On This Day February 10 Click each item below to learn more! Celebrity Birthdays 1883 – Actor Lon Chaney, Jr., who portrayed the legendary monsters of film, including the Mummy, Wolf Man, Frankenstein and Dracula (d. 1930) 1893 – Singer-comedian-actor Jimmy Durante (d. 1980) 1930 – Actor Robert Wagner (“It Takes a Thief,” “Hart to Hart,” “Austin Powers”) 1937 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Roberta Flack (“The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” “Where is the Love”) 1950 – American Olympic gold medal swimmer Mark Spitz 1961 – ABC News’ “Good Morning America” co-host and former Clinton administration advisor George Stephanopoulos 1964 – Conservative talk show host Glenn Beck 1967 – Actress Laura Dern (“Mask,” “Blue Velvet,” “Wild at Heart,” “Jurassic Park,” “Rambling Rose,” “Enlightened,” “The Founder”) 1974 – Actress Elizabeth Banks (“Catch Me if You Can,” “Seabiscuit,” “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” “The Hunger Games” movie series, “Pitch Perfect”) History Highlights 1933 – The Postal Telegraph Company, based in New York City, introduces the first singing telegram. 1962 – American spy pilot Francis Gary Powers is released by the Soviets in exchange for Soviet Colonel Rudolf Abel, a senior KGB spy who was caught in the United States five years earlier. 1967 – The 25th Amendment to the Constitution is ratified. It clarifies procedures for presidential succession along with provisions for the continuity of power in the event of a disability or illness of the president. 1981 – A fire at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino kills eight people and injures nearly 200 others. Investigators determine that the blaze was set by 23-year-old hotel employee Phillip Cline. He is convicted of eight counts of murder and sentenced to eight consecutive life terms without parole for the deaths, plus 15 years for first-degree arson. 1989 – Ron Brown is elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), becoming the first African American to lead a major American political party. 1996 – World chess champion Garry Kasparov loses the first game of a six-game match against Deep Blue, an IBM computer capable of evaluating 200 million moves per second. Man was ultimately victorious over machine, however, as Kasparov bested Deep Blue in the match with three wins and two ties and took home the $400,000 prize. Musical Milestones 1958 – “Don’t,” by Elvis Presley & The Jordanaires, tops the singles chart and stays there for five weeks. The ballad, written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller — the duo behind “Hound Dog” and “Jailhouse Rock” — becomes Elvis’ eleventh No. 1 single. 1968 – The instrumental “Love Is Blue,” by one-hit wonder Paul Mauriat begins a five-week reign over the Billboard Hot 100. 1972 – A little-known rock musician named David Bowie appears at the Tolworth Toby Jug, a London pub, and assumes the persona of the now-legendary Ziggy Stardust before some 60 guests. 1979 – Rod Stewart has the hottest single in the U.S. with “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?” The song holds the No. 1 spot for four weeks. 1990 – “Opposites Attract,” by Paula Abdul with The Wild Pair, starts a three-week run as the No. 1 single. 1993 – On a special edition of the Oprah Winfrey show, Michael Jackson gives the first television interview in 14 years, live from his Neverland Ranch. Taking place before allegations about sexual abuse surfaced, the MJ interview draws a worldwide audience of 90 million people. 2001 – “It Wasn’t Me,” by Shaggy, begins its second and final week on top of the Billboard Hot 100. 2004 – Def Jam Recordings and Roc-A-Fella Records release “The College Dropout,” Kanye West’s debut album. READ MORE
On This Day January 29 Click each item below to learn more! Celebrity Birthdays 1820 – Civil rights crusader Harriet Tubman, known for freeing slaves via the Underground Railroad, and who served as a Union spy during the Civil War (d. 1913) 1843 – 25th U.S. President William McKinley, who was assassinated six months into his second term after leading the nation to victory in the Spanish-American War (d. 1901) 1940 – Actress Katharine Ross (“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “The Stepford Wives”) 1945 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor Tom Selleck (“Magnum, P.I.,” “Lassiter,” “Three Men and a Baby,” “Friends,” “Blue Bloods”) 1954 – Media executive, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey 1970 – Actress Heather Graham (“Twin Peaks,” “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me,” “Boogie Nights,” “Bowfinger,” Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me,” “The Hangover”) 1975 – Actress and TV talk show host Sara Gilbert (“Roseanne,” “The Talk’) 1982 – Singer-songwriter Adam Lambert, whose career was launched during the eighth season of “American Idol” and now tours with Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor as Queen + Adam Lambert History Highlights 1845 – The Evening Mirror publishes Edgar Allan Poe’s now-classic poem, “The Raven” which begins, “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary…” 1936 – The first inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame are announced In Cooperstown, New York. They include Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson. 1963 – Robert Frost, considered the dean of American poets, dies in Boston at the age of 88. 1964 – Stanley Kubrick’s black comic masterpiece, “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,” opens in movie theaters to critical acclaim. Actor Peter Sellers plays three roles in the Cold War parody. 1979 – Teenager Brenda Spencer shoots and kills two men and wounds nine children as they enter the Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego. Asked by authorities upon her arrest why she did it, the 16-year-old replies, “I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day.” The incident inspires The Boomtown Rats to write their hit song, “I Don’t Like Mondays.” 1979 – President Jimmy Carter welcomes Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping to the White House following the establishment of diplomatic relations. The visit culminates with the signing of historic new accords that reverse decades of U.S. opposition to the People’s Republic of China. 2002 – In his first State of the Union address since the September 11 terror attacks on the U.S., President George W. Bush says Iraq, Iran and North Korea constitute an “axis of evil.” He outlines his rationale for the “war on terror,” a series of military engagements which would define U.S. foreign policy for years to come. Musical Milestones 1964 – The Beatles spend the day at the Pathe Marconi Studios in Paris in their only studio recording session for EMI held outside the U.K. They record “She Loves You,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “Can’t Buy Me Love” in German. 1966 – “We Can Work It Out,” by The Beatles, reaches the top of the Billboard singles chart and remains there for a week. 1970 – Elvis Presley releases the single “Kentucky Rain,” which climbs as high as No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100. 1972 – Don McLean’s “American Pie” is in the midst of a four-week ride atop the Billboard Hot 100. In 2017, the recording is selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or artistically significant.” 1977 – “Car Wash,” by Rose Royce, is the No. 1 single. It comes from the movie of the same name that features Richard Pryor, George Carlin and The Pointer Sisters, and is considered a staple of the disco genre. 1983 – Men at Work wrap up three weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Down Under,” off the Aussie band’s “Business as Usual” album. 1994 – “All for Love,” by Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart and Sting, is in the middle of a three-week run on top of the pop chart. The single comes from the soundtrack to “The Three Musketeers,” a movie starring Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland and Chris O’Donnell. 2000 – The No. 1 spot on the pop chart belongs to Australian pop duo Savage Garden with “I Knew I Loved You.” 2011 – Britney Spears lands on top of the Billboard Hot 100 for a week with “Hold It Against Me.” 2019 – Two-time Grammy-winning 80s R&B singer-songwriter James Ingram (“Just Once,” “Baby, Come to Me,” “I Don’t Have the Heart”) dies of brain cancer at the age of 66. READ MORE