On This Day: November 13

On This Day November 13

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1850 – Novelist Robert Louis Stevenson (“Treasure Island,” “Kidnapped,” “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”) (d. 1894)

1934 – Actor-director-producer Garry Marshall, who created some of the most popular TV sitcoms of all time, including “The Odd Couple,” “Mork & Mindy,” “Happy Days” and “Laverne & Shirley” and hit movies like “Pretty Woman” and “The Princess Diaries” (d. 2016)

1947 – Tony-winning actor Joe Mantegna (“Three Amigos,” “The Godfather Part III,” “Forget Paris,” “Up Close & Personal,” “Criminal Minds”)

1954 – Actor Chris Noth (“Law & Order,” “Sex and the City”)

1955 – Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and Tony-winning actress, comedian and “The View” host Whoopi Goldberg, born Caryn Elaine Johnson

1967 – Actor Steve Zahn (“Strange Wilderness,” “Suburbia,” “Happy Texas,” “Crimson Tide,” “Stuart Little,” “Hamlet,” “Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” “Dr. Dolittle 2”)

1967 – Late-night TV talk show host-comedian Jimmy Kimmel, born James Christian Kimmel

History Highlights
History Highlights

1927 – The Holland Tunnel, linking New York City to New Jersey beneath the Hudson River, opens to traffic with each crossing costing 50 cents. Nearly 52,000 vehicles travel the tunnel on its first day.

1965 – Ninety people die in a fire aboard the cruise ship S.S. Yarmouth Castle between Miami and Nassau, The Bahamas. More than 400 others are rescued before the ship sinks.

1969 – Thousands of Vietnam War protesters stage a symbolic “March Against Death” in Washington, D.C., calling out the names of U.S. servicemen killed in combat as they pass the White House.

1974 – Chemical technician and union activist Karen Silkwood is killed in a mysterious one-car crash in Oklahoma at the age of 28. Silkwood worked at the Kerr-McGee plutonium plant in Crescent, Oklahoma and was critical of plant safety. The night she died, she was driving to meet with a union representative and a reporter for The New York Times, reportedly with documents proving unsafe plant conditions that led to her own exposure to radioactivity. 

1982 – A week-long national salute to Americans who served in the Vietnam War culminates with the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. The long-anticipated memorial, designed by Ohio-born architect Maya Lin, is a simple V-shaped black-granite wall inscribed with the names of some 59,000 Americans who died in the Southeast Asia conflict.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1965 – The Rolling Stones enjoy their second and final week at No. 1 on the pop chart with “Get Off of My Cloud.” 

1968 – The Beatles rule the airwaves as “Hey Jude” cruises through its seventh week as a No. 1 single. The band hired a 36-piece orchestra for the recording and offered the musicians twice their usual rate to sing and clap along to the song.

1976 – “Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright),” by Rod Stewart, begins eight weeks on the top of the Billboard Hot 100. The track, from Sir Rod’s “A Night on the Town” album, becomes his second U.S. No. 1.

1982 – Men At Work kick off a 15-week run at No. 1 on the album chart with their debut album, “Business As Usual,” which goes on to sell more than five million copies in the U.S. It contains the hits “Who Can It Be Now?” and “Down Under.”

1993 – Meat Loaf scores his first No. 1 single with “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That).” The song later earns him a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo.

1999 – The Grammy-winning single “Smooth,” by Santana featuring Rob Thomas, is in the middle of a 12-week domination of the Billboard Hot 100.

2012 – The original collage by artist Peter Blake that was reproduced and included in copies of The Beatles’ 1967 classic “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album sells to an unnamed bidder for around $88,000 during an auction of modern British art at Sotheby’s in London.

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On this Day: July 23

On this Day July 23

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1918 – Major League Baseball All-Star shortstop Pee Wee Reese, born Harold Henry Reese (d. 1999)

1933 – Emmy-winning actor and game show host Bert Convy (d. 1991)

1940 – Radio talk show host Don Imus (d. 2019)

1961 – Emmy-winning actor Woody Harrelson (“Cheers,” “Indecent Proposal,” “Natural Born Killers,” “Kingpin,” “The Thin Red Line,” “True Detective”) 

1965 – Rock and Roll Hall of Fame guitarist and songwriter Slash, born Saul Hudson, formerly with Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver

1967 – Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman (“The Talented Mr. Ripley,” “Capote,” “Scent of a Woman,” “Boogie Nights,” “Mission: Impossible III,” “Doubt,” “The Hunger Games”) (d. 2014)

1973 – Former White House intern-turned-designer Monica Lewinsky

1987 – Actor Daniel Radcliffe, best known for his portrayal of Harry Potter in the movie series

History Highlights
History Highlights

1885 – Shortly after completing his memoirs, Civil War hero and former president Ulysses S. Grant dies of throat cancer.

1967 – A police raid on an illegal Detroit bar triggers the 12th Street Riot, with days of firebombing, violence and looting, as African Americans lash out over police brutality, housing discrimination and unemployment. 

1982 – Actor Vic Morrow and two child actors are killed in an accident involving a helicopter while filming a Vietnam combat scene for “Twilight Zone: The Movie” — director John Landis’ film adaptation of Rod Serling’s TV series. The deaths lead to tighter on-set safety measures by the film industry. 

1984 – Vanessa Williams gives up her Miss America title — the first resignation in the pageant’s history — after Penthouse magazine announces plans to publish nude photos of her. At 21, Williams was the first African American woman to win the Miss America crown. Despite the scandal, she goes on to enjoy a successful singing and acting career that continues today.

1985 – A revolution in gaming takes place as Commodore releases the Amiga 1000, the home computer that played host to everything from Speedball to Rainbow Islands.

1996 – At the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, the U.S. women’s gymnastics team, nicknamed the “Mag 7” or “Magnificent 7,” captures its first-ever team gold.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1966 – Tommy James and the Shondells have the No. 1 single in the U.S. for a second straight week: “Hanky Panky.”

1977 – Barry Manilow’s “Looks Like We Made It” makes it to the No. 1 spot on the singles chart. 

1983 – “Synchronicity,” by The Police, kicks off 17 weeks on top of the Billboard album chart. It is the band’s fifth and final studio album and goes on to capture three Grammy Awards. In 2009, it is inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

1988 – The first single from Richard Marx, “Hold On to the Nights,” is the hottest song on the radio. 

1988 – Guns N’ Roses scores a huge popular breakthrough when their first hit single, “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” enters the Billboard Top 40. It climbs to No. 1 that September.

1994 – “I Swear,” by All-4-One, is in the middle of an 11-week domination of the Billboard Hot 100.

2005 – Mariah Carey claims the top spot on the pop chart with “We Belong Together.”

2011 – Grammy-winning British singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse (“Stronger Than Me,” “Rehab”) dies of alcohol poisoning in her London townhouse at the age of 27. 

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