On This Day: February 29

On This Day February 29

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1904 – Jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, big band leader and composer Jimmy Dorsey (“I’m Glad There is You,” “It’s the Dreamer in Me”) (d. 1957)

1916 – Singer-actress Dinah Shore, born Frances Rose Shore (“Blues in the Night,” “I’ll Walk Alone,” “The Gypsy,” “Buttons and Bows”) (d. 1994)

1936 – Retired astronaut Jack Lousma who served aboard the Skylab space station in 1973 and commanded STS-3, the third Space Shuttle mission in 1982

1944 – Chicago cop-turned-actor Dennis Farina (“Midnight Run,” “Snatch,” “Out of Sight,” “Get Shorty,” “Law & Order”) (d. 2013)

1960 – Motivational speaker and author Tony Robbins

1972 – Actor and model Antonio Sabato, Jr. (“General Hospital,” “Melrose Place,” “Charmed”)

1976 – Rap artist Ja Rule, born Jeffrey Atkins (“Between Me and You,” “Always on Time,” “Put It on Me”)

History Highlights
History Highlights

1940 – The epic Civil War drama “Gone With The Wind” clinches eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. Hattie McDaniel, who played “Mammy,” is crowned Best Supporting Actress, becoming the first African American performer to win an Oscar.

1956 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower holds a nationally televised address to announce his intentions to seek a second term in The White House.

1968 – President Lyndon Johnson’s National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (also known as the Kerner Commission) warns Americans that “our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white — separate and unequal.”

1968 – Astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell announces the discovery of the first pulsar — a star that emits radio waves.

1976 – The 1965 film “The Sound of Music,” starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, airs on network television for the first time. ABC paid $15 million for a one-time only broadcast that became one of the top 20 rated movies ever shown on TV to that point.

1984 – Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announces that he is stepping down after more than 15 years in power.

1996 – A four-year siege of the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo finally ends after shelling and sniper attacks that killed thousands.

2004 – Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigns as president of Haiti following popular rebel uprising.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1958 – Frank Sinatra cruises along the top of the Billboard album chart with “Come Fly With Me,” featuring the tracks “Isle of Capri,” “Autumn in New York,” “April in Paris,” “Blue Hawaii” and, of course, the title track, “Come Fly With Me.” The album holds the top spot for five weeks.

1964 – The Beatles are in the middle of a seven-week domination of the Billboard singles chart with “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”

1968 – The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album scores big at the 10th Grammy Awards, earning statuettes for Album of the Year (first rock LP to do so), Best Album Cover, Best Engineered Recording and Best Contemporary Album.

1980 – Buddy Holly’s distinctive eyeglasses and The Big Bopper’s watch turn up inside a file at the Mason City, Iowa police station. Both articles had been misplaced 21 years earlier after the plane crash that killed them and rocker Ritchie Valens.

1980 – At age 84, comedian George Burns becomes the oldest person with a hit on the Billboard Hot 100, as “I Wish I Was 18 Again” peaks at No.49. The last charting record Burns had before this was a spoken word comedy routine with his wife and partner Gracie Allen in 1933.

1992 – Mr. Big kicks off three weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “To Be with You.”

2004 – Usher, Lil Jon and Ludacris have the No. 1 single with “Yeah!” It remains on top of the Billboard Hot 100 for 12 weeks.

2012 – Singer and actor Davy Jones, who was part of the pop group The Monkees, dies of a heart attack at the age of 66.

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On This Day: March 7

On This Day March 7

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1934 – Longtime NBC weatherman and “Today” show personality Willard Scott 

1945 – Actor John Heard (“Awakenings,” “Home Alone,” “The Pelican Brief”) (d. 2017)

1956 – Emmy, Tony and Golden Globe-winning actor Bryan Cranston (“Saving Private Ryan,” “Malcolm in the Middle,” “Little Miss Sunshine,” “Breaking Bad,” “Argo,” “Trumbo,” “The Infiltrator,” “Isle of Dogs,” “The Upside”)

1964 – Emmy-winning comedian Wanda Sykes (“The Chris Rock Show,” “The New Adventures of Old Christine,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm”)

1970 – Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actress Rachel Weisz (“Stealing Beauty,” “The Mummy,” “The Constant Gardener,” “The Bourne Legacy,” “Oz the Great and Powerful,” “The Favourite”)

1974 – Actress-producer Jenna Fischer (“The Office,” “Blades of Glory,” “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story,” “The Promotion,” “Hall Pass”)

1980 – Actress Laura Prepon (“That ‘70s Show,” “Slackers,” “Lightning Bug,” “The Pornographer: A Love Story,” “The Killing Game,” “Orange is the New Black”) 

History Highlights
History Highlights

1876 – Alexander Graham Bell receives a patent for his revolutionary invention, the telephone, which remains a vital communications tool around the world today.

1924 – “The New Republic” publishes Robert Frost’s poem “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening.” The work, beginning with the famous line “Whose woods these are, I think I know. His house is in the village though,” introduces millions of American students to poetry.

1933 – Unemployed during the Great Depression, Charles Darrow creates the board game Monopoly, which he personally sells for two years until Parker Brothers begins mass-marketing it in 1935. Darrow dies a millionaire in 1967.

1965 – A peaceful civil rights demonstration ends in violence in Selma, Alabama when many of the protesters are tear-gassed and beaten by white state troopers and sheriff’s deputies. The day’s events become known as “Bloody Sunday” and mark a tragic but important milestone in America’s civil rights movement. The clash was reported on national television and other media, spurring demonstrations in 80 cities across the country over the next few days.

1999 – Acclaimed screenwriter-director-producer Stanley Kubrick (“Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “A Clockwork Orange,” “The Shining,” “Full Metal Jacket,” “Eyes Wide Shut”) dies in England at the age of 70.

2010 – Kathryn Bigelow becomes the first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Director, for the movie “The Hurt Locker,” about an American bomb squad that disables explosives in Iraq in 2004. Bigelow beats out directing heavyweights James Cameron (coincidentally, her ex-husband),  Lee Daniels, Jason Reitman and Quentin Tarantino.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1964 – “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” by The Beatles, is in the middle of a seven-week domination of the Billboard Hot 100. It is the band’s first No. 1 hit in the U.S. and marks the rising tide of the British Invasion and Beatlemania.

1966 – Tina Turner records her vocals for the legendary Phil Spector-produced “River Deep Mountain High.”

1970 – Just as Simon & Garfunkel split, the acclaimed pop duo’s final collaboration, “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” starts a 10-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart.

1987 – The Beastie Boys become the first rap act to have a No. 1 album with their debut work, “Licensed To Ill.” The album contains fan favorites including “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party)” and “No Sleep till Brooklyn.”

1992 – Mr. Big is in the middle of three weeks as Billboard Hot 100 chart-toppers with “To Be With You.”

1998 – Céline Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On,” the theme from the blockbuster movie “Titanic,” begins its second and final week on top of the pop chart.

2009 – Flo Rida is in the middle of a six-week domination of the singles chart with “Right Round,” which was inspired by Dead or Alive’s 1985 hit, “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record).”

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