On This Day April 2 Click each item below to learn more! Celebrity Birthdays 1914 – Actor Sir Alec Guinness (“Kind Hearts and Coronets,” “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope”) (d. 2000) 1939 – Motown titan Marvin Gaye, whose hits include “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and “What’s Going On”) (d. 1984) 1941 – Singer-songwriter and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Leon Russell (“A Song for You,” “Tight Rope,” “Lady Blue”) (d. 2016) 1945 – Oscar-winning actress Linda Hunt (“The Year of Living Dangerously,” “Kindergarten Cop,” “The Practice,” “NCIS: Los Angeles”) 1947 – Grammy-winning country singer-songwriter Emmylou Harris (“Two More Bottles of Wine,” “You Never Can Tell (C’est La Vie),” “Beneath Still Waters”) 1961 – Actor Christopher Meloni (“Oz,” “Runaway Bride,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “True Blood”) History Highlights 1792 – The U.S. Congress passes the Coinage Act, establishing the U.S. Mint and regulating money. 1917 – The first woman ever elected to the U.S. Congress, Jeannette Rankin, takes her seat as a representative from Montana. A year later, she earns a second distinction by joining 49 of her House colleagues in voting against U.S. entry into World War I. Rankin remained true to her antiwar beliefs, becoming the only member of Congress to oppose declaring war against Japan following the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. 1956 – One of the longest running soaps debuts on CBS: “As The World Turns.” Former cast members include Meg Ryan, Julianne Moore, and Marisa Tomei. 1972 – Actor Charlie Chaplin returns to the U.S. for the first time since being labeled a communist during the Red Scare in the early 1950s. 1978 – “Dallas” premieres in primetime on CBS, starring Larry Hagman as the devious and despised oil tycoon J.R. Ewing. Launched as a five-episode miniseries, the ratings juggernaut delivers audiences 356 episodes over 14 seasons, turning its actors into international stars and J.R. and Southfork Ranch into household names. 2005 – John Paul II, history’s most well-traveled pope and the first non-Italian to serve as head of the Roman Catholic Church since the 16th century, dies at his home in the Vatican at the age of 84. Six days later, two million people pack Vatican City for his funeral, believed to be the most-attended funeral of all time. Musical Milestones 1957 – Elvis Presley performs at the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Canada. It is one of only five concert appearances The King ever makes outside the U.S. The tour marks the first and last time that Elvis wears his now-legendary gold lamé suit. 1966 – “Ballad of the Green Berets,” by Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler, begins its fifth and final week as the No. 1 single. 1977 – “Rich Girl,” by Hall & Oates, tops the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the first of the duo’s six No. 1 career singles. 1977 – “Rumours,” by Fleetwood Mac, climbs to No. 1 on the Billboard album chart and remains there for 31 weeks. The album contains tracks that became huge hits for the band, including the chart-topping “Dreams” and Top-10 singles “Go Your Own Way,” “Don’t Stop” and “You Make Loving Fun.” 1987 – Buddy Rich, regarded as one of the greatest jazz drummers of all time, dies at the age of 69 from heart failure following surgery for a malignant brain tumor. 1994 – Ace of Base holds the top spot on the pop chart with “The Sign.” 2003 – Soul singer-songwriter Edwin Starr, best known for his passionate, 1970 chart-topping anti-Vietnam War anthem “War,” dies at his home in England at the age of 61. READ 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. READ MORE