On this Day: June 21

On this Day June 21

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1905 – Nobel prize-winning philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre (s. 1980)

1921 – Actress Jane Russell, considered a Hollywood sex symbol during the 1940s and 50s (“The Outlaw,” “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” “Son of Paleface”) (d. 2011)

1925 – Oscar and Tony-winning actress Maureen Stapleton (“Reds,” “Cocoon”) (d. 2006)

1932 – Grammy-winning film composer and arranger Lalo Schifrin (“Mission: Impossible,” Dirty Harry“ films, “ “Bullitt”)

1940 – Emmy-winning actress Mariette Hartley (“Peyton Place,” “The Incredible Hulk”)

1944 – Singer-songwriter Ray Davies, who founded the band The Kinks

1947 – Actress Meredith Baxter (“Bridget Loves Bernie,” “Family Ties”)

1973 – Actress-singer Juliette Lewis (“Cape Fear,” “Natural Born Killers,” “Old School,” “Whip It”)

1979 – Actor Chris Pratt (“Everwood,” “The O.C.,” “Parks and Recreation,” “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Jurassic World,” “Fallen Kingdom,” “Jurassic World Dominion”)

1982 – Prince William, Duke of Cambridge

1985 – Singer-songwriter and model Lana Del Rey, born Elizabeth Woolridge Grant (“Video Games,” “Summertime Sadness”)

History Highlights
History Highlights

1956 – Playwright Arthur Miller defies the House Committee on Un-American Activities and refuses to name suspected communists. The move garners him a contempt of court conviction which is later reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

1964 – Three civil rights workers—James E. Chaney and Andrew Goodman, both 21, and Michael Schwerner, 24—disappear in Mississippi. It’s later determined that they were killed by a group of Ku Klux Klansmen. In 2005, exactly 41 years later, Edgar Killen is convicted of manslaughter in trio’s deaths. The case was dramatized in the 1988 movie “Mississippi Burning.”

1982 – A jury finds John Hinckley, Jr. not guilty of attempted murder by reason of insanity in connection with the shooting of President Ronald Reagan outside a Washington, D.C. hotel.

1989 – The U.S. Supreme Court decides in the case of Texas v. Johnson that burning the American flag is protected under the First Amendment.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1964 – Twenty-year-old Peter Roberts of Liverpool, England climbs a drainpipe to the eighth floor of the Sydney, Australia hotel where The Beatles are staying to meet the band. John Lennon is so impressed, he invites him in to their room for a drink.

1969 – “Get Back,” by The Beatles with Billy Preston, begins its fifth and final week as a Billboard No. 1.

1975 – The Captain & Tennille are chart-toppers with “Love Will Keep Us Together,” the duo’s first big hit which holds at No. 1 for four weeks.

1980 – “Funkytown,” by Lipps Inc., kicks off its fourth and final week as a Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper. The track, off the band’s “Mouth to Mouth” album, is considered the swan song for the disco era.

1981 – Donald Fagan and Walter Becker announce the break-up of Steely Dan. However, in 1993, the group resumes playing concerts and in the early 2000s releases two albums of new material, the first of which earns a Grammy for Album of the Year.

1997 – “I’ll Be Missing You,” by Puff Daddy and Faith Evans featuring 112, tops the Billboard Hot 100. It remains at No. 1 for 11 weeks and goes on to win a Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.

2008 – Lil Wayne featuring Static claims the top spot on the singles chart with “Lollipop.”

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On this Day: June 17

On this Day June 17

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1904 – Tony-winning actor Ralph Bellamy (“His Girl Friday,” “The Winds of War,” “Trading Places”) (d. 1991)

1943 – Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich

1943 – Grammy, Emmy and Tony-winning singer-songwriter-arranger Barry Manilow (“I Write the Songs,” “Mandy,” “Copacabana”)

1951 – Actor-comedian Joe Piscopo, best remembered for his Frank Sinatra impersonations on “Saturday Night Live” in the 1980s

1960 – Actor Thomas Haden Church (“Wings,” “Sideways,” “Spider-Man 3”)

1963 – Actor Greg Kinnear (“As Good As It Gets,” “You’ve Got Mail,” “Stuck on You,” “Little Miss Sunshine,” “Green Zone”)

1980 – American tennis star Venus Williams

1987 – Grammy-winning rapper and producer Kendrick Lamar, born Kendrick Lamar Duckworth, who has the distinction of being the first artist ever to win a Pulitzer Prize for Music for a genre other than classical or jazz

History Highlights
History Highlights

1885 – The disassembled Statue of Liberty, a gift of friendship from the people of France to the American people, arrives to great fanfare in New York Harbor aboard the French Navy ship, Isère. It will take a year to reassemble all its parts.

1928 – Aviator Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, as she completes a flight from Newfoundland to Wales in about 21 hours.

1972 – Five men are arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office-apartment-hotel complex in Washington, D.C. The busts eventually lead to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in the Watergate scandal.

1991 – The South African Parliament repeals the Population Registration Act, removing what served as the foundation of apartheid. The law, first enacted in 1950, required the racial classification of all South Africans at birth.

1994 – The NBA playoffs are interrupted as TV networks break in with live coverage of perhaps the most famous car chase ever to take place on Los Angeles freeways. It’s football legend O.J. Simpson, inside a white Ford Bronco, being pursued as a double-murder suspect by a convoy of police cars.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1965 – The New York Academy of Music hosts the first-ever American performances of two British bands that would become staples of the classic rock scene: The Moody Blues and The Kinks.

1967 – “Groovin’,” by The Young Rascals, makes a return trip to the top of the Billboard singles chart. It spent two weeks there in mid-May and begins another two-week stay this time around.

1972 – Sammy Davis, Jr. holds at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “The Candy Man,” from the movie “Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory.” It is the only chart-topper of Davis’ long career as a celebrated entertainer and Rat Pack member.

1972 – The Rolling Stones’ “Exile On Main Street” starts a four-week run on top of the Billboard album chart. The double-album features “Rocks Off’,” “Rip This Joint,” “Happy” and “Tumbling Dice.”

1978 – Andy Gibb is the hottest act on the singles chart with “Shadow Dancing,” which holds the top spot for seven weeks.

1986 – Kate Smith, one of the most successful American singers of the 1920s-40s and best known for her rendition of “God Bless America,” dies at the age of 79.

1995 – Bryan Adams’ “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?” is in the middle of a five-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart. The song is from the soundtrack to the movie “Don Juan DeMarco,” starring Johnny Depp.

2006 – “Hips Don’t Lie, by Shakira featuring Wyclef Jean, begins two weeks on top of the pop chart.

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