On This Day: December 7

On This Day December 7

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1915 – Tony and Emmy-winning actor Eli Wallach (“The Misfits,” “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” “Nuts,” “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps”) (d. 2014)

1932 – Oscar-winning actress Ellen Burstyn (“The Exorcist,” “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”)

1947 – Baseball Hall of Famer and former Cincinnati Reds catcher Johnny Bench

1949 – Grammy-winning Rock and Roll Hall of Fame singer-songwriter and actor Tom Waits (“Jersey Girl,” “Hold On,” “One From the Heart”)

1956 – Basketball Hall of Famer and former Indiana Pacers coach/legendary Boston Celtics forward Larry Bird

1979 – Singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles (“Love Song,” “King of Anything”)

History Highlights
History Highlights

1941 – Japanese forces launch a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, thrusting the U.S. into World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt calls it “a date which will live in infamy.”

1963 – Decades before the DVR and years before the first Super Bowl, instant replay is used for the first time during an Army-Navy college football game. As the CBS broadcast replays Rollie Stichweh’s winning touchdown, commentator Lindsey Nelson tells viewers, “Ladies and gentlemen, Army did not score again!”

1972 – Apollo 17 hurtles toward space, carrying a three-man crew to the last moon landing of the Apollo program.

1982 – The nation’s first execution by lethal injection takes place at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas. Charles Brooks, Jr. was convicted of kidnapping and murdering an auto mechanic.

1993 – Colin Ferguson opens fire on a Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) commuter train after it pulls out of New York’s Penn Station, killing six and injuring 19. Other passengers overpower Ferguson when he stops to reload his pistol. The incident comes to be known as the Long Island Rail Road Massacre.

2001 – The heist film “Ocean’s Eleven,” starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Bernie Mac, Don Cheadle, Andy Garcia and Julia Roberts, and directed by Steven Soderbergh, opens in theaters. It is a remake of the 1960 movie of the same name that starred “Rat Pack” members Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr., along with Angie Dickinson.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1963 – The Singing Nun begins a four-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart with “Dominique,” which goes on to sell 1.5 million copies in the U.S. and win a Grammy for the year’s best Gospel song.

1974 – One-hit wonder Carl Douglas chops his way to the top of the singles chart with “Kung Fu Fighting.” The song, which holds at No. 1 for two weeks, sells 11 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time.

1985 – “Broken Wings,” by Mr. Mister, begins two weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

1991 – U2 conquer the Billboard album chart with “Achtung Baby,” featuring “One,” “Mysterious Ways,” “Even Better Than The Real Thing” and other popular tracks.

2002 – Eminem is in the midst of a 12-week reign over the Billboard Hot 100 with “Lose Yourself.” The track, from his “8 Mile” movie soundtrack, becomes the first rap song to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song. It also garners Eminem two Grammys.

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On this Day: May 10

On this Day May 10

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1899 – Oscar and Emmy-winning dancer-singer-actor Fred Astaire, born Frederick Austerlitz (d. 1987)

1902 – Oscar-winning producer David O. Selznick (“Gone With the Wind,” “Rebecca”) (d. 1965)

1934 – Disc jockey and voice actor Gary Owens, best remembered as the suave announcer in the NBC comedy series “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” (d. 2015)

1946 – Singer-songwriter-guitarist Donovan, born Donovan Leitch (“Sunshine Superman,” “Mellow Yellow,” “Hurdy Gurdy Man,” “Jennifer Juniper”)

1957 – Punk rock legend and Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious, born John Simon Ritchie (d. 1979)

1960 – U2 frontman Bono, born Paul David Hewson

1978 – Actor-comedian Kenan Thompson (“Kenan & Kel,” “The Mighty Ducks” movie series, “Good Burger,” “Saturday Night Live,” “Going in Style”)

History Highlights
History Highlights

1869 – The heads of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet in Promontory, Utah, and drive a ceremonial golden spike into the track that connects their lines. Completion of the transcontinental railroad made the American West easily accessible, paving the way for trade, business and population growth.

1924 – J. Edgar Hoover is named acting director of the Bureau of Investigation (now the FBI). By the end of the year, he is promoted to director, beginning a 48-year tenure in power during which he personally shapes American criminal justice in the 20th century.

1960 – The nuclear submarine USS Triton completes the first underwater circumnavigation of the globe, logging about 42,000 miles in the process.

1970 – Bobby Orr scores the winning goal 40 seconds into sudden-death overtime to lift the Boston Bruins over the St. Louis Blues for the Stanley Cup title — the Bruins’ first championship in 29 years.

1977 – Oscar-winning actress Joan Crawford dies at the age of 72. Crawford won a Best Actress Oscar for her starring role in 1945’s “Mildred Pierce” and received two Oscar nominations in later years.

1980 – Decades before the GM-bailout, the nearly bankrupt Chrysler Corporation secures $1.5 billion in federal loan guarantees — the largest rescue package ever granted by the U.S. government to an American corporation at that time.

1994 – John Wayne Gacy, convicted of the sex-related killings of 33 young men and boys, is put to death by lethal injection as the nation’s worst serial killer on record.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1954 – Bill Haley and His Comets release “Rock Around the Clock,” which, 14 months later, becomes the first rock and roll record to reach No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart.

1969 – “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures),” by The 5th Dimension, is in the middle of six weeks on top of the pop chart. Billboard has ranked the medley at 66th place in its “Greatest Songs of All Time” survey. It was originally written for the 1967 musical, “Hair.”

1975 – Stevie Wonder and his band Wonderlove perform for 125,000 fans at a free concert near the Washington Monument to celebrate Human Kindness Day.

1975 – “He Don’t Love You (Like I Love You),” by Tony Orlando and Dawn, is in the midst of a three-week hold on the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100.

1980 – Blondie rules the Billboard singles chart with “Call Me,” the theme song from the Richard Gere movie, “American Gigolo.” The song holds the top spot for six weeks.

1986 – “West End Girls,” by the British pop duo Pet Shop Boys, is the hottest single on the radio. It’s their first No. 1 single in the U.S.

1999 – Poet, cartoonist and children’s book author Shel Silverstein, who also wrote songs like “Cover of a Rolling Stone,” “Sylvia’s Mother” (both hits for Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show) and Johnny Cash’s “A Boy Named Sue,” dies of a heart attack at age 68.

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