Prohibition – Time Rewind

On This Day January 16

Musical Milestones

1938 – Acclaimed clarinetist and band leader Benny Goodman (a.k.a. “The King of Swing”) makes history when he takes the stage at New York’s Carnegie Hall. It not only marks the first time jazz is played in the hallowed music venue, but the first time a racially integrated ensemble performs.

1965 – The Supremes have a No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Come See About Me.”

1971 – George Harrison marks his fourth and final week at No. 1 on the pop chart with “My Sweet Lord.”

1979 – Cher’s divorce from Gregg Allman is finalized.

1988 – Twenty-four years after The Beatles first rule the singles chart, “Got My Mind Set On You” by George Harrison is No. 1. The track was originally recorded by R&B singer James Ray in 1962.

1988 – After huge success as half of the pop duo Wham! during the early to mid-80s, George Michael claims the top spot on the Billboard album chart with his debut solo album, “Faith.” The production packs several major hits, including the title track, “Father Figure,” “One More Try” and “Monkey.”

1993 – “I Will Always Love You,” by Whitney Houston, is in the middle of a 14-week domination of the Billboard singles chart.

1999 – Brandy’s “Have You Ever?” tops the Billboard Hot 100 and remains there for two weeks.

2004 – King of Pop, Michael Jackson, pleads not guilty to child molestation charges, as fans, reporters and TV crews from around the world swarm outside the California courthouse. The judge admonishes Jackson for arriving late.

History Highlights

1919 – The 18th Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, prohibiting the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes.” Known as Prohibition, the alcohol ban takes effect one year and one day later — on January 17, 1920 — and remains the law of the land until 1933 when it is repealed.

1942 – Actress Carole Lombard, famous for her roles in such screwball comedies as “My Man Godfrey” and “To Be or Not to Be,” and for her marriage to actor Clark Gable, is killed in a plane crash outside Las Vegas at the age of 33.

1979 – The Shah of Iran is forced to flee his country amid violent protests against his regime. Later that year, he settles in the U.S.

1991 – The Persian Gulf War begins as the United Nations deadline for the Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait expires at midnight. The Pentagon prepares to launch offensive operations to forcibly eject Iraq from its five-month occupation of its oil-rich neighbor.

1997 – Comedian and TV star Bill Cosby’s 27-year-old son Ennis is murdered while fixing a flat tire along a Los Angeles freeway.

Celebrity Birthdays

1908 – Theater actress and singer Ethel Merman, best remembered for her rendition of “There’s No Business Like Show Business” (d. 1984)

1935 – Indianapolis 500 champion A.J. Foyt

1943 – Grammy and Country Music Award-winning singer Ronnie Milsap (“Pure Love,” “There’s No Getting Over Me,” “Smoky Mountain Rain”)

1948 – Director-screenwriter-producer and composer John Carpenter, best known for the classic horror film “Halloween”

1950 – Actress-dancer Debbie Allen (“Fame,” “West Side Story,” “Sweet Charity”)

1959 – Grammy-winning musician Sade, born Helen Folasade Adu (“Smooth Operator,” “The Sweetest Taboo”)

1974 – Supermodel Kate Moss

1979 – R&B singer and actress Aaliyah, born Aaliyah Dana Haughton, whose career was cut short by a plane crash in The Bahamas (d. 2001)

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Benny Goodman: The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert

Benny Goodman

The Best Of Diana Ross & The Supremes: The Millennium Collection

The Supremes

Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition

Daniel Okrent

Fireball: Carole Lombard and the Mystery of Flight 3

Robert Matzen

Merman...Her Greatest!

Ethel Merman

Halloween

Starring Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis, and directed by John Carpenter

On This Day December 5

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.

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.

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

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Elvis Presley: The 50 Greatest Hits

Elvis Presley

Belinda Carlisle: Her Greatest Hits

Belinda Carlisle

Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition

Daniel Okrent

Into the Bermuda Triangle: Pursuing the Truth Behind the World's Greatest Mystery

Gian Quasar

The Life And Times Of Little Richard

Charles White

#BeRobin The Movie

Starring Margaret Cho, Bob Mould and Rick Overton, and directed by Kurt Weitzmann

On This Day October 28

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.

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.

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”)

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Always On Sunday: An Inside View of Ed Sullivan, the Beatles, Elvis, Sinatra & Ed's Other Guests

Michael Harris

Talking Book

Stevie Wonder

Liberty's Torch: The Great Adventure to Build the Statue of Liberty

Elizabeth Mitchell

Thirteen Days

Starring Kevin Costner and Bruce Greenwood, and directed by Roger Donaldson

Erin Brockovich

Starring Julia Roberts and Albert Finney, and directed by Steven Soderbergh

Walk The Line

Starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, and directed by James Mangold