Roosevelt - Time Rewind

On This Day March 12

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On This Day February 27

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Celebrity Birthdays

1902 – Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck (“The Grapes of Wrath,” “East of Eden,” “Of Mice and Men”) (d. 1968)

1930 – Oscar-winning actress Joanne Woodward (“The Three Faces of Eve,” “Rachel Rachel,” “Summer Wishes,” “Winter Dreams,” “Mr. and Mrs. Bridge”)

1932 – Oscar-winning actress Elizabeth Taylor (“National Velvet,” “A Place in the Sun,” “Giant,” “Cat On a Hot Tin Roof,” “Butterfield 8,” “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”) (d. 2011)

1940 – Actor Howard Hesseman, best known for playing DJ Johnny Fever on the 1970s TV sitcom “WKRP in Cincinnati”

1980 – Presidential daughter and businesswoman Chelsea Clinton

1981 – Pop and classical singer-songwriter Josh Groban, who has performed at both the Olympics and the Super Bowl

1983 – Actress Kate Mara (“Brokeback Mountain,” “We Are Marshall,” “Shooter,” “The Open Road,” “Transcendence,” “Fant4stic” “House of Cards”)

History Highlights

1827 – Masked and costumed students dance through the streets of New Orleans, Louisiana, marking the first of the city’s traditional Mardi Gras celebrations. Early French settlers introduced the original Mardi Gras festivities to New Orleans until Spanish governors banned them in the 1700s. Once Louisiana became part of the U.S., laws prohibiting masks and public dancing were rescinded.

1922 – The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, providing for female suffrage, is declared constitutional by unanimous vote of all eight members of the U.S. Supreme Court.

1936 – Shirley Temple receives a new contract from 20th Century Fox that pays the seven-year-old star an unprecedented $50,000 per film. Over the course of the 1930s, the box office success of her more than 40 films helps Fox weather the Depression.

1951 – On the heels of FDR’s four successive presidential terms, Congress ratifies the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution in 1, limiting the tenure of presidential office to two terms.

1964 – The Italian government announces that it is accepting suggestions on how to save the renowned Leaning Tower of Pisa from collapsing.

1991 – During the Persian Gulf War, President George H. W. Bush announces that “Kuwait is liberated.”

Musical Milestones

1954 – Doris Day has the No. 1 single with “Secret Love” from the movie “Calamity Jane.” The recording goes on to capture an Academy Award for Best Original Song.

1961 – “Pony Time” by Chubby Checker gallops away as the No. 1 single for three weeks.

1971 – Five months after her death, Janis Joplin begins nine weeks on top of the Billboard album chart with her second and final solo studio album, “Pearl,” which contains her smash “Me and Bobby McGee.”

1980 – The first and last Grammy ever awarded for Best Disco Recording goes to Gloria Gaynor for “I Will Survive,” unofficially marking the end of the disco era.

1988 – George Michael kicks off two weeks on top of the singles chart with “Father Figure,” off his debut studio album, “Faith.”

1993 – Whitney Houston wraps up a 14-week reign over the pop chart with “I Will Always Love You,” a song written and originally recorded by Dolly Parton in 1973.

1999 – “Angel of Mine,” by Monica, is in the midst of a four-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

On This Day February 19

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Celebrity Birthdays

1940 – “King of Motown,” Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Smokey Robinson (“You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me,” “I Second That Emotion,” “The Tears of a Clown,” “Cruisin’,” “Being With You”)

1952 – Novelist Amy Tan, best known for The New York Times bestseller, “The Joy Luck Club.”

1955 – Emmy-winning actor Jeff Daniels (“Something Wild,” “Dumb and Dumber,” “Fly Away Home,” “Pleasantville,” “The Newsroom,” “Steve Jobs,” “The Martian”)

1963 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Seal, born Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel (“Crazy,” “Prayer for the Dying,” “Kiss from a Rose”)

1966 – Actress Justine Bateman (“Family Ties,” “Satisfaction,” “Men Behaving Badly”)

1967 – Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actor-producer Benicio Del Toro (“The Usual Suspects,” Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” “Traffic,” “Sin City,” “Che”, Guardians of the Galaxy franchise)

1993 – Actress and singer Victoria Justice (“Zoey 101,” “iCarly,” “Victorious,” “The Penguins of Madagascar,” “Eye Candy”)

History Highlights

1847 – The first rescuers reach surviving members of the Donner Party, a group of California-bound emigrants stranded by snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

1878 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for a pioneering invention—the phonograph, the first device to both record sound and play it back. U.S. Patent No. 200,521 is just one of the more than one thousand issued to Edison for his inventions.

1942 – Amid World War II hysteria following the Pearl Harbor attack, President Franklin Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, which sends 117,000 Japanese-Americans living along the Pacific coast to internment camps in remote areas around the U.S. A smaller number of Americans of Italian and German descent are also detained.

1963 – The publication of Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique” revitalizes America’s feminist movement.

2010 – Golf superstar Tiger Woods holds a televised news conference in which he apologizes for marital infidelities and admits to “selfish” and “foolish” behavior. Woods’ statement comes three months after he crashed his car near his Florida home in the middle of the night.

Musical Milestones

1966 – Lou Christie zaps his way to the top of the singles chart with “Lightnin’ Strikes.”

1972 – Harry Nilsson’s “Without You” begins a four-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The ballad, which was first recorded by Badfinger in 1970, garners Nilsson a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal.

1977 – “Blinded by the Light,” by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, is the No. 1 single. The song was written and originally performed by Bruce Springsteen.

1977 – At the 19th Annual Grammy Awards, Stevie Wonder captures top honors for Best Album for “Songs in the Key of Life” as well as Best Male Pop Vocalist and Best Producer. Most music critics still consider the double-album Wonder’s finest work.

1983 – “Baby, Come to Me,” by Patti Austin and James Ingram, begins two weeks on top of the Billboard pop chart.

1994 – Céline Dion is in the midst of a four-week reign over the Billboard Hot 100 with “The Power of Love.”

2005 – “Let Me Love You,” by Mario, is the No. 1 single.

On This Day December 8

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Celebrity Birthdays

1894 – Humorist James Thurber, best known for his short story, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” (d. 1961)

1925 – Entertainer and Rat Pack member Sammy Davis, Jr. (d. 1990)

1930 – Oscar-winning actor Maximilian Schell (“Judgment at Nuremberg,” “The Man in the Glass Booth,” “Julia,” “Deep Impact”) (d. 2014)

1939 – Flute virtuoso Sir James Galway

1943 – Singer-songwriter and The Doors frontman Jim Morrison (d. 1971)

1947 – Allman Brothers Band co-founder Gregg Allman (d. 2017)

1953 – Oscar-winning actress Kim Basinger (“The Natural,” “9 1/2 Weeks,” “Batman,” “Final Analysis,” “L.A. Confidential,” “8 Mile”)

1961 – Author and political commentator Ann Coulter

1964 – Golden Globe-winning actress Teri Hatcher (“Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,” “Desperate Housewives”)

1966 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Sinéad O’Connor

1982 – Hip-hop superstar Nicki Minaj, born Onika Tanya Maraj

History Highlights

1881 – A fire at the Ringtheater in Vienna, Austria, kills more than 600 people and injures hundreds of others. The luxurious, ornate theater hosted the most popular performances of that time.

1941 – One day after the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt convinces Congress to declare war on Japan, thrusting the U.S. into World War II.

1982 – “Sophie’s Choice,” directed by Alan J. Pakula and starring Meryl Streep as a Holocaust survivor, opens in U.S. movie theaters. Streep goes on to capture a Best Actress Oscar and Golden Globe Award for her performance.

1987 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sign the first treaty between the two superpowers to reduce their massive nuclear arsenals.

1991 – The leaders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine sign an agreement dissolving the Soviet Union and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States.

1993 – U.S. President Bill Clinton signs the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) into law, creating the world’s largest free-trade zone. The pact eliminated virtually all tariffs and trade restrictions between the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

Musical Milestones

1962 – “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” by The Four Seasons, is in the midst of a five-week run on top of the singles chart. It is the New Jersey band’s second chart-topper after “Sherry,” which held the No. 1 spot for five weeks in September and October of that year.

1979 – Styx has its first and only No. 1 single with “Babe,” which remains a chart-topper for two weeks.

1980 – John Lennon is shot and killed outside his New York City apartment building by obsessed fan Mark David Chapman. The beloved ex-Beatle is just 40 years old.

1982 – Grammy-winning country music singer-songwriter Marty Robbins dies at the age of 57. Best known for his 1959 hit “El Paso,” Robbins was also a race car driver on the NASCAR circuit.

1984 – “Out of Touch” by Daryl Hall & John Oates tops the Billboard Hot 100 and holds there for two weeks.

1990 – One-hit-wonder Stevie B kicks off four weeks on top of the pop chart with “Because I Love You (The Postman Song),” officially making that the final No. 1 single of 1990.

2001 – “Family Affair,” by Mary J. Blige, begins its sixth and final week as a Billboard chart-topper.

On this Day August 14

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Celebrity Birthdays

1940 – Singer Dash Crofts of the 70s pop duo Seals & Crofts

1941 – Singer-songwriter David Crosby, who co-founded the influential folk-rock groups the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash (d. 2023)

1945 – Emmy and Grammy-winning comedian, actor, musician and “SNL” alum Steve Martin (“The Jerk,” “Three Amigos,” “Little Shop of Horrors,” “Roxanne,” “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” “Parenthood,” “Father of the Bride,” “It’s Complicated”)

1946 – Actress Susan St. James (“The Name of the Game,” “McMillan & Wife,” “Kate & Allie”)

1947 – Author Danielle Steel, who has written dozens of bestselling romantic novels

1959 – Oscar-winning actress Marcia Gay Harden (“Pollack,” “Mystic River,” “American Gun,” “The Mist,” “Into the Wild”)

1959 – NBA Hall of Famer-turned-entrepreneur Magic Johnson, born Earvin Johnson, Jr.

1960 – Soprano singer Sarah Brightman, who played the role of Jemima in the musical “Cats” and Christine in “The Phantom of the Opera”

1961 – Actress Susan Olsen, best known for playing youngest child Cindy on TV’s “The Brady Bunch”

1966 – Oscar, Golden Globe and Emmy-winning actress Halle Berry (“Boomerang,” “Introducing Dorothy Dandridge,” “Monster’s Ball,” “The X-Men” movies, “Die Another Day,” “Cloud Atlas,” “The Call”)

1983 – Actress Mila Kunis (“That ’70s Show,” “Family Guy,” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” “Black Swan,” “Book of Eli,” “Friends with Benefits,” “Ted,” “Oz the Great and Powerful”)

History Highlights

1935 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act into law. The measure guarantees an income for unemployed and retired Americans.

1973 – The U.S. halts the bombing of Cambodia, ending 12 years of combat in Indochina.

1974 – The U.S. Congress grants Americans the right to once again own gold, reversing a ban on private ownership imposed in the 1930s.

1980 – President Jimmy Carter accepts the Democratic presidential nomination, but ultimately loses his re-election bid to Republican Ronald Reagan that November.

1988 – Race car driver and Ferrari auto founder Enzo Ferrari dies at the age of 90.

2003 – A massive power outage leaves 50 million people across the northeastern U.S. and parts of Canada in the dark for hours, some stranded in subways and elevators. The cause is determined to be tree branches interfering with power lines in Ohio, triggering an explosion that crippled an outdated power grid.

Musical Milestones

1965 – Sonny & Cher start a three-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “I Got You Babe,” the first single off the pop duo’s debut album, “Look at Us.”

1971 – The Who release their fifth studio album, “Who’s next,” which contains the smash “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” The album peaks at No. 4. Decades later, many music critics regard it as the British rock band’s greatest work.

1976 – “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” by Elton John and Kiki Dee, holds the top spot on the pop chart, where it remains for four weeks.

1982 – Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” is in the midst of a six-week domination of the singles chart. It is the theme from the movie “Rocky III.”

1985 – Michael Jackson outbids Yoko Ono and Paul McCartney to secure the ATV Music Publishing catalog. At $47.5 million, Jackson gains the rights to more than 250 songs written by McCartney and John Lennon as well as tracks by Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley and others.

1993 – UB40’s cover of the 1961 Elvis Presley song “Can’t Help Falling in Love” is No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

1999 – Christina Aguilera rules the singles chart with “Genie in a Bottle.”

2004 – “Slow Motion,” by Juvenile featuring Soulja Slim, begins its second and final week on top of the pop chart.

On This Day March 12

Celebrity Birthdays

History Highlights

Musical Milestones

On This Day February 27

Celebrity Birthdays

History Highlights

Musical Milestones

On This Day February 19

Celebrity Birthdays

History Highlights

Musical Milestones

On This Day December 8

Celebrity Birthdays

History Highlights

Musical Milestones

On this Day August 14

Celebrity Birthdays

History Highlights

Musical Milestones

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