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On This Day October 9

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Celebrity Birthdays

1940 – Legendary singer-songwriter and Beatles founder John Lennon (d.1980)

1948 – Singer-songwriter and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Jackson Browne

1952 – TV host Sharon Osbourne (“The Osbournes,” “The X Factor,” “America’s Got Talent,” “The Talk”)

1953 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor Tony Shalhoub (“Men in Black,” “Galaxy Quest,” “Spy Kids,” “Monk,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”)

1954 – Golden Globe-winning actor Scott Bakula (“Quantum Leap,” “Star Trek: Enterprise”)

1964 – Director-producer Guillermo del Toro (“Pan’s Labyrinth,” “Blade II,” “Hellboy”)

1975 – Singer-songwriter Sean Lennon, son of legendary musician John Lennon

History Highlights

1936 – Harnessing the power of the Colorado River, Hoover Dam begins transmitting electricity to Los Angeles, more than 260 miles away.

1963 – More than 2,000 people are killed in northeast Italy when a landslide sends a giant wave over the Vajont Dam.

1967 – A day after being captured, Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara is executed for attempting to incite a revolution in Bolivia.

1974 – German businessman Oskar Schindler, credited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews from the Nazi Holocaust, dies at the age of 66.

1992 – A meteorite streaks across the skies above the eastern U.S. before crashing through the trunk of an unoccupied car in upstate New York and leaving a small crater. The car becomes the most famous object ever struck by a meteorite and has since been on display around the world.

Musical Milestones

1965 –  The Beatles’ “Yesterday” reaches No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart, coinciding with John Lennon’s 25th birthday.

1967 – Doc Severinsen becomes musical director of the NBC Orchestra on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.”

1973 – After six years of marriage, Elvis and Priscilla Presley finalize their divorce.

1976 – Walter Murphy and the Big Apple Band are No. 1 on the singles chart with “A Fifth Of Beethoven.”

1982 – John Mellencamp — known then as John Cougar — rules the Billboard Hot 100 with “Jack and Diane.”

1985 – Marking what would have been John Lennon’s 45th birthday, Yoko Ono dedicates Strawberry Fields, a lush 2.5-acre section of New York’s Central Park, in her late husband’s honor.

1993 – “Dreamlover,” by Mariah Carey, is in the midst of an eight-week ride atop the Billboard Hot 100. The single is Carey’s seventh chart-topper.

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