Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

On This Day February 29

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On This Day February 17

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Celebrity Birthdays

1925 – Actor Hal Holbrook (“Mark Twain Tonight,” “Designing Women,” “The Firm”)

1954 – Actress Rene Russo (“Lethal Weapon 3,” “Ransom,” “The Thomas Crown Affair”)

1962 – Actor Lou Diamond Phillips (“La Bamba,” “Stand and Deliver,” “Courage Under Fire,” “Che,” “The 33”)

1963 – Basketball legend Michael Jordan

1963 – Comedian-actor Larry the Cable Guy, born Daniel Whitney (“Blue Collar Comedy Tour,” “Cars”)

1965 – Director Michael Bay (“The Rock,” “Armageddon,” “Pearl Harbor,” “Transformers”)

1972 – Singer-songwriter and Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong

1974 – Actor Jerry O’Connell (“Stand By Me,” “Sliders,” “Crossing Jordan”)

1981 – Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt (“3rd Rock From the Sun,” “(500) Days of Summer,” “Inception,” “The Dark Knight Rises,” “Premium Rush,” “Looper,” “The Walk”)

1981 – Socialite, model and actress Paris Hilton

History Highlights

1801 – Thomas Jefferson is elected the third president of the United States. The election constitutes the first peaceful transfer of power from one U.S. political party to another. In addition to drafting the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson had served in two Continental Congresses, was minister to France and secretary of state under George Washington and had served as John Adams’ vice president.

1933 – Newsweek magazine is published for the first time (called News-Week at the time), featuring cover stories about German dictator Adolf Hitler and U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt. A copy sells for 10 cents.

1947 – The Voice of America (VOA) begins to transmit radio broadcasts to the Soviet Union.

1972 – President Richard Nixon leaves Washington on a peace mission to the People’s Republic of China, becoming the first U.S. president to do so.

1974 – Disgruntled U.S. Army Private Robert K. Preston buzzes the White House in a stolen military helicopter. Secret Service agents fire on the chopper, forcing it to land on the South Lawn. Preston suffers minor injuries and is quickly arrested. President and Mrs. Richard Nixon were away at the time.

1979 – Garrison Keillor’s popular radio variety show, “A Prairie Home Companion” premieres on National Public Radio (NPR). The broadcast originated from Northrop Auditorium on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis.

1996 – In the final game of a six-game match, world chess champion Garry Kasparov triumphs over Deep Blue, IBM’s chess-playing computer, and wins the match, 4-2. However, Deep Blue defeats Kasparov in a heavily publicized rematch the following year.

Musical Milestones

1904 – Giacomo Puccini’s opera, “Madame Butterfly,” premieres at the La Scala theater in Milan, Italy.

1962 – Gene Chandler carries the 50s doo-wop sound into the 60s as “Duke of Earl” launches a three-week run on top of the Billboard pop chart.

1967 – The Beatles begin recording “Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite” at Abbey Road Studios in London. The carnival-sounding track is on the “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album.

1971 – James Taylor makes his American television debut on “The Johnny Cash Show.” Other guests include Neil Young, Linda Ronstadt and Tony Joe White.

1975 – AC/DC release their debut album, “High Voltage,” in their native Australia. About a year later, a slightly different version of the album is released internationally.

1996 – The Mariah Carey-Boyz II Men duet, “One Sweet Day,” is in the middle of a 16-week domination of the Billboard Hot 100.

2001 – “Ms. Jackson,” by OutKast, grabs the No. 1 spot on the pop chart for a week. The track goes on to win a Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group at the 44th Annual Grammy Awards.

On This Day November 13

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Celebrity Birthdays

1850 – Novelist Robert Louis Stevenson (“Treasure Island,” “Kidnapped,” “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”) (d. 1894)

1934 – Actor-director-producer Garry Marshall, who created some of the most popular TV sitcoms of all time, including “The Odd Couple,” “Mork & Mindy,” “Happy Days” and “Laverne & Shirley” and hit movies like “Pretty Woman” and “The Princess Diaries” (d. 2016)

1947 – Tony-winning actor Joe Mantegna (“Three Amigos,” “The Godfather Part III,” “Forget Paris,” “Up Close & Personal,” “Criminal Minds”)

1954 – Actor Chris Noth (“Law & Order,” “Sex and the City”)

1955 – Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and Tony-winning actress, comedian and “The View” host Whoopi Goldberg, born Caryn Elaine Johnson

1967 – Actor Steve Zahn (“Strange Wilderness,” “Suburbia,” “Happy Texas,” “Crimson Tide,” “Stuart Little,” “Hamlet,” “Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” “Dr. Dolittle 2”)

1967 – Late-night TV talk show host-comedian Jimmy Kimmel, born James Christian Kimmel

History Highlights

1927 – The Holland Tunnel, linking New York City to New Jersey beneath the Hudson River, opens to traffic with each crossing costing 50 cents. Nearly 52,000 vehicles travel the tunnel on its first day.

1965 – Ninety people die in a fire aboard the cruise ship S.S. Yarmouth Castle between Miami and Nassau, The Bahamas. More than 400 others are rescued before the ship sinks.

1969 – Thousands of Vietnam War protesters stage a symbolic “March Against Death” in Washington, D.C., calling out the names of U.S. servicemen killed in combat as they pass the White House.

1974 – Chemical technician and union activist Karen Silkwood is killed in a mysterious one-car crash in Oklahoma at the age of 28. Silkwood worked at the Kerr-McGee plutonium plant in Crescent, Oklahoma and was critical of plant safety. The night she died, she was driving to meet with a union representative and a reporter for The New York Times, reportedly with documents proving unsafe plant conditions that led to her own exposure to radioactivity.

1982 – A week-long national salute to Americans who served in the Vietnam War culminates with the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. The long-anticipated memorial, designed by Ohio-born architect Maya Lin, is a simple V-shaped black-granite wall inscribed with the names of some 59,000 Americans who died in the Southeast Asia conflict.

Musical Milestones

1965 – The Rolling Stones enjoy their second and final week at No. 1 on the pop chart with “Get Off of My Cloud.”

1968 – The Beatles rule the airwaves as “Hey Jude” cruises through its seventh week as a No. 1 single. The band hired a 36-piece orchestra for the recording and offered the musicians twice their usual rate to sing and clap along to the song.

1976 – “Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright),” by Rod Stewart, begins eight weeks on the top of the Billboard Hot 100. The track, from Sir Rod’s “A Night on the Town” album, becomes his second U.S. No. 1.

1982 – Men At Work kick off a 15-week run at No. 1 on the album chart with their debut album, “Business As Usual,” which goes on to sell more than five million copies in the U.S. It contains the hits “Who Can It Be Now?” and “Down Under.”

1993 – Meat Loaf scores his first No. 1 single with “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That).” The song later earns him a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo.

1999 – The Grammy-winning single “Smooth,” by Santana featuring Rob Thomas, is in the middle of a 12-week domination of the Billboard Hot 100.

2012 – The original collage by artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth that was reproduced and included in copies of The Beatles’ 1967 classic “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album sells to an unnamed bidder. It goes for around $88,000 during an auction of modern British art at Sotheby’s in London.

On this Day June 1

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Celebrity Birthdays

1926 – Grammy-winning actor and comedian Andy Griffith (“The Andy Griffith Show,” “Matlock,” “Waitress”) (d. 2012)

1926 – Iconic actress, model, singer and sex symbol Marilyn Monroe, born Norma Jean Baker (d. 1962)

1934 – Pop singer and TV personality Pat Boone, whose popularity peaked throughout the 1950s and 60s

1937 – Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actor Morgan Freeman (“Glory,” “Driving Miss Daisy,” “The Shawshank Redemption,” “Seven,” “Million Dollar Baby,” “Unforgiven,” “Bruce Almighty,” “Batman Begins,” “The Bucket List,” “Invictus,” “Now You See Me,” “Going In Style”)

1947 – Rolling Stones guitarist and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Ron Wood

1969 – Actress Teri Polo, best known for her role as Pam Focker in the “Meet the Parents” movie franchise

1973 – Supermodel, reality TV star and “America’s Got Talent” judge Heidi Klum

1974 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette (“You Oughta Know,” “Hand in My Pocket,” “Ironic,” “You Learn”)

History Highlights

1938 – Publication of “Action Comics No. 1” introduces the world to Superman and is considered the first true superhero comic. It not only marks the first appearance of the Man of Steel, Clark Kent and Lois Lane, but launches the entire superhero genre. A pristine copy sells on eBay for $3.2 million in 2014 — the highest price ever paid for a single comic book.

1942 – News of Holocaust death camp killings becomes public for the first time. Liberty Brigade, a Warsaw underground newspaper, reports on the gassing of tens of thousands of Jews at Chelmno, a Nazi-operated death camp in Poland— nearly seven months after extermination of prisoners began.

1968 – Helen Keller, who overcame blindness and deafness to become a world-renowned writer, lecturer, humanitarian and co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), dies at the age of 87.

1974 – The Heimlich maneuver for rescuing choking victims is published in the journal Emergency Medicine.

1980 – Cable News Network (CNN) debuts as TV’s first all-news service. The first broadcast is co-anchored by David Walker and Lois Hart.

1990 – President George H. W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev agree to halt their production of chemical weapons and commit to the eventual destruction of 80 percent of their chemical weapons stockpiles.

2004 – Opening statements begin in the trial of Scott Peterson, who was accused of murdering his wife Laci and the couple’s unborn son in a case that dominated the headlines for nearly two years.

Musical Milestones

1963 – “It’s My Party,” by Lesley Gore, kicks off two weeks as a No. 1 single.

1964 – The Rolling Stones step onto American soil for the first time when they arrive at New York’s Kennedy Airport to kick off their debut U.S. tour. At the time, they were not as well known in the U.S. as The Beatles were when they arrived four months earlier.

1967 – The Beatles release the groundbreaking album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” The album took four months and cost $75,000 to complete. It goes on to sell more than 8 million copies and spends 15 weeks at No. 1.

1968 – Simon & Garfunkel grab the top spot on the singles chart with “Mrs. Robinson.” The song, from the duo’s “Bookends” album, is also in the soundtrack to the movie “The Graduate,” starring Anne Bancroft and Dustin Hoffman. It goes on to capture a Record of the Year Grammy.

1974 – Ray Stevens’ novelty song, “The Streak,” begins its third and final week on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

1985 – Prince and The Revolution launch a three-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart with “Around The World In A Day,” which contains Top 10 hits “Raspberry Beret” and “Pop Life.”

1991 – “I Don’t Wanna Cry,” by Mariah Carey, begins its second and final week as a No. 1 hit.

1996 – “Tha Crossroads,” by Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, is in the middle of an eight-week domination of the singles chart.

2002 – Ashanti maintains her hold on the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Foolish.”

2013 – “Modern Vampires of the City,” by Vampire Weekend, debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart.