Sam Cooke – Time Rewind

On This Day January 22

Click each item below to learn more!

On This Day December 23

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1943 – Emmy-winning actor Harry Shearer, the voice talent behind several characters on “The Simpsons”

1946 – Emmy-winning actress Susan Lucci, best known as Erica Kane on the ABC soap “All My Children”

1949 – Guitarist and singer-songwriter Adrian Belew

1964 – Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder

1971 – Actor and 1980s teen idol Corey Haim (“Lucas,” “Silver Bullet,” “Murphy’s Romance,” “The Lost Boys,” “License to Drive,” “Dream a Little Dream”) (d. 2010)

History Highlights

1783 – Following the signing of the Treaty of Paris, General George Washington resigns as commander in chief of the Continental Army and retires to his home at Mount Vernon, Virginia.

1888 – Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, suffering from severe depression, uses a razor to sever part of his left ear. He later documents the event in a painting titled “Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear.” Over years, however, a variety of new theories have emerged about this incident.

1913 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signs the Federal Reserve Act into law establishing the Federal Reserve (The Fed), which continues to serve as the nation’s central banking system today and is responsible for executing monetary policy.

1947 – John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley with Bell Laboratories unveil their invention of the transistor, which revolutionizes communications and electronics.

1968 – The crew and captain of the American intelligence gathering ship USS Pueblo are released after 11 months imprisonment by the North Korean government.

1986 – Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager complete the first non-stop flight around the world without refueling. They set a new world record of 216 hours of continuous flying in the experimental aircraft Voyager.

1993 – The movie “Philadelphia,” starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington, and directed by Jonathan Demme, opens in U.S. theaters. It is the first major Hollywood film to address the HIV/AIDS crisis and garners Hanks a Best Actor Oscar and Bruce Springsteen a Best Original Song Oscar for his track, “Streets of Philadelphia.”

Musical Milestones

1957 – “You Send Me” sends Sam Cooke to the top of the Billboard Top 100 (what the singles chart was called before becoming the Hot 100) for two weeks.

1967 – “Magical Mystery Tour,” by The Beatles, hits the U.S. album chart, introducing fans to such classic tracks as “Hello, Goodbye,” “All You Need is Love” and “Penny Lane.”

1967 – The Monkees begin their fourth and final week as chart-toppers with “Daydream Believer,” their last No. 1 hit in the U.S.

1977 – Folk singer-songwriter Cat Stevens, known for hits like “Wild World,” “Moonshadow,” “Peace Train” and “Morning Has Broken,” formally changes his name to Yusef Islam.

1989 – “Another Day in Paradise” by Phil Collins reaches the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and holds there for four weeks, becoming the last No. 1 single of the 80s and first of the 90s. The track also goes on to capture a Record of the Year Grammy Award.

1995 – The Mariah Carey-Boyz II Men duet “One Sweet Day” begins its fourth week on top of the Billboard Hot 100. It remains a chart-topper for 16 weeks.

2000 – Destiny’s Child holds at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Independent Women Part I,” from the soundtrack to the 2000 “Charlie’s Angels” movie starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Luci Liu.

2006 – “Irreplaceable,” by Beyoncé, is in the second of its 10-week ride atop the singles chart, making it the final hit of 2006 and the first of 2007.

On This Day December 11

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1931 – Emmy, Oscar, Tony and Grammy-winning actress Rita Moreno, born Rosita Dolores Alverio (“West Side Story,” “The Electric Company,” “Oz”)

1938 – Legendary jazz pianist McCoy Tyner, best known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet (d. 2020)

1940 – Emmy-winning actress Donna Mills (“Play Misty For Me,” “Knot’s Landing,” “General Hospital”)

1944 – Pop and country singer Brenda Lee (“I’m Sorry,” “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”)

1947 – Actress Teri Garr (“Young Frankenstein,” “Tootsie,” “Mr. Mom”)

1954 – Singer Jermaine Jackson, formerly of the Jackson 5

1958 – Mötley Crüe founder and bassist Nikki Sixx

1973 – Actor and hip hop artist Mos Def, a.k.a. Yasiin Bey, born Dante Smith (“Monster’s Ball,” “Something the Lord Made,” “Next Day Air,” “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” “16 Blocks,” “Be Kind Rewind,” “The Italian Job,” “Bamboozled,” “Brown Sugar”)

History Highlights

1777 – General George Washington marches 12,000 soldiers of his Continental Army from Whitemarsh to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania for the winter, but the troops are delayed when they encounter British forces.

1936 – After ruling for less than a year, Edward VIII becomes the first English monarch to voluntarily abdicate the throne. He announces his decision during a national broadcast. The move follows condemnation by the British government, the public and the Church of England of his decision to marry American divorcée Wallis Simpson, and causes a constitutional crisis for the British Empire.

1946 – The United Nations General Assembly votes to establish the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), an organization to help provide relief and support to children living in countries devastated by World War II.

1972 – The crew of Apollo 17 performs the sixth and final manned lunar landing.

2008 – Financier Bernard Madoff is arrested at his New York City apartment and charged with masterminding a long-running Ponzi scheme later estimated to involve around $65 billion, making it one of the biggest investment frauds in Wall Street history.

Musical Milestones

1961 – “Please Mr. Postman,” by The Marvelettes, tops the singles chart.

1961 – Elvis Presley kicks off a 20-week run on top of the Billboard album chart with the soundtrack to the movie “Blue Hawaii.” The King’s seventh No. 1 album is nominated for a Grammy.

1964 – Legendary soul singer Sam Cooke is shot to death by a Los Angeles motel manager in what investigators call a justifiable homicide. The manager claimed Cooke attacked her after trying to rape a young woman he was with. Cooke was 33.

1976 – Rod Stewart owns the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright).” The single remains at No. 1 for eight weeks, becoming the last chart-topping hit of 1976 and the first of 1977.

1982 – One-hit wonder Toni Basil reaches the top of the singles chart with “Mickey.”

1993 – Janet Jackson begins two weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 with “Again,” off her “Janet” album. It is also used as the closing track to the 1993 movie, “Poetic Justice,” starring Jackson and rapper-actor Tupac Shakur.

2004 – “Drop It Like It’s Hot,” by Snoop Dogg featuring Pharrell, is the No. 1 single.

On This Day December 1

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1935 – Oscar-winning screenwriter-actor-director Woody Allen (“Annie Hall,” “Manhattan,” “Hannah and Her Sisters”)

1939 – Pro golfer Lee Trevino

1940 – Standup comedian-actor Richard Pryor (d. 2005)

1945 – Grammy, Golden Globe and Emmy-winning singer-actress Bette Midler, best known for her pop hits “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” and “Wind Beneath My Wings” and the movies “The Rose,” “Beaches” and “For the Boys”

1946 – Singer-songwriter Gilbert O’Sullivan, best known for his 1970s hits “Alone Again (Naturally)”, “Clair” and “Get Down”

1951 – Actor Treat Williams (“Hair,” “Prince of the City,” “Once Upon a Time in America,” “The Late Shift,” “127 Hours”)

1970 – Comedian and “SNL” alum Sarah Silverman (“School of Rock,” “Wreck-It Ralph,” “A Million Ways to Die in the West”)

History Highlights

1891 – James Naismith shoots and scores! The 30-year-old physical education teacher from the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts invents basket ball (originally two words) using two peach baskets and a ball. At the 1936 Summer Olympic Games, the year basketball was introduced to the international competition, Naismith was in Berlin, Germany to present medals to the winning teams of the three North American countries: United States, Gold; Canada, Silver; and Mexico, Bronze.

1913 – The Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line.

1914 – The Maserati company is founded in Bologna, Italy, and goes on to produce its first car in 1926.

1953 – The first issue of “Playboy” magazine is published, featuring a nude Marilyn Monroe centerfold. More than 50,000 copies sell at 50 cents apiece.

1955 – Rosa Parks is arrested in Montgomery, Alabama for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man — a violation of the city’s racial segregation laws. The incident, which triggers a year-long boycott of the city’s bus system, is considered the birth of the modern civil rights movement.

1992 – Workers drill a hole through a wall of rock 132 feet beneath the English Channel connecting both ends of a tunnel linking Great Britain with the European mainland for the first time in 8,000 years. The Channel Tunnel or “Chunnel” finally opens for passenger service in 1994.

Musical Milestones

1957 – Buddy Holly and the Crickets appear on “The Ed Sullivan Show” performing “That’ll Be The Day” and “Peggy Sue.” Sam Cooke is a guest on the same show performing “You Send Me.”

1958 – The Teddy Bears are No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “To Know Him is to Love Him.” It remains a chart-topper for three weeks.

1962 – The Four Seasons are midway through a five-week domination of the singles chart with “Big Girls Don’t Cry.”

1973 – “Top of the World” puts the Carpenters on top of the singles chart, where they remain for two weeks. It is the duo’s second No. 1 single following “(They Long to Be) Close to You” in 1970.

1984 – Wham! begins its third and final week with a No. 1 single: “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.”

1990 – “I’m Your Baby Tonight,” by Whitney Houston, begins a week-long run at No. 1 on the pop chart. It is Houston’s eighth chart-topping single.

2001 – Mary J. Blige has the No. 1 single with “Family Affair.”

2007 – Alicia Keys kicks off five weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “No One,” from her “As I Am” album. The track captures Grammys for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song.