On This Day January 4 Click each item below to learn more! Celebrity Birthdays 1643 – Scientist Sir Isaac Newton, credited with developing the principles of modern physics (d. 1727) 1809 – Scientist Louis Braille, who created a touch-based reading system for the blind (d. 1852) 1930 – Pro Football Hall of Famer Retired Miami Dolphins coach and Don Shula 1937 – Actress Dyan Cannon (“Honeysuckle Rose,” “Deathtrap,” “That Darn Cat,” “Diagnosis: Murder,” “The Practice,” “Ally McBeal”) 1957 – Grammy-winning country music singer and Grand Ole Opry member Patty Loveless (“Timber I’m Falling in Love,” “Chains,” “You Can Feel Better”) 1960 -Rock singer-songwriter and former R.E.M. front man Michael Stipe (“Orange Crush,” “Losing My Religion,” “Everybody Hurts”) 1965 – Emmy-winning actress Julia Ormond (“Legends of the Fall,” “First Knight,” “Sabrina,” “The Barber of Siberia,” “Temple Grandin,” “My Week With Marilyn”) History Highlights 1958 – Sputnik 1, the Soviet satellite responsible for triggering the Space Race between the superpowers, burns up while re-entering Earth’s atmosphere after three months in orbit. 1965 – President Lyndon Johnson uses his State of the Union address to outline ambitious plans for a “Great Society,” which include knocking down racial barriers and freeing Americans from what he calls the “crushing weight of poverty.” 1974 – President Richard Nixon refuses to hand over tape recordings and documents that had been subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee. 1995 – The 104th Congress becomes the first held entirely under Republican control since the Eisenhower era some 40 years earlier. 1996 – General Motors (GM) takes the wraps off a prototype of its EV1 electric car, which the automaker only makes available in Arizona and California — and exclusively for lease — as GM considered the development of electric vehicle technology to be ongoing. 1999 – Europe is united with a common currency when the euro is introduced as a financial unit in corporate and investment markets. Eleven European Union (EU) nations adopt the currency in hopes of increasing European integration and economic growth. 2007 – Representative Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, becomes the first female elected as Speaker of the U.S. House. Musical Milestones 1936 – Billboard magazine publishes its first list of best-selling pop records covering the week that ended December 30, 1935. Big band violinist Joe Venuti and his Orchestra have the first No. 1 with “Stop Look and Listen.” 1964 – Bobby Vinton begins a four-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart with “There! I’ve Said It Again.” 1975 – Elton John rules the U.S. pop chart with his version of The Beatles’ “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.” 1986 – Lionel Richie is mid-way through a four-week run at No. 1 on the pop chart with “Say You, Say Me,” from his “Dancing on the Ceiling” album. 1997 – Toni Braxton has the first No. 1 single of 1997 with “Un-Break My Heart,” which remains a Billboard chart-topper for 11 weeks. The song goes on to capture a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. 2003 – “Lose Yourself,” by Eminem, maintains its grip on the No. 1 position on the Billboard Hot 100. The track is from the movie “8 Mile,” in which Eminem stars. READ MORE
On This Day November 6 Click each item below to learn more! Celebrity Birthdays 1854 – Composer John Philip Sousa (“The Stars and Stripes Forever”) (d. 1932) 1914 – Actor Jonathan Harris, born Jonathan Charasuchin, who played Dr. Zachary Smith in the 1960s sci-fi TV series “Lost in Space” (d. 2002) 1931 – Emmy, Oscar, Tony and Grammy-winning director Mike Nichols (“Barefoot in the Park,” “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” “The Graduate,” ” Silkwood,” “Working Girl,” “Postcards from the Edge,” “The Birdcage,” “Primary Colors,” “Angels in America,” “Closer,” “Charlie Wilson’s War”) (d. 2014) 1946 – Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actress Sally Field (“Gidget,” “The Flying Nun,” “Smokey and the Bandit,” “Sybil,” “Norma Rae,” “Places in the Heart,” “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Forrest Gump,” “Lincoln,” “The Amazing Spider-Man,” “My Name Is Doris,” “80 for Brady” ) 1948 – Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey (d. 2016) 1955 – Journalist, author and former First Lady of California, Maria Shriver 1970 – Actor Ethan Hawke (“Dead Poets Society,” “Reality Bites,” “Before Sunrise,” “Gattaca,” “Training Day,” “Before Sunset,” “The Black Phone,” “The Northman”) 1988 – Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actress Emma Stone (“Superbad,” “The Help,” “Crazy, Stupid, Love,” “The Amazing Spider-Man,” “Birdman,” “La La Land,” “Cruella,” “Poor Things”) History Highlights 1860 – Former Illinois congressman Abraham Lincoln is elected 16th U.S. president, handily defeating three other candidates to become the first Republican to win the presidency. 1962 – The United Nations General Assembly adopts a resolution condemning South Africa’s racist apartheid policies and calling on all its members to end economic and military relations with the country. 1977 – Thirty-nine people die when the Kelly Barnes Dam bursts, sending a wall of water through Toccoa Falls College in Georgia. 1987 – “Less Than Zero” opens in theaters. It’s a movie about a group of wealthy, young friends in 1980s L.A., starring Robert Downey, Jr., Andrew McCarthy, James Spader and Jami Gertz. 1990 – Nearly a fifth of the Universal Studios back lot in southern California is destroyed in a massive fire that was deliberately set. The blaze also consumes vintage cars from the 1920s and 30s, causing an estimated $50 million in damage. Musical Milestones 1961 – Jimmy Dean kicks off a five-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart with “Big Bad John.” 1965 – The Rolling Stones are on Cloud 9 when “Get Off Of My Cloud” hits the top spot on the singles chart and floats there for two weeks. 1971 – The soundtrack to the movie “Shaft,” by Isaac Hayes, tops the U.S. album chart. 1971 – “Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves” marks the first of two weeks as a No. 1 hit for Cher. It’s her first chart-topper as a solo act. 1976 – The Steve Miller Band scores its second Billboard chart-topper with “Rock ‘n’ Me,” off the “Fly Like an Eagle” album. 1982 – Movie music propels Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes to the top of the Billboard singles survey as “Up Where We Belong,” from the motion picture “An Officer And A Gentleman,” begins three weeks at No. 1. 1993 – Meat Loaf starts a five-week run at No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “I’d’ Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That).” READ MORE
On this Day July 17 Click each item below to learn more! Celebrity Birthdays 1899 – Oscar-winning actor James Cagney (“Yankee Doodle Dandy,” “Angels With Dirty Faces,” “Love Me or Leave Me”) (d. 1986) 1912 – Radio and TV host Art Linkletter (“House Party,” “People Are Funny”) (d. 2010) 1917 – Comedian-actress-author Phyllis Diller (d. 2012) 1935 – Actress-singer Diahann Carroll (“Julia,” “Claudine,” “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” “Dynasty”) (d. 2019) 1935 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor Donald Sutherland (“M*A*S*H,” “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” “Ordinary People,” “Backdraft,” “Space Cowboys,” “The Hunger Games” movie series) 1950 – Singer-songwriter Phoebe Snow, best known for her 1975 chart-topping hit “Poetry Man” (d. 2011) 1951 – Actress-singer-dancer Lucie Arnaz (“Here’s Lucy,” “The Jazz Singer,” “Down to You”) 1952 – Actor David Hasselhoff (“Knight Rider,” “Baywatch,” “Click,” “Dodgeball,” “The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie,” “Hop”) 1976 – Country music singer Luke Bryan (“All My Friends Say,” “Rain Is a Good Thing,” “Someone Else Calling You Baby,” “I Don’t Want This Night to End”) History Highlights 1955 – Disneyland, America’s first theme park, opens in Anaheim, California. The Walt Disney Company built the $17 million complex on 160 acres of former orange groves and it quickly became a cash cow. Each year, Disneyland hosts over 14 million visitors who spend close to $3 billion. 1975 – Two Cold War adversaries meet in space for the docking of the U.S. spacecraft Apollo 18 and the Soviet’s Soyuz 19. It is the final Apollo mission. 1980 – Ronald Reagan, an actor who went on to become governor of California, accepts the Republican nomination for the U.S. presidency at the party’s national convention in Detroit. 1981 – A walkway at the Hyatt Regency in Kansas City, Missouri collapses during a dance party, killing 114 people and injuring more than 200. 1996 – Minutes after takeoff from New York’s JFK International Airport, a TWA 747 jetliner bound for Paris explodes over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 230 people aboard. A lengthy and extensive investigation concludes that the flight was brought down by a fuel tank explosion, but others dispute the findings citing eyewitness accounts of missile-like objects that allegedly flew toward the plane. Musical Milestones 1959 – Billie Holiday, widely regarded as the greatest jazz vocalist of all time, dies at the age of 44 of heart and liver disease following years of alcohol and drug abuse. 1961 – “Tossin’ and Turnin’,” by Bobby Lewis, is No. 1 on both the Billboard singles and R&B charts. It remains atop the singles chart for seven weeks and the R&B chart for 10. 1967 – Iconic jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer John Coltrane dies of liver cancer at age 40. 1968 – The Beatles’ psychedelic cinematic adventure, “Yellow Submarine,” premieres in London, introducing fans to Blue Meanies and a host of new hits. The animated movie musical opens in the U.S. four months later. 1971 – Carole King enters her fifth and final week on top of the Billboard pop chart with “It’s Too Late,” off her Grammy-winning “Tapestry” album. 1982 – “Don’t You Want Me,” by The Human League, begins its third and final week as a No. 1 single. 1999 – Destiny’s Child is No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Bills, Bills, Bills.” READ MORE