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On This Day February 5

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Celebrity Birthdays

1919 – Comedian-actor-TV host Red Buttons (d. 2006)

1934 – Retired Major League Baseball superstar Hank Aaron, who was first to break Babe Ruth’s record of 714 home runs

1942 – Retired Heisman Trophy winner and legendary Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach 

1948 – Actress Barbara Hershey (“Hannah and Her Sisters,” “Beaches,” “Falling Down,” “Black Swan”) 

1948 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor Tom Wilkinson (“The Full Monty,” “In the Bedroom,” “Michael Clayton,” “Duplicity,” “The Debt,” “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”) 

1948 – Actor, screenwriter and director Christopher Guest (“This is Spinal Tap,” “The Princess Bride,” “Waiting for Guffman”) 

1962 – Actress Jennifer Jason Leigh (“Single White Female,” “Dolores Claiborne,” “The Hateful Eight”) 

1964 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actress Laura Linney (“Kinsey,” “Primal Fear,” “The Truman Show,” “Wild Iris, “Frasier,” “John Adams”) 

History Highlights

1937 – President Franklin Roosevelt announces a controversial plan to expand the Supreme Court, allegedly to make it more efficient. Critics accuse him of trying to “pack” the court to neutralize those justices hostile to his New Deal.

1971 – Apollo 14’s lunar module, the Antares, touches down on the surface of the moon in the region known as Fra Mauro, the intended landing site of the aborted Apollo 13 mission. While on the moon, Commander Alan Shepard practices his golf swing by hitting two balls.

1972 – Bob Douglas (1882-1979), considered the “Father of Black Professional Basketball,” becomes the first African American elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

1988 – Two federal grand juries in Florida announce the indictments of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega and 16 associates on drug smuggling and money laundering charges.

1993 – Just two weeks after his inauguration, President Bill Clinton signs the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). It grants workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in order to recover from a serious medical condition, provide care for a seriously ill family member or care for a new child. 

1994 – White supremacist Byron De La Beckwith is convicted in the murder of African-American civil rights leader Medgar Evers more than 30 years after the crime occurred.

Musical Milestones

1955 – Billboard magazine ranks “Hearts of Stone,” by the New Jersey trio The Fontane Sisters, the best-selling single in the U.S.

1957 – Way before the British Invasion, an American invasion is underway, as adoring fans welcome Bill Haley and His Comets of “Rock Around the Clock” fame to the U.K.

1966 – Petula Clark’s “My Love” is the No. 1 single. The track is Clark’s second chart-topper following her breakthrough hit, “Downtown.” She becomes the first British female artist to score two U.S. No. 1s.

1972 – Paul Simon’s first solo recording since the Simon & Garfunkel split, “Mother And Child Reunion,” is released and eventually climbs as high as No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100.

1977 – “Torn Between Two Lovers” puts Mary MacGregor on top of the singles chart.

1983 – “Africa” becomes Toto’s first and only No. 1 single in the U.S. The track is from the band’s “Toto IV” album, which also contains the Top 5 hit “Rosanna.”

2000 – Australian pop duo Savage Garden is in the midst of a three-week domination of the Billboard Hot 100 with “I Knew I Loved You.”

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