On This Day: December 14

On This Day December 14

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1932 – Country singer Charlie Rich (“Behind Closed Doors,” “The Most Beautiful Girl”) (d. 1995)

1935 – Actress Lee Remick (“Anatomy of a Murder,” “Days of Wine and Roses,” “The Omen”) (d. 1991)

1946 – Former Hollywood mogul Michael Ovitz

1946 – Oscar-winning actress and author Patty Duke (“The Miracle Worker,” “Valley of the Dolls,” “Hawaii Five-0,” “Glee”) (d. 2016)

1948 – Actress and “scream queen” Dee Wallace (“E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” “The Hills Have Eyes,” “The Howling,” “Cujo”)

1965 – Baseball Hall of Famer and former Houston Astros second baseman Craig Biggio

1988 – Actress-singer Vanessa Hudgens, best known for playing Gabriella Montez in the “High School Musical” series

History Highlights
History Highlights

1799 – George Washington, the American revolutionary leader and first U.S. president, dies of acute laryngitis at his estate in Mount Vernon, Virginia at the age of 67.

1900 – The quantum theory of modern physics is born on this day as German physicist Max Planck publishes his groundbreaking study of the effect of radiation on a “blackbody” substance.

1909 – Workers place the last of the 3.2 million 10-pound bricks that pave the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

1911 – A team led by Roald Amundsen becomes the first to reach the South Pole — beating out British rival Robert Falcon Scott.

1946 – The United Nations General Assembly votes to establish its headquarters in New York City.

1961 – President John F. Kennedy formally announces that the United States will increase aid to South Vietnam, which would include the expansion of the U.S. troop commitment.

2012 – A deranged gunman shoots and kills 20 first-graders and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut before turning the gun on himself. Investigators discover that Adam Lanza had shot and killed his mother at her nearby home before driving to the school and opening fire. The tragedy becomes the second-deadliest mass-shooting in the U.S. at that time.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1963 – Grammy-winning “Queen of the Blues,” Dinah Washington, dies at the age of 39 after mixing alcohol and weight-reduction pills.

1968 – Marvin Gaye scores his first No. 1 single when “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” starts five weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

1969 – The Jackson 5 make their first network television appearance in the U.S. as guests on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

1977 – “Saturday Night Fever” opens in New York, starring John Travolta and featuring a soundtrack that helped shape the disco era.

1979 – The Clash release “London Calling” in the U.K. (it is released in the U.S. about a month later). The double album receives widespread acclaim and, in 2003, is ranked eighth on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

1980 – John Lennon fans around the world stage a silent vigil to honor the beloved musician who, six days earlier, was gunned down outside his Manhattan apartment building.

1991 – Michael Jackson kicks off four weeks atop the Billboard album chart with “Dangerous.”

1996 – “Un-Break My Heart,” by Toni Braxton, is the No. 1 single. It remains a chart-topper for 11 weeks.

2002 – Eminem maintains a 12-week reign over the Billboard Hot 100 with “Lose Yourself,” from the soundtrack to the 2002 movie “8 Mile.”

2013 – “Wrecking Ball,” by Miley Cyrus, strikes the top of the pop chart and holds there for a week.

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On this Day: July 28

On this Day July 28

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1866 – Children’s author-illustrator Beatrix Potter (“The Tale of Peter Rabbit”) (d. 1943)

1901 – Singer-actor-bandleader Rudy Vallée (d. 1986)

1929 – Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (d. 1994)

1943 – Former New Jersey Senator and Basketball Hall of Famer Bill Bradley 

1945 – Cartoonist Jim Davis, creator of “Garfield” 

1948 – Actress Sally Struthers, best remembered as Gloria in the 70s sitcom “All in the Family”

1964 – Actress Lori Loughlin, who played Rebecca in ABC’s “Full House” 

1993 – Pop singer-songwriter Cher Lloyd (“I Wish” and “Sirens”)

History Highlights
History Highlights

1868 – Following its ratification by the necessary three-quarters of U.S. states, the 14th Amendment is officially adopted into the U.S. Constitution. It grants citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, including formerly enslaved people.

1933 – The first singing telegram is sent to singer Rudy Vallée on his 32nd birthday. 

1945 – The pilot of a U.S. Army B-25 bomber gets lost in thick fog above New York City and crashes into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building, killing 14 people. Because it was a Saturday morning, there were fewer people inside the skyscraper than would have been there on a weekday.

1965 – President Lyndon Johnson orders an increase in the number of American troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000.  

1978 – “National Lampoon’s Animal House,” a movie spoof about 1960s college fraternities starring John Belushi and directed by John Landis, opens in U.S. theaters.

2016 – Former Secretary of State, Senator and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton accepts the Democratic nomination for president, becoming the first woman to lead a major U.S. political party.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1956 – Elvis Presley scores his second No. 1 hit with “I Want You, I Need You, I Love You.” The song tops Billboard’s Best Sellers in Stores chart (predecessor of the Hot 100, which is introduced in 1958). 

1962 – “Roses Are Red (My Love),” by Bobby Vinton, is in the middle of four weeks as a Billboard chart-topper.

1973 – In what is considered the largest rock concert to date, more than 600,000 people attend the Watkins Glen Summer Jam in upstate New York to catch performances by the Allman Brothers, the Band and the Grateful Dead.

1984 – Prince is in the middle of a five-week run on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “When Doves Cry,” from his “Purple Rain” soundtrack. The song is his first No. 1.

1990 – “She Ain’t Worth It,” by Glenn Medeiros featuring Bobby Brown, is in its second week as a No. 1 single.

1998 – Brandy & Monica are in the midst of 13 weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “The Boy is Mine.”

2001 – Usher begins his fourth and final week at No. 1 on the pop chart with “U Remind Me.”

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