On This Day December 16 Click each item below to learn more! Celebrity Birthdays 1770 – Composer-pianist Ludwig van Beethoven (d. 1827) 1775 – Author Jane Austen (“Sense and Sensibility,” “Pride and Prejudice,” “Mansfield Park,” “Emma”) (d. 1817) 1917 – Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, whose short story, “The Sentinel,” inspired the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” (d. 2008) 1938 – Golden Globe-winning actress-director Liv Ullmann (“The Emigrants,” “Scenes from a Marriage,” “Face to Face”) 1941 – CBS “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl 1943 – Emmy-winning TV producer-writer Steven Bochco (“Hill Street Blues,” “L.A. Law,” “Doogie Howser, M.D.”) 1947 – Actor Ben Cross, best known for playing British Olympic athlete Harold Abrahams in the movie “Chariots of Fire” 1962 – Former Chicago Bears defensive lineman William “The Refrigerator” Perry 1963 – Actor Benjamin Bratt (“Law & Order,” “Demolition Man,” “Traffic,” “Miss Congeniality,” “Private History Highlights 1773 – Massachusetts colonists disguised as Mohawk Indians board three British ships docked in Boston Harbor and dump 342 chests of tea into the water to protest tea taxes. The raid comes be known as the Boston Tea Party. 1944 – The deadliest conflict of World War II occurs on this day. The Germans launch the last major offensive of the war, Operation Mist, also known as the Ardennes Offensive and the Battle of the Bulge, an attempt to push the Allied front line west from northern France to northwestern Belgium. 1951 – “Just the facts, ma’am.” The police detective series “Dragnet,” which launched on NBC Radio in 1949, premieres on NBC Television, starring Jack Webb as detective Joe Friday. Webb was the show’s creator and also served as director/producer. The series runs through 1970. 1960 – This day marks the worst commercial aviation disaster of its time. A United Airlines DC-8 and a TWA Super Constellation collide over New York City, sending one aircraft hurtling into Staten Island and the other into a Brooklyn neighborhood. The crash kills 134 people, including six on the ground. 1973 – Buffalo Bills running back O.J. Simpson becomes the first player in the National Football League to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a single season. Musical Milestones 1957 – After six weeks on top of the Best Sellers in Stores chart in October and November of this year, Elvis Presley’s “Jailhouse Rock” climbs back into the No. 1 spot for a week. 1967 – The Monkees are in the middle of a four-week domination of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Daydream Believer.” The song becomes the band’s final No. 1 hit in the U.S. 1972 – Billy Paul starts a three-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart with “Me and Mrs Jones.” 1983 – British rockers The Who announce their breakup. However, it was not to last, as the band gets back together in 1985 for Live Aid (a massive, duel-venue benefit concert for African famine relief) and then launches a full-fledged reunion tour in 1989. 1995 – “One Sweet Day,” by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men, is in its third week as a No. 1 single. It holds the top spot for a record-breaking total of 16 weeks. 2000 – Destiny’s Child rules the Billboard Hot 100 with “Independent Women Part I,” from the movie, “Charlie’s Angels.” This track remains a No. 1 single for 11 weeks. READ MORE
On This Day November 21 Click each item below to learn more! Celebrity Birthdays 1904 – Nobel Prize–winning novelist and short-story writer Isaac Bashevis Singer (d. 1991) 1937 – Emmy, Golden Globe and Grammy-winning actress and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital ambassador Marlo Thomas (“That Girl,” “Free to Be…You and Me”) 1944 – Actor-director Harold Ramis (“Ghostbusters,” “Stripes,” “Caddyshack,” “Groundhog Day”) (d. 2014) 1945 – Oscar-winning actress Goldie Hawn (“Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In,” “Cactus Flower,” “The Sugarland Express,” “Private Benjamin,” “Swing Shift”) 1965 – Icelandic singer-songwriter Björk, born Björk Guðmundsdóttir (“Birthday,” “Human Behaviour,” “Big Time Sensuality”) 1985 – Singer-songwriter and actress Carly Rae Jepsen, best known for her 2012 hit “Call Me Maybe” History Highlights 1783 – French chemistry teacher Jean-François Pilatre de Rozier and military officer François Laurent, the marquis d’ Arlandes, make the first untethered hot-air balloon flight, traveling 5.5 miles over Paris in about 25 minutes. 1877 – Inventor Thomas Edison announces that he has developed a hand-cranked, tinfoil covered cylinder capable of reproducing recorded sound — a “talking machine” that comes to be known as the phonograph. It marks the first time in history that a person’s voice could be recorded and saved. 1964 – New York’s Verrazano Narrows Bridge — then the world’s longest suspension bridge — opens to traffic. The span connects Brooklyn and Staten Island high above the entrance to New York Harbor. 1980 – The second worst hotel fire in modern U.S. history breaks out at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, claiming 85 lives and injuring more than 700 people. 1980 – Millions of viewers tune in to the prime-time CBS drama “Dallas” to find out who shot J.R., ending eight months of suspense in a storyline that establishes the television cliffhanger. The show becomes the highest-rated TV episode until the “M*A*S*H” finale beats it in 1983. Musical Milestones 1968 – The Supremes and The Temptations release a collaboration: “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me.” It peaks at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 behind Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.” 1970 – The Partridge Family parks its tour bus on top of the pop chart for three weeks with “I Think I Love You,” which was featured in the first episode of “The Partridge Family” TV series, starring Shirley Jones and David Cassidy. 1975 – Queen releases “A Night at the Opera,” the band’s breakthrough album, which contains the hits “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “You’re My Best Friend.” 1981 – Olivia Newton-John begins a 10-week lock on the No. 1 spot on the singles chart with “Physical.” 1987 – Billy Idol’s cover of the Tommy James and the Shondell’s hit “Mony Mony” spends a week on top of the Billboard Hot 100. 1998 – “Doo Wop (That Thing),” by Lauryn Hill, begins its second and final week as a No. 1 single. 2003 – George Harrison’s first guitar, a 1956 Rosetti-276 Egmond 105 steel string guitar, sells at a London auction for $800,000. 2017 – Teen idol David Cassidy dies of liver failure at the age of 67. Cassidy was best known as Keith Partridge, the son of Shirley Partridge (played by his real-life stepmother, Shirley Jones), in the popular 1970s musical-sitcom, “The Partridge Family.” READ MORE