On This Day: November 10

On This Day November 10

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1925 – Golden Globe and Tony-winning actor Richard Burton, born Richard Walter Jenkins (“The Robe,” “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” “Becket,” “Equus”) (d. 1984)

1932 – Actor Roy Scheider, best known for playing police chief Martin Brody in the film classic “Jaws,” and four years later, starred in the musical film “All That Jazz” (d. 2008)

1944 – Oscar, Golden Globe, Tony and Grammy-winning lyricist and author Tim Rice (“Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Evita,” “Beauty and the Beast, “The Lion King”)

1956 – Stand-up comedian-actor Sinbad, born David Adkins (“Necessary Roughness,” “Houseguest,” “First Kid,” “Jingle All the Way,” “Good Burger”)

1959 – Actress Mackenzie Phillips (“American Graffiti,” “One Day at a Time”)

1968 – Comedian-actor Tracy Morgan (“Saturday Night Live,” “30 Rock,” “Cop Out”)

1977 – Actress Brittany Murphy (“Clueless,” “Girl, Interrupted,” “8 Mile”) (d. 2009)

1983 – Grammy-winning country music singer-songwriter Miranda Lambert (“Famous in a Small Town,” “Gunpowder & Lead,” “More Like Her,” “Automatic”)

1986 – Actor Josh Peck, best known for Nickelodeon’s “Drake & Josh” show

History Highlights
History Highlights

1775 – The U.S. Marine Corps is founded with a mission to defend the U.S. Constitution, protect American citizens and stabilize the world in times of crisis.

1903 – The U.S. Patent Office awards Patent No. 743,801 to Mary Anderson for her “window cleaning device” for cars and other vehicles to remove snow, ice or sleet from the window. Known today as the windshield wiper, Anderson never made a penny on her invention because the patent expired before it was put into widespread use.

1951 – The introduction of area codes means callers no longer require an operator to place domestic long-distance phone calls for them. Rather, they can direct-dial anywhere across the country.

1969 – “Sesame Street” premieres on public television (PBS), introducing a generation of kids to Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Kermit the Frog, Ernie and Bert, Cookie Monster and many other beloved characters — some puppets, some animated as well as live actors — breaking new ground by combining fun with education on TV.

1970 – The Great Wall of China opens to world tourism.

1975 – The SS Edmund Fitzgerald, a workhorse freighter that carried massive loads of iron ore from mines in Minnesota to various Great Lakes ports, sinks in Lake Superior after getting caught in a powerful storm. All 29 crewmembers are killed. The tragedy is immortalized in musician Gordon Lightfoot’s 1976 hit, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”

1989 – Germans continue to tear down whole sections of the Berlin Wall, and souvenir hunters quickly snatch up stone and concrete chunks from the crumbling Cold War icon.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1962 – The Crystals begin their second and final week as chart-toppers with “He’s a Rebel.”

1973 – British singer-songwriter David Essex releases the only song of his career to become a No. 1 hit: “Rock On.”

1973 – Elton John begins eight weeks on top of the Billboard album chart with “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” the LP that gives us “Bennie and the Jets,” “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting” and “Candle in the Wind” along with the legendary title track.

1973 – Former Temptations lead singer Eddie Kendricks drives his way to No. 1 on the pop chart with “Keep On Truckin’.” The single remains parked in the top spot for two weeks.

1979 – Eagles’ “Heartache Tonight,” off “The Long Run” album, is No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It sells more than a million copies and becomes the band’s last chart-topper.

1983 – Billy Idol releases his second studio album, “Rebel Yell,” on Chrysalis Records, featuring hits that include the title track plus “Eyes Without a Face” and “Flesh For Fantasy.”

1990 – Mariah Carey begins three weeks at No. 1 with “Love Takes Time.”

2001 – Mary J. Blige rules the Billboard Hot 100 for a second straight week with “Family Affair,” which holds the top spot for a total of six weeks.

2007 – “Kiss Kiss,” by Chris Brown featuring T-Pain, begins three weeks as a No. 1 single.

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On this Day: June 19

On this Day June 19

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1930 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actress Gena Rowlands (“Gloria,” “A Woman Under the Influence”)

1947 – Novelist and essayist Salman Rushdie (“Grimus,” “Midnight’s Children,” “Shame,” “The Satanic Verses,” “East, West”)

1948 – Tony-winning actress Phylicia Rashad, best known for playing Clair Huxtable on “The Cosby Show”

1950 – Ann Wilson of the rock duo Heart

1954 – Actress Kathleen Turner (“Peggy Sue Got Married,” “Romancing The Stone,” “The War of the Roses”)

1962 – Grammy and Emmy-winning singer, dancer, choreographer and former “American Idol” judge Paula Abdul

1972 – Actress Robin Tunney (“The Craft,” “Vertical Limit,” “The Mentalist”)

History Highlights
History Highlights

1865 – Union soldiers land in Galveston, Texas with news that the Civil War has ended and that enslaved African Americans were now free. The announcement comes two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which took effect on January 1, 1863. Some historians blame the delay on poor communication of that era while others believe Texan slave owners intentionally withheld the information. June 19 is observed around the U.S. as Juneteenth. On June 17, 2021, it became a federal holiday.

1905 – The world’s first nickelodeon opens in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and draws some 450 guests. The storefront theater boasted 96 seats and charged each patron a nickel.

1934 – Congress establishes the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to regulate broadcasting in the United States.

1953 –  Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted of conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviets, die in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison in New York. Both deny wrongdoing and proclaim their innocence right up to the time of their execution. The Rosenbergs were the first American civilians executed for espionage during the Cold War.

1973 – In separate games, Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds and Willie Davis of the L.A. Dodgers achieve their 2,000th career hits.

1978 – Cartoonist Jim Davis introduces readers of 41 newspapers around the U.S. to a pleasantly plump, lazy, lasagna-loving cat named Garfield.

1981 – A caped superhero returns to U.S. movie theaters with the release of “Superman II,” starring Christopher Reeve as “The Man of Steel.”

2013 –  Actor James Gandolfini, best known for his role as crime boss Tony Soprano in the HBO series “The Sopranos,” dies of a heart attack at age 51 while vacationing in Italy. 

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1961 – Pat Boone tops the pop chart for a week with “Moody River.”

1965 – “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch),” by the Four Tops, is No. 1 on both the singles and R&B charts. Rolling Stone magazine has ranked the song #415 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

1971 – Carole King’s “It’s Too Late” begins a five-week run on top of the Billboard Hot 100. The song, from her now-classic “Tapestry” album, captures a Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1972.

1976 – Paul McCartney & Wings have a No. 1 single with “Silly Love Songs.”

1982 – Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson are in the middle of a seven-week reign over the singles chart with “Ebony and Ivory.”

1999 – “If You Had My Love,” by Jennifer Lopez, holds the top spot on the pop chart.

2004 – Usher maintains a firm grip on the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Burn.” The single remains a chart-topper for seven weeks.

2010 – “California Gurls,” by Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dogg, kicks off six weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

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