rocket – Time Rewind

On This Day November 16

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On this Day August 4

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Celebrity Birthdays

1821 – Fashion designer Louis Vuitton (d. 1892)

1901 – Legendary jazz trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong, also known as “Satchmo” (d. 1971)

1920 – Helen Thomas, known as the “First Lady of the Press” for her more than 60-year career as a White House correspondent (d. 2013)

1944 – Actor, comedian and author Richard Belzer (“Homicide: Life on the Street,” “Law & Order: SVU”)

1955 – Actor-director Billy Bob Thornton (“Monster’s Ball,” “Sling Blade,” “Armageddon,” “Primary Colors,” “Bad Santa,” “The Judge”)

1961 – 44th U.S. President Barack Obama

1962 – Retired MLB All-Star pitcher Roger Clemens (a.k.a. “Rocket”), the first pitcher to win the Cy Young Award seven times

1968 – Actor Daniel Dae Kim (“The Jackal,” “The Adjustment Bureau,” “Lost,” “Hawaii Five-O”)

1971 – Champion NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon

History Highlights

1790 – The U.S. Congress authorizes creation of a maritime service to enforce customs laws. We know that service today as the U.S. Coast Guard.

1936 – American track and field star Jesse Owens embarrasses German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler when he captures the gold medal in the long jump at the Summer Olympics in Berlin. The win discredits Hitler’s notion of a superior Aryan “master race” in front of an international audience.

1944 – Officers of the Nazi Gestapo (secret police) arrest eight Jews, including 15-year-old schoolgirl Anne Frank and her parents and sister, found hiding inside the secret annex of an Amsterdam warehouse. The Franks had taken shelter there two years earlier to avoid deportation to a concentration camp.

1955 – The romantic thriller “To Catch a Thief,” starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, opens in U.S. theaters.

1964 – The remains of three civil rights workers whose disappearance six weeks earlier garnered national attention are found buried in an earthen dam near Philadelphia, Mississippi.

1977 – President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

Musical Milestones

1958 – Billboard magazine introduces its Hot 100 chart, a list of the 100 best-selling pop singles in the U.S. The very first No. 1 is Ricky Nelson’s “Poor Little Fool,” which holds the top spot for two weeks.

1962 – Bobby Vinton’s “Roses Are Red (My Love)” wraps up four weeks as a Billboard No. 1.

1973 – Maureen McGovern sails to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart with “The Morning After,” the Academy Award-winning love theme from the cruise ship disaster movie “The Poseidon Adventure.”

1980 – John Lennon begins recording what becomes his final album, “Double Fantasy,” at The Hit Factory in New York. On December 8, 1980, Lennon is shot to death outside his Manhattan apartment building.

1990 – “Vision of Love,” by Mariah Carey, kicks off four weeks on top of the pop chart.

2001 – Destiny’s Child rules the Billboard Hot 100 with “Bootylicious,” off the trio’s “Survivor” album. The song contains a prominent sample from the Stevie Nicks song, “Edge of Seventeen.”

2007 – The Plain White T’s mark their second and final week as chart-toppers with “Hey There Delilah.”

2012 – Carly Rae Jepsen is in the middle of a nine-week reign over the pop chart with “Call Me Maybe,” which earns Grammy nominations for Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance.

On this Day July 24

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Celebrity Birthdays

1802 – French author Alexandre Dumas (“The Three Musketeers,” “The Count of Monte Cristo”) (d. 1870)

1897 – Aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart (d. 1937)

1936 – Comedian-actress Ruth Buzzi, who starred in the TV comedy-variety show “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In”

1949 – Actor-comedian Michael Richards, best known as Kramer in TV sitcom “Seinfeld”

1951 – Actress Lynda Carter, who played TV’s “Wonder Woman”

1968 – Emmy and Tony-winning actress-singer Kristin Chenoweth (“Pushing Daisies,” “The West Wing,” “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” “Wicked”)

1969 – Hip-hop/R&B star and actress Jennifer Lopez

1982 – Oscar-winning actress Anna Paquin (“The Piano,” “X-Men,” “True Blood”)

History Highlights

1948 – The Looney Tunes character Marvin the Martian debuts in the cartoon “Haredevil Hare.”

1950 – The 62-foot-tall Bumper 8 is the first rocket to be launched from Florida’s Cape Canaveral — known then as the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

1969 – Apollo 11 splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean following the crew’s historic moon landing.

1978 – New York Yankees manager Billy Martin resigns in what becomes an ongoing love/hate relationship with team owner George Steinbrenner. The move comes less than 24 hours after Martin lambasted All-Star Reggie Jackson and Steinbrenner while speaking to reporters at Chicago’s O’Hare airport where the Yankees were waiting to board a flight to Kansas City. “The two men deserve each other,” Martin told reporters. “One’s a born liar, the other’s convicted.”

1980 – Actor-comedian Peter Sellers, best known for his portrayal of Inspector Clouseau in the “Pink Panther” movie series as well as his ability to play multiple roles in a single film (“Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb”), dies of a heart attack at the age of 54.

1983 – With his team trailing 4–3 in the top half of the ninth inning at Yankee Stadium with two outs, the Kansas City Royals’ George Brett hits a two-run homer to give his team the lead. However, Yankees manager Billy Martin, who noticed a large amount of pine tar on Brett’s bat, requests that the umpires inspect his bat. The umpires rule that the amount on the bat exceeded the allowable amount, they nullify Brett’s home run and call him out, enabling the Yankees to win. This becomes known as the “Pine Tar Incident,” still considered among the wildest moments in baseball.

Musical Milestones

1971 – Paul Revere & the Raiders gallop to the top of the singles chart with “Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian).”

1976 – “Kiss and Say Goodbye,” by The Manhattans, is the most popular single.

1982 – Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” reaches No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remains there for six weeks. It is the theme song for the movie “Rocky III,” starring Sylvester Stallone, which was released on May 28, 1982, one day before EMI Records released the single.

1993 – U2 begins a two-week run on top of the Billboard album chart with “Zooropa,” the band’s fourth No. 1. “Zooropa” goes on win to a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 1994.

1993 – UB40 kicks off a seven-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with their cover of the Elvis Presley smash “Can’t Help Falling in Love.”

1999 – The theme to the summer blockbuster “Wild, Wild West” begins one week as a No. 1 single. Will Smith, who stars in the movie, sings with background vocals by Dru Hill and Kool Moe Dee.

2004 – Usher rules the pop chart with “Confessions Part II,” which holds at No. 1 for two weeks.

2010 – “California Gurls,” by Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dogg, wraps up six weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100.