On This Day December 11

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On This Day December 9

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On This Day October 20

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Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1958 – “It’s All in the Game,” by Tommy Edwards, is in the No. 1 single and goes on to become a million-seller. Carl Sigman composed the lyrics in 1951 to a wordless 1911 composition titled “Melody in A Major,” written by Charles Dawes, who was Vice President of the United States under Calvin Coolidge. It is the only No. 1 single in the U.S. to have been co-written by an American VP or a Nobel Peace Prize laureate (Dawes was both).

1962 – Bobby “Boris” Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers kick off two weeks on top of the Billboard singles chart with “Monster Mash,” still considered a staple of Halloween party playlists today.

1977 – A twin-engine plane carrying southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd (“Sweet Home Alabama,” “Free Bird”) crashes in a Mississippi swamp, killing lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, backup singer Cassie Gaines, a tour manager and both pilots.

1979 – “In Through the Out Door,” Led Zeppelin’s eighth and final studio album, is in the middle of a seven-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart.

1983 – Country singer-songwriter Merle Travis, considered one of the most influential American guitarists of the 20th century, dies of a heart attack at the age of 65.

1984 – Stevie Wonder sits on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “I Just Called to Say I Love You.”

1990 – “I Don’t Have the Heart,” by James Ingram, tops the Billboard Hot 100 for a week. The track garners him a Grammy nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

2003 – Amy Winehouse releases her debut album, “Frank,” named after her idol, legendary crooner Frank Sinatra.

On this Day July 24

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History Highlights
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.  The craft represented a marriage of the German V-2 ballistic missile and the U.S. Army Wac Corporal research rocket. 

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.

On this Day June 19

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History Highlights
History Highlights

1865 – Union soldiers land in Galveston, Texas with news that the Civil War has ended and that enslaved African Americans were now free. The announcement comes two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which took effect on January 1, 1863. Some historians blame the delay on poor communication of that era while others believe Texan slave owners intentionally withheld the information. June 19 is observed around the U.S. as Juneteenth. On June 17, 2021, it became a federal holiday.

1905 – The world’s first nickelodeon opens in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and draws some 450 guests. The storefront theater boasted 96 seats and charged each patron a nickel.

1934 – Congress establishes the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to regulate broadcasting in the United States.

1953 –  Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted of conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviets, die in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison in New York. Both deny wrongdoing and proclaim their innocence right up to the time of their execution. The Rosenbergs were the first American civilians executed for espionage during the Cold War.

1973 – In separate games, Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds and Willie Davis of the L.A. Dodgers achieve their 2,000th career hits.

1978 – Cartoonist Jim Davis introduces readers of 41 newspapers around the U.S. to a pleasantly plump, lazy, lasagna-loving cat named Garfield.

1981 – A caped superhero returns to U.S. movie theaters with the release of “Superman II,” starring Christopher Reeve as “The Man of Steel.”

2013 –  Actor James Gandolfini, best known for his role as crime boss Tony Soprano in the HBO series “The Sopranos,” dies of a heart attack at age 51 while vacationing in Italy.