On This Day February 29 Click each item below to learn more! Celebrity Birthdays 1904 – Jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, big band leader and composer Jimmy Dorsey (“I’m Glad There is You,” “It’s the Dreamer in Me”) (d. 1957) 1916 – Singer-actress Dinah Shore, born Frances Rose Shore (“Blues in the Night,” “I’ll Walk Alone,” “The Gypsy,” “Buttons and Bows”) (d. 1994) 1936 – Retired astronaut Jack Lousma who served aboard the Skylab space station in 1973 and commanded STS-3, the third Space Shuttle mission in 1982 1944 – Chicago cop-turned-actor Dennis Farina (“Midnight Run,” “Snatch,” “Out of Sight,” “Get Shorty,” “Law & Order”) (d. 2013) 1960 – Motivational speaker and author Tony Robbins 1972 – Actor and model Antonio Sabato, Jr. (“General Hospital,” “Melrose Place,” “Charmed”) 1976 – Rap artist Ja Rule, born Jeffrey Atkins (“Between Me and You,” “Always on Time,” “Put It on Me”) History Highlights 1940 – The epic Civil War drama “Gone With The Wind” clinches eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. Hattie McDaniel, who played “Mammy,” is crowned Best Supporting Actress, becoming the first African American performer to win an Oscar. 1956 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower holds a nationally televised address to announce his intentions to seek a second term in The White House. 1968 – President Lyndon Johnson’s National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (also known as the Kerner Commission) warns Americans that “our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white — separate and unequal.” 1968 – Astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell announces the discovery of the first pulsar — a star that emits radio waves. 1976 – The 1965 film “The Sound of Music,” starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, airs on network television for the first time. ABC paid $15 million for a one-time only broadcast that became one of the top 20 rated movies ever shown on TV to that point. 1984 – Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announces that he is stepping down after more than 15 years in power. 1996 – A four-year siege of the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo finally ends after shelling and sniper attacks that killed thousands. 2004 – Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigns as president of Haiti following popular rebel uprising. Musical Milestones 1958 – Frank Sinatra cruises along the top of the Billboard album chart with “Come Fly With Me,” featuring the tracks “Isle of Capri,” “Autumn in New York,” “April in Paris,” “Blue Hawaii” and, of course, the title track, “Come Fly With Me.” The album holds the top spot for five weeks. 1964 – The Beatles are in the middle of a seven-week domination of the Billboard singles chart with “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” 1968 – The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album scores big at the 10th Grammy Awards, earning statuettes for Album of the Year (first rock LP to do so), Best Album Cover, Best Engineered Recording and Best Contemporary Album. 1980 – Buddy Holly’s distinctive eyeglasses and The Big Bopper’s watch turn up inside a file at the Mason City, Iowa police station. Both articles had been misplaced 21 years earlier after the plane crash that killed them and rocker Ritchie Valens. 1980 – At age 84, comedian George Burns becomes the oldest person with a hit on the Billboard Hot 100, as “I Wish I Was 18 Again” peaks at No.49. The last charting record Burns had before this was a spoken word comedy routine with his wife and partner Gracie Allen in 1933. 1992 – Mr. Big kicks off three weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “To Be with You.” 2004 – Usher, Lil Jon and Ludacris have the No. 1 single with “Yeah!” It remains on top of the Billboard Hot 100 for 12 weeks. 2012 – Singer and actor Davy Jones, who was part of the pop group The Monkees, dies of a heart attack at the age of 66. READ MORE
On This Day March 2 Click each item below to learn more! Celebrity Birthdays 1793 – American statesman Sam Houston, best known for his role in bringing Texas into the United States as a constituent state (d. 1863) 1904 – Children’s book author and illustrator Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel (“If I Ran the Zoo,” “Horton Hears a Who!” “If I Ran the Circus,” “The Cat in the Hat,” “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” “Green Eggs and Ham”) (d. 1991) 1917 – Actor Desi Arnaz, best known for playing Ricky Ricardo in the sitcom “I Love Lucy,” which starred his wife, Lucille Ball (d. 1986) 1931 – Former Soviet President and Nobel laureate Mikhail Gorbachev 1942 – Rock-punk singer-songwriter-guitarist Lou Reed, originally of the 60s band Velvet Underground and solo artist (“Walk on the Wild Side”) (d. 2013) 1950 – Pop sensation Karen Carpenter of the 70s sibling duo Carpenters (d. 1983) 1962 – Bon Jovi frontman Jon Bon Jovi (“Dead or Alive”, “Livin’ On A Prayer”, “You Give Love A Bad Name”, “Blaze Of Glory”), born John Francis Bongiovi, Jr. 1968 – Actor Daniel Craig, best known for playing British spy James Bond 1980 – Actress-comedian Rebel Wilson (“Bridesmaids,” “Pitch Perfect,” “Pitch Perfect 2,” “How To Be Single”) History Highlights 1836 – The Republic of Texas declares its independence from Mexico. A convention of American Texans meets at Washington-on-the-Brazos (today commonly referred to as “the birthplace of Texas”) and confirms Sam Houston as the commander in chief of all Texan forces. 1925 – State and federal highway officials create the United States’ first system of numbered interstate highways. 1933 – The horror film “King Kong,” about the giant ape that runs loose across Manhattan, opens at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. Screenings sell out for the first four days. 1949 – The first automatic street light is installed in New Milford, Connecticut. 1955 – Nine months before Rosa Parks’ famous act of civil disobedience, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin is arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery, Alabama bus. Colvin was traveling home from school when the driver ordered her and three fellow Black students to give up their row of seats to a White passenger. 1962 – Wilt Chamberlain sets the single-game scoring record in the NBA by scoring 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors in a match against the New York Knicks. 1965 – “The Sound of Music,” starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, based on the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical about the Von Trapp family, opens in New York. The movie goes on to capture five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director (Robert Wise). 1972 – NASA launches Pioneer 10 — the first spacecraft to pass through the asteroid belt and the first to make direct observations and capture close-up images of Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system. 1978 – Three months after his death, grave robbers steal the corpse of silent film legend Charlie Chaplin from a Swiss cemetery and demand $600,000 for its safe return. Musical Milestones 1963 – “Walk Like a Man,” by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, starts a three-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart. It is the band’s third chart-topping hit. 1967 – The Beatles win three Grammys for records issued the previous year: Best Song for “Michelle,” Best Vocal Performance for “Eleanor Rigby” and Best Cover Artwork for the album design of “Revolver” by Klaus Voormann. 1974 – “Seasons in the Sun,” by one-hit wonder Terry Jacks, claims the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 and stays there for three weeks. 1974 – At the 16th Annual Grammy Awards, Stevie Wonder captures five honors: Album of the Year and Best Engineered Recording for “Innervisions,” Best R&B Song and Best Vocal for “Superstition,” and Pop Vocal Performance for “You Are The Sunshine Of My Life.” 1974 – Roberta Flack wins Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance Grammys for “Killing Me Softly with His Song.” The track also garners a Song of the Year Grammy for its writers, Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox. 1985 – “Careless Whisper,” by Wham! featuring George Michael, begins its third and final week at No. 1 on the singles chart. 1985 – Sheena Easton becomes the first musical artist ever to land Top 10 hits on the pop, R&B, country, dance and adult contemporary charts when “Sugar Walls,” written by Prince, reaches No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. That is the song that sparked the Parental Advisory music labeling system (listen carefully to the lyrics and you’ll know why). 1999 – Acclaimed British pop vocalist Dusty Springield (“I Only Want To Be With You,” “You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me”) dies at the age of 59 following a five-year battle with breast cancer. 2002 – “Always on Time,” by Ja Rule featuring Ashanti, enters its second and final week as a No. 1 single. READ MORE