personal computer – Time Rewind

On This Day December 26

Musical Milestones

1964 – The Beatles score their sixth No. 1 single of the year as “I Feel Fine” kicks off three weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100. The song is the Fab Four’s 29th to make the charts in 1964.

1970 – “My Sweet Lord,” by George Harrison, kicks off four weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 and makes Harrison the first ex-Beatle to reach No. 1 as a solo act.

1981 – Olivia Newton-John begins her sixth week reigning over the pop chart with “Physical,” which remains at No. 1 for the first four weeks of 1982.

1987 – The “Dirty Dancing” soundtrack is the middle of a nine-week reign as the No. 1 album. It becomes one of the best-selling albums of all time.

1992 – Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” enters its fifth week on top of the Billboard Hot 100. The track continues to hold the top spot for the first nine weeks of 1993.

1998 – “I’m Your Angel.” by R. Kelly and Céline Dion, is in the middle of a six-week run on top of the singles chart.

1999 – Soul, R&B and funk singer-songwriter Curtis Mayfield, best known for his acclaimed 1972 “Super Fly” soundtrack,” dies at the age of 57. Mayfield — a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee — was a member of The Impressions before embarking on a solo career.

2009 – The Jay-Z/Alicia Keys duet, “Empire State of Mind,” is in its fifth and final week as a No. 1 single.

History Highlights

1898 – In a landmark moment for chemistry and physics, French scientists Pierre and Marie Curie publish a paper announcing their discovery of the element of radium (Ra). The groundbreaking discovery later garners the husband and wife team the Nobel Prize.

1946 – Mobster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel opens the Flamingo Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, aiming to establish a stylish and cosmopolitan gambling destination in the Nevada desert. Siegel closes the resort just two weeks later due to lackluster business, and the following June, he is killed in a mob hit. After undergoing multiple ownership changes through the years, the Flamingo is still in operation as the oldest casino on the Vegas Strip.

1966 – Kwanzaa is observed for the first time. The seven-day holiday with strong African roots was designed by Dr. Maulana Karenga, the chair of Black Studies at California State University at Long Beach, as a celebration of African American family, community and culture.

1972 – Harry S. Truman, the 33rd U.S. president, dies in Independence, Missouri at the age of 88.

1973 – “The Exorcist” opens in movie theaters across the U.S., terrifying audiences and establishing a new standard for the horror genre. Based on William Peter Blatty’s 1971 novel of the same name, the Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning movie is about a girl, played by Linda Blair, that is possessed by an evil spirit.

1974 – Cancer claims the life of beloved comedian Jack Benny at the age of 80.

1982 – TIME magazine breaks from tradition when the magazine’s editors replace the annual “Man of the Year” cover story with “Machine of the Year” and profile the personal computer.

1996 – Six-year-old beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey is found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family’s Boulder, Colorado home. Her murder becomes the focus one of most intensive and publicized police investigations in U.S. history and remains unsolved to this day.

Celebrity Birthdays

1914 – Golden Globe-winning actor Richard Widmark (“Kiss of Death,” “No Way Out,” “Don’t Bother to Knock”) (d. 2008)

1921 – Entertainer Steve Allen, first host of NBC’s “The Tonight Show,” who was a prolific comedian, composer, actor, author and TV host during a nearly five-decade career (d. 2000)

1927 – Comedian-actor Alan King (d. 2004)

1933 – Puppeteer Caroll Spinney, the talent behind the “Sesame Street” characters Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch (d. 2019)

1939 – Grammy-winning record producer-songwriter and convicted murderer Phil Spector

1947 – Major League Baseball Hall of Fame catcher Carlton Fisk

1956 – Humorist-comedian-author David Sedaris (“SantaLand Diaries,” “Naked,” “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” “When You Are Engulfed in Flames”)

1971 – Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actor and musician Jared Leto (“Girl, Interrupted,” “American Psycho,” “Requiem for a Dream,” “Panic Room,” “Dallas Buyers Club,” “Suicide Squad”)

1979 – Rock singer-songwriter-guitarist Chris Daughtry, whose music career was launched by a fourth-place finish on “American Idol”

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All Things Must Pass

George Harrison

Super Fly

Curtis Mayfield

Kwanzaa: Black Power and the Making of the African-American Holiday Tradition

Keith A. Mayes

The Exorcist

Starring Linda Blair, Max von Sydow and Ellen Burstyn, and directed by William Friedkin

Tearing Down the Wall of Sound: The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector

Mick Brown

Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls

David Sedaris

On this Day August 12

Musical Milestones

1960 – The Silver Beatles become The Beatles, and on this day, the newly renamed band hires Pete Best as drummer. Two years later, he is fired and replaced by Ringo Starr.

1964 – The Beatles’ first film, “A Hard Day’s Night,” opens in 500 U.S. theaters to rave reviews.

1966 – The Beatles’ final U.S. tour begins with two performances at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago. During a pre-show press conference, reporters challenge John Lennon to explain his recent boast that The Beatles were more popular than Jesus Christ.

1967 – The Doors close out three weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Light My Fire.” About a month later, the band performs the song before a national audience on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

1978 – “Three Times a Lady,” by the Commodores featuring Lionel Richie, is the No. 1 single.

1985 – Japanese singer-actor Kyu Sakamoto is killed at the age of 43 in the crash of a Japan Airlines jetliner outside Tokyo. Sakamoto was the first Asian recording artist to have a No. 1 hit in the U.S.: “Sukiyaki” in June of 1963, which sold more than 13 million copies worldwide.

1995 – TLC is in the midst of a seven-week domination of the singles chart with “Waterfalls.”

2000 – “Incomplete,” by Sisqó, begins a two-week run on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

2009 – Legendary guitarist Les Paul dies of pneumonia at age 94. Paul designed one of the first solid-body electric guitars, which went on sale in 1952 and was “instrumental” in the development of rock ‘n roll. He also pioneered other recording innovations such as multi-track recording and overdubbing.

History Highlights

30 B.C. – Cleopatra, queen of Egypt and lover of Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, takes her life following the defeat of her forces against Octavian, the future first emperor of Rome.

1851 – Business tycoon Isaac Merritt Singer patents the sewing machine.

1939 – “The Wizard of Oz,” starring Judy Garland and featuring words and music by E.Y. “Yip” Harburg and Harold Arlen, makes its world premiere at the Strand Theatre in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.

1963 – The first 1964 Ford Thunderbird rolls off a Detroit assembly line.

1977 – Space Shuttle Enterprise passes a critical test as it separates from the top of a 747 for its first free flight and makes a smooth landing in the Mojave Desert.

1981 – IBM takes the wraps off the first personal computer (the IBM 5150) with a price tag starting at $1,565. That includes the system unit, a keyboard and color/graphics capability. It costs more for options including a display, a printer, two diskette drives, extra memory, a game adapter and application packages — including one for text processing.

1990 – Digging on a cliff near Faith, South Dakota, paleontologist Susan Hendrickson unearths three huge bones that turn out to be part of the largest Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton ever discovered — a 67 million-year-old specimen dubbed Sue, after its discoverer.

2014 – Lauren Bacall, the smoky-voiced movie legend who taught Humphrey Bogart how to whistle in “To Have and Have Not,” dies at the age of 89. Bacall made more than 40 films during a 70-year career, including “The Big Sleep,” “How to Marry a Millionaire” and “The Mirror Has Two Faces.”

Celebrity Birthdays

1881 – Legendary movie director Cecile B. DeMille (“Cleopatra,” “The Ten Commandments”) (d. 1959)

1910 – Emmy-winning actress Jane Wyatt, best known as housewife and mother Margaret Anderson on the comedy series “Father Knows Best” and as Spock’s human mother in “Star Trek” (d. 2006)

1931 – Two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter and bestselling author William Goldman (“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “All the President’s Men”)

1939 – Golden Globe-winning actor George Hamilton (” Crime and Punishment U.S.A.,” “Light in the Piazza,” “Evel Knievel,” “Love at First Bite,” “Zorro, The Gay Blade,” “The Godfather Part III”)

1949 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter-guitarist Mark Knopfler, best known as frontman for the rock band Dire Straits

1954 – Grammy-winning jazz guitarist Pat Metheny

1956 – Actor Bruce Greenwood (“Racing Stripes,” “Thirteen Days,” “Eight Below,” “Star Trek,” “Good Kill”)

1965 – Actor Peter Krause (“Six Feet Under,” “Parenthood”)

1971 – Tennis champion Pete Sampras

1975 – Actor-director Casey Affleck (“Oceans” trilogy, “Gerry,” “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” “Gone Baby Gone,” “Out of the Furnace,” “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints”)

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A Hard Day's Night

The Beatles

The Definitive Collection

The Commodores

Singer and the Sewing Machine: A Capitalist Romance

Ruth Brandon

Father, Son & Co.: My Life at IBM and Beyond

Thomas J. Watson, Jr. and Peter Petre

Adventures in the Screen Trade

William Goldman

Neck and Neck

Mark Knopfler and Chet Atkins

On this Day June 4

Musical Milestones

1966 – Percy Sledge marks the second and final week at No. 1 on the pop chart with “When a Man Loves a Woman.”

1977 – Supertramp releases “Give a Little Bit,” which becomes a No. 15 Billboard single.

1984 – Bruce Springsteen releases the album “Born In The U.S.A.,” which goes on to top the album chart for seven weeks and spawns seven Top 10 singles, including the title track. It becomes the best-selling album of 1984 and the best-selling record of Springsteen’s career.

1988 – Tracy Chapman’s self-titled debut album hits the top of the U.S. album chart, delivering hits like “Fast Car” and “Talkin’ ’bout a Revolution.” It paves the way for Chapman to capture Grammys for Best New Artist, Best Contemporary Folk Album and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (“Fast Car”).

1994 – “I Swear,” by All-4-One,” is in the middle of an 11-week domination of the pop chart.

2005 – Mariah Carey’s “We Belong Together” kicks off 14 non-consecutive weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

2011 – Adele rules the pop chart with “Rolling in the Deep,” which goes on to capture Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Short Form Music Video Grammys.

History Highlights

1919 – Congress passes the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote, and sends it to the states for ratification. The measure takes effect about a year later. On November 2, 1920, more than 8 million women across the U.S. vote in elections for the first time.

1942 – The Battle of Midway begins, becoming one of the most decisive U.S. victories against Japan during World War II.

1967 – At the Emmy Awards, Bill Cosby, the first black performer to star in a dramatic series, is crowned best actor for his role in “I Spy.”

1977 – The first personal computer, the Apple II, goes on sale, retailing for about $1,300.

1989 – Chinese troops storm through Tiananmen Square in the center of Beijing, killing and arresting thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators. The brutal Chinese government assault shocks the West and brings denunciations and sanctions from the United States.

2003 – Domestic guru and media mogul Martha Stewart is indicted for securities fraud and obstruction of justice.

Celebrity Birthdays

1907 – Golden Globe-winning actress Rosalind Russell (“His Girl Friday,” “Auntie Mame,” “Gypsy”) (d. 1976)

1924 – Actor Dennis Weaver (“Gunsmoke,”McCloud,” “Duel”) (d. 2006)

1928 – Sex therapist-talk show host Dr. Ruth Westheimer

1936 – Oscar-winning actor Bruce Dern (“They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” “Coming Home,” “Nebraska”)

1944 – Singer-songwriter-actress Michelle Phillips, a member of the 60s folk/pop band The Mamas and the Papas

1971 – Actor Noah Wyle, best known for his role as Dr. John Carter in the hit NBC medical drama “ER”

1975 – Comedian-actor Russell Brand (“Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” “Get Him to The Greek”)

1975 – Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actress-director and humanitarian Angelina Jolie

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The Very Best of Supertramp

Supertramp

Born in the U.S.A.

Bruce Springsteen

The Woman's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote

Elaine Weiss

Escape From China: The Long Journey From Tiananmen to Freedom

Zhang Boli

Girl, Interrupted

Starring Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie and Clea Duvall, and directed by James Mangold

Duel

Starring Dennis Weaver and directed by Steven Spielberg