On This Day: October 23

On This Day October 23

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1925 – NBC “The Tonight Show” host Johnny Carson (d. 2005)

1940 – Brazilian soccer legend Pelé, born Edson Arantes do Nascimento (d. 2022)

1942 – Doctor-turned-author and producer Michael Crichton (“The Andromeda Strain,” “Jurassic Park,” “ER”) (d. 2008)

1954 – Oscar-winning director Ang Lee (“Crouching Tiger,” “Hidden Dragon,” “Brokeback Mountain,” “Life of Pi”)

1956 – Grammy-winning country music singer-songwriter and actor Dwight Yoakam

1959 – The Grammy-winning master of the musical parody, “Weird Al” Yankovic

1962 – Former NFL and Canadian Football League star quarterback Doug Flutie

1976 – Actor Ryan Reynolds (“X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” “The Proposal,” “Buried,” “The Green Lantern,” “The Change-Up,” “Mississippi Grind,” “Deadpool”)

History Highlights
History Highlights

1973 – President Richard Nixon agrees to turn over subpoenaed audio tapes of his Oval Office conversations about the Watergate scandal.

1983 – A suicide bomber drives a truck into the U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 241 military personnel.

1989 – Thunderous explosions rock the Phillips 66 refinery in Pasadena, Texas, outside Houston, killing 23 employees and injuring more than 130 others. The blasts pack the force of a 3.5-magnitude earthquake. The ensuing fires take nearly 10 hours to extinguish.

1998 – Dr. Barnett Slepian is shot to death inside his home near Buffalo, New York by an anti-abortion radical, marking the fifth straight year that a doctor who was willing to perform abortions in upstate New York and Canada was targeted by a sniper.

2002 – Chechen rebels storm a Moscow theater and take close to a thousand people hostage during the sold-out performance of a popular musical. By the time the siege ends, the attackers and 130 hostages are dead.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1961 – Dion kicks off a two-week run atop the pop chart with “Runaround Sue.”

1962 – Little Stevie Wonder is 12 years old when he records his first single for Motown: “Thank You (For Loving Me All the Way).”

1965 – The Beatles are midway through a four-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Yesterday,” off the “Help!” album.

1971 – “Maggie May,” by Rod Stewart, is in the middle of of five weeks as a  No. 1 single.

1976 – Chicago scores its first No. 1 single with “If You Leave Me Now,” off the band’s “Chicago X” album.” The track remains a chart-topper for two weeks and goes on to capture two Grammy Awards.

1982 – Performing under the name “John Cougar” because of a contractual agreement with his record label, John Mellencamp enters his fourth and final week on top of the singles chart with “Jack & Diane.”

1987 – Madonna lands on the big screen, as the comedy “Who’s That Girl” opens in London.

1999 – “Smooth,” by Santana featuring Rob Thomas, begins 12 weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100. The single goes on to capture Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals Grammys.

2006 – Amy Winehouse releases her autobiographical song, “Rehab,” from her second and final studio album, “Back to Black.” The track wins Grammy Awards for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

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On This Day: September 19

On This Day September 19

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1928 – Actor Adam West, best known for playing Batman in the 1960s TV series (d. 2017)

1933 – Actor David McCallum, best known as secret agent Illya Kuryakin in the 1960s “Man from U.N.C.L.E.” TV series and as Dr. Donald Mallard on “NCIS.”

1940 – Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe-winning songwriter Paul Williams, known for “We’ve Only Just Begun,” “Evergreen,” “Rainy Days and Mondays” and many others 1970s standards.

1941 – Singer Mama Cass Elliot, born Ellen Naomi Cohen, member of the 1960s band The Mamas & the Papas (d. 1974)

1948 – Oscar, Emmy and Tony-winning actor Jeremy Irons (“Brideshead Revisited,” “Reversal of Fortune,” “Kafka,” “The House of the Spirits,” “The Lion King,” “Die Hard With a Vengeance,” “Margin Call,” “The Man Who Knew Infinity”)

1949 – Lesley Hornby, a.k.a. “Twiggy,” the 60s British fashion icon

1964 – Grammy-winning country music singer Trisha Yearwood

1974 – Emmy-winning “The Tonight Show” host and “Saturday Night Live” alum Jimmy Fallon

History Highlights
History Highlights

1881 – U.S. President James Garfield dies of injuries suffered two months earlier when he was shot at a Washington railroad station by a mentally disturbed lawyer and writer named Charles Guiteau. Garfield was getting ready to leave town for a family vacation on the Jersey shore when the attack took place.

1957 – Scientists detonate a 1.8 kiloton nuclear weapon in an underground tunnel at the Nevada Test Site, a 1,375-square-mile research center located north of Las Vegas. The test, known as Rainier, marks the first fully contained underground detonation and produces no radioactive fallout.

1969 – President Richard Nixon tries to appease Vietnam War protesters by announcing the cancellation of two upcoming draft calls. 

1970 – Americans meet and fall in love with a single career woman, TV news producer Mary Richards, when CBS introduces “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” 

1985 – Mother Nature deals Mexico City a devastating one-two punch. A powerful earthquake and almost equally powerful aftershock rock the Mexican capital, killing nearly 10,000 people, injuring 30,000 and causing billions of dollars in damage. 

1994 – “ER,” the medical drama that gave George Clooney’s acting career a shot in the arm, premieres on NBC. The primetime series was the creation of novelist and physician Michael Crichton and captured 116 awards, including 22 Emmys, during a 15-season run.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1960 – Chubby Checker’s “The Twist” kicks off a week on top of the Billboard singles chart and sets off a new dance craze across America.

1966 – “The House of the Rising Sun,” by The Animals, begins its third and final week as a No. 1 hit.

1970 – Diana Ross climbs to the summit of the singles chart with “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” — her first No. 1 since leaving The Supremes. 

1981 – Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel reunite for a free concert in New York’s Central Park that draws half a million fans. 

1987 – The duet “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” by Michael Jackson and Siedah Garrett, off MJ’s “Bad” album, begins a week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. 

1998 – Aerosmith is in the midst of a four-week domination of the pop chart with “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” from the movie “Armageddon.” The song is the band’s first No. 1 hit.

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