On This Day: April 14

On This Day April 14

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1932 – Country music legend Loretta Lynn

1941 – Retired Major League Baseball slugger Pete Rose, a 17-time MLB All-Star and 1973 National League MVP

1960 – Emmy-winning actor and stand-up comedian Brad Garrett, best known for his role as Ray Romano’s sad-sack brother Robert in the sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond”

1968 – Actor Anthony Michael Hall (“Sixteen Candles,” “The Breakfast Club,” “Weird Science,” “Edward Scissorhands”)

1973 – Oscar-winning actor Adrien Brody (“The Thin Red Line,” “The Pianist,” “The Village,” “Midnight in Paris,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “Houdini”)

1977 – Emmy-winning actress Sarah Michelle Gellar (“All My Children,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Cruel Intentions, “Scooby-Doo,” “The Grudge”)

History Highlights
History Highlights

1828 – Noah Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language is published. Webster wanted Americans to have a national identity not based on the language and ideas of England. The dictionary, which took Webster more than two decades to complete, introduced more than 10,000 “Americanisms.”

1865 – Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth shoots President Abraham Lincoln during a performance at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. Lincoln dies the next day.

1912 – RMS Titanic strikes an iceberg in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic just before midnight during its maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City. More than 1,500 people perish when the luxury liner sinks less than three hours later. 

1918 – During World War I, two pilots from the U.S. Army Air Service’s 94th Aero Squadron engage in America’s first aerial dogfight with enemy aircraft over Europe’s Western Front. In a battle above Toul, France, aviators Douglas Campbell and Alan Winslow shoot down a pair of German two-seaters. Campbell is honored as America’s first “flying ace” about a month later after taking out his fifth enemy plane.

1969 – For the first time in Academy Awards history, there’s a tie for the Best Actress Oscar. The award is shared by Barbra Streisand (“Funny Girl”) and Katharine Hepburn (“The Lion in Winter”).

1988 – The Soviet Union withdraws its military forces from Afghanistan.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1962 – “Johnny Angel,” by Shelley Fabares — the actress best known for her role in “The Donna Reed Show” — starts its second and final week as a No. 1 single. 

1979 – The Doobie Brothers rule the singles chart with “What a Fool Believes.” The song goes on to capture Song of the Year and Record of the Year Grammys.

1984 – Kenny Loggins’ “Footloose,” from the movie of the same name, wraps up three weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100. The track is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song , but loses to Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called to Say I Love You” from the movie “The Woman in Red.”

1990 – One-hit-wonder Tommy Page begins a week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “I’ll Be Your Everything.” The song spends 13 weeks in the Top 40 and is certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

2001 – “All for You,” by Janet Jackson, begins seven weeks on top of the U.S. pop chart and goes on to win a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording. It becomes the longest-reigning single of 2001.

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On this Day: May 27

On this Day May 27

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1894 – Detective novelist Dashiell Hammett (“The Maltese Falcon,” “The Glass Key,” “The Thin Man”) (d. 1961)

1911 – Actor Vincent Price, who specialized in the horror genre and provided the monologue and evil laugh in Michael Jackson’s hit single/music video “Thriller” (d. 1993)

1922 – Actor Christopher Lee (“Horror of Dracula,” “The Man With the Golden Gun,” “The Lord of the Rings,”) (d. 2015)

1923 – Former U.S. Secretary of State and Nobel laureate Henry Kissinger

1935 – Grammy-winning jazz composer-pianist Ramsey Lewis

1936 – Oscar and Emmy-winning actor Louis Gossett, Jr. (“Roots,” “An Officer And a Gentleman,” “Enemy Mine”)

1955 – Actor Richard Schiff (“The Lost World: Jurassic Park,” “The West Wing,” “Deep Impact,” “I Am Sam,” “The Good Doctor”)

1970 – Actor Joseph Fiennes (“Shakespeare in Love,” “Elizabeth,” ” Enemy at the Gates,” “American Horror Story”)

History Highlights
History Highlights

1930 – New York City’s iconic Chrysler Building opens to the public and stands as the world’s tallest building until surpassed by the Empire State Building in 1931.

1936 – The ocean liner RMS Queen Mary leaves Southampton on her maiden voyage to New York with more than 1,800 passengers aboard. The ship arrives safely five days later.

1937 – The majestic Golden Gate Bridge opens, creating a vital link between San Francisco and Marin County, California. San Franciscans throw a “fiesta” in honor of the new span. Schools, offices and stores either close or reduce staffing. By 6 that morning, 18,000 people are waiting to cross the span from both the sides.

1939 – A ship carrying more than 900 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution is turned away from Havana, Cuba. Only 28 immigrants are admitted into the country. After appeals to the U.S. and Canada for entry are rejected, the rest are forced to return to Europe, where they are divided among several countries, including Great Britain and France.

1941 – The revered German battleship Bismarck is cornered and sunk in the North Atlantic by ships and planes from the British Royal Navy, ending one of the most intensive naval manhunts in history. An estimated 2,100 crewmen are killed in the attack.

1962 – A mine fire that still burns to this day breaks out beneath the borough of Centralia, Pennsylvania.

1994 – Two decades after being expelled from the Soviet Union, Nobel laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn returns to Russia in an emotional homecoming.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1957 – The Crickets, featuring Buddy Holly, release their first record, “That’ll Be The Day,” on the Brunswick label — a subsidiary of Decca Records. The single soars to the top of the pop charts in both the U.S. and U.K. and propels the band into rock and roll stardom.

1963 – The second album is the charm for 22-year-old Bob Dylan, who releases “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan,” which proves to be his breakthrough work. Among its original compositions (and first track on the album) is the classic “Blowin’ in the Wind.”

1972 – The Chi-Lites reach No. 1 on the singles chart for their first and only time with “Oh Girl.” The track, off the band’s “A Lonely Man” album, stays on top for a week.

1978 – “With a Little Luck,” by Paul McCartney & Wings, enjoys its second and final week as the hottest single in the U.S.

1989 – Paula Abdul begins her second and final week on top of the Billboard singles survey with “Forever Your Girl.”

1995 – “This Is How We Do It,” by Montell Jordan, wraps up seven weeks as a Billboard chart-topper.

2000 – Santana, featuring The Product G&B, holds steady at No. 1 on the pop chart with “Maria Maria.”

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