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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.

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