Peter Sellers – Time Rewind

On This Day January 29

Click each item below to learn more!

On This Day December 31

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1869 – Artist Henri Matisse (d. 1954)

1925 – Actor Peter Sellers, best known for his comedic roles in the “Pink Panther” series and “Dr. Strangelove” (d. 1980)

1932 – Country music singer Patsy Cline (“Crazy,” “Walking After Midnight”) (d. 1963)

1937 – Oscar-winning actor-director-producer Sir Anthony Hopkins (“The Silence of the Lambs,” “The Mask of Zorro,” “Nixon,” “Thor,” “Westworld”)

1942 – Singer-guitarist and The Police band member Andy Summers

1943 – Country-folk singer-songwriter, actor and environmentalist John Denver (d. 1997)

1943 – Oscar-winning actor Sir Ben Kingsley (“Gandhi,” “Bugsy, “Schindler’s List”)

1948 – Disco superstar Donna Summer (d. 2012)

1959 – Actor Val Kilmer (“Top Gun,” “The Doors,” “Batman Forever,” “Conspiracy,” “Double Identity”)

1977 – Singer-rapper PSY, born Park Jae-sang, best known for his 2012 smash single “Gangnam Style”

History Highlights

1781 – The first bank in the U.S. opens under the name The Bank of North America.

1862 – Nine months after engaging in the most famous naval battles in American history, the ironclad warship USS Monitor sinks in a storm off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Sixteen crewmen are killed. The Monitor had dueled to a standstill with another ironclad, the CSS Virginia (originally the CSS Merrimack), off Hampton Roads, Virginia on March 9, 1862.

1879 – Inventor Thomas Edison demonstrates his incandescent light bulb to the public for the first time.

1904 – The first New Year’s Eve celebration is held in New York’s Times Square — known then as Longacre Square — at the intersection of 7th Avenue, Broadway and 42nd Street in Manhattan. Three years later, in 1907, the tradition of the dropping ball is introduced.

1946 – President Harry Truman officially proclaims the end of hostilities in World War II.

1984 – Bernhard Goetz, the white man known as the “subway vigilante” after he shot four young black men on a New York City subway train, turns himself in to authorities in New Hampshire.

1999 – Days after Mikhail Gorbachev is re-elected head of the Soviet Communist Party, Boris Yeltsin, president of the Republic of Russia, stuns his country and the world by announcing his resignation six months before the end of his term. He turns control over to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, undercutting Gorbachev’s efforts to keep the struggling Soviet Union together.

1999 – The United States officially turns control of the Panama Canal over to Panamanian authorities for the first time.

Musical Milestones

1966 – The Monkees swing to the top of the singles chart with “I’m a Believer” and hold on for seven weeks, finally yielding to The Buckinghams’ “Kind of a Drag” in mid-February.

1970 – Eight months after the The Beatles’ breakup and subsequent release of their last album, “Let It Be,” Paul McCartney files suit against bandmates John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr to officially dissolve their partnership.

1972 – Dick Clark begins a new holiday tradition as his first “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” concert is broadcast on ABC-TV, featuring performances by Three Dog Night and Al Green. Clark hosts the annual event for the next 32 years before turning the reins over to Ryan Seacrest.

1977 – “How Deep Is Your Love,” by the Bee Gees, is in the middle of three weeks as the No. 1 single. The song is part of the “Saturday Night Fever” movie soundtrack.

1983 – Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson are in the middle of a six-week domination of the pop chart with “Say Say Say.”

1985 – Former teen idol Ricky Nelson and six others are killed when their chartered plane crashes in Texas.

1988 – “Every Rose Has Its Thorn,” by Poison, is in the midst of a three-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard single chart.

2005 – Mariah Carey begins a two-week hold on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Don’t Forget About Us.”

2015 – Grammy-winning R&B singer-songwriter Natalie Cole (“This Will Be,” “I’ve Got Love On My Mind,” “Miss You Like Crazy,” “Unforgettable”), daughter of legendary crooner and jazz pianist Nat King Cole, dies of congestive heart failure at the age of 65.

On This Day September 8

Click each item below to learn more!

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

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.

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.

On this Day July 24

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1802 – French author Alexandre Dumas (“The Three Musketeers,” “The Count of Monte Cristo”) (d. 1870)

1897 – Aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart (d. 1937)

1936 – Comedian-actress Ruth Buzzi, who starred in the TV comedy-variety show “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In”

1949 – Actor-comedian Michael Richards, best known as Kramer in TV sitcom “Seinfeld”

1951 – Actress Lynda Carter, who played TV’s “Wonder Woman”

1968 – Emmy and Tony-winning actress-singer Kristin Chenoweth (“Pushing Daisies,” “The West Wing,” “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” “Wicked”)

1969 – Hip-hop/R&B star and actress Jennifer Lopez

1982 – Oscar-winning actress Anna Paquin (“The Piano,” “X-Men,” “True Blood”)

History Highlights

1948 – The Looney Tunes character Marvin the Martian debuts in the cartoon “Haredevil Hare.”

1950 – The 62-foot-tall Bumper 8 is the first rocket to be launched from Florida’s Cape Canaveral — known then as the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

1969 – Apollo 11 splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean following the crew’s historic moon landing.

1978 – New York Yankees manager Billy Martin resigns in what becomes an ongoing love/hate relationship with team owner George Steinbrenner. The move comes less than 24 hours after Martin lambasted All-Star Reggie Jackson and Steinbrenner while speaking to reporters at Chicago’s O’Hare airport where the Yankees were waiting to board a flight to Kansas City. “The two men deserve each other,” Martin told reporters. “One’s a born liar, the other’s convicted.”

1980 – Actor-comedian Peter Sellers, best known for his portrayal of Inspector Clouseau in the “Pink Panther” movie series as well as his ability to play multiple roles in a single film (“Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb”), dies of a heart attack at the age of 54.

1983 – With his team trailing 4–3 in the top half of the ninth inning at Yankee Stadium with two outs, the Kansas City Royals’ George Brett hits a two-run homer to give his team the lead. However, Yankees manager Billy Martin, who noticed a large amount of pine tar on Brett’s bat, requests that the umpires inspect his bat. The umpires rule that the amount on the bat exceeded the allowable amount, they nullify Brett’s home run and call him out, enabling the Yankees to win. This becomes known as the “Pine Tar Incident,” still considered among the wildest moments in baseball.

Musical Milestones

1971 – Paul Revere & the Raiders gallop to the top of the singles chart with “Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian).”

1976 – “Kiss and Say Goodbye,” by The Manhattans, is the most popular single.

1982 – Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” reaches No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remains there for six weeks. It is the theme song for the movie “Rocky III,” starring Sylvester Stallone, which was released on May 28, 1982, one day before EMI Records released the single.

1993 – U2 begins a two-week run on top of the Billboard album chart with “Zooropa,” the band’s fourth No. 1. “Zooropa” goes on win to a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 1994.

1999 – The theme to the summer blockbuster “Wild, Wild West” begins one week as a No. 1 single. Will Smith, who stars in the movie, sings with background vocals by Dru Hill and Kool Moe Dee.