reggae – Time Rewind

On This Day March 20

Click each item below to learn more!

On This Day February 6

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1895 – Baseball legend Babe Ruth, born George Herman Ruth (d. 1948)

1911 – Ronald Reagan, 40th U.S. president (d. 2004)

1917 – Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor (d. 2016)

1922 – Actor Patrick Macnee, best known as John Steed in “The Avengers” British TV spy series (d. 2015)

1931 – Actor-comedian Rip Torn, born Elmore Rual Torn, Jr. (“Cross Creek,” “The Larry Sanders Show,” “Men in Black,” “Men in Black II”) (d. 2019)

1940 – Peabody-winning broadcast journalist, author and former “NBC Nightly News” anchor Tom Brokaw

1942 – 1950s teen idol Fabian, born Fabiano Forte

1945 – World-renowned reggae singer-songwriter Bob Marley, born Nesta Robert Marley (d. 1981)

1950 – Grammy-winning jazz and pop vocalist Natalie Cole (d. 2015)

1962 – Singer-songwriter and Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose (“Welcome to the Jungle,” “Paradise City,” “Sweet Child o’ Mine”)

1966 – Singer Rick Astley, best known for his 80s hits “Never Gonna Give You Up” and “Together Forever”

History Highlights

1917 – Three days after U.S. President Woodrow Wilson severs diplomatic relations with Germany and warns that war would follow if American interests at sea were again assaulted, a German submarine torpedoes and sinks the passenger steamer California off the Irish coast.

1933 – The 20th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, establishing the beginning and ending of the terms of elected federal offices, takes effect.

1937 – John Steinbeck’s novella, “Of Mice and Men,” the story of the bond between two migrant workers during the Great Depression, is published. Eight months later, the stage adaptation opens in New York and earns Steinbeck the New York Drama Critics’ Circle’s Best Play Award in 1938.

1952 – Princess Elizabeth becomes Queen of England when her father, King George VI, dies following a long illness. But it takes the 25-year-old Elizabeth more than a day to learn of her new royal status. She was on safari at the time, inside a Kenyan tree hut watching a herd of elephants gather at a watering hole.

1978 – One of the worst Nor’easters in New England history pounds the region for more than 30 hours, with wind gusts exceeding 100 mph and snowfall of four inches an hour. High tides cause damaging coastal flooding, while inland, thousands of cars are stranded in snow drifts. Remembered as “The Blizzard of ’78,” the monster storm leaves about 100 people dead and 4,500 others injured.

1993 – Tennis champion Arthur Ashe, the only African-American man to win Wimbledon and the U.S. and Australian Opens, dies of complications from AIDS, at age 49 in New York City.

Musical Milestones

1961 – The Shirelles wrap up two weeks atop the Billboard singles chart with “Will You Love Me Tomorrow.”

1965 – “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'” by The Righteous Brothers tops the Billboard Hot 100 and holds there for two weeks.

1971 – Dawn, featuring Tony Orlando, begin a third and final week as chart-toppers with “Knock Three Times.”

1982 – The J. Geils Band kicks off six weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Centerfold.”

1988 – Tiffany has the hottest single in the U.S. with “Could’ve Been.”

1993 – Whitney Houston reigns over the Billboard Hot 100 with “I Will Always Love You,” a song penned by Dolly Parton and used in the soundtrack to the movie “The Bodyguard.” The track holds the top spot for 14 weeks and becomes one of the best-selling singles of all time.

1998 – Austrian pop superstar Falco (a.k.a. Johann Hölzel), the talent behind the 1982 hit “Der Kommisar” and 1986 smash “Rock Me Amadeus,” is killed in a car accident while vacationing in the Dominican Republic. He is just two weeks shy of his 41st birthday.

2010 – Kesha has the No. 1 single with Tik Tok.

On this Day May 11

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1888 – Acclaimed songwriter Irving Berlin (“White Christmas, “Cheek to Cheek,” “God Bless America”), who was a major contributor to the Great American Songbook (d. 1989)

1904 – Surrealist artist Salvador Dali (d. 1989)

1911 – Actor Phil Silvers (“The Phil Silvers Show,” “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”) (d. 1985)

1927 – Comedian and political satirist Mort Sahl, considered the first modern stand-up comedian

1941 – Rock singer-songwriter Eric Burdon, former lead vocalist for the bands The Animals and War

1952 – Actress Frances Fisher (“Unforgiven,” “Titanic,” “House of Sand and Fog,” “Laws of Attraction,” “The Lincoln Lawyer,” “Resurrection”)

1959 – Former MTV VJ and Sirius XM “80s on 8” DJ Martha Quinn

1963 – Tony-winning actress Natasha Richardson (“A Month in the Country,” “Patty Hearst,” The Parent Trap,” “Maid in Manhattan”) (d. 2009)

1964 – Actor Tim Blake Nelson (“Donnie Brasco,” “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” “Minority Report,” “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”)

History Highlights

1927 – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is established to promote the movie industry.

1947 – The B.F. Goodrich Company of Akron, Ohio, announces development of a tubeless tire, a technological innovation that would make automobiles safer and more efficient.

1949 – Israel becomes a member of the United Nations.

1953 – A powerful F5 tornado sweeps across downtown Waco, Texas, killing 114 people. Violent weather also causes death and destruction in Flint, Michigan and Worcester, Massachusetts.

1976 – “Marcus Welby, M.D.,” makes his final house call as the popular ABC medical drama starring Robert Young airs for the last time. The series premiered in 1969.

1987 – Klaus Barbie, the former Nazi Gestapo chief of German-occupied Lyon, France, goes on trial more than four decades after the end of World War II. The so-called “Butcher of Lyon” is charged with 177 crimes against humanity.

1997 – This is a landmark day for Artificial Intelligence (AI). Chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov resigns after 19 moves in a game against Deep Blue, a chess-playing computer developed by scientists at IBM. This was the sixth and final game of their match, which Kasparov lost two games to one, with three draws.

Musical Milestones

1959 – The instrumental “The Happy Organ,” by organist-pianist Dave ‘Baby’ Cortez, is the No. 1 single for a week and becomes a fixture at roller skating rinks across the U.S. Cortez makes one more trip to the Top-10 during his career with “Rinky Dink” in 1962.

1963 – Little Peggy March wraps up three weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 with “I Will Follow Him.”

1970 – The three-disk soundtrack to the Woodstock Festival is released and goes gold within two weeks.

1972 – John Lennon makes a guest appearance on “The Dick Cavett Show” and claims the FBI is tapping his phone.

1981 – Jamaican singer-songwriter and guitarist Bob Marley, who introduced international audiences to reggae music, dies of cancer at the age of 36. Marley is posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, and in 2001, receives a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

1985 – Madonna has the No. 1 single with “Crazy for You,” from the soundtrack to the movie “Vision Quest,” starring Matthew Modine and Linda Fiorentino. The track garners Madonna her first Grammy nomination in the Best Female Pop Vocal Performance category.

1991 – “Joyride,” by Swedish pop duo Roxette, is the No. 1 single for a week.

1996 – Mariah Carey begins her second and final week on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Always Be My Baby.”

2002 – Ashanti maintains her hold on the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Foolish.” The track remains a chart-topper for 10 weeks.