Soviets – Time Rewind

On This Day April 5

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On This Day March 18

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Celebrity Birthdays

1837 – Twenty-second and twenty-fourth U.S. President Grover Cleveland (d. 1908)

1926 – Actor and TV host Peter Graves, best remembered as Jim Phelps in the CBS spy series “Mission: Impossible” and the pilot in “Airplane!” (d. 2010)

1938 – Country music singer-guitarist Charley Pride

1941 – Soul singer and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Wilson Pickett (“In The Midnight Hour,” “Mustang Sally”) (d. 2006)

1962 – Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe-winning actress and singer-songwriter Irene Cara (“Fame,” “Flashdance… What a Feeling”)

1963 – Actress, singer and former Miss America, Vanessa Williams

1970 – Golden Globe and Grammy-winning actress-rapper Queen Latifah, born Dana Elaine Owens

1979 – Grammy-winning Maroon 5 frontman and former judge/coach on NBC’s “The Voice,” Adam Levine

History Highlights

1852 – Henry Wells and William G. Fargo sign papers at the Astor House hotel in New York to establish a new banking and express enterprise serving customers across the nation. Their company, Wells Fargo, is currently one of the world’s largest banks.

1931 – The first electric razor goes on sale in the U.S., developed by the Schick corporation. It revolutionizes personal grooming by minimizing the risk of nicks and cuts.

1937 – With just minutes left to the school day, a thunderous natural gas explosion levels the combined junior-senior high school in the small East Texas town of New London, killing 294 students and teachers. It is considered the worst school disaster in U.S. history.

1965 – In another chapter of the Space Race between the United States and Soviet Union, Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov becomes the first person to walk in space when he leaves his spacecraft, Voskhod 2, for 12 minutes and nine seconds. He beats American astronaut Ed White on Gemini 4 by almost three months.

1968 – “The Producers,” starring Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel, opens at movie theaters around the U.S., eventually garnering a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for writer-director Mel Brooks.

Musical Milestones

1967 – “Penny Lane,” written by Paul McCartney, leads The Beatles to No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart.

1972 – “Heart of Gold” becomes Neil Young’s first, and to date, only No. 1 single. The track appears on his “Harvest” album.

1978 – The Bee Gees begin an eight-week ride on top of the singles chart with “Night Fever,” off the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack. It is the band’s third No. 1 single of the year.

1982 – Former Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes lead singer Teddy Pendergrass is paralyzed from the neck down after his car crashes into a tree in Philadelphia.

1989 – Debbie Gibson wraps up three weeks at No. 1 on the pop chart with “Lost in Your Eyes.”

1995 – Madonna is mid-way through a seven-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart with “Take a Bow,” off her “Bedtime Stories” album.”

2000 – “Say My Name,” by Destiny’s Child,” begins three weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

2006 – Ne-Yo kicks off two weeks on top of the singles chart with “So Sick.”

On This Day February 22

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Celebrity Birthdays

1732 – First U.S. President George Washington (d. 1799)

1907 – Actor Robert Young (“Father Knows Best,” “Marcus Welby, M.D.”) (d. 1998)

1932 – Massachusetts Senator Edward (Ted) Kennedy (d. 2009)

1944 – Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme (“Melvin and Howard,” “Swing Shift,” “Married to the Mob,” “The Silence of the Lambs,” “Philadelphia”)

1950 – Retired NBA legend Julius “Dr. J” Erving

1959 – Golden Globe-winning actor Kyle MacLachlan (“Dune,” “Blue Velvet,” “Twin Peaks,” “Sex and the City,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Portlandia”)

1966 – Comedian and “Saturday Night Live” (“SNL”) alum Rachel Dratch

1975 – Golden Globe-winning actress, producer and director Drew Barrymore (“E.T.: The Extraterrestrial,” “Boys on the Side,” “Charlie’s Angels,” “50 First Dates,” “Grey Gardens,” “Blended”)

History Highlights

1959 – In a photo finish, Lee Petty emerges as the winner of the first Daytona 500 auto race.

1980 – One of the most dramatic upsets in Olympics history takes place in Lake Placid, New York. In what is known as “The Miracle on Ice,” the underdog U.S. hockey team, made up of college players, defeats the four-time defending Gold medal-winning Soviet team 4-3 at the XIII Olympic Winter Games.

1987 – Pop art pioneer, filmmaker and cultural icon Andy Warhol dies at the age of 58.

2014 – One of the world’s most-wanted criminals, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera — head of the Sinaloa cartel, the world’s biggest drug trafficking organization — is arrested in a joint U.S.-Mexican operation in Mexico, after outrunning authorities for more than a decade.

Musical Milestones

1960 – Percy Faith starts a nine-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart with “Theme From A Summer Place.”

1975 – The Average White Band scores No. 1 on the singles chart with “Pick Up The Pieces,” while the album containing that track, “AWB,” tops the Billboard album chart.

1989 – Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Tina Turner, wins the Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocalist for her “Tina Live in Europe” album.

1990 – Milli Vanilli (Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan) win the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. Nine months later, they are stripped of the honor after they are caught lip-syncing and admit they never sang a single note on the acclaimed “Girl You Know It’s True” album.

1992 – “I’m Too Sexy,” by British band Right Said Fred, marks its third and final week as a No. 1 single.

1997 – The Spice Girls begin four weeks as Billboard chart-toppers with “Wannabe,” the band’s debut single.

1998 – Madonna releases the Grammy-winning “Ray of Light.” With its use of electronica and techno-pop, the album represents a departure from Madonna’s traditional sound. It contains the hits “Frozen,” “Ray of Light” and “The Power of Good-Bye.”

2003 – “All I Have,” by Jennifer Lopez featuring LL Cool J, rules the Billboard Hot 100. Lopez goes on to name her 2016 Las Vegas Residency Show after the song.

On This Day February 3

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Celebrity Birthdays

1874 – Author-poet and art collector Gertrude Stein (“How to Write,” “The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas”) (d. 1946)

1894 – Artist Norman Rockwell, famous for his “Saturday Evening Post” cover illustrations of everyday American life (d. 1978)

1918 – Entertainer and “Rat Pack” member Joey Bishop (d. 2007)

1940 – Legendary Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton, who spent 18 seasons with the Minnesota Vikings and New York Giants

1943 – Emmy and Tony-winning actress Blythe Danner (“Butterflies are Free,” “Will & Grace,” “Meet the Parents”)

1950 – Actress Morgan Fairchild (“Dallas,” “Falcon Crest,” “Murphy Brown”)

1956 – Tony-winning actor-comedian Nathan Lane (“The Producers,” “Guys and Dolls,” “The Birdcage”)

History Highlights

1913 – The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, authorizing the federal government to impose and collect a nationwide income tax.

1966 – The Soviets achieve the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the moon with Luna 9. After touching down, the circular capsule opens like a flower and begins transmitting photographs and television images back to Earth.

1971 – New York City police officer Frank Serpico is shot during a Brooklyn drug bust and survives to expose corruption in the NYPD. Many believe the shooting was fellow officers trying to kill him. His experience is immortalized in the 1973 movie “Serpico,” starring Al Pacino.

1994 – President Bill Clinton lifts the 19-year-old U.S. trade embargo on Vietnam that was first imposed during the Vietnam War when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon in South Vietnam.

2002 – The New England Patriots shock football fans everywhere by defeating the heavily favored St. Louis Rams, 20-17, to clinch their first Super Bowl victory. Super Bowl XXXVI was played at the Superdome in New Orleans before a crowd of nearly 73,000 people.

2005 – Alberto Gonzales wins U.S. Senate confirmation as the nation’s first Hispanic attorney general despite protests over his record on torture.

Musical Milestones

1959 – Rock and Roll greats Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. ‘The Big Bopper’ Richardson are killed when their single-engine plane crashes in an Iowa cornfield during their Winter Dance Party tour. The tragedy is remembered as “The Day the Music Died.”

1968 – One-hit wonder The Lemon Pipers shake their way up to No. 1 on the singles chart with “Green Tambourine.”

1973 – Elton John scores his first No. 1 single in the U.S. with “Crocodile Rock,” from his “Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player” album. The song holds the top spot for three weeks.

1979 – The Blues Brothers (Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi) land on top of the Billboard album chart with “Briefcase Full of Blues.” The album contains their cover of “Soul Man,” which reaches No. 14 on the singles chart, and “Rubber Biscuit,” which climbs as high as No. 37.

1990 – Michael Bolton begins his third and final week atop the Billboard Hot 100 with “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You.”

2007 – Beyoncé rules the singles chart with “Irreplaceable,” which holds at No. 1 for 10 weeks.

On This Day January 4

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Celebrity Birthdays

1643 – Scientist Sir Isaac Newton, credited with developing the principles of modern physics (d. 1727)

1809 – Scientist Louis Braille, who created a touch-based reading system for the blind (d. 1852)

1930 – Pro Football Hall of Famer Retired Miami Dolphins coach and Don Shula

1937 – Actress Dyan Cannon (“Honeysuckle Rose,” “Deathtrap,” “That Darn Cat,” “Diagnosis: Murder,” “The Practice,” “Ally McBeal”)

1957 – Grammy-winning country music singer and Grand Ole Opry member Patty Loveless (“Timber I’m Falling in Love,” “Chains,” “You Can Feel Better”)

1960 -Rock singer-songwriter and former R.E.M. front man Michael Stipe (“Orange Crush,” “Losing My Religion,” “Everybody Hurts”)

1965 – Emmy-winning actress Julia Ormond (“Legends of the Fall,” “First Knight,” “Sabrina,” “The Barber of Siberia,” “Temple Grandin,” “My Week With Marilyn”)

History Highlights

1958 – Sputnik 1, the Soviet satellite responsible for triggering the Space Race between the superpowers, burns up while re-entering Earth’s atmosphere after three months in orbit.

1965 – President Lyndon Johnson uses his State of the Union address to outline ambitious plans for a “Great Society,” which include knocking down racial barriers and freeing Americans from what he calls the “crushing weight of poverty.”

1974 – President Richard Nixon refuses to hand over tape recordings and documents that had been subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.

1995 – The 104th Congress becomes the first held entirely under Republican control since the Eisenhower era some 40 years earlier.

1996 – General Motors (GM) takes the wraps off a prototype of its EV1 electric car, which the automaker only makes available in Arizona and California — and exclusively for lease — as GM considered the development of electric vehicle technology to be ongoing.

1999 – Europe is united with a common currency when the euro is introduced as a financial unit in corporate and investment markets. Eleven European Union (EU) nations adopt the currency in hopes of increasing European integration and economic growth.

2007 – Representative Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, becomes the first female elected as Speaker of the U.S. House.

Musical Milestones

1936 – Billboard magazine publishes its first list of best-selling pop records covering the week that ended December 30, 1935. Big band violinist Joe Venuti and his Orchestra have the first No. 1 with “Stop Look and Listen.”

1964 – Bobby Vinton begins a four-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart with “There! I’ve Said It Again.”

1975 – Elton John rules the U.S. pop chart with his version of The Beatles’ “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.”

1986 – Lionel Richie is mid-way through a four-week run at No. 1 on the pop chart with “Say You, Say Me,” from his “Dancing on the Ceiling” album.

1997 – Toni Braxton has the first No. 1 single of 1997 with “Un-Break My Heart,” which remains a Billboard chart-topper for 11 weeks. The song goes on to capture a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

2003 – “Lose Yourself,” by Eminem, maintains its grip on the No. 1 position on the Billboard Hot 100. The track is from the movie “8 Mile,” in which Eminem stars.

On This Day October 6

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Celebrity Birthdays

1846 – Electrical and engineering pioneer George Westinghouse (d. 1914)

1908 – Actress Carole Lombard, born Jane Alice Peters (“Twentieth Century,” “My Man Godfrey”, “Nothing Sacred”) (d.1942)

1942 – Actress and former “Bond Girl” Britt Ekland

1963 – Actress Elisabeth Shue (“The Karate Kid,” “Adventures in Babysitting,” “Cocktail,” “Back to the Future Part II,” “Back to the Future Part III,” “Leaving Las Vegas,” “The Saint,” “Hollow Man”)

1971 – Actress Emily Mortimer (“Lovely and Amazing,” “Match Point,” “Lars and the Real Girl,” “Chaos Theory,” “Harry Brown,” “Shutter Island,” “Hugo,” “The Newsroom,” “Mary Poppins Returns”)

1973 – Actor Ioan Gruffudd (“Titanic,” “Hornblower,” “Fantastic Four,” “Black Hawk Down,” “San Andreas,” “Forever”)

1974 – Actor Jeremy Sisto (“Clueless,” “Six Feet Under,” “Waitress,” “Law & Order,” “Suburgatory”)

History Highlights

1866 – John and Simeon Reno (a.k.a. The Reno Brothers) stage the first train robbery in U.S. history, making off with $12,000 from an Ohio & Mississippi Railroad train in Seymour, Indiana. The pair perfected the art of stopping trains at gunpoint along sparsely populated stretches of track.

1926 – Yankee slugger Babe Ruth hits a record three home runs against the St. Louis Cardinals in the fourth game of the World Series. Although the Yankees win the game 10-5, they lose the championship in the Game Seven.

1961 – With the Cold War raging, President John F. Kennedy urges Americans to build bomb shelters to protect against atomic fallout in the event of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union.

1973 – Hoping to win back territory lost to Israel during the third Arab-Israeli war, Egyptian and Syrian forces attack Israel on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. And so begins the Yom Kippur War, which rages for 18 days until the United Nations intervenes.

1974 – Five years after launching on the BBC in Great Britain, “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” premieres on American television.

1981 – The world is horrified as Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat is assassinated during the nation’s annual victory parade in Cairo.

1989 – Oscar-winning screen legend Bette Davis, known for such movie classics as “All About Eve,” “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” and “Hush…Hush Sweet Charlotte,” dies of cancer at the age of 81.

Musical Milestones

1962 – “Sherry,” by The Four Seasons, is in the midst of a five-week ride atop the Billboard Hot 100. The song was originally titled “Jackie Baby” in honor of then-First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, but was later changed.

1973 – Cher begins a two-week hold on the top spot on the singles chart with “Half-Breed.” The single becomes her second No. 1 as a solo act.

1979 – Robert John’s “Sad Eyes” is the No. 1 single and holds the top spot for a week.

1984 – “Let’s Go Crazy,” by Prince and the Revolution, is in its second and final week as a chart-topping single.

1990 – “Close to You,” by Maxi Priest, tops the Billboard Hot 100 for a week.

2001 – Alicia Keys is in the midst of a three-week reign over the pop chart with her Grammy-winning single “Fallin’.” The track is off her debut album “Songs in A Minor.”

2011 – Starship’s “We Built This City” (from 1985) is named the worst song of the 1980s in a Rolling Stone magazine readers’ survey. “The Final Countdown,” by the Swedish band Europe comes in second and “Lady in Red,” by Chris de Burgh, is third. Also among the Top Five are Wham!’s “Wake Me Up (Before You Go Go)” and “The Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats.

2012 – Maroon 5, featuring Adam Levine, is in the midst of a nine-week domination of the pop chart with “One More Night.”

On This Day September 14

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Celebrity Birthdays

1936 – Actor Walter Koenig, best known for playing Chekov in the the “Star Trek” TV and movie series

1947 – Actor Sam Neill (“Dead Calm,” “The Piano,” “The Hunt for Red October,” “Jurassic Park,” “Event Horizon”)

1947 – Singer John “Bowzer” Bauman from the doo-wop band Sha Na Na

1960 – Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actress Melissa Leo (“Homicide: Life on the Street,” “All My Children,” “Frozen River,” “The Fighter”)

1964 – Actress Faith Ford (“thirtysomething,” “Murphy Brown,” “Hope & Faith”)

1983 – Five-time Grammy Award winner and soul-singing icon Amy Winehouse, who died of alcohol poisoning at the peak of her music career (d. 2011)

History Highlights

1814 – After witnessing the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in Maryland during the War of 1812, 35-year-old lawyer and poet Francis Scott Key writes a poem titled “Defence of Fort M’Henry,” which is later set to music, and in 1931, becomes America’s national anthem under its new title: “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Key was inspired by the sight of a lone U.S. flag still flying over the fort at daybreak.

1901 – Six months into his second term as U.S. president, William McKinley dies after being shot by a deranged anarchist during the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.

1959 – The Soviet’s Luna 2 rocket reaches the surface of the moon, becoming the first man-made object sent from Earth to the lunar surface. The event gives the Soviets a short-lived lead in the Space Race, and prompts the U.S. to speed up efforts to develop its own space program.

1964 – President Lyndon Johnson awards entertainment pioneer Walt Disney the Presidential Medal of Freedom, saying “in the course of entertaining an age, he has created an American folklore.”

1964 – President Lyndon Johnson awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to author John Steinbeck, who had already received numerous other honors for his literary work, including the 1962 Nobel Prize and 1939 Pulitzer Prize for “The Grapes of Wrath.”

1965 – Marching onto TV screens for the first time are the military farce “F Troop” and the short-lived sitcom “My Mother the Car.”

1972 – Americans meet the Walton family and witness its trials and tribulations for nine years on CBS. “The Waltons” airs for the last time on this day in 1981, the same day that “Entertainment Tonight” premieres.

1982 – Princess Grace of Monaco (Grace Kelly), who was an Oscar and Golden Globe-winning American actress before marrying into royalty, dies in a car crash at the age of 52.

1999 – Millions evacuate their homes along the southeastern coast of the U.S. as Hurricane Floyd advances. The storm weakens from Category 4 to Category 2 by the time it makes landfall at Cape Fear, North Carolina on September 16. Floyd is blamed for nearly 60 deaths across eight U.S. states and The Bahamas.

2015 – A 14-year-old Muslim boy is arrested at his Irving, Texas high school after a digital clock he had reassembled at home using a pencil case was mistaken by his teacher to be a bomb. Ahmed Mohamed’s arrest triggers a media frenzy, as many saw the incident as a case of racial profiling.

Musical Milestones

1963 – “My Boyfriend’s Back,” by the New Jersey-based girl group The Angels, enters its third and final week on top of the pop chart.

1969 – The Rascals begin their fifth and final week with the No. 1 single, “People Got to Be Free.”

1974 – Written and released by reggae sensation Bob Marley a year earlier, Eric Clapton’s version of “I Shot the Sheriff” is No. 1 on the singles chart.

1974 – Stevie Wonder begins two weeks at No.1 on the album chart with “Fulfillingness First Finale,” his second chart-topper. The album goes on to capture three Grammys, including Album of the Year.

1985 – John Parr’s “St. Elmo’s Fire,” from the movie of the same name, is the No. 1 single for a second straight week.

1991 – “The Promise of a New Day,” by Paula Abdul, tops the Billboard Hot 100 for a week.

1996 – “Macarena,” by Los del Rio, is in the middle of 14 weeks on top of the Billboard singles chart.

2002 – “Dilemma,” by Nelly featuring Kelly Rowland, is the No. 1 single.

On This Day September 15

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Celebrity Birthdays

1254 – Venetian merchant and explorer Marco Polo (d. 1324)

1890 – Mystery author and playwright Agatha Christie (d. 1976)

1907 – Actress Fay Wray, most remembered for playing the lead in the original “King Kong” movie (d. 2004)

1922 – Jackie Cooper, the first child actor to be nominated for an Oscar (“Our Gang,” “Little rascals,” “The Champ’) (d. 2011)

1946 – Oscar-winning screenwriter-director Oliver Stone (“Platoon,” “Scarface,” “Born on the Fourth of July,” “JFK,” “Natural Born Killers”)

1946 – Oscar-winning actor Tommy Lee Jones (“Coal Miner’s Daughter,” “Men in Black,” “The Fugitive,” “No Country for Old Men,” “Lincoln,” “Jason Bourne”)

1977 – Actor Tom Hardy (“Black Hawk Down,” “Star Trek: Nemesis,” “Inception,” “The Dark Knight Rises,” “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “Dunkirk,” “Venom”)

1984 – Prince Harry of Wales

History Highlights

1916 – The tank makes its debut as a battlefield weapon, attacking German troops as part of a British assault near Bois d’Elville, or Delville Wood, on the Western Front, during the Battle of the Somme in World War I.

1942 – Three Japanese torpedoes slam into the American aircraft carrier USS Wasp off Guadalcanal in the South Pacific during World War II. The attack claims the lives of nearly 200 of the ship’s 2,000 crewmen. The wreckage of the Wasp was discovered at the bottom of the Coral Sea in January 2019.

1954 – The iconic scene of Marilyn Monroe laughing as her skirt is blown up by the blast of air from a Manhattan subway vent is shot during the filming of “The Seven Year Itch,” directed by Billy Wilder.

1959 – Nikita Khrushchev becomes the first Soviet leader to visit the United States. During the next two weeks, Khrushchev’s visit dominates the headlines and provides some dramatic and humorous moments in the history of the Cold War.

1963 – Four young black girls are killed in a bombing at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, that investigators determine to be a racially motivated terrorist attack. The bombing, which shocks the nation, is Birmingham’s third in 11 days following a federal order to integrate the Alabama schools.

1978 – Muhammad Ali defeats Leon Spinks to win the world heavyweight boxing title for the third time in his career, becoming the first fighter ever to do so.

1981 – The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approves Sandra Day O’Connor as the first female Supreme Court justice.

1982 – Gannett publishes the first edition of a new national daily newspaper called USA Today.

2008 – The venerable Wall Street brokerage firm Lehman Brothers seeks Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, becoming the largest victim of the subprime mortgage crisis that would devastate financial markets and contribute to the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression.

Musical Milestones

1956 – Elvis Presley is king of the pop chart with “Don’t Be Cruel,” which becomes his biggest-selling single and, in 2002, is inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The B-side of the disc contains “Hound Dog,” which climbs to No. 2 a few weeks later.

1962 – “Sherry,” by The Four Seasons, is the No. 1 single and remains on top of the pop chart for five weeks.

1965 – Ford Motor Company is the first automaker to introduce factory-installed 8-track tape players in a car — the 1966 Mustang and Thunderbird — a year before 8-track equipment is available for home use.

1973 – Originally a Top-10 country hit for Tanya Tucker, Helen Reddy takes “Delta Dawn” to No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart.

1983 – Huey Lewis and the News release “Sports,” which goes on to top the Billboard album chart the following summer and spawns four Top-10 hits, including “The Heart of Rock & Roll” and “I Want a New Drug.”

1984 – Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got to Do with It” begins its third and final week as a No. 1 single. The track goes on to capture Song of the Year and Record of the Year Grammys.

1990 – “Release Me,” by Wilson Phillips, claims the top spot on the singles chart and holds there for two weeks.

2001 – “I’m Real,” by Jennifer Lopez featuring Ja Rule, is No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

On this Day July 22

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Celebrity Birthdays

1940 – Emmy-winning “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek (d. 2020)

1946 – Actor-director Danny Glover (“Lethal Weapon” series, “The Color Purple,” “Angels in the Outfield,” “2012,” “Death at a Funeral”)

1947 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, guitarist, drummer and Eagles co-founder Don Henley (“Dirty Laundry”, “The Boys of Summer”, “All She Wants to Do Is Dance”, “The Heart of the Matter”, “The Last Worthless Evening”, “Sunset Grill”, “New York Minute” and “The End of the Innocence”)

1949 – Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe-winning composer Alan Menken, known for his many Disney movie soundtracks

1955 – Actor Willem Dafoe (“Platoon,” “To Live and Die in L.A.” “Shadow of the Vampire,” “The Last Temptation of Christ,” the “Spider-Man” trilogy)

1964 – Actor-comedian John Leguizamo (“Hanging With the Homeboys,” “Ice Age,” “ER”)

1964 – Actor-comedian and “SNL” alum David Spade (“Tommy Boy,” “Black Sheep,” “Just Shoot Me,” “Joe Dirt,” “Grown Ups”)

1992 – Actress and pop superstar Selena Gomez (“Wizards of Waverly Place,” “Ramona and Beezus,” “Monte Carlo”)

History Highlights

1916 – A massive parade in San Francisco marking Preparedness Day, in anticipation of the United States entering World War I, is interrupted when a suitcase bomb explodes, killing 10 bystanders and wounding 40 others.

1933 – Some 50,000 cheering New Yorkers greet aviator Wiley Post at Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field as he completes the first solo flight around the world. Post logged 15,596 miles in seven days, 18 hours and 49 minutes — the fastest circumnavigation of the globe.

1934 – FBI agents gun down Public Enemy No. 1 — notorious bank robber and murderer John Dillinger, outside Chicago’s Biograph movie theater. Dillinger and his mob gang terrorized the Midwest, killing 10 men, wounding seven others, robbing banks and police arsenals, and staging three jail breaks — killing a sheriff during one and wounding two guards in another.

1937 – The U.S. Senate rejects President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s efforts to add more justices to the Supreme Court — his so-called “court-packing” plan.

1942 – Agricultural chemist George Washington Carver arrives in Dearborn, Michigan at the invitation of Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford to begin collaborating on crop experiments.

1987 – Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev indicates that he will accept a worldwide ban on intermediate-range nuclear missiles.

1991 – Milwaukee police arrest serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer after discovering dismembered victims and other evidence in his apartment. Dahmer is tried and convicted for the murders of 17 males between 1978 and 1991. While serving time in prison, he is attacked and killed by a fellow inmate in 1994.

2003 – U.S. Army Private Jessica Lynch, a prisoner-of-war who was rescued from an Iraqi hospital, receives a hero’s welcome when the 20-year-old returns to her hometown of Palestine, West Virginia. Following her return, new details of her capture and rescue emerge suggesting the original accounts were exaggerated to create positive feelings about the war.

Musical Milestones

1967 – “Windy,” by The Association, blows through the top of the singles chart for a fourth and final week.

1972 – “Lean on Me,” by Bill Withers, begins its third and final week on top of the Billboard Hot 100. The song is Withers’ only No. 1 on both the pop and soul charts.

1977 – During a performance, Tony Orlando announces he is retiring, which shocks the rest of his act — Dawn — since he had never mentioned his plans to them.

1977 – Elvis Costello releases his debut album, “My Aim is True,” which helps usher in the new wave genre and packs fan favorites including “Alison” and “(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes.” Subsequent pressings of the album for U.S. distribution contain the popular track, “Watching the Detectives.” In 2007, the album is inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

1978 – Andy Gibb is in the midst of a seven-week reign over the pop chart with “Shadow Dancing.”

1989 – Martika begins two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart with “Toy Soldiers.”

1995 – “Waterfalls,” by TLC, is in the middle of seven weeks as the No. 1 single.

2000 – Eminem has the No. 1 album with “The Marshall Mathers LP, which goes on to capture three Grammy Awards.

2006 – Three years after his death, country music legend Johnny Cash claims the top spot on the Billboard album chart with “American V: A Hundred Highways.”

On this Day June 19

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Celebrity Birthdays

1930 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actress Gena Rowlands (“Gloria,” “A Woman Under the Influence”)

1947 – Novelist and essayist Salman Rushdie (“Grimus,” “Midnight’s Children,” “Shame,” “The Satanic Verses,” “East, West”)

1948 – Tony-winning actress Phylicia Rashad, best known for playing Clair Huxtable on “The Cosby Show”

1950 – Ann Wilson of the rock duo Heart

1954 – Actress Kathleen Turner (“Peggy Sue Got Married,” “Romancing The Stone,” “The War of the Roses”)

1962 – Grammy and Emmy-winning singer, dancer, choreographer and former “American Idol” judge Paula Abdul

1972 – Actress Robin Tunney (“The Craft,” “Vertical Limit,” “The Mentalist”)

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.

Musical Milestones

1961 – Pat Boone tops the pop chart for a week with “Moody River.”

1965 – “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch),” by the Four Tops, is No. 1 on both the singles and R&B charts. Rolling Stone magazine has ranked the song #415 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

1971 – Carole King’s “It’s Too Late” begins a five-week run on top of the Billboard Hot 100. The song, from her now-classic “Tapestry” album, captures a Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1972.

1976 – Paul McCartney & Wings have a No. 1 single with “Silly Love Songs.”

1982 – Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson are in the middle of a seven-week reign over the singles chart with “Ebony and Ivory.”

1999 – “If You Had My Love,” by Jennifer Lopez, holds the top spot on the pop chart.

2004 – Usher maintains a firm grip on the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Burn.” The single remains a chart-topper for seven weeks.

2010 – “California Gurls,” by Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dogg, kicks off six weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100.