The Crickets – Time Rewind

On This Day January 24

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On This Day December 1

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Celebrity Birthdays

1935 – Oscar-winning screenwriter-actor-director Woody Allen (“Annie Hall,” “Manhattan,” “Hannah and Her Sisters”)

1939 – Pro golfer Lee Trevino

1940 – Standup comedian-actor Richard Pryor (d. 2005)

1945 – Grammy, Golden Globe and Emmy-winning singer-actress Bette Midler, best known for her pop hits “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” and “Wind Beneath My Wings” and the movies “The Rose,” “Beaches” and “For the Boys”

1946 – Singer-songwriter Gilbert O’Sullivan, best known for his 1970s hits “Alone Again (Naturally)”, “Clair” and “Get Down”

1951 – Actor Treat Williams (“Hair,” “Prince of the City,” “Once Upon a Time in America,” “The Late Shift,” “127 Hours”)

1970 – Comedian and “SNL” alum Sarah Silverman (“School of Rock,” “Wreck-It Ralph,” “A Million Ways to Die in the West”)

History Highlights

1891 – James Naismith shoots and scores! The 30-year-old physical education teacher from the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts invents basket ball (originally two words) using two peach baskets and a ball. At the 1936 Summer Olympic Games, the year basketball was introduced to the international competition, Naismith was in Berlin, Germany to present medals to the winning teams of the three North American countries: United States, Gold; Canada, Silver; and Mexico, Bronze.

1913 – The Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line.

1914 – The Maserati company is founded in Bologna, Italy, and goes on to produce its first car in 1926.

1953 – The first issue of “Playboy” magazine is published, featuring a nude Marilyn Monroe centerfold. More than 50,000 copies sell at 50 cents apiece.

1955 – Rosa Parks is arrested in Montgomery, Alabama for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man — a violation of the city’s racial segregation laws. The incident, which triggers a year-long boycott of the city’s bus system, is considered the birth of the modern civil rights movement.

1992 – Workers drill a hole through a wall of rock 132 feet beneath the English Channel connecting both ends of a tunnel linking Great Britain with the European mainland for the first time in 8,000 years. The Channel Tunnel or “Chunnel” finally opens for passenger service in 1994.

Musical Milestones

1957 – Buddy Holly and the Crickets appear on “The Ed Sullivan Show” performing “That’ll Be The Day” and “Peggy Sue.” Sam Cooke is a guest on the same show performing “You Send Me.”

1958 – The Teddy Bears are No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “To Know Him is to Love Him.” It remains a chart-topper for three weeks.

1962 – The Four Seasons are midway through a five-week domination of the singles chart with “Big Girls Don’t Cry.”

1973 – “Top of the World” puts the Carpenters on top of the singles chart, where they remain for two weeks. It is the duo’s second No. 1 single following “(They Long to Be) Close to You” in 1970.

1984 – Wham! begins its third and final week with a No. 1 single: “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.”

1990 – “I’m Your Baby Tonight,” by Whitney Houston, begins a week-long run at No. 1 on the pop chart. It is Houston’s eighth chart-topping single.

2001 – Mary J. Blige has the No. 1 single with “Family Affair.”

2007 – Alicia Keys kicks off five weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “No One,” from her “As I Am” album. The track captures Grammys for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song.

On This Day September 23

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Celebrity Birthdays

1920 – Golden Globe and Emmy-winning actor Mickey Rooney (d. 2014)

1930 – Grammy-winning soul music pioneer Ray Charles (d. 2004)

1943 – Grammy-winning pop singer Julio Iglesias (“Begin the Beguine,” “To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before”)

1947 – Emmy-winning actress Mary Kay Place (“Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman”)

1949 – Grammy-winning rock singer-songwriter Bruce “The Boss” Springsteen

1959 – Tony Award-winning actor-comedian Jason Alexander, best known as George Costanza in the hit comedy series “Seinfeld”

History Highlights

1846 – German astronomer Johann Galle discovers Neptune, the eighth planet from the sun.

1875 – Originally named Henry McCarty, Henry Antrim, and later William H. Bonney, Billy the Kid as he was most widely known, is 15 when he is arrested for the first time after stealing a basket of laundry. He eventually earns a reputation as an outlaw and fugitive, with a rap sheet that allegedly included 21 murders.

1952 – Vice presidential candidate Richard Nixon delivers his nationally televised “Checkers Speech.” Nixon defends himself against charges of using a private fund for political expenses, and declares he would never give back the dog, Checkers, which was a gift to his daughters.

1962 – The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City opens with the completion of the first building, the Philharmonic Hall, now Avery Fisher Hall, home of the New York Philharmonic.

1994 – “The Shawshank Redemption,” starring Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins, opens in theaters. Based on a 1982 short story by Stephen King titled “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption,” the film garners seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, but wins none.

Musical Milestones

1957 – The Crickets, featuring Buddy Holly, dominate the singles chart with “That’ll Be The Day.” The song is inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998, and in 2005, is placed in the National Recording Registry among recordings that are “culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States.”

1967 – “The Letter” sends The Box Tops to the top of the singles chart where they remain slotted for four weeks.

1972 – Mac Davis begins three weeks as a chart-topper with “Baby, Don’t Get Hooked on Me,” his only No. 1.

1978 – With the disco era in full swing, A Taste of Honey enters its third and final week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Boogie Oogie Oogie.”

1989 – Milli Vanilli’s “Girl I’m Gonna Miss You” becomes the duo’s second chart-topping single. The album it’s on, “Girl You Know It’s True,” also kicks off two week’s at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart.

2000 – Madonna is in the middle of a four-week run on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Music.” It is her 12th No. 1 single.

On this Day May 27

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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

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

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.”