On This Day March 21 Click each item below to learn more! Celebrity Birthdays 1685 – Classical composer Johann Sebastian Bach (d. 1750) 1944 – Actor Timothy Dalton, who played James Bond in two films 1949 – Singer-songwriter Eddie Money, born Edward Mahoney (“Baby Hold On,” “Two Tickets to Paradise”, “Take Me Home Tonight”) (d. 2019) 1958 – Actor Gary Oldman (“Sid and Nancy,” “JFK,” “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” “The Fifth Element,” “Air Force One,” played Sirius Black in the “Harry Potter” series, “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight” trilogy, “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” “The Book of Eli,” “Darkest Hour”) 1962 – Emmy-winning comedian-TV host-actress Rosie O’Donnell (“The Rosie O’Donnell Show,” “The View,” “A League of Their Own,” “Sleepless in Seattle,” “Now and Then”) 1962 – Tony-winning actor Matthew Broderick (“War Games,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” “Biloxi Blues,” “Glory,” “The Freshman,” “Inspector Gadget,” “The Producers,” “Tower Heist,” “Rules Don’t Apply”) History Highlights 1947 – With fears about communism swirling across the U.S., President Harry Truman signs Executive Order 9835. It creates a Loyalty Program to investigate federal employees to determine if they demonstrated “complete and unswerving loyalty” to the United States. 1965 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. leads some 3,200 civil rights activists on a five-day march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Federalized Alabama National Guardsmen and FBI agents supervise the procession, which Alabama state police had previously blocked at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. 1980 – President Jimmy Carter announces a U.S. boycott of the Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. 1980 – In the Season 3 finale of CBS’ hit prime time drama “Dallas,” an unseen assailant shoots bad-boy J.R. Ewing (played by Larry Hagman), who falls to the floor of his office before the scene fades to black. The episode, entitled “A House Divided,” becomes one of the most talked about season finales of all time, sparking the “Who Shot J.R.” craze. Some 160 million fans wait eight months to learn the identity of the shooter in Season 4. 1994 – Eleven-year-old Anna Paquin is stunned when actor Gene Hackman announces that she has won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in “The Piano.” Paquin becomes the second youngest Oscar winner of all time. 1999 – Aviators Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones complete the first non-stop around-the-world flight in a hot air balloon, making aviation history. Musical Milestones 1953 – “(How Much is) That Doggie in the Window” launches Patti Page on an eight-week ride at No. 1 on the singles chart. 1964 – The Beatles rule the Billboard Hot 100 with “She Loves You” — the second of three consecutive hits that keep the Fab Four on top of the singles chart through early May of that year. 1970 – Simon & Garfunkel remain suspended at No. 1 on the singles chart with “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” The track holds there for a total of six weeks. 1981 – REO Speedwagon clinches the top spot on the singles chart with “Keep On Loving You,” the group’s first Top 40 hit and No. 1. 1992 – Vanessa Williams kicks off five weeks on top of the Billboard pop chart with “Save the Best for Last.” 1994 – Bruce Springsteen performs “Streets of Philadelphia” during the 66th Academy Awards, and a short time later, is handed a Best Original Song Oscar for it. It’s from the movie “Philadelphia,” for which Tom Hanks won Best Actor. The track goes on to capture four Grammys. 1998 – Will Smith maintains his hold on the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for a second week with “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It.” READ MORE
On This Day November 13 Click each item below to learn more! 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 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 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 artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth 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. It goes for around $88,000 during an auction of modern British art at Sotheby’s in London. READ MORE
On this Day May 28 Click each item below to learn more! Celebrity Birthdays 1892 – Football, baseball and Olympics star Jim Thorpe (d. 1953) 1908 – James Bond author Ian Fleming (d. 1964) 1944 – Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, attorney for U.S. President Donald Trump 1944 – Grammy-winning R&B vocalist Gladys Knight, who, along with The Pips, had many Top 40 hits, including “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” “Midnight Train to Georgia” and “Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me” 1945 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter John Fogerty, former lead singer of Creedence Clearwater Revival (“Susie Q,” “Proud Mary,” “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?” “Centerfield,” “The Old Man Down the Road”) 1968 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Kylie Minogue (“Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” “Slow,” “2 Hearts”) 1977 – Conservative TV personality Elisabeth Hasselbeck, formerly a co-host of TV’s “The View” 1983 – YouTube star and prank video artist Roman Atwood History Highlights 1892 – The Sierra Club is founded by naturalist John Muir. The organization promotes environmental conservation through public policy and has helped with the development of national parks across the United States. 1957 – National League owners vote unanimously to allow the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers to move to San Francisco and Los Angeles, respectively. 1961 – Several internationally read newspapers publish British lawyer Peter Benenson’s article “The Forgotten Prisoners”, launching the Appeal for Amnesty campaign which calls for the release of all those imprisoned around the world for peacefully expressing their beliefs. 1987 – In a daring attempt to ease Cold War tensions, 19-year-old West German pilot Mathias Rust evades Soviet air defenses and lands a private plane in Moscow’s Red Square. He serves 18 months in a Soviet prison for his stunt. 1998 – Comedic actor Phil Hartman, best known for his work on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” (“SNL”) and “NewsRadio” and FOX’s “The Simpsons,” is shot to death in his sleep by his wife, Brynn, in a murder-suicide that horrifies fans and colleagues. Phil Hartman was just 49. 2014 – Author and poet Maya Angelou, who published more than 30 books, including 1969’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” — a best-selling memoir about the racism and abuse she experienced growing up — dies at the age of 86. Musical Milestones 1966 – Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Percy Sledge begins two weeks with the most popular single on U.S. radio: “When a Man Loves a Woman.” 1966 – Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass reach No.1 on the Billboard album chart with “What Now My Love,” setting a new record with four albums in the Top 10. The other three are “South of the Border,” “Going Places” and “Whipped Cream and Other Delights.” 1976 – The Allman Brothers Band, considered one of the principal architects of Southern rock, breaks up. 1977 – Stevie Wonder is in the midst of a three-week domination of the pop chart with “Sir Duke,” from his Grammy-winning “Songs in the Key of Life” album. 1983 – Irene Cara commandeers the Billboard Hot 100 with “Flashdance…What a Feeling,” from the “Flashdance” movie soundtrack. The single remains at No. 1 for six weeks and goes on to capture an Academy Award for Best Original Song, a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. 1983 – More than 750,000 fans attend the four-day US Festival ’83’ which opens in California, featuring The Clash, U2, David Bowie, The Pretenders, Van Halen, Stray Cats, Men At Work, Judas Priest, Stevie Nicks and Ozzy Osbourne. 1994 – “I Swear,” by All-4-One,” is the No. 1 single. 2005 – Gwen Stefani begins her fourth and final week as a chart-topping artist with “Hollaback Girl.” READ MORE
On this Day May 16 Click each item below to learn more! Celebrity Birthdays 1905 – Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy-winning actor Henry Fonda (“The Grapes of Wrath,” “Mister Roberts,” “12 Angry Men,” “On Golden Pond”) (d. 1982) 1919 – Emmy-winning pianist Liberace, born Wladziu Valentino Liberace, known for his signature candelabra and glittery wardrobe (d. 1987) 1953 – Actor Pierce Brosnan (“Remington Steele,” “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Dante’s Peak,” “GoldenEye” and three other James Bond films, “The Ghost Writer”) 1955 – Actress Debra Winger (“Urban Cowboy,” “An Officer and a Gentleman,” “Terms of Endearment,” “Legal Eagles,” “Shawdowlands,” “Rachel Getting Married”) 1966 – Grammy-winning pop superstar Janet Jackson 1973 – Actress Tori Spelling (“Beverly Hills, 90210,” “Scream 2,” “The House of Yes,” “Trick,” “Cthulhu”) 1986 – Actress and model Megan Fox (“Hope & Faith,” “Transformers,” “Jennifer’s Body,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”) History Highlights 1929 – A far cry from the pageantry of today’s Oscar ceremonies, about 270 guests attend a dinner at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel where the first Academy Awards are handed out. 1960 – Two weeks after the Soviet downing of an American U-2 spy plane, Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev lashes out at the U.S. and President Dwight D. Eisenhower at a Paris summit between the two heads of state. Khrushchev’s outburst angered Eisenhower and doomed any chances for successful talks or negotiations. 1965 – The Franco-American food company revolutionizes the way American kids eat when it introduces SpaghettiOs — canned pasta rings in tomato and cheese sauce. “The neat round spaghetti you can eat with a spoon…Uh-Oh! SpaghettiOs.” 1977 – A commuter helicopter accident on the roof of the Pan Am Building (now MetLife Building) in Manhattan leaves five people dead, eight others injured. Investigators blame the crash on “metal fatigue,” which caused the landing gear to fail. The helipad is never used again. 1988 – Surgeon General C. Everett Koop issues a report stating that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine. 1996 – The final episode of “Murder, She Wrote,” starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher, airs on CBS, ending a successful 12-season run. 2014 – Broadcast journalist and TV personality Barbara Walters retires from ABC News and as co-host of the daytime program “The View.” The 84-year-old Walters blazed a trail for women in television news during a distinguished career spanning more than 50 years. Musical Milestones 1964 – Motown sweetheart Mary Wells lays claim to the top of the pop chart for two weeks with “My Guy,” a track written and produced by Smokey Robinson. 1970 – The Guess Who are in the midst of a three-week ride at No. 1 on the singles chart with “American Woman.” 1970 – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young land on top of the Billboard album chart with “Deja Vu,” which spawns three Top 40 singles: “Teach Your Children,” “Our House” and “Woodstock.” 1981 – Kim Carnes begins a nine-week domination of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Bette Davis Eyes.” The track goes on to capture Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and Record of the Year. 1987 – U2’s “With or Without You,” off the band’s Grammy-winning “The Joshua Tree” album, begins three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. 1990 – Entertainer Sammy Davis, Jr. dies of throat cancer at the age of 64. Davis was an acclaimed comedian, actor, dancer and singer, and a member of the “Rat Pack” with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. 1998 – “Too Close,” by Next, marks its fourth and final week as a Billboard chart-topper. 2009 – Bob Dylan grabs the top spot on the album chart with “Together Through Life,” which garners two Grammy Award nominations in the Best Americana Album category and Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance category for “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’.” READ MORE