 34th Street,” “28 Days,” “Cats & Dogs”)

1968 – Actor, producer and screenwriter Owen Wilson (“The Royal Tenenbaums,” “Wedding Crashers,” “Night at the Museum” trilogy, “You, Me and Dupree,” “Marley & Me,” “The Internship”)

1974 – Actress Chloë Sevigny (“A Map of the World,” “Boys Don’t Cry,” “Big Love”)

History Highlights

1883 – U.S. and Canadian railroads implement five standardized time zones across North America to end years of confusion over local times: Intercolonial (now known as Atlantic Time in eastern Canada), Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific.

1928 – Mickey Mouse debuts in Walt Disney’s “Steamboat Willie,” the first synchronized sound cartoon ever produced. Mickey’s squeaky voice is provided by Mr. Disney himself.

1963 – The Bell Telephone Company introduces the push-button telephone. The first touch-tone telephone is the Western Electric model 1500, with 10 buttons. Engineers tested 15 different keypad layouts before settling on the configuration with 1 at the top left and 0 in the bottom row.

1978 – People’s Temple leader Jim Jones leads hundreds of his followers in a mass murder-suicide at their Jonestown Commune in remote northwestern Guyana.

1991 – Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon free Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite after more than four years in captivity.

1999 – In the early morning hours, a 40-foot-high pyramid of logs for the annual Aggie Bonfire at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas collapses, killing 12 people and injuring 27 others. Investigators determine that the first stack of logs did not have sufficient containment strength.

Musical Milestones

1956 – Fats Domino appears on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and plays his smash, “Blueberry Hill.”

1957 – Elvis Presley remains perched atop the U.S. singles chart for a fifth straight week with “Jailhouse Rock,” from the movie of the same name.

1963 – “I’m Leaving It Up to You” by Dale & Grace is No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

1971 – Memphis blues singer and musician Herman ‘Junior’ Parker dies at the age of 39 during surgery for a brain tumor. Among his hits were “Feelin’ Good,” “Driving Wheel,” “Next Time You See Me,” “In the Dark” and “Sweet Home Chicago.”

1978 – “52nd Street” becomes Billy Joel’s first No. 1 album. It contains some of his biggest hits to date, including “My Life,” “Big Shot” and “Honesty,” and goes on to capture two Grammy Awards.

1989 – Bad English’s “When I See You Smile” begins its second and final weeks at No, 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. 

1993 – Five months before Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain’s death, the pioneering grunge band records an “MTV Unplugged” special at Sony Music Studios in New York City. The set list consists of lesser-known material and cover versions of songs by The Vaselines, David Bowie, Meat Puppets and Lead Belly. The album goes on to win a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album in 1996.

1995 – “Fantasy.” by Mariah Carey, enters its eighth and final week on top of the pop chart.

2017 – Australian musician and songwriter Malcolm Young, best known as a co-founder, rhythm guitarist, backing vocalist and songwriter for the hard rock band AC/DC, dies at the age of 64.

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