On This Day: October 19

On This Day October 19

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1931 – Spy novelist John le Carré, best known for his 1963 international best-seller, “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold” (d. 2020)

1932 – Actor Robert Reed, most remembered for playing family man Mike Brady in “The Brady Bunch” TV series (d. 1992)

1937 – Contemporary artist and pop art icon Peter Max

1940 – Actor Sir Michael Gambon, who played Albus Dumbledore in six “Harry Potter” movies

1945 – Emmy, Tony and Golden Globe-winning actor John Lithgow (“The World According to Garp,” “Terms of Endearment,” “Footloose,” “Shrek,” “3rd Rock from the Sun,” “Dexter”)

1962 – Heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield

1964 – Reality TV host Ty Pennington (“Trading Spaces,” “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”)

1966 – Actor-director Jon Favreau (“Rudy,” “Swingers,” “The Break-Up,” “Elf,” “Cowboys & Aliens” and the “Iron Man” movie series)

1970 – Comedian and “Saturday Night Live” alum Chris Kattan

History Highlights
History Highlights

1781 – Hopelessly trapped at Yorktown, Virginia, British General Lord Cornwallis surrenders 8,000 British soldiers and seamen to a larger Franco-American force, effectively bringing an end to the American Revolution. The event is known as the Siege of Yorktown or the Battle of Yorktown.

1960 – The Cold War heats up as the U.S. imposes an embargo on exports to Cuba. The original embargo covers all exports except medicine and some food products. President John F. Kennedy expands the embargo to cover U.S. imports from Cuba, which is made permanent in early 1962.

1970 – In New York City, One World Trade Center welcomes its first tenants, even as construction of the upper floors of the world’s tallest building continues.

1977 – An aviation icon, the supersonic Concorde SST, makes its first landing at New York’s JFK International Airport. The aircraft provides high-speed trans-Atlantic service until a 2003 Air France crash during takeoff from Paris that kills everyone on board.

1982 – Auto executive John DeLorean is arrested for drug trafficking and money laundering after FBI agents nab him with a briefcase containing $24 million worth of cocaine.

1987 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average suffers the largest-ever one-day percentage decline, dropping 508 points (22.6 percent), in what comes to be known as “Black Monday.” It is a bigger collapse than what rocked Wall Street in 1929, right before the Great Depression.

1991 – What begins as a small fire on private property in the hills of Oakland, California grows into an inferno that consumes 2.5 square miles of mostly residential neighborhoods. The Oakland Hills Firestorm kills 25 people and injures 150 others, and destroys nearly 3,500 homes and apartments.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1967 – Tamla/Motown Records releases “I Second That Emotion,” by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, which peaks at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 that December. However, the track does make it to No. 1 on the R&B singles chart.

1974 – Billy Preston is on top of the singles chart with “Nothing From Nothing.”

1985 – The Norwegian band a-ha claims the top spot on the singles chart with “Take on Me. The accompanying music video features the band in a pencil-sketch animation combined with live action, which won six awards and was nominated for two others at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards.

1991 – “Emotions,” by Mariah Carey, is in the middle of a three-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart.

1998 – “One Week,” by Barenaked Ladies, is No. 1 for a week. The track remains the Canadian band’s best-performing single to this day.

2002 – “Dilemma,” by Nelly featuring Kelly Rowland, begins three weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

READ MORE
On this Day: June 7

On this Day June 7

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1905 – Former U.S. boxing heavyweight champion James Braddock (d. 1974)

1909 – Oscar-winning actress Jessica Tandy (“Firefox,” “Driving Miss Daisy,” “Batteries Not Included”) (d. 1994)

1917 – Legendary entertainer and “Rat Pack” member Dean Martin (“Memories Are Made of This,” “That’s Amore,” “Everybody Loves Somebody,” “Volare,” “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head?” (d. 1995)

1940 – Grammy-winning pop, blues and soul-singing superstar and “The Voice UK” coach Tom Jones (“What’s New Pussycat,” “It’s Not Unusual,” “She’s a Lady”)

1952 – Actor Liam Neeson (“The Mission,” “Schindler’s List,” “Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace,” the “Taken” film series, “Michael Collins,” “Love Actually,” “Cold Pursuit”)

1958 – Grammy-winning pop sensation Prince, born Prince Rogers Nelson (d. 2016)

1981 – Retired tennis star-turned reality TV personality Anna Kournikova

1988 – Actor Michael Cera (“Arrested Development,” “Superbad,” “Juno,” “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” “Twin Peaks”)

History Highlights
History Highlights

1913 – A team of four Alaskans stages the first successful ascent of Denali (formerly known as Mount McKinley), the highest point on the American continent at 20,310 feet.

1937 – Known as the “Blonde Bombshell” and the “Platinum Blonde,” and considered one of the most gifted and blatantly sensual Hollywood stars of the 1930s, actress Jean Harlow dies of uremic poisoning (acute kidney failure) at the age of 26.

1942 – Six months after Japan’s devastating attack on Pearl Harbor, the Battle of Midway ends with a U.S. victory over Japan in one of the most decisive naval showdowns of World War II. In the four-day sea and air battle, the outnumbered U.S. Pacific Fleet destroys four Japanese aircraft carriers and loses only one of its own — the USS Yorktown — turning the tide against the previously invincible Japanese navy.

1955 – The TV game show “The $64,000 Question” premieres on CBS, hosted by Hal March.

1965 – In Griswold v. Connecticut, the U.S. Supreme Court guarantees the right to privacy, including the freedom from government intrusion into matters of birth control.

1975 – Sony revolutionizes home entertainment when it introduces consumers to the Betamax videocassette recorder.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1963 – Four weeks after recording it, The Rolling Stones release their debut single, “Come On.” It’s the cover of a 1961 Chuck Berry song. The track climbs as high as No. 20 on the U.K. singles chart.

1969 – “The Johnny Cash Show” debuts on ABC. It features musical guests like Louis Armstrong, Arlo Guthrie, Glen Campbell and Linda Ronstadt before going off the air in 1971.

1969 – “Get Back,” by The Beatles with Billy Preston, is in the middle of a five-week run atop the Billboard Hot 100.

1975 – Elton John’s “Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy” debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart, becoming the first album ever to do so. It spawns the hit single, “Someone Saved My Life Tonight.”

1975 – “Thank God I’m a Country Boy,” by John Denver, is the No. 1 single.

1977 – Led Zeppelin play the first of six sold out nights at New York’s Madison Square Garden during their 11th and final North American tour. The most expensive ticket costs $10.50.

1986 – Madonna’s “Live to Tell,” off her “True Blue” album, becomes the pop superstar’s third No. 1 single.

2003 – “21 Questions,” by 50 Cent featuring Nate Dogg, tops the Billboard Hot 100.

2012 – Bob Welch, an early member of Fleetwood Mac and who enjoyed a successful solo career with hits like “Sentimental Lady” and “Ebony Eyes,” dies of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the age of 66. 

READ MORE