Puerto Rico – Time Rewind

On This Day December 5

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On This Day October 18

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Celebrity Birthdays

1926 – Rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Chuck Berry (“Maybellene,” “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Rock and Roll Music,” “Johnny B. Goode”) (d. 2017)

1927 – Oscar-winning actor George C. Scott (“Anatomy of a Murder,” “Dr. Strangelove,” “Patton,” “The Day of the Dolphin,” “The Hindenburg,” “A Christmas Carol”) (d. 1999)

1935 – Emmy-winning actor Peter Boyle (“The Candidate,” “Young Frankenstein,” “Monster’s Ball,” “Everybody Loves Raymond) (d. 2006)

1939 – Former NFL player, coach, and commentator Mike Ditka

1956 – Retired tennis champion Martina Navratilova

1960 – Actor Jean-Claude Van Damme (“Bloodsport,” “Kickboxer,” “Universal Soldier,” “Timecop,” “Sudden Death,” “The Expendables 2”

1960 – Actress Erin Moran (“Happy Days,” “Joanie Loves Chachi”)

1984 – Actress Freida Pinto (“Slumdog Millionaire,” “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger,” “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”)

1987 – Actor-singer Zac Efron (“High School Musical,” “Hairspray,” “The Lorax,” “We Are Your Friends,” “The Greatest Showman”)

History Highlights

1867 – The U.S. formally takes possession of Alaska after purchasing the territory from Russia for $7.2 million, or less than two cents an acre.

1898 – One year after Spain grants Puerto Rico self-rule, American troops raise the U.S. flag over the Caribbean nation, formalizing U.S. authority over the island’s one million inhabitants.

1931 – Thomas Alva Edison, one of the most prolific inventors in history, dies from complications of diabetes in his West Orange, New Jersey home at the age of 84. Edison is most famous for inventing the phonograph, motion picture camera and the incandescent light bulb.

1954 – Music, information and sports become portable as Texas Instruments and the Regency division of Industrial Development Engineering Associates introduce the transistor radio. Marketed as the “world’s first pocket radio,” the Regency Model TR-1 retails for $49.95.

1961 – “West Side Story” opens in theaters, featuring music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The movie musical captures 10 Academy Awards.

1967 – “The Jungle Book” opens at the box office. It’s the last animated feature personally produced by Walt Disney, who died during production.

1968 – The U.S. Olympic Committee suspends two African American sprinters, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, for giving a “Black Power” salute during their medal ceremony at the Mexico City games.

1988 – The sitcom “Roseanne” premieres on ABC, starring Roseanne Barr and John Goodman.

Musical Milestones

1968 – John Lennon and Yoko Ono are arrested after cannabis is discovered in their London flat. Lennon pleads guilty for fear that Ono would be deported.

1969 – “I Can’t Get Next to You” becomes the second chart-topping single for Motown titans, The Temptations. The track holds the No. 1 spot for two weeks.

1975 – John Denver’s “Windsong” is No. 1 on the U.S. album chart. It contains the hits “I’m Sorry” and “Calypso.”

1980 – Queen enters its third and final week on top of the pop chart with “Another One Bites the Dust.”

1986 – Janet Jackson starts the second and final week on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “When I Think of You,” from her “Control” album.

1997 – Elton John’s tribute to the late Diana, Princess of Wales is the No. 1 single. It is a rewritten and rerecorded version of his 1974 song, “Candle in the Wind.”

2003 – “Baby Boy, by Beyoncé featuring Sean Paul, is in the middle of a nine-week marathon on top of the Billboard Hot 100. The track is from Beyoncé’s debut solo album, “Dangerously in Love.”

2005 – A photo of a naked John Lennon wrapped around a fully clothed Yoko Ono, taken by acclaimed photographer Annie Leibovitz, is voted best magazine cover of the past 40 years by a panel of magazine editors. The photo was snapped on December 8, 1980, just hours before Lennon was shot to death outside his Manhattan apartment building. It appeared on the cover of the January 22, 1981 edition of Rolling Stone magazine.

On this Day July 25

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Celebrity Birthdays

1894 – Oscar-winning actor Walter Brennan (“The King of Jazz,” “Come and Get It,” “Kentucky,” “The Westerner”)

1907 – Actor Jack Gilford (“A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” “Cabaret,” “Save The Tiger,” “Cocoon”) (d. 1990)

1923- Actress Estelle Getty, best known for playing Sophia in the TV sitcom “The Golden Girls” (d. 2008)

1955 – Supermodel-actress (and Mrs. David Bowie) Iman

1965 – Actress-writer-producer Illeana Douglas (“Grace of My Heart,” “To Die For,” “Ghost World”)

1967 – Golden Globe-winning actor Matt LeBlanc, best known for playing Joey in the hit NBC sitcom “Friends”

1978 – World’s first test-tube baby, Louise Joy Brown

History Highlights

1898 – More than 16,000 U.S. troops invade Puerto Rico asserting that they are liberating the inhabitants from Spanish colonial rule, which had recently granted the island’s government limited autonomy. The island, as well as Cuba and the Philippines, were spoils of the Spanish-American War, which ended the following month.

1943 – Benito Mussolini, fascist dictator of Italy, is voted out of power by his own Grand Council and arrested upon leaving a meeting with King Vittorio Emanuele, who tells Il Duce that the war is lost.

1953 – Big changes take place for New York City commuters as the subway token is introduced, and the cost of riding the underground rises from a dime to 15 cents.

1956 – The Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria collides with the MS Stockholm in heavy fog off the coast of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, and sinks the next day, killing 51.

1978 – Louise Joy Brown, the world’s first baby to be conceived throughin vitro fertilization (IVF) is born at Oldham and District General Hospital in Manchester, England.

1984 – Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to walk in space. She spends more than 3.5 hours outside the Salyut 7 space station along with a crewmate, welding, brazing and testing a new multipurpose tool. Savitskaya was twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union, the highest honor bestowed by her country, and later entered Soviet politics.

1985 – The world learns that screen legend Rock Hudson has AIDS through a written announcement released by his publicist. He becomes the first celebrity to go public with such a diagnosis, which was still stigmatized at that time.

Musical Milestones

1965 – Bob Dylan goes electric and fans go ballistic at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island. Folk music purists are outraged when Dylan swaps his acoustic guitar for an electric one.

1970 – Carpenters kick off four weeks on top of the Billboard singles chart with “(They Long to Be) Close to You.”

1975 – “A Chorus Line” premieres, becoming the longest running Broadway show.

1981 – Stevie Nicks has her first solo chart success when “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” reaches No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was written by Tom Petty, who assists on vocals.

1987 – Heart enters its third and final week on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Alone.”