On This Day: September 8

On This Day September 8

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1922 – Comedian Sid Caesar, creator of the classic Emmy-winning TV variety program “Your Show of Shows” (d. 2014)

1925 – Comedic actor Peter Sellers (“Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,” “Lolita,” “The Pink Panther,” “Being There”) (d. 1980)

1932 – Legendary country singer Patsy Cline, born Virginia Patterson Hensley (d. 1963)

1939 – Blues guitarist-singer-songwriter Guitar Shorty, born  David William Kearney

1957 – Actress Heather Thomas, who co-starred as Jody Banks on the 1980s TV series “The Fall Guy”

1960 – Singer-songwriter Aimee Mann, formerly of the 80s band ‘Til Tuesday (“Voices Carry”)

1971 – Actor-director-producer David Arquette (“Scream,” “Eight-Legged Freaks,” “Never Been Kissed”)

1979 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter P!nk, born Alecia Beth Moore (“There You Go,” “Most Girls,” “”There You Go,” “Most Girls,” “Raise Your Glass”)

1981 – Actor Jonathan Taylor Thomas, best known for playing Tim Allen’s son, Randy Taylor, in TV’s “Home Improvement“

History Highlights
History Highlights

1900 – A hurricane packing winds in excess of 130 miles per hour and a 15-foot storm surge slams into Galveston, Texas, devastating the island. Between 6,000 and 8,000 people are killed, making the hurricane the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history up to that time. Ten thousand survivors are left homeless.

1921 – Sixteen-year-old Margaret Gorman of Washington, D.C., is crowned the first Miss America at the end of a two-day pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey. 

1966 – A television sci-fi phenom is born with the premiere of “Star Trek” on NBC. The series, consisting of 79 episodes over three seasons, stars William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock, first officer and science officer aboard the starship USS Enterprise. In the decades since the original series ended, “Star Trek” has spawned spin-offs, movies and conventions.

1974 – President Gerald Ford attempts to give closure to the Watergate scandal by granting his predecessor, Richard Nixon, a pardon for any crimes he may have committed or participated in while in office. 

1974 – Daredevil Evel Knievel survives a failed bid to leap the mile-wide chasm of the Snake River Canyon (Idaho) on his rocket-powered motorcycle.

1986 – “The Oprah Winfrey Show” debuts as the first talk show hosted by an African American woman. 

1994 – US Air Flight 427 crashes on approach to Pittsburgh International Airport. All 132 people on board the Boeing 737 are killed. A lengthy investigation concludes that the cause was a faulty rudder.

2022 – Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-reigning monarch in British history, dies at age 96 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. The crown passes to her eldest son, who becomes King Charles III.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1958 – Volare (“Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu”) by Domenico Modugno is the No. 1 single for five non-consecutive weeks. It goes on to become the No. 1 song for all of 1958.

1962 – “Sheila,” by Tommy Roe, begins its second and final week as the most popular song in the U.S.

1973 – Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” starts a week on top of the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the Motown sensation’s second No. 1 single.

1979 – “My Sharona,” from The Knack’s debut album, “Get The Knack,” is midway through a six-week run as the hottest single in the U.S. The track becomes the No. 1 song of 1979, with the album selling more than six million copies worldwide. 

1984 – Tina Turner is in the midst of a three-week reign over the Billboard Hot 100 with “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” her first No. 1 single. At 44 years of age. Turner becomes the oldest solo female artist to ever top the pop chart.

1990 – Jon Bon Jovi has a No. 1 single with “Blaze of Glory.”

2001 – “I’m Real,” by Jennifer Lopez featuring Ja Rule, kicks off three weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

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On this Day: August 25

On this Day August 25

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1917 – Actor-director Mel Ferrer (“War and Peace,” “Green Mansions,” “Wait Until Dark”) (d. 2008)

1918 – Grammy and Tony-winning composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein (“West Side Story,” “Peter Pan,” “Candide,” “Wonderful Town,” “On the Town,” “On The Waterfront”) (d. 1990)

1921 – Producer, actor, singer and sportscaster Monty Hall, best known as host of the TV game show “Let’s Make a Deal” (d. 2017)

1930 – Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actor Sir Sean Connery, best known for playing British secret agent James Bond/007 in seven Bond movies (d. 2020)

1931 – Emmy-winning TV host, actor and singer Regis Philbin (“Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee,” “Live! with Regis and Kelly,” ” Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”) (d. 2020)

1933 – Actor Tom Skerritt (“M*A*S*H,” “Up In Smoke,” “Alien,” “Top Gun,” “A River Runs Through It,” “Contact,” “Picket Fences”)

1935 – Oscar-winning director William Friedkin (“The Boys in the Band,” “The French Connection,” “The Exorcist,” “Sorcerer,” “The Brinks Job,” “Cruising,” “To Live and Die in L.A.”) (d. 2023)

1941 – Rock singer-bassist and KISS founder Gene Simmons, born Chaim Weitz 

1954 – Singer-songwriter Elvis Costello (“Alison,” “Everyday I Write the Book,” “Veronica”)

1958 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning director Tim Burton (“Beetlejuice,” “Batman,” “Edward Scissorhands,” “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Ed Wood,” “Big Fish,” “Alice in Wonderland”)

1961 – Country music singer-songwriter and actor Billy Ray Cyrus, best known for his 1992 smash “Achy Breaky Heart”

1968 – Emmy-winning TV chef Rachael Ray

History Highlights
History Highlights

1916 – The National Park Service is founded to manage and preserve national parks and monuments for future generations.

1939 – MGM Studios’ “The Wizard of Oz” premieres, starring Judy Garland as Dorothy. It and “Gone With The Wind,” which was released later that year, are the first major motion pictures to use Technicolor at a time when films were shot in black and white.

1944 – Allied troops liberate Paris after more than four years of Nazi occupation. German resistance proves to be light and the commander of the German garrison, General Dietrich von Choltitz, defies Adolf Hitler’s order to blow up Paris landmarks and burn the city to the ground before its liberation. Choltitz signs a formal surrender that afternoon, and the next day, Free French General Charles de Gaulle leads a liberation march down the Champs d’Elysees.

1984 – Author Truman Capote (“Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” “In Cold Blood”) dies in Los Angeles at the age of 59. 

1985 – Samantha Smith of Maine, the 11-year-old “ambassador” to the Soviet Union, dies in a plane crash. Smith was best known for writing to Soviet leader Yuri Andropov in 1982 and visiting as Andropov’s guest in 1983.

2009 – Edward “Ted” Kennedy, the youngest brother of President John F. Kennedy and a U.S. senator from Massachusetts from 1962 to 2009, dies of brain cancer at age 77 at his home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1962 – Seventeen-year-old Eva Narcissus Boyd, a.k.a. “Little Eva,” scores her first and only No. 1 hit with “The Loco-Motion.”

1970 – Elton John plays his first American gig at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. 

1973 – One-hit-wonder Stories has the most popular song on the radio with “Brother Louie.” 

1975 – Bruce Springsteen releases his breakthrough album, “Born To Run,” which contains fan favorites including the title track, “Thunder Road” and “Jungleland.” 

1979 – The Knack kick off six weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “My Sharona.” The track becomes Capitol Records’ fastest gold status debut single since “I Want to Hold Your Hand” by The Beatles in 1964.

1984 – Ray Parker, Jr. begins his third and final week on top of the pop chart with “Ghostbusters,” the theme from the movie of the same name.

1990 – “Vision of Love,” by Mariah Carey, enters its fourth and final week on top of the pop chart.

2001 – Alicia Keys rules the Billboard Hot 100 with “Fallin’,” off her debut album, “Songs in A Minor”

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