Prohibition – Time Rewind

On This Day January 16

Click each item below to learn more!

On This Day December 5

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1901 – Animator, voice actor and producer Walt Disney, born Walter Elias Disney, who founded The Walt Disney Company and created the iconic character Mickey Mouse (d. 1966)

1932 – Rock and Roll legend Little Richard, born Richard Wayne Penniman (“Tutti Frutti,” “Good Golly Miss Molly”)

1947 – Singer-songwriter Jim Messina (Loggins & Messina)

1968 – Comedian, actress, producer and writer Margaret Cho

1985 – “Malcolm in the Middle” star and race car driver Frankie Muniz

History Highlights

1933 – Fourteen years of Prohibition in the U.S. ends with ratification of the 21st Amendment to the Constitution, which repeals the 18th Amendment.

1945 – A squadron of U.S. Navy bombers, collectively known as “Flight 19,” mysteriously vanishes in the Bermuda Triangle — a section of ocean between Miami, Bermuda and Puerto Rico. A rescue aircraft also disappears during an attempt to locate the missing team. Despite countless theories throughout the years, there still is no definitive explanation for what happened to the six aircraft and 27 airmen aboard.

1955 – After 20 years of rivalry, the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge to become the AFL-CIO.

1955 – The Montgomery (Alabama) Bus Boycott begins, following the arrest of black bus passenger Rosa Parks for refusing to give up her seat to a white man. The boycott lasts more than a year until a U.S. Supreme Court decision requires integration of Montgomery’s public transportation system.

1978 – In an effort to prop up an unpopular pro-Soviet regime in Afghanistan, the Soviet Union signs a “friendship treaty” with the Afghan government, agreeing to provide economic and military assistance.

1984 – “Beverly Hills Cop” opens, starring Eddie Murphy as Axel Foley, a Detroit detective who heads to Beverly Hills, California to solve the murder of his best friend.

Musical Milestones

1960 – Elvis Presley tops the singles chart with “Are You Lonesome Tonight.”

1964 – Actor Lorne Greene, beloved star of TV’s “Bonanza,” achieves musical success when his song, “Ringo,” lands on top of the Billboard Hot 100 and holds there for a week.

1973 – Paul McCartney releases “Band On The Run,” his fifth album since the breakup of The Beatles. It spawns two hit singles: “Jet” and “Band on the Run.”

1987 – Former Go-Gos lead singer Belinda Carlisle enjoys her first and only No. 1 single as a solo act: “Heaven is a Place on Earth.”

1992 – Grammy-winning pop legend Whitney Houston rules the Billboard Hot 100 with “I Will Always Love You,” a song written and originally recorded by country music legend Dolly Parton in 1973.

1998 – “I’m Your Angel,” by R. Kelly and Céline Dion kicks off six weeks as a No. 1 single.

On This Day October 28

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1914 – Physician and medical researcher Jonas Salk, who developed the first safe and effective polio vaccine (d. 1995)

1927 – Grammy-winning jazz vocalist and actress Cleo Laine

1936 – Grammy-winning country music singer-fiddler Charlie Daniels, best known for his 1979 smash “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”

1944 – Actor Dennis Franz (“Die Hard 2,” “NYPD Blue,” “City of Angels”)

1949 – U.S. Olympic decathlon gold medalist and reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner, born Bruce Jenner

1952 – Actress Annie Potts (“Ghostbusters,” “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” “Toy Story,” “Toy Story 2”)

1955 – Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates

1967 – Oscar-winning actress Julia Roberts (“Mystic Pizza,” “Flatliners,” “Steel Magnolias,” “Pretty Woman,” “Erin Brockovich,” “Closer”)

1974 – Grammy and Golden Globe-winning actor-musician Joaquin Phoenix (“Gladiator,” “Walk the Line,” “The Master,” “Her”)

History Highlights

1886 – The Statue of Liberty, a gift of friendship from the people of France to the U.S., is dedicated in New York Harbor by President Grover Cleveland.

1919 – Congress overrides President Woodrow Wilson’s veto of the Volstead Act, paving the way for Prohibition, which remains in effect until passage of the 21st Amendment to the Constitution in 1933.

1922 – The Princeton Tigers take on the Chicago Maroons in the first nationally broadcast college football game in U.S. history. Telephone lines carry the play-by-play from Chicago’s Stagg Field to radio receivers around the country. The Tigers prevail and ultimately go 8 and 0 in the 1922 season, defeating Harvard and Yale to win the Big Three championship.

1962 – The world is pulled back from the brink of nuclear war when the Soviet Union and United States reach an agreement that ends the Cuban Missile Crisis. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev agrees to remove missiles from Cuba in exchange for a U.S. promise to respect Cuba’s territorial sovereignty.

1965 – With the final stainless steel section set into place, construction is completed on the iconic Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri.

1998 – President Bill Clinton signs the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) into law to strengthen existing federal copyright protections against new threats posed by the Internet.

Musical Milestones

1956 – Elvis Presley makes his second appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” and the host presents him with a gold record for “Love Me Tender.”

1967 – Lulu is in the midst of a five-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with the theme from the movie “To Sir With Love.”

1972 – Stevie Wonder releases “Talking Book,” the album that gives us the Grammy-winning “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” and “Superstition.”

1977 – Queen’s “News of the World” is released. The sixth studio album by the British rockers contains two tracks that go on to become Billboard smashes: “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions.”

1978 – The hottest song on the radio is “Hot Child in the City” by Nick Gilder.

1989 – Janet Jackson starts a four-week run at No. 1 on the album chart with “Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814,” which contains a record seven Top 5 hit singles, including “Miss You Much,” “Escapade” and “Rhythm Nation.”

2000 – “Come on Over Baby (All I Want Is You),” by Christina Aguilera, is in the middle of a four-week run as a No. 1 single.

2006 – “Money Maker,” by Ludacris featuring Pharrell, kicks off two weeks on top of the pop chart.

On this Day July 6

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1907 – Artist Frida Kahlo (d. 1954)

1921 – Actress and U.S. First Lady Nancy Reagan (d. 2016)

1925 – Rock and Roll pioneer Bill Haley (d. 1981)

1935 – The Dalai Lama, born Tenzin Gyatso, leader of Tibet and best-selling author

1945 – Actor Burt Ward, most remembered for playing Robin in the 1960s “Batman” TV series

1946 – Golden Globe-winning actor-director-producer Sylvester Stallone (“Rocky” and “Rambo” movie series, “Cliffhanger,” “Demolition Man,” “Judge Dredd,” “Cop Land,” “The Expendables”)

1946 – George W. Bush, 43rd U.S. president

1951 – Oscar-winning actor Geoffrey Rush (“Shine,” “The King’s Speech,” “Pirates of the Caribbean”)

1975 – Grammy-winning rapper-actor 50 Cent, born Curtis James Jackson III

1979 – Actor-comedian Kevin Hart (“Paper Soldiers,” “Think Like a Man,” “Grudge Match,” Ride Along,” “About Last Night,” “Get Hard,” “Real Husbands of Hollywood”)

History Highlights

1933 – The first Major League Baseball All-Star Game is played in Chicago’s Comiskey Park. The American League beats the National League by a score of 4-2.

1946 – FBI agents arrest Chicago gangster George “Bugs” Moran in Kentucky. During the Prohibition era, Moran was one of the biggest organized crime figures in America, and has been credited with popularizing the drive-by shooting.

1957 – Althea Gibson cracks the color barrier in professional tennis, defeating Darlene Hard 6-3, 6-2 to become the first African American to win Wimbledon. Gibson is honored with a ticker tape parade when she returns home to New York City.

1976 – Women are admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy for the first time.

1994 – “Forrest Gump” opens in U.S. theaters. It receives 13 Academy Award nominations and captures six Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role (Tom Hanks) and Best Director (Robert Zemeckis).

Musical Milestones

1957 – Beatles co-founders John Lennon and Paul McCartney meet for the first time as teenagers as Lennon’s band, The Quarrymen, gets set to perform at St. Peter’s Church in Liverpool, England.

1964 – The Beatles’ movie, “A Hard Day’s Night,” premieres at the London Pavilion with the Fab Four and 12,000 fans, including the Rolling Stones, in attendance. The film is widely regarded as the forefather of the music video and launched the career of director Richard Lester. It also garnered two Oscar nominations.

1968 – Herb Alpert holds the top spot on the singles chart with “This Guy’s in Love with You.” A nine-time Grammy-winning trumpeter, Alpert takes on additional duties singing lead vocals in the track, which remains at No. 1 for four weeks,

1971 – The world mourns the death of an entertainment giant, with the passing of legendary jazz trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong (a.k.a. “Satchmo”) at the age of 69.

1974 – “Rock The Boat,” by The Hues Corporation, drops anchor at the top of the Billboard Hot 100.

1996 – “Tha Crossroads,” by Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, wraps up eight weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100.

2002 – Nelly dominates the singles chart with “Hot in Herre,” which holds at No. 1 for seven weeks.

2013 – “Blurred Lines,” by Robin Thicke featuring T.I. and Pharrell is in the midst of a 12-week reign over the Billboard Hot 100.